Views of Jeju from the Past: Part 2

A common depiction of Korean women of the mainland doing laundry in the early 1900s Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

It is often said that Jeju Island possesses three things in great abundance ― wind, rocks and women. While there is a great deal of truth to the statement, it was not the wind nor the rocks that attracted outside attention ― it was the women.

Walter Stotzner's picture of Jeju women and girls at a stream in 1930 Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

William Franklin Sands, an American adviser to the Joseon government who traveled to the island in 1901, claimed that "on old Chinese or Japanese maps [Jeju was] indicated as the island of women." He perpetuated the notion by titling the chapter of his book dealing with Jeju as "The Amazons."

Judging from the accounts of many of the early Western visitors to Jeju Island, they were not so much voyagers as they were voyeurs ― descriptions of the island's women occupy a great deal of their writing. Somewhat surprisingly, the exception was Charles Chaille-Long, the secretary of the American legation in Seoul, who traveled to the island in 1888. His account has very few references to women.

However, when two missionaries traveled to the island in 1899, they described the Jeju women in great detail. According to them:

[The] women of [Jeju] might be called the Amazonians of Korea. They not only do all the work but greatly exceed the men in number, and on the streets one meets three women to one man. This is because so many men are away sailing. The women are more robust and much better looking than their sisters on the mainland."

They also noted that the women seemed to "do the largest part of all the work" on the island:

A Korean woman carries vegetables on the mainland, circa early 1900s. Robert Neff Collection

"Even ox loads of grain are brought to the city market for sale by women. The carrying of the water is also done entirely by the women, who have often to go a long distance to fetch it. For carrying the water they use broad low pitchers set in a basket, which is fastened with strings around the shoulders and carried on the back. I never saw this done anywhere else in Korea as it is considered very disgraceful for a woman to carry anything on her back. I was told by the Koreans whom we had with us, that if on the mainland a man made his wife to do so he would be driven out of the village."

The women were also responsible for much of the island's manufacturing of hats, hair bands and skull caps. The missionaries concluded ― "As almost everything is done by the women, there remains nothing else for the man to do but to loaf, and to do them credit they do it well."

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Sands provided even a more extreme view of the role women played on the island. According to him:

"Man, in this lost corner of the world, was the inferior being; the woman was everything. She was the real house-bond. She owned all the property; her children bore her family name, and she never took a permanent husband. Men were allowed to come over from the mainland once a year, but were not encouraged to stay long, and when they returned, took with them all boys who had reached thirteen years."

He further claimed that the women dominated the island ― even in politics ― and that the island was "more than a matriarchy; it was a real Amazon community" in which women would defend their dominancy with force. It was for this reason, according to Sands, "that the governor sent down from Seoul was never permitted to bring his wife with him, lest a son born in the palace of the native kings, which was his official residence, should lay claim to the throne of the island kingdom, which he would have the right to do. The natives did not want a Korean king, nor the Koreans a king of [Jeju], so the custom suited both."

A Korean woman bears her burden upon her head, circa early 1900s. Robert Neff Collection

It is rather amusing to note that Malcom P. Anderson, an American zoologist and explorer who spent 40 days on the island six or seven years after Sands' visit, had almost nothing to say about the female islanders except ― "they were bolder than their sisters on the Korean peninsula." Anderson was truly a man devoted to his studies ― birds ― and could not be bothered to describe much of anything else.

Walter Stotzner, a German explorer and ethnographer who visited the island in 1930, was more than willing to describe Jeju women. His first descriptions are rather benign noting that "the women of [Jeju] like all Korean women are accustomed to more than their share of hard labor. They do not only do the housework but help to till the soil and harvest the meager crops." However, his narrative soon develops a somewhat creepy-voyeuristic tone:

"With the exception of the market held in [Jeju City] on certain days, there is no place on the island with so much picturesque and noisy life as these few springs. All day long they are surrounded by women and girls, who come and go. They place their bamboo-woven baskets containing jugs of earthenware on the gravel of the river bed near the spring, talk with their neighbors, fill their jugs and return home. A short distance below the spring the women sit and wash their clothes and linen from the early morning hours till late at night, drying them on the surrounding rocks where they bleach to a snowy white in the heat of the sun. When the baskets have been filled with the clean white wash, the laundress takes her bath. After sunset begins the bathing hour for the young girls, who are too modest to bathe at the springs like the women in bright daylight. Their laughter and the fun which they make for themselves by throwing water at one another can be heard afar through the early part of the night."

Young Korean girls at play, circa early 1900s Robert Neff Collection

Stotzner concluded that despite "the early physical labor and heavy responsibility which is their lot in life from a very early age, the girls and women of [Jeju] seem to be healthy and happy." And then he added something that I find very interesting. He wrote:

"[It] is not to be wondered at that the age of the men exceeds that of women, since the men live a life of comparative comfort and ease. Here, as well as in Korea proper, I was amazed at the large number of old men who all day lazily walk the streets, free from care."

Life in the 19th century ― throughout the world ― was not easy and people generally did not live as long as they do today. Of course, there were exceptions, but did Korean men live longer than Korean women a century ago?

In our next article we will examine the most famous women of Jeju ― the haenyeo.

I would like to thank Diane Nars for her assistance and for allowing me to use her images.

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.