Korea - A Nation of Immigrants?

Korea - A Nation of Immigrants?
By Robert Koehler
Marmot's Hole Blog
August 22, 2007

More stuff on the need to accept ethnic diversity in Korea, this time from the Korea Herald.

Interestingly, the Korea Herald editorial starts thusly:

Korea’s older generations had been taught to take pride in having an ethnically homogeneous fatherland. Racial homogeneity formed the basis of the 5,000-year history of the nation, which was interrupted for 35 years in the 20th century by the Japanese occupation. So, the national identity of the Korean race was emphasized as the source of power and spirit in the struggle against Japanese imperialism.

Now, this is questionable on two counts. Firstly, it follows the same logic reportedly presented by the Korean delegation to the UNHRC Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, namely, that the Korean concept of ethnic homogeneity and “pure-bloodedness” was born as a defense measure in response to (mainly) Japanese imperialism. The reality may have been more complicated, however — other factors included the popularity among East Asian intellectuals of European racialist and Social Darwinist thought at the turn of the 20th century (see also here) and the adoption of Japanese models by Korea’s post-independence economic and political elite.

But ultimately, the question of how the concept of Korean ethnic purity became an ideological pillar of post-independence Korean society may be irrelevant, since the supposed ethnic homogeneity upon which the concept rested might be complete myth… and a recent one at that.

One of the more interesting columns I’ve read since the UNHRC censure — and a lot of ink has been spilled on the matter — was one by the JoongAng Ilbo’s Lee Hun-beom that appeared in the Aug 20 issue of that paper.

Lee began by recalling a story from 1995, when members of Korea’s Hwasan Lee family were granted the same legal status in Vietnam as Vietnamese citizens. Why? Because the Hwasan Lee family are actually descendants of the Ly family, the ruling family of the Vietnamese Ly Dynasty (1009—1225). When the Ly Dynasty was overthrown in 1225, the royal family was massacred, but an uncle of the last emperor managed to escape, eventually landing in Hwasan in present-day North Korea. The Goryeo king conferred unto him a lordship and the clan name Hwasan Lee. Today’s Hwasan Lee family trace their ancestry back to this Vietnamese royal.

Lee Hun-beom points out that the Hwasan Lee family isn’t the only such example. The Gimhae Heo family trace their lineage back to King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya and his Indian wife. The Deoksu Jang family, meanwhile, are the descendants of Jang Sun-nyong, a Muslim Uyghur attendant to a Mongol princess sent to marry the the Goryeo king. Yi Ji-ran, a general who served as Yi Seong-gye’s right hand in the establishment of the Joseon kingdom and progenitor of the Cheonghae Lee family, was a Jurchen. Then there’s General Sayaga, one of Kato Kiyomasa’s commanders during the Imjin War, who liked Korea so much he decided to defect to the other side (bringing with him matchlock technology). He was eventually granted the Korean name Kim Chung-seon of the Gimhae Kim clan.

Lee says that the number of such cases is surprisingly large, and the national gene pool proves it. A Japanese study from 2003 revealed that only 40 percent of the Korean DNA is uniquely Korean. 22 percent is similar to DNA found in China, while 17 percent is similar to that found in Okinawa. This would suggest there’s a fair amount of common DNA between Korea, China and Japan thanks to brisk human exchanges that have been going on since ancient times. A Korean study turned up the same results.

“This is the reality of the ethnic homogeneity we’ve been so proud of,” wrote Lee.

Along the same lines, Go Gi-bok contributed to OhMyNews back in May a review of Park Gi-hyeon’s book “Immigrant Clans That Changed Our History,” which argues that the Korean “race” is essentially a big japtang, a mixture of different ingredients that developed over time a sense of unity within the big mixing bowl otherwise known as the Korean Peninsula.

The book apparently examines the stories of Korea’s many immigrants, including the ones mentioned above and a few others like Park Yeon, a Dutch sailor who was shipwrecked in Korea in 1627 but eventually became royal cannon maker and fought for the Korean side during the Manchu invasion of late 1636. But more importantly, the book notes that Korea used to play the role of sanctuary for peoples escaping war and natural disasters in China and Manchuria. In particular, floods of immigrants would come to Korea during chaotic period in Chinese history, such as the Three Kingdoms period, the fall of the Tang Dynasty and fall of the Sung Dynasty, and these immigrants had a great influence on the culture.

The Goryeo kingdom was especially keen on courting immigrants, a policy continued even by the rulers of the Joseon kingdom, who used immigration as a means to keep the Jurchen in line and protect Korea’s northern frontier.

According to Park, some 46 percent of Korea’s current family names are, in fact, immigrant names, and 20 percent of Korea’s population are descendants of immigrants from Manchuria, China, Japan, Vietnam, Central Asia, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Of course, don’t tell any of this to the North Koreans, who ironically enough may be the biggest japtang on the peninsula, living as they do in a region that saw considerable migration throughout Korean history.