Yu Kilchun (1856–1914) was among a group of young Chosŏn-dynasty officials who visited Japan in the late 1800s and were impressed by the changes Japan had undergone since opening its ports decades earlier. Yu subsequently traveled to the United States as part of Korea’s first diplomatic mission and stayed behind to become the first Korean to study in the West. He then went on to travel widely through Europe before returning home.

Yu’s experiences abroad formed the basis for his Observations on a Journey to the West (Sŏyu kyŏnmun), published in 1895. Compiled at a time when Korean civilization was being incorporated into the new global nation-state system, Observations introduced Korean elites to Western institutions, customs, and ideas about geography, governance, the rights of states and people, education, scholarship, technology, economics, and social welfare, among others. Many of these ideas were debated by participants in the 1894 Kabo Reforms, Korea’s first sustained attempt to remake its society and strengthen itself as an independent nation.

Observations was also the first work to be published in mixed Sino-Korean script rather than literary Sinitic (classical Chinese). Yu felt the mixed script better reflected the speech of educated Koreans and that using the vernacular was essential to awaken his compatriots to the urgent need for far-reaching reforms and provide guidelines for remaking their society for the next century.

The Editors’ Introduction offers an overview of Korean history in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, followed by a consideration of Yu’s background and experiences and how they shaped his worldview and vision for Korea’s place in the modern world.