Minjok : flawed, but undeniable

 

Minjok : flawed, but undeniable

The flag of Han-peninsula
= North Korea + South Korea

While watching the soccer game, the broadcaster often says, ‘Let’s show the power of Koreans, the power of Hanminjok to them!’ The middle school ethics textbooks tell us that unification is necessary because we are the same Hanminjok. What on earth is MINJOK? The dictionary definition of Minjok, ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who have lived in the same region for centuries, and sharing common cultural heritage, ancestry, history, language, series of thoughts and possibly other aspects such as religion, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance, and so on. However, Minjok does not simply comply with the concept of a nation, nor does it mean the same to the dictionary definition in the reality. Considering the specialty of Korea, minjok means even more than that.

 

Someone would think that the concept of Minjok existed from millenniums ago judging by that ‘minjok’ is innate in people. However, according to Carter Eckert, there was not strong sense of belonging to a Korean nation until late in the 19^th century. Minjok wasn’t an important concept until the Japanese illegal occupation era. Japanese tried to unite Korean and Japanese under the slogan, 내선일체 naeseon ilche, claiming that Japan and Korea are ethnically homogeneous, but separated unavoidably. On the other hand, Historian Shin Chae-ho used the ‘minjok’ in order to unite Korea and provide the axis of resistance against Japan. In his book, he stated the bloodline of Dan-gun, Goguryeo, Goryeo, and Josun to emphasize the Korean, Han spirit. In the modern days, former president Park Chung-hee who maintained dictatorship for 16 years, emphasized ethnic nationalism, and homeland. Lastly, Kim Young-sam propelled Korean globalization in accordance with reinforcement of the concept, minjok.

 

 

Historian Shin Chae Ho

President Park Chung Hee

President Kim Young Sam

Then, what makes minjok? The dictionary says that Minjok is a group of people sharing culture, series of ideas, language, and possibly genetics. However, I don’t think minjok means so. The standard of minjok is extremely vague, but to get general ideas of it, I think bloodline may be the primary standard of Hanminjok. For example, consider multicultural families, and foreigners living in Korea. Sam Hammington, Robert Holley have lived in Korea for years and even use dialects, and eat Kimchi. Their eating habit is more Korean-tic than Korean kids, they more engaged in Korean society, and married to Korean. But still, they are not considered as Korean. Actually, I won’t say people with blue eyes and blond hair are Hanminjok definitively. Next, how about Koreans living abroad or migrated to other countries? They share not the place or region, but the bloodline and series of thoughts. They might not be legally Korean, but still considered as Han-minjok, and Korean associations exist abroad showing strong bond among Koreans.

 

This indicates that neither eating kimchi nor assimilating to the Korean society determines Hanminjok. Where you live doesn’t either. The bloodline is thought to be the most primary standard of Hanminjok. What is contradictory about this is that even we, ourselves don’t have unique bloodline. Throughout our ancestors of Gojoseon, Goguryeo, Goryeo, and Joseon, our blood mingled and people married to foreigners. Also, scores of invasion by Japan and China affected so-called Dan-il minjok. These days, Korea is no more a Dan-il minjok society. However, we still believe and claim that they are ethnically homogeneous, racially distinctive compared to other societies. Sometimes, I feel that we do blindly.

 

The standard, bloodline makes minjok such an exclusive community with contradiction. Bloodline is arbitrarily given exclusive factor. It can only be satisfied with being reborn in Korean, and no one outside this exclusive community can mimic and meet the condition. Fixated on this exclusiveness, people sometimes blindly claim homogeneity and distinctiveness, thereby revealing the dark part of Minjok concept. For example, the exclusiveness of Minjok often hurts the outcast of Korean society in the form of xenophobia. Kids from multicultural family are often bullied. Furthermore, Koreans have inclination of not accepting and embracing the mixed-blood. Their nationality is Korean, language is Korean, and eating culture is Korean. However, they aren’t considered as Han minjok, indicating once more that the concept of minjok and nation is another story.

 

multicultural family in Korea



Minjok has been occasionally used as a political tool to unite people and drag attention. In fact, we don’t use the term, ‘minjok‘ in our daily lives saying, “I will share my favorite snack with you because we are the same Hanminjok.” Instead, we can find the term more frequently in Declarations, Inspiring speeches and special events such as World cup, sports game. Especially, the sports broadcaster keeps reminding us that we are the one, and thus insinuating that we are the best one. It has been used as necessary illusion in order to unite people and drive them to focus on economic development and national agenda.


We are united into Red Devils under the concept of Han-minjok

Necessary illusion, suggested by Noam Chomsky, is a political power using propaganda to distort and distract from major issues to maintain confusion and complicity, preventing real democracy from being effective. The former president Park Chung hee implemented 5 year economic development plan, and required people to engage in it. The dictatorship highlighted the concept of Minjok, nationalism, ethnic romanticism to drag their attention to the plan solely and drive them to pursue the prosperity of nation and minjok. This necessary illusion worked relatively well. In contemporary Korea, the Dokdo issue is broached whenever a political conflict or corruption is revealed to the public. Public are more interested in dokdo issue, thus it mitigates the impact of the exposure of corruption or conflict. Politicians know that minjok concept is innate in our minds and exploit them as a political tool to drag attention away from their vulnerability.

 



Panorama image of Dokdo



The higher degree of necessary illusion exists in North Korea. North Korea developed the concept of Minjok into Ju-che thought. It is a more aggressive, blatant form of ethnic nationalism, or Minjok-ism. They believe that they are the cleanest race, the most superior race in the world. Brainwashing North Koreans, they succeeded to maintain stable government with united ideology. The blatant form of minjok such as North Koreans is closer to Nazism and ultranationalism. Some people are afraid if this kind of things would happen. Minjok is such a closed community and people are fixated on bloodline, homogeneity. If the ostracism against foreigners worsens, we might become unable to communicate with other societies.

 

 

Again, what’s minjok? I’d like to say that it is hugely flawed concept. Used as political tool in the form of necessary illusion, possibility of authoritarianism requiring the sacrifice of individuals is occasionally entertained. It has extremely vague criteria. Bloodline is a primary standard, which hinders embracing the diversity of Korean society with the prejudice prevalent in closed community. But it doesn’t even mean the bloodline itself determines minjok definitively.

At first, I thought that the concept doesn’t exist, and it’s illusion. The concept of minjok was initially introduced to unite people and urge them to fight against invasion or external force. It was used as necessary illusion, but eventually we cannot deny that minjok exist among Koreans and we are united easily under the concept of minjok. Overcoming these flaws will be hard, but if we do, I believe Korean society will develop into more embracing society for others.

 



more embracing minjok concept



My first Minjok Herald article - SAT Cancellation in May and June Confuses KMLAians



I'm so glad to be the writing crew
of Minjok Herald

I got accepted to Minjok Herald as a writing crew. This is my first article for Minjok herald July about the SAT cancellation in Korea.

SAT Cancellation in May and June Confuses KMLAians

Kim Ye-Suel

Writing Crew, 18^th wave

 

SAT is a standardized test widely consulted as an integral factor in college admission. Despite this importance, the May SAT and the SAT Biology subject test in June were cancelled in Korea. This sudden cancellation agitated KMLAians.


 

SAT Academies' inappropriate behaviors

On May 1^st, Collegeboard, which holds SAT(Scholastic Aptitude Test), cancelled the May SAT in Korea. They also cancelled the June SAT Biology subject test in Korea. Furthermore, on May 25^th, some applicants received an email from Collegeboard informing them to not come to the test center. Doubts that Korean SAT academies have stolen previous exam questions were broached, leading Collegeboard and ETS to cancel the SAT in Korea.





Some students went to Japan to take SAT,
paying even more money.

As the May and June SATs were the last tests before the early application for US colleges, 16^{th }wavers experienced difficulty due to their cancellations. There were some 16^th wavers who even decided not to respond to the interview. 16^th waver Kim Hong-Soon, who took his SAT US History test in Japan on June 1^st, expressed his discomfort to Minjok Herald. ”I was really annoyed when I heard SAT was cancelled because some academies broke the rules,” he said. He chose to take the test in Japan because he was nervous that the June could suddenly be cancelled as well. He added, “The cancellation cost me more time and money. Those academies made the effort of other students who invested long time meaningless and potentially damaged all of the Korean students preparing for US colleges.”

Among all of the SAT subject tests, SAT Biology was the only subject test cancelled in June. Several 16^th and 17^th wavers who planned to take SAT Biology were bewildered. 17^th waver Lee Gina told Minjok Herald, “I was really disappointed and angry at the situation. I thought I won’t need to take any SAT or AP Biology test after June, but was annoyed when I found out that I needed to prepare for SAT Biology test until October.”

When interviewed about the SAT cancellations, Head Counselor Jung Key-One said, “Cancellation of SAT in May is of course perplexing for seniors who are looking forward to the scores for their college applications, and it is expected of their schedules to have suffered damage.” However, to the question of the influence of SAT cancellation to college entrance, he answered, “I cannot hastily tell my opinion about how this will affect international college entrance since the changes will vary for each university.”

Similar doubt of leakage of SAT questions by Korean academies was brought up several times before, and cancelling the test in whole Korea indicates the gravity of situation. Other Koreans also say that as a same Korean, SAT Cancellation due to the cheating behavior is so embarrassing. Due to the irresponsible behavior of some test takers and the late inform by Collegeboard, several KMLAians experienced difficulties and were annoyed. Despite the desire to get higher score, there shall not be more obstacles for students and test-takers due to cheating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSIxwlTn7aYwlTn7aY