Journal paper

Issue No.	No. 44
Title	An Extraterritorial Area in Seoul: the Formation of the Chinese Settlement and the Transformation of the Configuration of the City of Seoul in the Late Nineteenth Century (1882-1894)
Author	Wang En-mei
Page	133-178
Abstract	With the signing of Korean-Japanese Treaty of Amity in 1876, Seoul became the primary region of Korea exposed to modern civilization. However, it is the Qing government— rather than western countries or Japan— that set up a treaty port in Seoul accessible only to the Qing state in the Sino-Korean Land and Maritime Trade Regulations concluded between the Qing government and Korea in 1882. As a result, Chinese merchants start trading in Seoul and became the first of all foreigners living in the city. Following the establishment of the Chinese settlement, settlements of foreigners from different countries came into being one after another when Seoul was open to Japan and western countries. The development remodeled the urban space and landscape of Seoul and changed the lifestyle of its residents. For instance, modern buildings started to appear in Seoul and modern products provided by foreign merchants became the majority of consumer goods for people in the city. Meanwhile, Chinese merchants had always been the most influential foreign power in the city of Seoul over a long period of time. 　　This study focuses on the Chinese settlement in Seoul by the end of the 19th Century with the aim to investigate the influence of foreigner settlements on Seoul’s modernization and reveal the activities of the Chinese people in the settlement. In view of the diminishment of the Qing power over Korea after the First Sino-Japanese War, which impacted the activities and development of the Chinese settlement, this study looks into the years between 1882 and 1894, i.e., from the opening of Seoul to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War.
Keyword	the opening of Seoul, the development of Hanseong, urban history, the Chinese people, Chinese merchants, overseas Chinese in Korea, Chinese laborers, Chinese servants
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