772 Robot, 6” (H) x 3.5” (L) inches, Woorim Manufacturing (1985), wind-up robot, Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection, Courtesy of the Korea Society.

Hwangjin, 13.3” (H) x 6 ½” (L), Bujin (1980s), Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection, Courtesy of the Korea Society.

Spencer Museum of Art
The University of Kansas
1301 Mississippi Street
785-864-4710
Lawrence
Asia Gallery II
Toy Stories: Souvenirs
from Korean Childhood
October 25, 2008-
January 24, 2009

Toys are more than fun. As cultural artifacts, they embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation, speaking to the global relevance of play and the imagination across cultures. Drawn from the Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection, this exhibition—a veritable toy box of more than 90 vibrantly colored Korean action figures, robots, miniature tanks, and paper dolls from the 1970s and ’80s—captures a time when Korea was undergoing economic and social flux. While many of the toys featured were appropriated from American and Japanese toy designs, they were often reinvented to reflect an emerging commercial world of Korean comics as seen in the popular animated series Robot Taekwon V.

On display are action figure heroes which, reflecting the circumstances of the period, were often bland knock-offs of foreign models. Plastic robots ornamented with futuristic weapons captured a generation of Korean boys, treating them to a sneak preview of a fantastic future where science made anything possible. Korean girls' futures were more limited, circumscribed by the miniature kitchen and hospital utensils and paper dolls that encouraged them to dream only of becoming housewives or nurses.

Many of the items in the exhibit were modeled cartoon characters popular in Korea during the period, and in particular, characters drawn from Robot Taekwon V, Korea's first feature-length animated movie. Throughout its run, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood was complemented by programs that explored the importance of animation and Robot Taekwon V to Korean youth culture.