Open letter signed by 26 scholars to Disney+ (Asia Pacific) requesting them to reconsider their decision to continue streaming Snowdrop

Dear President Luke Kang,

We are writing to you as scholars of Korea, regarding the Korean drama, Snowdrop (설강화), that has been made available on your streaming service, Disney Plus.

We are not writing to request that you stop streaming the show. Rather, we write to request that your company seek experts - there are many, well-qualified modern Korean history experts in Korea and all over the world - to carefully examine the historical references made in the show, and consider for yourselves the way those historical references are used. We make this request because we do not believe that Disney Plus as a global platform is aware of the historical and socio-political context in which this show exists, and we believe that platforms should make an informed decision when globally broadcasting a show set in recent, still-relevant Korean history (1987).

We do not make this request lightly, as we deeply respect any media work’s right to freedom of expression and the use of artistic license. We do not assume there is one single “correct” way to present history. We respect the Korean drama production’s right to create and broadcast fictional stories in Korea, where there are esteemed Korean historians, politicians, and other figures of intellectual authority who can offer their expertise and critique for Korean viewers.^[1] However, this is not the case once the show leaves Korean shores and is broadcast to an international audience, an audience that is generally unfamiliar with modern Korean history. Moreover, while we understand the defense that fiction has a right to explore creative narratives, that defense can also feel hollow when a show uses numerous, specific details that reference actual people and incidents from recent history. The historical details contained in the show, in tandem with its place on your far-reaching platform, have raised enough concerns that we write this letter to you asking for thoughtful consideration when distributing the show globally.

We will not detail in this letter every single one of the concerns, but below are listed two major examples. Most of the articles and sources cited in this letter are in the Korean language, and there is not an abundance of English-language publications on the democratization movement of the 1980s. This is also why we ask that you bring in historians of Modern Korea to consider this issue in depth.

Point of Concern 1.

As you may be aware, the show already courted significant controversy in March 2021 when its female lead was named after a prominent female student democracy activist, Cheon Yeong-cho (천영초).^[2] Ms. Cheon suffered severe brain damage in an accident some years ago, and is unable to argue on her own behalf, but the use of her (quite unique and unusual) name was highly inappropriate: the show centered a love story between the female lead ‘Yeong-cho’ and a North Korean spy, whereas the real-life Yeong-cho’s actual husband, Jeong Mun-hwa, was arrested^[3] and tortured^[4] on suspicion of being a communist and a supporter of the North Korean regime. In other words, the drama originally used the name of a victim of anti-communist propaganda in a narrative that actually echoes the propaganda - a narrative that affirms, ‘yes, there are North Korean spies among the students, and the students are too naive to realize this.’ The drama production subsequently decided to change the name Yeong-cho to Yeong-ro. However, this appears to be the only significant change the show decided to make after the controversy in March.

Even with the name change, the fact remains that people were arrested, tortured,^[5] and even killed^[6] as suspected communists or spies. The possibility of North Korean spies allowed for terrible human rights abuses, and this red scare was the very excuse used to persuade the general public to accept extreme extrajudicial activity by the government. Lives were lost and families were ruined by the government’s framing of innocent victims as spies or communists. To this day, there are new truths being discovered about victims framed as North Korean spies or communists, as well as court cases seeking to restore the honor of those victims.^[7] The main character Soo-ho, the North Korean spy, is shown to have entered Korea under the guise of a student who studied abroad in Germany; in reality, many Korean students who studied in Germany were accused of being North Korean spies, kidnapped to South Korea, and imprisoned.^[8] To feature an actual North Korean spy entering Korea by way of Germany and being pursued by South Korean agents in 1987, this drama reframes those tragic circumstances of history toward a justification of authoritarian wrongdoing.

Point of Concern 2.

There are other historical references made in this show via its characters that deserve close scrutiny. In particular, we urge the company to examine the character of the female lead’s father, Eun Chang-su (은창수).^[9] In the show and in the official character profile provided on the drama website, Eun is defined as a reluctant participant in the authoritarian regime, a conflicted man who - deep down - has good principles. There are two reasons to ask if this is an appropriate portrayal: Firstly, whatever Eun Chang-su’s motivations and principles may be in the show, the fact remains that the real-life government agency for which the character serves as director (the ANSP: Agency for National Security Planning, known in Korean as 국가안전기획부/안기부) was historically notorious for extrajudicial power and infamous acts of torture and murder.^[10] It is worth asking why the director of such an agency is being portrayed sympathetically, however fictional he may be.

Secondly, this character shares a striking number of biographical similarities with real-life military officer Park Jun-byeong (박준병), who commanded the 20th Infantry Division into Gwangju in May, 1980, and led them to commit one of the worst massacres of civilians in modern Korean history.^[11] (See table below for comparison.) Park was a military officer who was at the forefront of brutal civilian murders, and never apologized for the atrocities committed under his command. The National Fact-Finding Committee for the Punishment of the Perpetrators of the Gwangju Massacre (광주 학살 책임자 처벌을 위한 범국민 진상조사위원회) has described Park Jun-byeong as “a man who was directly responsible for the civilian massacre at Gwangju.”^[12] This detail is not part of Eun Chang-soo’s character in the show.

Disney Plus clearly has ambitious and exciting plans for South Korean content on its platform, based on this interview you gave to the Hollywood Reporter,^[17] and is making headway into numerous Asian markets as we write this. We hope that, with this immense access and reach, the company also takes note of the responsibility it has as a platform, and reflects on the kind of media content it makes available around the world.

We, as academics of Korea, stand behind this letter and the points argued within.

(Signees listed on following page.)

Bae, Keung Yoon

Assistant Professor of Korean Studies

School of Modern Languages, Georgia Institute of Technology

Brazinsky, Gregg

Professor

History and International Affairs, The George Washington University

Bu, Chan Yong

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Creutzenberg, Jan

Assistant Professor

Department of German Language & Literature, Ewha Womans University

Diederich, Inga Kim

Assistant Professor of East Asian History

Department of History, Colby College

Han, Sujin Elisa

Ph.D Candidate

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Hillmer, James D.

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Asian Languages & Cultures, University of California-Los Angeles

Johnsen, Nikolai

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London

Jung, Youngoh

Ph.D Candidate

Department of History, University of California, San Diego

Kang, Sara

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of History, Harvard University

Kim, Gene

Ph.D. Student

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Kim, Heejoo

Ph.D. Student

Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Kim, Iljung

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Ethnomusicology, University of British Columbia

Kim, Juwon

Ph.D. Student

Department of East Asian Studies

University of Toronto

Kim, Sung Eun

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

Kim, Yusung

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Kwon, Donna Lee

Associate Professor

Ethnomusicology, University of Kentucky

Lee, Anna Jungeun

Korea Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

Nam Center for Korean Studies, University of Michigan

Lee, Hyejoo

Ph.D. Student

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California

Lee, Minna

Ph.D. Student

Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Mueller, Ruth

Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology

Fine Arts Division, Green River College

Oh, David C.

Associate Professor

Communication Arts, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Park, Rachel

Ph.D. Student

Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley

Park, Sandra H.

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of History, University of Chicago

Reizman, Laura H.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Program in East Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Saeji, CedarBough

Assistant Professor of Korean Studies

Pusan National University

Shin, Cynthia

PhD Student

Department of Comparative Literature, Indiana University Bloomington

Suk, Jihoon

PhD Student,

Department of Korean Modern History, Yonsei University

Tran, Tommy

Lecturer

Department of History / CRES

University of California, Merced

Yang, Chamee

Postdoctoral Research Associate

School of Information, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Yang, Sungik

PhD Candidate

Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Yi, Jongsik Christian

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

[1] Korean historians and academics such as Jeon Woo-yong (research professor at Hanyang University’s Institute for East Asian Cultures), Shim Yong-hwan (director of the History Education Research Institute 역사N교육연구소), and Choi Jin-bong (professor of Journalism Studies at Sungkonghoe University) have already spoken on the topic.

[2] For more information on Ms. Cheon, see: Sŏ Myŏng-suk, Yŏngch'o ŏnni, P’aju-si: Munhak Tongne. 2017.

[3] ‘National Federation of Democratic Youth pandered to North Korean puppet regime’s united front’

(‘「민청학련」 북괴의 통일 전선에 영합’), JoongAng Ilbo, April 24 1975. <https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/1374955>

[4] Yoo Si-chun et al., ‘The Chronicles of the Democratization Movement: The Incident of the National Federation of Democratic Youth (‘[실록 민주화운동] 민청학련 사건’), Kyeonghyang Shinmun, June 1 2003. <https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200306011843081> Jeong’s name is listed as one of the “main ringleaders” in the article.

Koo Hye-yeong, ‘The Truth of the People’s Revolutionary Party and the National Federation of Democratic: “an incident fabricated by the authoritarian regime’s torture,”’ Seoul Shinmun, Dec 8 2005.

<https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20051208004011>

[5] ‘AROUND THE WORLD; South Korea Is Accused Of Torturing Dissidents,’ The New York Times, June 11 1986. <https://www.nytimes.com/1986/0…dents.html?smid=url-share>

[6] ‘Seoul admits dissident died of brutality at police hands,’ The New York Times, Jan 19 1987. <https://www.nytimes.com/1987/0…l?searchResultPosition=39>

[7] For a classic example of such a government scheme against an innocent civilian, see the case of ‘Suzy Kim’: Barbara Demick, ‘Cold War Cover-Up of Murder,’ Los Angeles Times, Feb 4 2002. <https://www.latimes.com/archiv…eb-04-mn-26268-story.html>

[8] There is a dearth of English language material on this incident, which was called the East Berlin Incident (동백림 사건), but a 2006 fact-finding committee found that the victims had been accused unjustly. (See: Lee Bon-yeong, ‘NIS Development Committee for Clarifying the Past announces that “the East Berlin Incident was an overreach of espionage charges,”’ (‘국정원 과거사위 “동백림사건 간첩죄 무리한 적용” 발표’), Hankyoreh, Jan 26 2006. <https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/po…litics_general/98260.html>)

[9] Character profile available here: <https://tv.jtbc.joins.com/cast/PR10011401/8>

[10] Most famously, the ANSP was responsible for the cruel water torture and murder of college student Park Jong-cheol, which was the incident that sparked the 1987 June Struggle.

[11] Bae Jin-yeong, ‘A Heart-to-Heart: Former National Assemblyman Park Jun-byeong, the true power behind the Fifth Republic’ (‘털어놓고 하는 이야기- ‘5共 실세’ 朴俊炳 전 국회의원’), Wolgan Joseon, Feb 1 2013. <http://monthly.chosun.com/clie…sp?nNewsNumb=201302100042>

[12] Kim Sang-oong, ‘Who are the Gwangju Five?’ (‘“광주 학살 5적” 누구인가?’), OhMyNews, Dec 12 2019. <http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_We….aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002592244>

The contents of the committee report is published in the news article. The original report can be found at the Demos Archives at Sungkonghoe University.

[13] All details directly from the official character profile on the drama’s website: <https://tv.jtbc.joins.com/cast/PR10011401/8>

[14] Bae

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Patrick Brzeski, ‘“Our Ambitions Are Large”: Disney’s Top Asia Executive on Streaming Strategy and China Challenges,’ The Hollywood Reporter, Oct 21 2021. <https://www.hollywoodreporter.…reaming-china-1235033987/>