The King's palace (Wang JongHyun)

Minjok

Republic of Korea has been in a process of globalization over decades. After the 1988 Seoul Olympics, alongside with ‘Segeywha’ drive by Kim Young-Sam administration, numerous different cultures poured into Republic Of Korea; thus it seems to be that Koreans minds and activities have changed and become completely different from what Koreans used to be.[1] However, “No” according to a Professor Shin Ki-Wook. He argues there is a fundamental belief of ‘Minjok’, Romantic nationalism deep down in every Koreans that has never changed.[2] Therefore, nothing has actually changed, just Koreans adapted to a new environment of globalization.[3] So what is ‘Minjok’? Actually Koreans, who are very familiar with the word, cannot write any sound words if someone asks him or her to write about ‘Minjok’. Therefore, let’s first look into Minjok and then understand it.

Koreans use the same word Minjok in both Korean ethnic group and Korean ethnic nationalism. Hence there is a great need to separate the concept of ethnic group and ethnic nationalism in order to avoid any confusion. Therefore, I will just scheme through what happened to create the concept of an ethnic group and romantic nationalism.

First, I will identify the Minjok as an ethnic group because it is preceding condition to achieve romantic nationalism. There have been many attempts to explain the concept of an ethnic group but it is still controversial as there is no concrete reason that one can find. Nevertheless, most plausible argument is in Anderson’s “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin & Spread of Nationalism” Anderson argued that people began to imagine the concept of ethnic group after concept of mother tongue was created thanks to the invention of printing press in 16th century.[4] In other words, the symbolic idea of ethnic group based on cultural similarity from generation to generation became objective by invention of printing press. Additionally, people must have subjective desire in making a subjective choice which ethnic group he or she wants to be a part of as Joseph Ernest Renan said.[5] To sum up, a combination of objective and subjective indicator of ethnic group completed the concept.

However, in late 18th century, alongside with Independent war and French Revolution, the concept of nation became an ideology called nationalism. There are three main reasons for this change. Monarchy was losing its power. Accordingly the right of people became stronger than ever before. People no longer worshiped a monarch and they began to worship themselves thereby creating romantic nationalism. However, romantic nationalism was so abstract that it didn't have any real thing to worship. So, there was a necessity for visualization of a new ideology. Therefore, a folk culture was reproduced and reconstituted so as to allow people to imagine and visualize it.[6] Also at the same time it developed as political symbol to enhance loyalty toward fatherland.

Brothers Grimm

 The representative example of reproduction and reconstitution of folklore is Brothers Grimm. They collected two hundred tales and at the same time they were creating, they were also modifying. For example they altered each ‘Fee’ to an enchantress or wise woman, every ‘prince’ to a ‘king’s son’, every ‘princess’ to a ‘king’s daughter.’[7] Brothers Grimm published their modified and idealized collection calling them authentically German. These folktales allowed people to feel strong attachment and loyalty toward the land and ethnic group.


 Capitalism emerged and become a main stream at that time. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel predicted that a modern society will be so individualized that people will only work for their own good not for the public interest. Therefore, a government will mediate conflicts between different interests. This came true and romantic nationalism served a function to unite individualized society. Additionally, the church was also losing its power. “Why I’m blind?”, “Why my daughter is a mentally retarded?” Religion used to answer the mystery of life like those questions. Oh the other hand, modern science or speculation system just kept silence to these questions.[8] Romantic nationalism was a perfect alternative to fill the gap because of  its characteristics of historicity, continuity, and fatality as an ethnic group. To sum up, romantic nationalism was an ideology that was created for necessity of the time.

Joseon Sanggosa
Most Koreans consider Minjok a unique concept exclusive to our country. However, as we can see actually the general idea of it was borrowed from romantic nationalism created in late 18th century. The concept of Minjok as an ethnic group also existed in Korea for centuries but Minjok as an ethnic nationalism was also artificial. In Japanese colonial era, in addition to fall of monarchy and religion, and rise of capitalism, Koreans were being exploited by Japanese both fiscally and mentally and Japanese tried to manipulate Koreans mind by saying actually all Asian is the same so we have to be united. Korean intellectuals were interested in the concept of romantic nationalism as it could unite people in an ethnic group thereby resisting the Japanese so they implemented the western nationalism in Korea. For example, Shin chae-ho published Joseon Sanggosa (The Early History of Joseon) full of reproduced and reconstructed history, claiming that Koreans are descendants of Dangun, the god and ancestor of Korean people. He gave pride, hope and unity to Koreans to fight back Japanese Empire. Therefore, Minjok as an ethnic nationalism appeared in Korea.

Minjok served as a mean to control people in later years. Presidents were very interested in power of uniting that resides inside Minjok. Thus, they used the concept as a necessary illusions to manipulate Koreans.[9] Kim duck-soo’s samulnori or Anheung hawae village were created to visualize folk culture. Koreans consider Samulnori and Anheng Hawae village authentically Korean but actually Kim duck-soo created Samulnori and most of Korean traditional houses in Anheung was built in 1950s. The Minjok serving as a necessary illusion was very successive and the unity made Korea to be post-industrial country form agrarian country just about 50 years which is amazing compared to Western Europe. Korea did what Western Europe did for 200 years.

We shouldn't be like this
On the other side of what we call ‘Miracle of Seoul’, Minjok is creating problems. Minjok as an ethnic nationalism, which has been an engine of Korea’s development is actually a concept based on exclusiveness.[10] Minjok concentrates on cultural similarity and unity as one ethnic group. Hence, there is no place for foreigners to be a part of ethnic group. Koreans have negative perspective in having bi-cultural children as member of Korean ethnic group even though there are more of them in Korea than ever before. Also, Xenophobia, detesting and looking down on foreigners is prevalent in Korea. (When it goes to extreme Nazism happens) Minjok once had been a booster of Korean economy now is a ceiling that Korea can never get through because without global cooperation there is no growth.




Globalization
In conclusion, a phenomena called paradox of globalization is occurring. Globalization is in process but the unpredictability that globalization provides makes people to think nationalism as safe house.[11] Therefore, there is possibility that romantic nationalism can be a main stream ideology once again. As we can see from its historical background we can find that Minjok has a positive aspects such as uniting people and in Korea’s example, power to resist. However, there is a negative aspects that prevents an ethnic group from growth. Therefore, we must adopt only unity that an ethnic group gives and get rid of exclusiveness that an ethnic nationalism has by having unbiased perspective to other ethnic groups in order to succeed in the 21st century. “Minjok without Minjok” or “Korean ethnic group without Korean ethnic nationalism” is what Korea needs in this century.

 Refernces
[1]         http://www.ucalgary.ca/ev/designresearch/projects/Evds723/seoul.pdf
[2],[3] http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/20125/Shin.pdf
[4],[8] http://www.juergensmeyer.com/files/Anderson.pdf
[5]      http://ig.cs.tu-berlin.de/oldstatic/w2001/eu1/dokumente/Basistexte/Renan1882EN-Nation.pdf

 [6]     http://faculty.washington.edu/ellingsn/Hobsbawm_Inventing_Traditiions.pdf
[7]     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_nationalism
[9]     http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/ni/ni-contents.html
[10]   http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?cid=200000000&docId=1096979&mobile&categoryId=200000223

[11]   장준하-민족주의 (Jang Joon-ha-Korean ethnic nationalism)

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