Global InformationKorean ethnic nationalism information
Korean ethnic nationalism (Korean: 한국의 민족주의), or Korean racial nationalism,[2] is a political ideology and a form of ethnic and racial identity for Korean people. It is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, and an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture.[3] It is centered on the notion of the minjok (Korean: 민족; Hanja: 民族), a term that had been coined in Imperial Japan ("minzoku") in the early Meiji period. Minjok has been translated as "nation", "people", "ethnic group", "race", and "race-nation".[4][5][6][7] It has been described by several observers as racist, chauvinist, and ethnosupremacist.[8][9][10][11]
This conception started to emerge among Korean intellectuals after the Japanese-imposed protectorate of 1905, leading to Korea's colonization by Japan.[12] The Japanese then tried to persuade the Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock to assimilate them, similar to what they did with the Ainu and Ryukyuans. The notion of the Korean minjok was first made popular by essayist and historian Shin Chae-ho in his New Reading of History (1908), a history of Korea from the mythical times of Dangun to the fall of Balhae in 926 CE. Shin portrayed the minjok as a warlike race that had fought bravely to preserve Korean identity, had later declined, and now needed to be reinvigorated.[13] During the period of Japanese rule (1910–1945), this belief in the uniqueness of the Korean minjok gave an impetus for resisting Japanese assimilation policies and historical scholarship.[14]
The concept has continued to be relevant after the colonial period. In the 1960s, South Korean president Park Chung Hee strengthened "an ideology of racial purity" to legitimize his authoritarian rule.[15]
This shared conception of a racially defined Korea continues to shape Korean politics and foreign relations, gives Koreans an impetus to national and racial pride,[16] and feeds hopes for the reunification of the two Koreas.[17] In recent decades, statistics has showed that South Korea is becoming an increasingly multi-ethnic society.[18] As a result, discussions have continued to be held both abroad and in Korea on the topics of race and multi-culturalism.[19][18]
- ^ "Global Citizenship a growing sentiment among citizens of emerging economies: Global Poll" (PDF). GlobeScan. 27 April 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ Gi-Wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (Stanford University Press, 2006), p. 223.
- ^ Gi-wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (Stanford University Press, 2006), p. 2.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
YuriWDoolan2012was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Lee, Jin-seo (2016). North Korean Prison Camps. Radio Free Asia. p. 26. ISBN 9781632180230. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ^ Em, Henry H. (2013). The Great Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea, Part 2. Duke University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0822353720.
As noted earlier, the word minjok (read as minzoku in Japanese) was a neologism created in Meiji Japan. When Korean (and Chinese and Japanese) nationalists wrote in English in the first half of the twentieth century, the English word they generally utilized for minjok was 'race.'
- ^ Choi, Hee-an (2015). A Postcolonial Self: Korean Immigrant Theology and Church. SUNY Press. p. 24. ISBN 9781438457352.
The word minjok (민족,民族) translates as race.
- ^ Koo, Se-woong (July 2018). "Opinion – South Korea's Enduring Racism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
REKelly2015was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Denney, Steven (February 2014). "Political Attitudes and National Identity in an Era of Strength and Prosperity" (PDF). A Primer on a New Nationalism in South Korea. Dominion of Canada: Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto.
South Koreans do ascribe a relatively higher value to race than do other nations.
- ^ Denney, Steven (1 April 2015). "Workers, Immigration, and Racialized Hierarchy". SinoNK. Archived from the original on 3 January 2016.
Racism is as much, if not more, a problem in South Korea as it is in the United States.
- ^ Schmid, Andre (2002). Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 174.
- ^ Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Narratives of Nation Building in Korea (2003), pp. 15–16; Andre Schmid, "Rediscovering Manchuria" (1997), p. 32.
- ^ Hyung-il Pai, Constructing "Korean" Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State-Formation Theories. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, distributed by Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 1.
- ^ Nadia Y. Kim, Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to L.A. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), p. 25.
- ^ Gi-wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006), pp. 1–3.
- ^ Gi-wook Shin, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy, chapter 10: "Ethnic Identity and National Unification" (pp. 185–203).
- ^ a b Park, Chung-a (14 August 2006). "Myth of Pure-Blood Nationalism Blocks Multi-Ethnic Society". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
- ^ Kim, Nadia Y. (2008). Imperial citizens: Koreans and race from Seoul to LA. Stanford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8047-5887-1.
Koreans' beloved trope of tanil minjok—'the single ethnic nation'— would soon come into its own (see Shin 1998). The centrality of "blood" has been revived in more current times as well.