 |
Common conception of Minjok |
The concept of Minjok
exists in this world by many different and unique meanings. Korea also has this
concept of Minjok, however people justifies it differently. Some might justify
Minjok as someone who is in same unified community or someone who is living in
same country. In the dictionary, Minjok is expressed as living together in a
certain area for many years on the basis of commonality of language and
culture, historically formed social groups. However,
Minjok cannot be simply described as a social group. Social group is something
that seeks mutual profit which is different from what Minjok is. For example in
a movie, when we see our Minjok getting hit by someone, and being suffered, we
seem to become angrier than other people. Also, we seem to focus more on the
movie when the main character is our Minjok. Thus, is Minjok simply a social
group? I disagree with this and that how I would justify Korean Minjok would be
based on resistance awareness which firstly focuses on a thought of unified
nation and has outstanding unity as homogenous nation.
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| Dangun Minjok |
There are two strong historical arguments on the origin of nationalism.
There are two big opposition points on how most of the Koreans think the word
nationalism firstly existed since Dangun and how it started since Japanese
colonization. I will be firstly talking about the argument about how Dangun is
the origin of nationalism. Most of the people think that the origin of nationalism came since
Dangun. A fighter of independence and a socialistic historian Shin Chae Ho
wrote a book called "New reading of History", which contains a summary
from the period of Dangun to disruption of Balhae. This book also argues that
the Dangun is the origin of nationalism. There are two other areas to focus in
this book as well. Since long time ago, even though 한민족(Han
Minjok) fought for extending territories as enemies, when there were attacks
from foreign powers, they came back as one united nation. This resulted Koreans
to bravely stand up for their identity also followed by creation of resistance
awareness. Therefore, even with Japanese colonization, people never gave up to
resist. However on the other hand, there are people apposing to argue that
nationalism was created since Japanese colonization. They argue that
oppositions just want to simply believe that nationalism was created since
Dangun however in reality, it was created from Japanese colonization. From the
research Korean Ethnic Nationalism by B.R Myers, Japan forced the nation to use
Japanese and its cultural name. However as this forceful policy failed, Japan
used something called "blood line share" to increase pride in Koreans
and unify them as one nation. This was a trick by Japanese for Koreans to be
influenced to Japanese culture. However the research by B.R Myers is
realistically false. From Korean history, when Japan first started cultural
ruling, they said Korea is the best to make pro-Japaense groups in Korea which
made internal conflicts in order for Japan to take over Korea. However, this
failed as well which led to disruption of the nation. As people suffered from
disruption policies, they unified 3.1 movement.
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| Japanese colonization |
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| 3.1 movement |
Many people say that after
this, many of independent movements and provisional government were created
with creation of concept of Minjok in Manchuria as well. During Japanese
colonization, what Japan put up to destroy Korea was “Great East Asian
Co-Prosperity Sphere” and “Pan-Asiatic identity”. These truths incapacitated
two arguments in agreeing with the invasion by Shin Chae Ho and Lee Kwang Soo.
Lee Kwang Soo was a fighter of independence and liberalism who was actively
involved in the movements of independence. The biggest movement he did was
being involved in the farmer(Dong Hak) movement. This was the very first
movement which army rose in the cause of justice. The focusing point here is
that this was the first movement resisting against the foreign power and Lee
Kwang Soo claimed that national conscious was created. However, Shin Chae Ho
disagreed with the national conscious that based the idea that Japan and Korea
are one from Dangun. In my own opinion, I agree with Lee Kwang Soo’s argument.
In reality, since Dangun, most of Hanbando was divided and still is till today.
Therefore, the argument that national conscious was created during Dangun is a denial
of Japanese colonization that it never happened. Thus, this historical truth argues
that Korean Minjok is resentful and people integrate easily.
A book called "The paradox of Korean
Globalization" by a graduate of Korean Minjok Leadership Academy Shin Gi
Wook states that there is a contradiction in Korean society. The contradiction
appears in the two opposite meanings of nationalism and globalization. Korea is
what so-called "a nation of digital guinea pigs" because of its well
developed technology. With these technologies it made it possible to
communicate with different countries and creation of globalized companies like
Samsung and LG. Also, many people are now studying overseas and studies like
TOEIC AND TOEFL are considered important. This is the reason why Korea is a globalized
country.
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| Globalization |
On the other hand, ethnocentrial nationalism exists in competitions
like World Cup and Olympic as we use "taehan min guk" ("republic
or Korea" or "The great Han people's state") or "Uri nun
hana"("we are one"). We also learn Korean history as sharing the
blood line in common ancestors in classes in Korea. With this, we are one
nation, in other word one Minjok in our minds. Even though the characteristic
that unification is strong for a better communication between countries, the
book by Shin Gi Wook states that Korea's ethnic identity is too strong that
world's current trend of globalization is one of the ways for nationalism. In
other word, globalization is being used to create stronger nationalism. For
example, after the Korean war, with the help from America, Korea quickly
recovered. Also, after seizing power of Jung He Park during 1960s, even though
democracy could not develop much, the military seized in power which improved
economy and many of the businesses were created in Seoul. As the government and
businesses united, technology was developed in Seoul along with other cities.
This resulted Seoul's industry to be centralized and businesses went overseas.
However with restrictions from the government, foreign businesses could not
enter Seoul which showed Korean nationalism. Thus, there was a decrease in foreigners
in Seoul. However, after the Olympics in 1988, foreigners came to Seoul without
the purpose of occupation and the foreign businesses were created for the first
time. In 1993, the president Young Sam Kim who was elected democratically led
globalization for the first time which allowed to accept American businesses
and for Seoul to be developed as a city. However, after the IMF crisis in 1997,
as unemployment rate increased and the country was in crisis, IMF suggested for
Korea to open as a complete free market. Korea agreed to do so and it actively processed
globalization. To pay off the debt from IMF and to recover from the crisis,
citizens got together to do fundraise and save the country's budget as much as
possible. From this it is also evident that the Korean nation acted for the
profit of the community before individuals. It was impossible to find this
movement from any of other countries in the world. As globalization is still
continuing, there are some elder people who believe in Confucianism and
American objects are only popular to younger generations. However, these
differences were recovered by the unity of the nation and elders are now familiar
with developed items as well.
As it is being globalized, there is a bit of a
flow in nationalism in the West. In olden times in the West, the King had
absolute power. However, the Rousseau in Romantic period claimed the thought and
the theory of social contract. It claimed that these two are what Humans enjoy inevitably
like the life, freedom and wealth which cannot be transferred. This is what
made it doubt the kingdom and led to civil revolution. After this, Napoleon
combined independent countries under France Empire. The West’s nationalism
appeared when Napoleon was thrown out. Countries realized the need of
independency and went back to normal. So they had conference in Bin, which is called Congress of wien. Western countries developed more with
keeping independency and interchanging between countries. How the country based
its own country to spread foreign objects made 21st century Korea to
have this type of characteristic of Minjok.
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| Nationalism |
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| Bin conference |
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| 21 century Minjok |
<Bibliography>
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nationalism/
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globalization.html
http://struggle.ws/talks/korea.html
Shin Ki Wook, “Paradox of Korean globalization”
Shin Chae Ho, "New reading of History"
