Kim Sa-Ryang's Tenma

“Tenma” tells a story about a young Korean man named Genryu who is profoundly influenced by Japanese assimilation policy during Japanese colonial. In the story, he acts sycophantic to the Japanese while demonstrates disparaging attitude toward the Korean, which reveals his intermediate position between two ethical groups. Genryu desires to emulate Japanese colonizers; however, he can never be equal like Japanese colonizers because Japanese colonizers only consider him as a tool to assimilate other Koreans and promote Japanese culture. Consequently, Genryu is alienated between both Japanese and Korean ethical groups. The author Kim Sa-Ryang writes this story to present how Korean people are intrinsically affected by Japanese assimilation

He always wants to receive proper respect from others in the society. This desire is even maximized when he studies in Japan and then back to Korea. In the story, he compares himself with bedbug and he deems his life resembles bedbug’s life. “He had always liked bedbugs, possibly because the sight of them crawling on the ground reminded him of himself. Or perhaps it was because he admired their shamelessness, their cunning” (336 Kim). Genryu does not have a good family background, he always feel a sense of inferiority when he lives in both Japanese society and Korean society. Additionally, the author also writes that “ He was simply a great coward at heart. A long acquaintance with poverty, loneliness, and despair had disturbed his mental balance and that peculiar society called “Korea” had driven him into greater and greater confusion” (346 Kim). These sentences indicate that Genryu is a sensitive person who cares most about his social image. And he does somehow feel that his unfortunate fate is linked with his ethical identity. In Genryu’s philosophy of life, he thinks if he can choose his ethical and national identity, he can also get rid of his tragic fate. During Japanese colonial period, Japanese assimilation policy propagandizes that Japanese people are considered as superior race and Koreans are regarded as inferior race. Genryu knows exactly that he cannot escape from his Korean identity, so he “began spreading rumors that he was the son of a Korean nobleman-and, on top of that, a literary genius, a writer of the first rank among his Korean peers ……for being Korean” (347 Kim). In the Japanese dominated society, vulnerable and sensitive person like Genryu inclines to obtain high social status and more respects. Therefore, Japanese assimilation policy targets at people like