By the the early 1920s, the term paegŭiminjok (백의민족; literally “white-clothed people”) was being used to describe the Korean people, and indeed, until the 1950s, a significant proportion of Koreans wore a traditional white hanbok on a daily basis.

Many Korean people, from infancy through old age and across the social spectrum, dressed in white, only wearing one or more of the other colours of the traditional Korean colour spectrum (black, blue, yellow and red – along with white, known as Obangsaek) on special occasions or if their job required a certain uniform.

Early evidence of the practice of primarily wearing white dates from around the 2nd century BCE, continuing until the 1950–1953 Korean War, after which the resulting poverty caused the practice to end. Koreans could no longer afford to buy food, let alone maintain their white clothes.

But why? The reason for the practice is not known with certainty, although it is said by Korean scholars to be a mix of symbolism and tradition.

Confucianism, which deeply influenced Korean culture, promoted virtues such as modesty, purity and simplicity. White clothing reflected these values, representing a humble and unadorned lifestyle. The Chinese Romance of the Three Kingdoms describes white clothing as a symbol of cleanliness. White is also sometimes associated with sunlight and heaven in the Chinese cultural sphere. Some modern scholars see it as a result of psychology, specifically pressure to conform to social norms, i.e. someone started wearing white, and everyone else followed. [Ed: Maybe]. White is also the colour of mourning in Korea. The practice stems from the belief that white represents a clean slate or a return to purity after death. It contrasts with the Western tradition of wearing black during mourning.

The Japanese colonial view attributed the Korean penchant for white clothing to mourning, and they really didn’t like the inference. The practice was persistently maintained and defended by Koreans, surviving at least 25 pre-colonial and over 100 Japanese colonial era regulations and prohibitions. Japanese colonialists and a number of Koreans also saw it as a frivolous practice, partly because of the maintenance the practice demanded.

This practice has also developed a number of symbolic interpretations over time. The rigorous defence of the practice and effort needed to maintain it have been seen as symbolic of Korean stubbornness, and as the promotion of a distinct Korean identity, primarily as a reaction to Japanese assimilationist policies.

The symbolism lives on. In the 1980s, South Korean democratic movements once again adopted white clothing as a symbol of democracy, pro-reunification sentiment and anti-Americanism.
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References

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_clothing_in_Korea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obangsaek
https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201509163234670.pdf
https://koreayoumaynotknow.quora.com/The-love-for-the-white-color-of-Koreans

Images

1. A market day in a countryside town (1906–1907). Credit: National Folk Museum of Korea
2. Water carriers at a neighbourhood well, Korea circa 1900
3. Korean women washing clothes, drawing by American Constance J.D. Coulson, 1910
4. Korean negotiators in white hanbok on board the USS Colorado, 1871
5. Map of Japan with Korea shown as annexed, 1910
6. Anatomy of a hanbok
7. Obangsaek: the five cardinal colours of the traditional Korean colour spectrum
8. Memorial service for Park Jong-chul, a student protestor tortured and killed during an interrogation, 3 March 1989. Credit: Kim and Shin, 2006