North Korea's Mundane Revolution, 1953-1965

Choson Nyosong, March 1959

Prof. Andre Schmid, University of Toronto

Thursday, October 2, 2025
4:00 PM

Presentation Room (11348), Young Research Library (YRL)

The lecture examines the formation of a gendered socialist lifestyle in North Korea by focusing on the localized processes of socioeconomic and cultural changes as part of postwar reconstruction. It argues that cultural definitions of "New Living" replaced radical definitions of gender and class revolution with the politics of individual self-reform and self-improvement. One effect was the depoliticization of the country's political culture in the very years that Kim Il Sung rose to power.    

Andre Schmid is author of North Korea's Mundane Revolution: Socialist living and the rise of Kim Il-Sung, 1953-65 and Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919. He is a professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto. 

This is part of the "Koreans in the World" project hosted by UCLA's Center for Korean Studies. This event is supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS Award Number: AKS-2023-SRI-2200001) as part of its Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies. 

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies, Academy of Korean Studies