Article published In: The Linguistic Landscape of Covid-19:
Edited by Jackie Jia Lou, David Malinowski and Amiena Peck
[Linguistic Landscape 8:2/3] 2022
► pp. 233–247
(Un)masking Seoul
The mask as a static and dynamic semiotic device for renegotiating space
Published online: 1 September 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.21029.mil
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.21029.mil
Abstract
In March 2019, South Korea instituted a mask mandate as the main protective measure against the spread of Covid-19. The mask and the government-issued posters detailing guidance and regulations regarding masking have since become a prominent part of Korea’s semiotic landscape. This study focuses on the capital city of Seoul to explore how these changes in the semiotic landscape have resulted in a (re)negotiation of control over space between the government and the citizens, through the lens of the mask as a static and dynamic semiotic device. The data is drawn from photographs, observations, and notes made during 3 months of commuting in central Seoul. The findings are interpreted in the light of local sociocultural ideologies, and in reference to the greater global discourse of both governmental intrusion into and regulation of spaces and behaviors through the act of mask-wearing.
Keywords: mask, Covid-19, semiotic landscapes, space, South Korea
초록
한국은 COVID-19 확산에 대비하기 위한 주요 조치로서 2019 년 3 월 마스크 의무 착용을 도입하였다. 이후부터 마스크 착용에 대한 안내와 규제를 상술하는 정부 발행 포스터와 마스크는 한국의 기호 경관(semiotic landscape)에서 주요하게 관측되기 시작했다. 서울을 지리적 범위로 정한 본 연구는 정적 기호이자 동적 사물인 마스크를 통해, 기호 경관의 변화가 공간에 대한 규제를 둘러싼 정부와 시민 사이의 계속되는 교섭을 야기하는 양상을 살펴본다. 이를 위해 3 개월간 서울에서 수집된 사진 및 관찰 기록이 자료로 사용된다. 본 연구는 한국의 특수한 사회문화적 관념과 국제적 차원의 논의를 바탕으로 이 자료를 해석하여, 마스크 착용과 관련된 공간 및 행동에 대한 정부의 규제와 개입을 다룬다.
Article outline
- 1.Covid-19 in South Korea
- 2.Masks, masking, and control
- 3.Setting, data and methods
- 4.The poster child of masking
- 5.The mask in movement
- 6.Conclusion
References
References (35)
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. A., & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 7–30.
Brown, L. (2015). Expressive, social and gendered meanings of Korean honorifics. Korean Linguistics, 17(2), 242–266.
Chesnut, M., Curran, N. M., & Kim, S. (2021). Cuteness and fear in the COVID-19 Linguistic Landscape of South Korea. The Linguistic Landscape of COVID-19. [URL]
Comer, J. (this issue). ‘Together, soon enough’: Melbourne’s affective-discursive landscape during and since lockdown. Linguistic Landscape.
DeMora, S. L., Merolla, J. L., Newman, B., & Zechmeister, E. J. (2021). Reducing mask resistance among White evangelical Christians with value-consistent messages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118–121.
Dissanayake, J., Torres-Quiroz, C., Mahato, J., & Park, J. (2021). Facemasks: A Looming Microplastic Crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(13), 7068.
Douglas, G. C. C. (this issue). A sign in the window: Social norms and community resilience through handmade signage in the age of Covid-19. Linguistic Landscape.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Northeastern University Press.
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (2010). Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space. Continuum International Publishing Group.
Järlehed, J., & Jaworski, A. (2015). Typographic landscaping: creativity, ideology, movement. Social Semiotics, 25(2), 117–125.
Kang, D., & Kim, J-E. (2014). Fine, ultrafine, and yellow dust: emerging health problems in Korea. Journal of Korean Medical Sciences, 291, 621–622.
Kim, J-H., An, J.A-R., Oh, J. S., Oh, J., & Lee, J-K. (2021). Emerging COVID-19 success story: South Korea learned the lessons of MERS. Exemplars in Global Health. [URL]
Kress, G., & Leeuwen, van T. (2021). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 3rd Edition. Routledge Publishing.
Lim, S., Yoon, H. I., Song, K-H., Kim, E. S., & Kim, H. B. (2020). Face masks and containment of COVID-19: experience from South Korea. Journal of Hospital Infection, 106(1), 206–207.
Lee, H-K. (2020). South Korea takes new measures to have enough face masks domestically amid coronavirus. abcNEWS. [URL]
Linden, van der C., & Savoie, J. (2020). Does Collective Interest or Self-Interest Motivate Mask Usage as a Preventive Measure Against COVID-19? Canadian Journal of Political Science, 531, 391–397.
Minton, A. (2012). Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First-Century City. Penguin Books.
Oh, M. D., Park, W. B., Park, S. W., Choe, P. G., Bang, J. H., & Song, K. H. (2018). Middle East respiratory syndrome: what we learned from the 2015 outbreak in the Republic of Korea. Korean Journal of Internal Medicine, 331, 233–246.
Pew Research Center. (2020). Republicans, democrats move even further apart in coronavirus concerns. [URL]
Polese, A., Urinboyev, R., Kerikmae, T., & Murru, S. (2019). Negotiating Spaces and the Public–Private Boundary: Language Policies Versus Language Use Practices in Odessa. Space and Culture, 22(3), 263–279.
Rupar, M., Jamróz-Dolińska, K., Kołeczek, M. & Sekerdej, M. (2021). Is patriotism helpful to fight the crisis? The role of constructive patriotism, conventional patriotism, and glorification amid the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Social Psychology.
Scott, J. C. (1985). Weapons of the weak: Everyday Forms of peasant resistance. Yale University Press.
Shin, H. (2021). S. Korea sets up ‘bus walls’ as protesters defy COVID-19 warnings. Reuters International. [URL]
Strange, L. (this issue). Covid-19 and public responsibility: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of blaming the public during the UK’s third wave. Linguistic Landscape.
Theng, A. J., Tse, V. W. S. & Wu, J. Z. Z. (this issue). Complicating solidarity: The Hong Kong Covid-19 landscape. Linguistic Landscape.
Tufi, S. (this issue). Hybrid places: The reconfiguration of domestic space in the time of Covid-19. Linguistic Landscape.
Yang, J. (2014). A Quick History of Why Asians Wear Surgical Masks in Public. Quartz. [URL]
Yamagishi, T., Hashimoto, H., & Schug, J. (2008). Preferences versus strategies as explanations for culture-specific behavior. Psychological Science, 191, 579–584.
Zastrow, M. (2020). South Korea is reporting intimate details of COVID-19 cases: has it helped?. Nature.
Zhang, M. (2021). Writing against “Mask Culture”: Orientalism and COVID-19 Responses in the West. Anthropologica, 63(1), 1–14.
Zhou, F. (this issue). Aggressive banners, dialect-shouting village heads, and their online fame: Construction and consumption of rural Linguistic Landscapes in China’s anti-Covid campaign. Linguistic Landscape.
Cited by (8)
Cited by eight other publications
Buso Jr, Nelson Mangaldan
Gu, Chonglong & Brian Hok-Shing Chan
Gu, Chonglong
Rieger, Shannon
Androutsopoulos, Jannis
2022. Scaling the pandemic dispositive. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 131 ff.
Douglas, Gordon C. C.
Modan, Gabriella & Katie J. Wells
Zhou, Feifei
2022. Aggressive banners, dialect-shouting village heads, and their online fame. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 248 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.