Abstract
The influx of Chinese into Korea has a long history. The earlier migrants were rapidly absorbed into mainstream Korean society and quickly assimilated. However, the Chinese migrants who arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the huaqiao, chose to maintain their separate, non-Korean identity. This later led to open discrimination towards the huaqiao in post-independence Korea. The adoption of modern nationalism and racial theories in Korea also facilitated the disenfranchisement of the huaqiao, whose loyalty to the Korean national state was suspected and whose economic and social rights were appropriated. The recent revival of Chinese power has led to the mellowing of Korean attitudes towards China and the Chinese. The left-aligned political parties in Korea are especially in favour of cultivating closer ties with China. The composition of the Chinese community in Korea has also been altered by the influx of new migrants from mainland China. This has led to the renaissance of the once moribund Chinese communities in Incheon and Busan, both of which now boast sizable Chinatowns. Yet the huaqiao still face problems with integrating fully into Korean society and being openly huaqiao can still lead to unwelcome attention and prejudice from native Koreans. The integration of the Chinese community in Korea remains a challenge for Korea that still holds firmly to the old nationalist ideology of the 20th century.
Highlights
The immigration of Chinese to the Korean peninsula has a long history
With the rise of modern nationalism in the 20th century the Chinese contribution to Korean nationhood, gene pool and history has been downplayed and replaced by what has been termed racialist historiography, the attribution of a pure genetic origin to the Korean ‘race’. This has in turn led to open discrimination towards Chinese residents in South Korea and the peculiar situation whereby Korea was until recently the only nation in East Asia that did not have a highly visible China town in its major cities[1]
With the recent increase of China’s economic might, Korea has been forced to reassess its relations with China itself and the Chinese residing in Korea. What this implies for the Chinese minority residing in Korea and what these new changing circumstances suggest for future Sino-Korean relations will be discussed in this article
Summary
The immigration of Chinese to the Korean peninsula has a long history. According to legend it began at the very dawn of Korean history with the migration of Gija from Shang China to Gojoseon (old Korea). With the rise of modern nationalism in the 20th century the Chinese contribution to Korean nationhood, gene pool and history has been downplayed and replaced by what has been termed racialist historiography, the attribution of a pure genetic origin to the Korean ‘race’ This has in turn led to open discrimination towards Chinese residents in South Korea (huaqiao) and the peculiar situation whereby Korea was until recently the only nation in East Asia that did not have a highly visible China town in its major cities[1]. After the Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Chinese merchants residing in Korea were confined to Seoul and three ports only (Incheon, Busan and Wonsan) and forbidden to move inland In addition their once protected status in Korea, as citizens of Korea’s hegemon, received a blow due to the expansion of Japanese influence in Korea and the withdrawal of Qing military presence in Korea after 1894. This significantly undermined the economic strength of the Chinese residents residing in Korea[7]
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