The concept “Minjok” and the 21st century

 

Ⅰ. Development of the Concept “Minjok”

 

1. Japanese Colonial Era

During the Japanese colonial era, Japanese tried to use an ideology to bring East Asia together, including, Korea, China and some of Southeast Asia countries, and they tried to eventually conquer all of the areas. Then as a response to this, among Korea independence campaigners, there was a movement to bring people together to defend themselves against Japanese colonial and gain independence. I think this is where the concept “Minjok” came on the surface for the first time. For a representative example, Shin Chaeho, who is considered to be one of the greatest Korean historians, brought out the idea “Minjok” my codifying the myth of Dangun by claiming that he is the ancestor of all Korean “Minjok”. Through this story, I think it is emphasized that our nation came from the same ancestor who is the son of the god and mistrial woman who turned into a human from a bear by 100 days of patience and effort, and thus it proves that they are a pure ethnic groups with qualification of being so.

I believe that this kind of way of using the concept of nation within history is very similar to what happened during the Romantic nationalism in Europe. The national epics were made to emphasize importance and superiority of certain nations or ethnic groups. This phenomenon is a way of codifying certain ideology to people by spreading epics and myths that are closely related to their identities.

Then, having gone through the same conditions, having accustomed to the same kinds of stories, and having formed similar ideologies, why would Korean feel extraordinarily special about their identity? This question has been asked to me several times by my foreign friends and teachers. Once, there was a Scottish teacher who suddenly came to me and said “My country has also been overtaken by England even longer than Korea was, but I don’t understand why particularly Koreans form such feeling of becoming one and aggressive against Japanese” I didn’t really pay attention to that question then, but looking it back now, I think that question embrace something that is really important to the concept of “Minjok”, which has been developed even after the colonial period is over.
 

2. President Park Junghee Regime

After the Japanese colonial era ended, the concept “Minjok” continued to develop by ideologies that are set up by following rulers. One of them are Park JungHee, who was a dictator but also someone who brought Korea’s economic development rate to the highest level. Like independence campaigners did, he also utilized the concept “Minjok” with mythical stories and biased history education to brainwash the people. I think he needed a mechanism that will unite people and drive their work capacity and productivity to the highest rate. The concept “Minjok” was the most suitable means for his purpose. The concept “Minjok” could not only bring people together to motivate them to work harder but also give people cognition that “Ours are the best”. In other words, President Park JungHee could achieve economic development by both increasing productivity and decrease the import of foreign capital.

However, I think there is one particular difference of President Park JungHee from the following presidents. Thinking of “Minjok” these days, most of the time it includes North Korea, while it is very offensive toward Japan. But I think here is an irony. Being the rightist in Korea, and trying to maintain his status as a dictator, most of President Park JungHee’s policies had to be and were against North Korea, and particularly very amicable toward the Japan. By doing so, he could not only gain pretext of his dictatorship by saying that his policies are necessary to present national security, but also be financially supported by Japanese upper classes. Then, why and how did President Park JungHee used the concept “Minjok”? I think there is certain part that he supported and certain part he didn’t. The part which President Park JungHee put emphasis on during his regime is not including North Korean but only the aspects which can bring people together and drive people as for a force of economic growth. Then, another question rises. Where does the attitude toward Japan and North Korea come from? It will be discussed later in “4. President Kim DaeJoong and Roh MuHyeon Regime”

 

 

 

 

3. President Kim Youngsam Regime

First democratically elected president, Kim YoungSam had Segaehwa as the priority among his policies. Based upon reconstruction of Seoul and steady economic growth achieved by former presidents, he tried to make relationship with the international world in both politics and economics. To do so, his policies propelled not only export of national but also import of foreign culture and products. While so, he had to also focus on the preservation of Korean culture because of the side effects that might occur as consequences of globalization. In other words, by focusing on both preservation and globalization, his policies were mostly about “Globalization within Korean culture”. This is also when the phrase “Korean itself is the most global thing” came out.

 

Here, I think that the concept “Minjok” is obviously used. To succeed in his policies, he had something that make people want to preserve and be proud of, and “Minjok culture” served this purpose. This is also what has been applied to KMLA’s school motto. Considering the time when the school is established and the philosophy it is based on, it is easy to suspect that the founder must have been influenced by this innovative new policy that President Kim YoungSam came up with.

 

4. President Kim DaeJoong and Roh MuHyeon Regime

 

Due to Korea’s peculiar situation of being divided and still being in the Cold War, Korea’s parameter of telling if a politician is left or right is decided by whether or not he/she is against or amicable toward North Korea. Thus, when President Kim DaeJoong became the first president from the left party, the policies toward North Korea started to change: he started to made policies that supports North Korea.

According to the leftists’ arguments, there is one only thing that we, South Koreans and North Koreans share: the identity as same “Minjok”, which in other words can be stated as “the same history before the division”. It means that Kim DaeJoong also had to utilize the concept “Minjok” although it was rather in a different way from the former presidents. He could make people recognize North Koreans as neighbors and friends who share the same history with us, and eventually get easier on implementing his fraternal policies toward North Korea (Sunlight Policy), such as using part of taxes on aiding North Korean destitute. These policies are followed by the next president, Roh MuHyeon, the second leftist president.

The main significance of the concept “Minjok” in this regime is how it included North Korea. Before this regime, former presidents had no need to and should not have included North Korea as the concept “Minjok” because it will not help them with their overall name of the policy: “Development”. However, President Kim DaeJoong and President No MuHyeon utilized the concept “Minjok” by including North Korea as the same “Minjok” and eventually pursued their final goal: “Peaceful Relationship with North Korea and Distribution along Development”. It definitely differs in what aspects they focused on. In this process, they criticized Park JungHee as betrayer of “Minjok” cause he was against North Korea rather than so called, the enemy of our “Minjok”, Japan. It is indeed, during this time when many materials and information about “peaceful reunion” and “our neighbors, North Korean” are inserted into school text books.

 

Ⅱ. Significance of the Concept “Minjok” in history

As you can see above, it is quite obvious that the concept “Minjok” has been utilized by many rulers to lead the country toward how they wanted it to be. Many times, it slowly and naturally seeped into people’s mind via education and culture, and motivated the people without people being aware of it. So it gave people an idea that “Minjok” had been there with them for a long time, and it is eternal and unchangeable. But in fact, the range it included, and how the rulers utilize it has changed a lot throughout the history and even still, it has a lot of chance to be changed again.

One thing I felt while figuring this out is whether or not this use of the concept “Minjok” is justifiable. All the effects it brought are very positive and essential to Korea development, but it is quiet unjustifiable in the point that dictators and rulers, whether or not he was democratic or not, have used the concept “Minjok” to “deceive” people to achieve results they wanted. This can be related to Necessary illusion by Noam Chomsky, which refers to situation when the government uses propaganda to distract people from major issues. For an obvious example, during the President Jeon DuHwan regime, he implemented so called “3S(Sex, Screen, Sports) policy” to distort people from political issues. In fact there is really no difference between President Jeon DuHwan’s 3S policy or nationalism or fascism and the use of the concept “Minjok” when we look at the basic premises and methods in them. The historical use of the concept “Minjok” certainly brought great results, but again, the question is “Is this justifiable?” I was not even aware of this before I got the chance to access to such information and think about this for a long time. Maybe people have been and are brainwashed to provide ignorant driving forces for what the rulers wanted to achieve.

 

Ⅲ. What is “Minjok”?
 

What is “Minjok”? What can be included and excluded? What is the common characteristic among them? The answers differ from everyone because these questions are something that can be never easily answered. But I want to define it by myself: what does it mean for me and the general society in my opinion.

1. Appearance

I don’t want to admit this but I can’t deny that appearance and race is the most significant thing when it firstly comes to define “Minjok”. Since the concept “Minjok” derived from the idea that we are all Baekyi Minjok, a pure ethnic group who like wearing white clothes and derived from Dangun, and it is first used to bind people together there needed a mechanism that is obvious and easy to see. So I think appearance would have been the first thing to define “Minjok”. In Korea, it would mean being yellow race. There is an irony because the first purpose of the use of the concept “Minjok” was to differentiate Korean from rest of East Asians but there is no one who can easily differentiate Korean from Chinese, Japanese, and even Mongolians by appearance. Plus, it is very controversial when it comes to classifying “Minjok” within outlook. Thus, although outlook appearance indeed was one of the most significant factors, there is something more than appearance that affects my definition of “Minjok”.

 

2. the Sense “Han”

In my opinion, this is more important aspect when it comes to define “Minjok”: the sense of “Han”. “Han” can be referred to “the feeling of being victimized”. Here is an example. When Koreans are asked to describe their history in one word, more than 90% of them reply “invasion”. In other words, they have such feeling that they are victimized so many times throughout the history and as descendants of those victims, they should feel as the same union. This derived not only from the Japanese colonial era but also overall Korea history: invasions of Chinese and other bordering countries, and cognition that the division is due to foreign forces. This sense has developed to concept called “Han” and it became something that historically bonds Koreans together. It can be obviously seen when people get furious and extremely sorrowful as a group when it comes to problems such as enforced sexslaves or SeodaemunPrison, This sense of “Han” is also told to be expressed in many literary works and culture. For example, Pansori and Arirang are the most representative ones when it comes to culture that reflects the sense “Han”. Nearly every people in Korea, including North Koreans know song Arirang and many say that listening to Arirang and Pansori, they feel this sense of being a “Minjok”. It is why many Koreans cry when they listen to Arirang and become furious when Chinese urge Arirang is theirs. It is hard to explain why, but Arirang is very closely related to the sense "Han" and general Korean sentiment.

 

This person used to be one of the comfort women and since she moved to China a long time ago, she forgot Korean, but still, she can sing Arirang

 

Arirang is very popular in North Korea, also.

 

This is a recent youtube that is popular. Many Korean cried when they saw this video.

 

Applying this parameter to define “Minjok”, in my opinion, at least until the present day people whoever can share this sense “Han” can be classified as a Minjok: a person who is born in the US educated the general sense of Korea culture and sentiment, or a person who is foreigner but could participate in this sense “Han” via direct and indirect experience. One limitation of this criterion of defining “Minjok” is that we can never know if a person has that sense “Han” or not.

Overall, since the sense “Han” is closely related to Korean history and general sentiments of Koreans, in my opinion, although it might be something intentionally acknowledged by education, at least for now, it can be a parameter on telling whether or not a person is included in “Minjok” or not.

 

Ⅳ. Significance of the concept “Minjok” in present days
 

1. Exclusive Attitude toward Foreigners

As mentioned above, Koreans are formed this sense of being victimized from history backgrounds and how they are educated. Thus, the concept “Minjok”, based on this sense, made Koreans to become somewhat exclusive toward foreigner. I think they unconsciously have cognition that foreigners are enemies while paradoxically importing Western cultures. This is very ironic in this situation where the world is globalized and Korea itself is also becoming multicultural.

 

2. Bonding People as One

Just like the initial function it had, the concept “Minjok” still has a role to bring people together. When people cheer for the sports game, in Korea, the concept “Minjok” is deeply engaged to it rather the concept “nation” or “country”. People cheer for North Korea, considering them as a “Minjok”, and in 1988, North Korea and South Korea participated in the Olympics as one team under the name of “Minjok”. Plus, when the games is versus Japan, people also feeling something unexplainable against Japanese and cheer with great passion. I think that feelings are derived from the concept “Minjok”.

 

This function works in not only sports but also overcoming crisis. In 1997, when Chaebol crisis broke out, people became as one, donated gold and money they had and eventually overcame this crisis. One irony is that, the sense of being victimized is also utilized here. By laying responsibility on foreign capital system, people could have been bonded as a group against the outer force.
 

3. Attempts to Preserve Our Owns

Without the concept “Minjok”, just as it is considered during the Kim YoungSam regime, Korea would have been exposed to overwhelming inflow of foreign culture. Even now, the young Koreans are considered to be too much affected by Western cultures. Thus, nowadays, the concept “Minjok” can be the buffer to this cultural inflow. At least I think people can be aware of the need to preserve ours through this concept “Minjok”.  

However, here is also a paradox; many of the Korean traditional cultures that are known to be authentic and told to be preserved are also counterfeited throughout the process developing the concept “Minjok”. For example, Salmulnori, which is known to be Korean traditional music play, is actually invented in 1970s and all those old palaces that are known to have history of more than 500 years were already destroyed during the Japanese colonial era and were reconstructed in 1960s.
 

4. Attitude toward North Korea

Since the current concept of “Minjok” is highly related to North Korea, we cannot move on without discussing North Korea and “Minjok”. In many cases around the globe, the concept of “nation”and “ethnic groups” are the main causes of various conflicts. The war between Israel and Palestain, and Holocaust by Nazis can be the examples. However, it Korea, I believe that the concept “Minjok” is working in rather opposite way. By regarding North Koreans as the same “Minjok”, the concept works as a buffer to a direct armed conflict between two countries. It becomes obvious when people call the conflict between North and South as “the tragedy between brothers” and make movement preventing the war under the name of “Minjok”. Although recently the relationship got rapidly worse and dangerous due to many incidents - the nuclear weapon, attack on YeonPyeongdo, CheonanHam, and withdrawal of Kaesung Factory -and Korean political parties are divided into two because of this issue, but still, the concept “Minjok”  plays a positive role in maintaining relationship with the North Korea.

 

5. Sense of Belonging

The most significant role of the concept “Minjok” in present day is that it makes people to have a sense of belonging to both the society and the family unit. As a member of a “Minjok” people feel belonged to the group, and they become somewhat proud of it. This can provide many positive effects. For example whenever, I travel abroad, I have this feeling of that I so because they are should be polite because I am representing the “Minjok”. Many other people also feel so, and I think it is influenced by the concept “Minjok”. This kind of phenomenon is also spotted in Germany. German’s standard of living and how much people devote to the society is one of the highest in the world and many experts view this as something that is highly affected by the German nationalism. Thus, this sense of belonging to a society derived from the concept “Minjok” can give a lot of positive effects.

The concept “Minjok” also provides sense of belonging to a family unit. When “Minjok” is divided into specific range, it reaches the family unit. People form kinship in family and that develops to a kinship to the ancestors and “Minjok”. For example, I am one of those who are highly and seriously affected by this. I have a grandmother who is from North Korea and experienced Japanese colonial era, Korean War. I heard many stories from her: how she suffered from these historical backgrounds, and how she feels about North Korea. Affected by this, I grew up with sense of being belonged to my family by sharing the same historical cognitions, especially our perspective on North Korea. So, by sharing such backgrounds of the family, people nowadays can feel belonged to a family, and furthermore “Minjok”

 

Ⅴ. How the concept “Minjok” will develop in the future

In the future, I believe that the concept “Minjok” will gradually disappear, unless there is another attempt to establish the concept “Minjok” more firmly. The concept “Minjok” has been inserted to people naturally, slowly and consistently without exception. Every government has been utilized this concept of “Minjok” during the process where they had to bring Korea in the modern form. But soon, as globalization accelerates and Korea becomes multicultural society, more and more people will change their perception and realize that the concept “Minjok” is a barrier to a real globalization in Korea. Plus, I believe the worsening relationship between North and South Korea will also play a role in deteriorating the concept “Minjok” although it might take a long time.

Furthermore, my generation and former generations are born and educated in this concept “Minjok” and we are taught to love it. I think it is highly influenced by near ancestors such as grandmas and grandpas who directly experienced the recent history that works as background of concept “Minjok” and got influenced by the inflow of the concept “Minjok”. But as time passes, these generations will gradually be replaced and the sense “Han” will no longer be passed down directly by these generation. Plus, there are still marks influenced by current presidents from Park Jung Hee, which are not completely eliminated from the education and still affect us. However, as globalization comes faster and people realize the perception they had, the education system will also change and the concept “Minjok” will probably be altered and deteriorated.

Ⅵ. Conclusion

In conclusion, looking at its history, I believe it is true that there is no such thing as a real “Minjok”, but only term that is used for various purposes. Then, nowadays, in my opinion, “Minjok” can be defined as people who share the same sense “Han” which is from Korean history, and it affects Korea in both positive and negative ways. But since the concept “Minjok” derived from artificial education and definition, there are high possibility that it will going to change again in the near future.