Question your ‘Minjok’

Minjok Essay

Korean history starts in B.C. 2333. When HwanOung, son of an almighty sky god HwanIn showed interest in saving the human world, HwanIn gave him three god-made objects for controlling wind, cloud, and rain along with 3000 people. As he came to the human world and ruled over the world wisely, a tiger and a bear came to him to become humans. He gave them mugwort and garlic and told them to live hundred days without seeing sunlight. Contrary to the tiger who could not endure the painful 100 days, the patient bear could finally become a female human being after 100 days of waiting. This bear-woman married with HwanOung and gave birth to a son, whom she called ‘Dankun’. ‘Dankun’ later came to Pyongyang and established a nation which he called Chosun, and he ruled the country for 1500 years.

three 'god-made objects for controlling wind, cloud, and rain' - called Cheon Bu In

All Koreans know this so called ‘Dankun Myth’, for this is one of the very first knowledge on Korean history that children are encountered with. The story repeatedly comes out in many school history textbooks and it is considered one of the most important parts, consisting at least a number of questions in tests and quizzes whenever there is one. Another part that is viewed as important as the ‘Dankun Myth’ or even more important is the history about how Koreans freed themselves from Japanese colonization. All Korean history textbooks says that Koreans could achieve independence through resisting the Japanese without giving up for decades, based on their strong belief of being the unified descendents of DanKun, sharing the same blood. It is in this nature, Koreans call themselves ‘danil minjok’, meaning ‘one-blooded ethnic group’. This belief prevalent in Korea to the present date and young students are currently being educated in this way. I, being a Korean myself, have lived my entire 17 years of life believing myself to be a proud danil minjok Korean, who thought of the biggest characteristic of Korea as being a unified, blood sharing minjok – very different from any other ethnic groups(minjoks). However, I now begin to question this aged belief of mine.

The first step was to rethink about the word, minjok. 'Minjok’ is a Korean word which can be easily translated into the term ‘ethnic group’, having the exact same dictionary definition, ‘a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like’. However, I feel it essential to differentiate between the two terms, for minjok may have a slightly, but surely different meaning for typical Koreans, compared with its dictionary definition. As mentioned before, most Koreans confuse the meaning of minjok with danil minjok. It may be easy to understand to think that 'one-bloodedness’ immediately pops up to their minds after they hear the word minjok. It is even to the extent that Koreans prefer to use other words than minjok to describe ‘a group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like’, such as ‘community. However, this may seem natural if one considered how and when the concept of minjok appeared.

Shin Chae-Ho

In the past, in which I mean no longer than 60 years ago, when Korea was under Japanese colonization, people were extremely confused and afraid, and the Korean society was in a deep chaos. However, with the intention of freeing the country, public leaders for independence like Shin Chae-Ho had to unite the people. The best method for unifying people was to emphasize their country’s grand birth myth and history to the people, highlighting their motto ‘Danil Minjok’ all the while. The result was successful, for Shin Chae-Ho could establish a sense of unity among the people, and ultimately gain independence from Japan. However, after what seemed like an endurable 50 years, Korea had yet to face the separation to North and South Korea. With everything devastated in both countries, especially South Korea used people’s still remaining belief of one-bloodedness to achieve a miracle-like economic boom. Thus, if one also took into account the countless invasions from surrounding countries along with the Japanese colonization, it may be reasonable to think that Koreans were forced to form a belief that they are a tightly bonded group of people, sharing the same blood.

After the Korean War

The second step in questioning my shared belief was to think about how this concept of minjok how it will or has influenced Korea. The first thought was that this idea of minjok will be very beneficial to Korea. Korea, in its present state, is overflowing with many things from countries all over the world. As Korea being the top country in internet technology with most of the population having access to internet, people are encountered with abundant amount of information, products, people, etc., from all over the world. At the same time, Koreans are increasingly taking their positions where they have to compete internationally. With more encounters with things from other countries, it is becoming more and more important to be able to take pride one’s own country and its traditions or cultures. Therefore, I thought this strong belief of minjok arising from national pride may be a great help in dealing with such situations.

On the other hand, in the same nature, I could also see the negative influences of nationally prevailing concept of minjok. In ‘in the same nature’, I mean to say globalization, especially the aspect of meeting people from other countries. Because of globalization, annually rising number of foreigners are coming into Korea to start a new life. Over two million foreigners are currently living in Korea, and this includes children from multi-cultural families. However, the problem starts here. Some Koreans, not much used to people of other origins, begin to show their belief in danil minjok to such foreigners who are not ‘pure-blooded’ as much as they are. This xenophobic phenomenon is becoming a serious problem, acting as a deterrent in interacting with growing population of foreigners, especially to members of multi-cultural families.

A comparison between OECD countries on rate of increase of foreigner residence - you can see that Korea has the highest rate, with 19.86% rise.

The last step I took was contemplating on how we, as ‘unified’ Koreans should deal with this concept of minjok – danil minjok. Seeing that there is not only bad, but some good in it, and also because it is practically impossible to do so, I believe that trying to entirely eradicating or changing the concept of danil minjok from Koreans is implausible. However, I believe that encouraging Koreans to really think about their history and ‘questioning’ their beliefs regarding minjok is the best of what we can do. This is mainly based on my experience in writing this essay. 

Now, when I first sat down to write the essay and read articles that talked about how Koreans are almost obsessed with their ideas as one blooded people, I rejected the idea from the bottom of my heart – I thought holding such belief was an obvious thing! I thought it was natural to think that way if you loved our country. However, as I did more and more research and readings, I found myself gradually agreeing to how this belief looked like, seen from a third person view. Then I suddenly realized that everything I knew about Korean history was based on three books. One history textbook from my elementary school, and two from my middle school – which were all supervised by the nation. I realized that I was simply accepting the truth that was given to me. That is why I ask all Koreans who read this to ‘question’ it. Question minjok. Question danil minjok. Then, question yourself. 

:-)