Nearly 40% of the Korean diaspora lives in China. A large concentration resides in Yanbian, making up 32 percent of the prefecture’s total population.  The autonomy the region enjoys as a whole is also closely linked to the large Korean population. Korean is recognized as one of the official languages.  The majority of those who moved to the region from Korea arrived between 1845-1945, around the time of the Japanese colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula. Most of these residents have rarely, if ever, traveled to Korea.

Top to bottom: Bulgaksa Buddhist Temple, Daereungwon Tomb complex, Cheonseongdae observatory and Wolji Pon.

In March 2015, the Global Peace Foundation-Korea, the Korean International Trade Association (KITA) and the China-Korea Hanmaeum Association hosted a history and cultural education tour of Korea for 40 of these ethic Koreans from the Yanbian region.

The tour was appropriately themed “나를 찾아 떠나는 여행” or Traveling in search of one’s self, borrowing from the title of a best-selling novel by the same name. Over the course of two days and one night, participants traveled their ancestral homes through the Gyongju region of South Korea.

The group followed the footsteps of their ancestors. They visited the Daereungwon Tombs, burial grounds of the Silla Dynasty royal family; Cheomseongdae, built in the 7th century, claims to be the oldest astronomical observatory in East Asia; Wolji Pond, a man-made garden pond in Donggung Palace; and Bulguksa, whose impressive stairwells lead up to the heart of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

Local tour volunteers took extra care to explain the significance and historical background of each stop to this group of long-lost brethren. The program also included lectures by historians and experts. Historian Lee Jae Hee walked the groups through the history of the Three Kingdoms and United Kingdoms.

Korea International Trade Association chairman, Kim Young Sun, noted the significance of Koreans in China coming back to learn and experience their history and culture.

At the conclusion of the tour, Global Peace Foundation Korea President, Mr. In Taek Seo called on participants to take an active role in reuniting their homeland. Many participants expressed support for the Global Peace Foundation’s approach to Korean unification that focuses on shared principles stemming from the ancient Korean philosophy of “Hong-ik Ingan”, living for the benefit of humanity. They also had spirited discussions on the role that the Korean Diaspora in China could play in securing unification.

The Global Peace Foundation – Korea plans to continue similar programs to engage the Korean Diaspora scattered around the world in the unique mission and spirit of Hong-ik Ingan.

For the original story visit: www.globalpeace.org 

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While most Koreans are very familiar with the March 1919 Korean Independence Movement, it is easy to forget the seminal role the Korean Diaspora played in the drive for self-governance. The non-violent demonstrations against Japanese colonizers on March 1^st, 1919 resulted in a swift, brutal response from the Japanese military and much of the Korean Independence Movement was either driven underground or formally orchestrated from overseas.

Photo: Seo Jae-pil, Korean Independence League, in Philadelphia in 1919.

To this end, the Korean Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was formed in Shanghai, China and a Korean Congress was held in April, 1919 in Philadelphia, USA to clarify the “aims and aspirations” of the Korean people. From the period of 1919 to 1921, there are estimates of over 9,700 editorials protesting the Japanese colonization of Korea published in U.S. newspapers and periodicals across the nation. Korean civil society groups, religious leaders, groups – particularly American missionaries, U.S. politicians and the media worked to make the plight of the Korean people known to the whole world.

Yet the Korean Independence Movement is instructive in showing us the danger of allowing others to intervene and decide matters for us, even if done on our own behalf. We can only imagine what decolonization would have looked like if we had taken a firmer hold of the reigns of destiny by building the vibrant and engaged civil society that self-governance always requires. Instead, after the defeat and departure of the Japanese colonizers, it was not us but the U.S. and U.S.S.R. who decided Korea’s fate at the 38^th parallel, setting the stage for the disastrous proxy conflict during the Korean War.

In examining the role that the Korean Diaspora played during the first quarter of the 20^th century, we could suggest a similar role for the Korean people in this time for the North-South Korean reunification. Clearly, we must be the ones to take charge of our own fate and work towards unification. More importantly, we need to work for what lays beyond it. Most would agree that what we see in North and South Korea today is not a clear representation of our noble ideals and aspirations. Before the two sides achieve reunification, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to question our current realities and seek to define our common Korean Dream.

To do this properly, we must articulate the vision and principles that make Korea great, starting from Korea’s founding ideals of the Hongik Ingan. It is important to realize that there are no shortcuts in this. As Koreans in the north, the south and all over the world, we must all take full ownership and engage in these conversations. Perhaps it is through this process that we will re-discover our true identity, heritage and destiny for the world.

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Koreans in the diaspora suffer from divided families the same as Koreans on the peninsula. We are affected by and engaged in the fate of a divided homeland and often can bring a broader perspective to meeting the challenge of unification. I believe that the diaspora is destined to play an essential role in gathering support and building awareness on a global stage for the unity of the Korean people. – Hyun Jin Moon, The Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea

Ongoing efforts by both North and South Korea to engage their diaspora communities only begins to scratch the surface of the potential impact and contribution Koreans spread across the globe can make on their homeland.

Overseas Korean capital brought into South Korea (Source: IZA World of Labor)

Both sides of the Korean peninsula have drawn on a number of connecting factors, namely language, culture and identity, which have been mostly passed down from generation to generation within the tight knit Korean traditional family. This unique quality is shared between both North and South Koreans.

Chongryun is an example of North Korean efforts to keep their ties alive with Zainichi Chosenjin, North Koreans living in Japan. The organization runs schools, universities, cultural exchange programs, and even a credit union. Robert M. Hathaway, Director of Asia Program at the Wilson Center, observes that the society is a prominent force that represents the agendas of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Japan.

South Korean initiatives are younger. The most recognized South Korean initiative is the Overseas Koreans Foundation, formally established in 1997 and run by the Republic of Korean government. Around the same time as allowing dual citizenship and the more recent recognition of Koreans in China and the former CIS, the Korean Legislation has begun to establish ties between Korea and its large diaspora community.

Studies of South Korea’s engagement with its diaspora community center mostly on economic opportunity. A study by Inbom Choi, chief economist for the Federation of Korean Industries and visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, shows that the diaspora community has had a measurable impact on imports and exports, foreign investment, increased inflow and outflow of cash with foreign countries and an influx of both skilled and unskilled labor.

However, a mere economic analysis of the benefits from the diaspora community does not take into consideration cultural currency, humanitarian aid, and sheer people power. To date, statistics show that the Korean diaspora is the most widely spread diaspora in the world.

There are stories like Mr. George Rhee from the United Kingdom who began ‘Love North Korean Children’, an organization that the Global Peace Foundation’s “Miracle of 1,000 Won” supports, to establish bread factories in North Korea to feed local children.

International student volunteers raising money for “Miracle of 1,000 Won” a donation drive to support bread factories in North Korea that provide daily bread for local school children.

There are numerous examples where the diaspora community has stood up to provide humanitarian aid, advocacy, and even emergency relief to their extended Korean family. The contribution of the Korean diaspora during the March 1st Korean Independence Movement had Koreans around the world, from intellectuals in Japan to farmers in Cuba, who sought the liberation of their fatherland.

Perhaps in these examples lie a deeper connection and calling to Koreans living abroad. If we reflect on the economic impact and benefit that the diaspora community has had on both North and South Korea, we can only imagine what a reawakening of Koreans around the world to their shared role as ‘a chosen people’ could do for Northeast Asia and the world.

Dr. Moon’s call out to the diaspora community goes deeper than just economic gains. It is a similar call to the one from the 1940’s Independence Movement. Despite the division that was artificially imposed by outside forces, this is a call for Koreans around the world to bring together their divided family with the strength of their shared identity as a family. It is time for the people chosen to live for the benefit of humanity to fulfill their destiny.

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Snow on Mt. Baekdu located on the borders of North Korea and China Credit: Farm

The prospect of Korean Reunification and the building of a vision of a unified Korea points to the need for an exploration of what it actually means to be Korean.

The experience of Koreans in Japan makes for a particularly interesting study of this. Having lived apart from the Korean homeland for years or even generations, the many communities of “Zainichi” Koreans living in Japan have struggled to define for themselves a sense of identity. There are even sharp distinctions between those who perceive themselves to be North Korean rather than South Korean. Others have maintained their sense of Koreanness while taking on the Japanese language and culture by refusing Japanese citizenship. But clearly what one is not does not take the place of identity provided by certainty in that which one is.

Even beyond Japan, the Korean Diaspora is now recognized as one of the most widely distributed, yet in some sense, cohesive Diasporas in the world. But what does it mean to be Korean when one does not fulfill many, most or any of the usual requirements for membership in an “imagined community” in a shared language, lineage, history or space? Ideas about Korean identity are discussed in some detail in this article in the Asan Forum, but ends without clear conclusions.

Amid this confusion, there is also a valuable opportunity to consider what it means to be Korean.

Korean traditional dancers Credit: SJ Yang

Koreans have been, essentially, as one family for thousands of years as the descendants of one acknowledged Korean ancestor, Tan’gun Wanggun of the legendary Gojoseon Dynasty. Perhaps due to, or in spite of, a long history of so many invasions and occupations by foreign powers, Koreans have held fast to a consciousness of being as one people. Lines of identity blur when it comes to political ideology, nationality or even race and ethnicity but family is, as they say, forever.

Yet, it becomes important to view “Koreanness” as not some immutable trait or characteristic that would invariably create social stratifications and hierarchies based on some constructed notion of identity. Rather, perhaps Koreans need to engage in building a common identity as a spiritual people committed to an ideal of the way the world could be in the principles of Hongik Ingan. For these descendants of the Korean Dream, living in the Fatherland or abroad, what will define our identity and destiny?

We can see this consciousness challenged by over 65 years of a political, economic and ideological division of the Korean peninsula and in the reluctance of some to support active reunification. Yet the sense of identity rooted in Tan’gun and his principles continues on both sides of the 38th parallel. The North Koreans have laid claim to Tan’gun’s legacy and the South Korean government has taken the principles of Hongik Ingan to guide the educational curriculum of its citizens.

We would do well to understand this sense of common descent and heritage to guide us forward as we imagine a Korea united.

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“As I reflect on the memories of my father, I think of the Korean people, who, like the salmon, need to return to their original hometown, the place of their birth to begin the next cycle of life. That place begins with our founding mythology of Dangun and is expressed throughout the history of our people in the principles of Hong-ik Ingan. It finds purpose and meaning in the Korean Dream to be a unique, united and independent sovereign nation that can realize our providential destiny to serve and “benefit all of humanity.”

-Hyun Jin Preston Moon – Korean Dream: A Vision for a Unified Korea

Map of Korean Diaspora – credit: EstebanF

Conversations about Korean identity become considerably complex and interesting when taking in account of the Korean Diaspora. Estimated at over 7 million, large and small groups of Koreans have settled across all seven continents and hundreds of countries around the world. Some have worked to retain the Korean language, culture and familial systems while others have acclimated to those of their host country. Some left generations ago, others a few months or years ago and for a myriad of different reasons and circumstances. Some have prospered and others have suffered.

One can imagine that, in traveling hundreds, thousands or even only a few miles outside of the familiar, one might find one’s self more clearly because of the difference. When something as seemingly mundane as the weather also shifts norms in terms of available food, preferred attire, etc, it might make that of the home country all the more distinctive. We can only imagine how it might affect self-understanding in other ways. The rise of Korean Studies at universities from Oxford, the Center for Korea Research at Columbia University and institutes, such as the East Rock Institute in New Haven, CT and many, many others are testaments to this idea.

The Korean Diaspora has had much to offer the peninsula in the past century and a half. The Korean independence movement during the Japanese colonial period was greatly affected and informed by those Koreans living outside of the country. Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Point Declaration, in spite of actual U.S. foreign policy towards Korea itself, inspired a group of young Korean expat visionaries to bring freedom and self-determination to the Korean fatherland. In the 1970s and 80s, the Korean Diaspora also played a role in encouraging the burgeoning pro-democracy movement.

In reflecting on these, one is inclined to invite this same group to contribute then to a vision of a reunified Korea. In some sense, perhaps it is in interacting with the diversity of the world that people of the Korean Diaspora might understand Korea in a way apart from those who have never left. Efforts to retain the best of one’s home culture can be separated out from less helpful aspects that are easier to ascertain in new contexts.

One might hope that in engaging both domestic and expat Korean communities across the globe, we can rediscover our own distinctive identity, history, principles and values to reclaim the Korean destiny and bring “benefit to all humanity.”

To learn more, visit: Korean Dream

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