I am in attendance at a school named ‘Korea Minjok Leadership
Academy’. This KMLA is one of the most spotlighted schools in the republic of
Korea. I guess it is because not only the results our school has shown to the
world outside but also our unique school uniforms and the school’s name which
included the word ‘Minjok’. In a dictionary, Minjok, ethnic group in English’
is defined as ‘The biggest humanity group that shares same language, culture,
religion, politics, economy, tradition since they live in the specific area for
a long time’. However, for the people who have lived in Korea for all life, the
word ‘Minjok’ might give them some different and special feelings that cannot
be explained in one sentence. It is not just a positive feeling but not a
negative feeling. I can only suggest that the word ‘Minjok’ is very
significant, meaningful and also the sensitive concept for Korean. As a result,
people use many words which are highly related to the word ‘Minjok’ such as ‘Hanminjok’
(or DanilMinjok), and ‘Minjok identity’. Han Minjok is the word that only the
Korean people use, and it is the concept that shows all the Koreans are one
family with the one progenitor ‘Dangun’. This word is used when the people want
to emphasize the concept ‘Minjok’. Also we use ‘Minjok identity when we tried
to insist that Korean solve the problem with Koreans’ own power. These examples
show that that the concept ‘Minjok’ is pretty different from the other
countries’ Minjok.
Then why do the Korean people feel sensitive on the word ‘Minjok’ so
much? We can find the reasons on our history. I want to divide these factors
into 3 parts; the first one is ‘Dungun Mythology’, the second one is ‘many wars
of invasion from other countries’ and the final one is ‘Confucianism’.
‘Dangun Mythology’ is a factor that has played very important role
of form the ‘Korean identity’, or ‘Minjok Identity’. Dangun is regarded as our
only one progenitor, believe it or not, and this mythology really helped people
feel they are in one-blood family, and no other tribes or no other ethnic
groups are bloodly related to
Hanminjok’. To sum up, the ‘Dangun Mythology’ influenced on Korean people in a
way of forming the hard sense of unity.
Also, Korea located on the peninsular which is a link between the
continent and the many islands, was invaded by many countries. According to the
calculation of the historical scholar, Korean underwent nearly 4000 big or
small wars attacked by other countries in 1500 years. However, compared to the
times of being invaded, Korean nearly never invaded other countries. Namely,
Korean is on the location of defense most of their times of history, not one
the attack side. This made people in Korea more closed to the foreigners from
other countries. In addition, it is one of the reasons why people in past,
present Korea has thought ‘Hanminjok’ as the most important one in their
historical concept since only they, themselves can protect each other and the
only one who can be believed is also themselves.
Finally, Confucianism also helped the concept of ‘Minjok’ be stricter.
According to our history, from Joseon dynasty, people in Korea started to
follow the teaching of Confucianism. According to this teaching of
Confucianism, people became more exclusive from other countries. They regard
the products of other countries as uncivilized ones. Actually, people in our countries
ordered the woman who got the babies of barbarians to die with a baby, even
though the pregnancy is the result of the rape from barbarians and the wars.
This is because people are afraid of collapsing the concept of ‘Minjok’ since
if the concept of ‘Minjok collapsed, not only the war between other countries
but civil war can occur. The ‘Minjok’ is the word and the concept that has made
people in Korea cooperate. This ‘Minjok Identity’ and the concept of ‘Minjok’
was also help to the people in Japanese Colonial era.
There are maybe many other historical factors that help Korean form
the concept of ‘Minjok’. However, I think these three factors are the most
influential ones among the all factors. These factors, as I mentioned several
times before, helped develop ‘Minjok Identity’, and this developing is directly
connected to the ‘Ethnicity’ of Korea. This ethnicity really influenced on the
overall character of Korea. And, we could this character influenced by the ‘Ethnicity’
into 3 parts.
The first one is Koreans’ emotional personality. Not all people is
emotional but generally, Korean people are pretty emotional compared to other
countries’ people. If they feel they got some disadvantages or unequal
treatment in a particular case, then they become sensitive in that case. This
personality influences on Korean’s culture. From this emotional personality,
the scholars find the reason why Korean like so-sharp tasting, why Korean like
so spicy things, or so hot things, and why Koran use so many swear words in
general life.
The second one is ‘extremeness’. Through so many wars or so many trials
in our history, extremeness becomes one of the most representative personalities
of Korea. This personality plays a positive role as well as negative role. For
example, the Miracle of Han-river was possible because of Korean’s extremeness.
We achieved the remarkable economical growth which took 200 years for Chinese
and other counties, in just 30 years. Also our parent’s fervor for the
education is very extremely hot. However, many violent accidents during the Assembly
plenary session and candlelight vigil show double-sidedness of extremeness in
Korean’s personality.
Final one is that ethnicity is very strong compared to other
countries. Since we insist ‘Hanminjok identity’ throughout the history, we have
very strong sense of fellowship and strong cohesion. There are not many
countries whose people make their town(Koreatown) in the foreign countries, except Korea,
China, or Jewish etc. Also not many people in many countries sincerely laugh or
cry because of the win or the lost of their national team of sports. Also we,
Korea have special tradition. For example, there are ‘Doorae’ and Pum-at-I’. This
tradition is the custom that people help each other when one family has some
big events such as the harvest or wedding etc. When we see the phenomena occurred
in Korea, or our traditional custom, we could guess how ‘Han-Minjok identity’
influenced on the formation of Koreans’ personality.
 |
| red devils gathered in 2002 to cheer the korea national te |
Then, what is real meaning of ‘Minjok’ for me? When I hear the word ‘Minjok’,
there are two feelings that come from my heart. The first one is touching or
passion. I just think it is only possible for Korean to gather one million
people in one place and cheer for one national team or one person. When I seethe people in Seoul square, gathered to cheer up the 2002 world cup Koreanational team, I just felt kind of touching, and felt what Minjok really it is.
However when I hear the news that we still are closed to the foreign people
such as black people or southeast Asian etc, and exclusive to them, I doubt why
Minjok Identity needs and why people are so sensitive on the concept of ‘Minjok’
though this is globalization era. Also the issue that is rising these times is
a multicultural family. Do we have to define them as the ‘Han-Minjok’ even
though they don’t share our culture for a long time and even they are not pure Korean?
Therefore I think the concept that we
have on the word ‘Minjok’ needs change. I like the mutual help between Korean,
and the extreme personality of Korea, and the cheering culture that people
gather in one place, but now we need to change our exclusive posture to other
countries’ people. We have to acknowledge the multicultural family as well.
In a globalization era, Minjok is still important in the terms of
keeping our own culture and tradition, but I insist that we acknowledge the
people from other countries and accept them in the different concept of ‘Minjok’.
For a long time, Minjok is a word that points the group who only shares culture
for a long time. However, now the definition of Minjok should be changed to the
people who love Korea as Korean, unrelated to their birth and blood
P.S
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