Minjok Essay!
‘I pledge, in front of proud Taegeukgi, allegiance to the Republic of Korea for the eternal glory of the country, liberty and justice.’
Every Monday morning when the patriotic morning assembly begins, students recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag in a same voice, heading the Taegeukgi(Korea's national flag). After pledging the loyalty toward our motherland, then comes the turn of national anthem, which also sings the patriotism and allegiance the citizens should have toward the country. All the pledge and the song are taught to everyone since elementary school, and I had a weekly morning ceremony since then too. As we can easily feel from this, Koreans are quite united under an impetus and education of Korean government, and the concept which made this possible will definitely be the 'Minjok'.
Minjok is a word consisted of two Chinese symbols; 民(민) which means the people and 族(족) which means the group. In the history, people used the letter 族(족) to distinguish the group of people, and it is the similar concept with tribe in English. For instance, Korean ancestors called themselves as '한족(韓族)' and other tribes like ‘말갈족(靺鞨族)’ and ‘만주족(滿洲族)’ also appears in the history. Yet, the term 'Minjok' wasn't used. The period when the word Minjok started to be used as a keyword for unification and ethnicity is the end of Chosun dynasty, the Japanese colonial era and when foreign cultures started to flow in to Korea.
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| French Revolution, when their nationalism was shown |
'Minjok', from Japanese word 'minzoku', included the idea of racial thinking influenced from European countries like Germany. Its origin started from 1789, from France, by garrisons of the revolution. France was in need of a concept to bond the citizens altogether in order to make them participate in the revolution. Soon after the Nazis started using this concept, only embracing people with same nationality and race. In the early 20th century Japan tempted to destroy Korean culture from people's memory and change them all to Japanese, so named all the citizens Japanese, educated at school that Koreans are inferior and we should be grateful to
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| 'Doksa Silon' by Chae Ho Shin |
Japanese that they are letting us toward development. During this hard period, numerous Koreans tried to protect their national identity. Korean intellectuals like Chae Ho Shin and Eun Shik Park refused Japan's act by using the concept of 'minjok', and the scholars studying minjok appeared too. As a result, 'minjok' did united the people and even led them to many activities opposing to Japan's suppression. One example of the ancestor's effort to study and spread the concept of minjok is 'Doksa Silon(1908)' written by Chae Ho Shin. In this editorial, Shin introduced the myth of Dan Gun, a birth myth of Co Cho Sun, early Korea, and ended his story up with the collapse of Balhae. Using myths or stories to unite by making people believe in minjok was very effective, and by the myth of Dan Gun, people started to believe that they all have the same blood from Dan Gun. This made every Koreans say that they are the same minjok without hesitation in the past.
ㄴNam Yeong Dong 1985's trailer. The movie showed the 'Genthe Persuasion'
given by the dictatorship government in Korea
Korea was undergoing at that period by unifying the people, and at the same time have a stable period of dictatorship for himself by stopping the entrance of foreign culture. For people who disagree and refuse what Park was doing was given with 'Gentle Persuasion'. Park not only unified the citizens, but also showed the totalitarian dictatorship using the concept of minjok, and this was used by the man in power to control other people quite often in the history. Japanese having a strong loyalty toward the emperor and Egyptian's power of unity to build the pyramid for Pharaoh can all be explained by this; man in power can give an illusion to group of people by making them believe in the concept of minjok.
Until the Park's government, when Korea's culture was more exclusive than now, making people believe in minjok and unifying them was much more easier. However right now, the period when diverse cultures are
being mixed in our country and foreigners are increasing by the globalization, the meaning of 'minjok' became so vague. The 'blood-tie' theory Koreans used to believe does not work out any more. The most well known person for this example will be Robert Holley, who naturalized as a Korean citizen but original nationality is in U.S.A. Holley and his ancestors weren't born in Korea so he do not share the same history as us. However the love toward Korea Holley have is surely bigger than many other Koreans who were born here. Should he be classified as our minjok too? I believe yes, but some people doesn't. So here the point of debate comes. Isn't the idea of minjok so outdated for modern Korea? Can it still be the impetus of the unification?
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| Multicultural family in Jeju, Korea Are they able to be called as our minjok? |
Obviously the idea of minjok saying that people tied only with 'pure-blood' relationship can not be applied to nowaday's world. International marriage is increasing every day and multiculturalism is now being the prevailing thought so definitely the idea of minjok which we were using till no
w cannot coexist with these day's culture. Since the border of the minjok is becoming more and more vague, people who naturalized like Robert Holley and Sam Hamington are not the only people standing on the boundary of the minjok. These days, the collision between the thoughts that society have and an individual have toward a person's minjok is also being a problem. As the border of the minjok gets weaker, people are having harder time when deciding one's minjok. For example in my school, there is a student who have visited the U.S.A. only one time and grew up his whole life in Korea, but is in love with the U.S.A. and believe that his ethnicity is in the U.S., even though his nationality is in Korea. Like in his case, hardness always follows when dividing the minjok ever since the world became more opened than before, and it sometimes seems that the concept of minjok is so useless. If we can't even determine who is included in our minjok, how can we feel that we are one and be unified as easy as we did in the past years?
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| Robert Holley advertising instant rice noodle |
Then should the concept be abandoned? I believe not.
By using the concept of minjok, we can get quite big advantages like having people be unified altogether which raises the efficiency of any work we do. It makes people think that they are one, and this useful concept should never be abandoned. However, the concept of minjok is so outdated and a broader standard for dividing the minjok is needed, not the one only considering the inherent things. So there lies a clue of possible solution. Chae Ho Shin's context tells us that the concept of minjok should follow the changing and globalized world. In order to do so, Koreans who believe that only pure blood line decides the minjok should tempt to abandon their narrow-mindedness toward people with different race or appearance, and try to see their inside, whether they really love the country or not. After the minjok's range get broader enough and the controversial part of it decreases to the least, minjok will be able to be a method of feeling belonged to a group, and a word of unification to make a better society.
ㄴFlash mob done in Gwanghwamoon, Seoul, to inform people that Dokdo is Korea's property. This is a good example of people being unified with the love toward the country and a belief that they are one.
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