Eun A Jo
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eunajo.bsky.social
Eun A Jo
@eunajo.bsky.social
4.3K followers 570 following 71 posts
Assistant Professor at William & Mary.

www.eunajo.com
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eunajo.bsky.social
I’m happy to share this paper in @cpsjournal.bsky.social on democracy and national narratives, with insights from South Korea and Taiwan. It is part of a special issue on postcolonial narratives with @paulschuler.bsky.social, @deandulay.bsky.social, + others.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
This paper explores how democratization can reconstitute understandings of nationhood by empowering a new class of “storytelling elites”---those with the institutional and rhetorical resources to challenge the state’s narrative. In this critical juncture, storytelling elites may challenge (1) the bottom-line premise or (2) the sideline elements of the prevailing national narrative. Their narrative strategies, in turn, shape how the terms of the debates are redefined and structured under democracy. I develop this argument through a comparison of “One Korea” and “One China” narratives in postwar South Korea and Taiwan. Using interpretive process tracing of archival and other qualitative data, I find that democracy helped entrench “One Korea” narratives in South Korea but displace “One China” narratives in Taiwan, as new storytelling elites challenged dominant narratives of “oneness” to varying degrees. This resulted in increasingly divergent support for unification as a national objective, with enduring implications for peace.
September 15, 2025 at 2:45 PM
eunajo.bsky.social
Deadline is today! If you’ve got a paper on Korea, consider applying to the fourth cohort of the Korean Political Studies Colloquium (KPSC): textvulture.github.io/presentation...
July 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
eunajo.bsky.social
Gender polarization in SK in one pic.

Blue is progressive. Red is conservative. Orange is splinter-conservative.
Screenshot of a exit poll analysis from South Korea's snap election, showing majority support for progressive candidate among women and majority support for conservative candidate among men.
June 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM
eunajo.bsky.social
Wrong headline, NYT. Should read: Impeachment Vote Foiled by Boycott from Yoon's Allies.

Ruling party refused to hold the President accountable for what most South Koreans believe was an act of treason. That's the ruling party's failure -- not the opposition's.
December 7, 2024 at 1:49 PM
eunajo.bsky.social
Interesting backstory: it was Park Chung-hee who created this "national stretch" in 1977 and mandated it through schools. It was based on a stretching regimen of the 1950s Japanese self-defense forces.
Choson Ilbo article from 1977 on the "national stretch" mandate
December 6, 2024 at 3:17 PM
eunajo.bsky.social
South Koreans: This is NOT ok
US embassy in South Korea: We commend Yoon's leadership [in ending the martial law he imposed for no reason]
December 4, 2024 at 3:04 PM