1. Hook Opening

As you wind down your day, picture a Saturday evening in Seoul exactly one hundred years ago. Two weeks earlier, a vast new granite headquarters for Japan’s colonial government had been formally opened on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung, the old Joseon royal palace. Down the road in the Jongno district, a silent film about a Korean villager and a folk song had been drawing crowds. This is the city that Saturday evening woke up in. One honest note first: we did not find a newspaper page dated October 16 itself, so this edition is built from events confirmed in the days around it, and we say plainly where the record is silent.

2. Korea Under Colonial Rule

The Government-General building was finished in December 1925, and the governor-general’s offices moved in on January 4, 1926. A formal completion ceremony followed on October 1, timed to Colonial Administration Day, according to the National Archives of Korea. To make room, the palace’s main gate, Gwanghwamun, was moved eastward and other gates were demolished. Budget figures vary by source: about 6.75 million yen in one, 7 million in another.

That same October 1, the silent film Arirang, written, directed and starred in by Na Un-gyu, premiered at the Dansungsa theater. Silent films were narrated live by a performer called a byeonsa, and accounts say police officers stationed in the hall blew whistles when the narration grew heated. Popular tradition adds that audiences wept and sang along. That is a well-known anecdote, not a documented record; attendance figures and the screening schedule for October 16 are unconfirmed.

In the courts, the Second Korean Communist Party case was moving forward. It grew out of the June 10 demonstrations on the day of Emperor Sunjong’s funeral procession, after which roughly 150 party members were reportedly rounded up. Archival material from Korea University indicates that pretrial questioning of defendants began on October 7 and continued through October 15. What was said on the 16th is not confirmed.

3. East Asia in Turmoil

Across the Yellow Sea, China was convulsing. Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition had taken the Wuhan cities in succession, with Wuchang, the last holdout, falling around October 10 after a long siege (sources differ slightly on dates). Chiang’s armies were pressing on through Jiangxi toward the Yangtze at Kiukiang, reached in early November. For Koreans, many of whom followed the independence cause through exile networks in China, these were not distant headlines.

In the Korean countryside, autumn was the harvest. Japan had launched the second phase of its rice production increase plan in 1926, a policy that strengthened the landlord system. We did not locate reports on rice prices or tenant disputes for mid-October.

4. The World Stage

In London, two days earlier, on October 14, Methuen published A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, illustrated by E. H. Shepard. In the United States, the St. Louis Cardinals had beaten the New York Yankees four games to three on October 10 to win their first World Series. And three days after our date, on October 19, the Imperial Conference opened at Lancaster House in London, chaired by Stanley Baldwin.

5. Colonial Parallels

The Imperial Conference is a revealing contrast. Its committee, chaired by Arthur Balfour, produced a report declaring Britain and the dominions autonomous, equal in status and united by allegiance to the Crown. It was adopted in mid-November, and the Statute of Westminster later gave it legal force in 1931. Self-governing dominions such as Canada and South Africa were being recognized as equals even as Korea, annexed in 1910, had no such standing. The empire spoke of equality for some, and administration for others. We did not research India, Ireland or the Philippines for this edition, so we draw no comparison to them here.

6. Person of the Day: Na Un-gyu

Na Un-gyu (1902-1937) is the name tied to Arirang. He wrote the scenario, directed and starred in it. The film is remembered as the first great box-office success in Korean cinema, and Joseon Kinema, its producer, drew attention for the quality of the production. The original print is widely reported to have been lost; a 1993 report said a copy held in Japan was to be returned, and we could not confirm its present status.

7. Understanding Daily Life

Saturday evening in Seoul meant newspapers, theaters and gramophones. Yun Sim-deok’s record “Hymn of Death” came out in August, after the sensational news of her and Kim U-jin’s disappearance from a ferry made the papers on August 5. Sales estimates range from 30,000 to over 100,000 copies, and one account says only about 2,000 gramophones were then in the country, yet people bought them to hear the song. There was no radio yet: Keijo Broadcasting Station opened on February 16, 1927. Weather and prices for October 16 are not confirmed.

8. Century Mirror

The technology has changed beyond recognition, yet the pull of a single story that gathers a crowd, from Arirang to today’s K-dramas and K-pop, has not.

9. Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is Sunday, October 17, 1926, a day to look back over the week. Rest well tonight, and join us again at 10:10.

🕙 THE KOREAN TODAY