“Chang-han-mong,” a Korean adaptation of a Japanese novel, has been adapted into a wide variety of genres and media -from plays to films to popular songs. This study inquires into how these adaptations have affected the way people regarded “Chang-han-mong” in contemporary Korean society.

　“Chang-han-mong,”was adapted from Koh-yo Ozaki’s Konzikiyasha and published serially in the Korean newspaper Maeil Shinbo from May 13 to October 1, 1913. Before long, it became a major repertoire of Sin-pa drama, gaining immense popularity and giving rise to a large number of film and popular song adaptations. Many pastiches based on the adaptation also appeared and rapidly filtered into Korean popular culture. Interestingly though, “Chang-han-mong,” along with one of its best known adaptations, “Yi sooil & Shin soonae,” is today criticized for its distinctly Japanese style and extreme sentimentalism that influenced public opinion regarding the situation of colonial Korea. While the novel is acknowledged as a work that best reflects the public mind, it is also regarded as a colonial legacy which should be abolished. However, it cannot be denied that its evaluation as Japanese style Sin-pa has been founded mostly on the image of the mixed-media “Chang-han-mong” rather than the original literary work.To explain why “Chang-han-mong” is regarded as having a Japanese style and a showpiece of Sin-pa drama requires consideration of its transformation outside of the literature category periphery and the way it was accepted by the public.