‘We are one united minjok.’ This idea is
what most Koreans, even I, have in our minds.
Why. Why Koreans are using this special
term ‘minjok’, instead of the word like ethnic? Why Koreans say ‘our country’, ‘our
school’, or even ‘our mother’ instead of ‘my country’, ‘my school’, and ‘my
mother’? This thought, that ‘we’, Koreans, are one minjok, made this situation.
Then, when did this situation started? How this could have happened to Korea?
1. History of minjok
a. origin of the term
The term ‘Minjok’, was made in the Japan.
While the word ‘nation’ was translated,
Japan translated it into ‘Minjok’ and started to use it around 1888. However,
this word didn’t use widely
in Japan. ‘Minjok’ was first
used in the newspaper called ‘Dae-Han-Mae-IL-Shin-BO’ in
August 27th, 1907. From that time, word ‘Minjok’ was frequently used in the
same newspaper until 1910, Korea-Japan annexation.
In the dictionary, ‘Minjok’ first appeared
in the ‘Joseon dictionary’ in 1938. In the dictionary, the ‘Minjok’ is defined
as the tribe of the nation and the nation is defined as the people with the
same nationality. However, in the ‘Big dictionary’ made by the Korean Language
Society from 1947 to 1950, ‘Minjok’ is defined as the nation which separates
the ethnic group according to their language and culture. This is not so
different from the definition of ‘Minjok’ that we know.
b. how the term is used in the history
Then, how did this term ‘Minjok’ spread and
used during that period?
From 1910 to 1945, Korea was under the
colonial administration of Japanese empire. Therefore, it was prohibited to use
the name ‘Korea’ and Korea was not a country any more. According to the
professor ‘Tak-Seok-San’, he said that the reason the word ‘Minjok’ could have
such a huge impact was because Koreans had lost their country. If we didn’t, ‘Minjok’
won’t be effective in Korea as Japan did. Because people had lost their
country, they are not nations anymore. In this situation, they need another
word to group themselves together, and the word ‘Minjok’, was used to solve
this problem.
Actually, ‘Minjok’ was used in many places
during the colonial period. The leaders of March 1st Independence
Movement called themselves as ‘representatives of Choseon Minjok’. Also, in ‘Gi-Mi
Declaration of Independence’, it is said that ‘we are claiming our independence
for minjok’s free development.’ There were about 370 articles used the term ‘Minjok’
from 1920 to 1940.
Although Korea has become independent from
the Japan, the term ‘Minjok’ is still used even today. Before looking how it is
used in current society, I want to talk about what is ‘Minjok.’
2. What makes minjok
What is ‘Minjok’? Which factors are used to
define the term ‘Minjok’?
According to the Korean Standard Unabridged
Dictionary, Minjok is the social group formed historically, based on the
commonness of the culture and language made by staying at certain place and
lived together for a long time. But this is dictionary definition. The ‘Minjok’
that people usually think is bit different from its own definition.
a. bloodline
When Koreans talk about ‘Minjok’, it refers
to the people who are related with the ‘pure’ blood-line; same ancestor.
Koreans have common ancestor; Dan-Gun. This blood-line attaches the Koreans
into one special Minjok.
Because of this idea, migrants and
mixed-bloods are not considered as our ‘Minjok’ although they have common
culture and use common language with us. This could be found near our lives.
For example, Mr. Mun is almost Korean. He uses Korean and almost used to Korean’s
own culture. However, he is not considered as ‘our minjok’. Even us, the most
of the 18th wavers do not think that Mr. Mun is our minjok. Not in
our school, but from the movies, we could easily find out this situation. For
instance, in the movie My Little Hero,
there is a little mixed-blood child name Young-Gwang (means Glory in Engilsh).
He is very good at singing and he attends the audition which selects the main
actor in the musical ‘Jungjo, the king of Joseon.’ Although Young-Gwang has
talent in singing, he was thought to be failed in the audition because of his
face-color. However, at the end, he overcomes the difficulties and becomes a
main character. Though the movie ends with the happy-ending, the difficulties
that Young-Gwang had faced to be a main character strongly shows that he is not
our minjok.
b. culture
Not only the blood-line, but also the
culture that people have in common makes the term ‘Minjok.’ As it is in the
definition, minjok share their culture with each other. For example, Korean
Minjok has common culture such as New Year’s bow, eating tteokguk, hanbok, using
honorific language, and more. This common culture, maybe common thoughts, made
us to consider some Koreans not as our minjok.
During Japanese colonial era, there are
some people who supported the Japanese government. For example, there are five
people who helped the Japan to colonize the Korea; Park Jae-soon, Lee Ji-yong,
Lee Geun-teak, Lee Wan-yong, Kwon Jung-hyun. Especially Lee Wan-yong is famous with
his action. These people are thought to be betrayers of our minjok, although they
shared the same blood-line. Moreover, there are some people who like other
country much more than Korea. To give an example, about a year ago, a man appeared
in the TV program called ‘Maspeople Virus.’ This TV show is about showing strange
people like a woman who only eats doen-jang or a woman who is addicted to
plastic surgery. The man, who appeared on this program, was a person who glorifies
the American culture and depreciates the Korean culture. He was highly criticized
and blamed by the others. This kind of people isn’t called as our ‘Minjok.’
c. paradox
It is clear that the blood-line and the
culture are important factors which define the ‘Minjok.’ However, the problem
is that sometimes they conflict with each other. Like the example that I made
above, some Koreans are not thought as our Minjok because they have totally
different thoughts from us. On the other hand, some foreigners or mixed-bloods have
same thoughts with us but have different blood. These exceptions make it hard
to define the term ‘Minjok’ clearly.
3. Minjok in current society
a. how it is used in now days
To see the term more deeply, I want to talk
about how ‘Minjok’ is used in the current society. Not very different from the
past, we still use the word ‘Minjok’ to gather people’s minds.
The land dispute that had happened some months ago could be a good example.
Like these problems, the term ‘Minjok’ is
still alive in now days and exerts high impact to Korean society.
b. Is it real?
However, before just being upset with the
problems as a member of minjok, we should think about some other points. Does ‘Minjok’
truly exist in our society?
In 1970s, the term ‘Minjok’ was used in a
political way. President Park Jeong-Hui was a person who did this action. With
the title of ‘Reviving the nation’, President Park tried to reestablish Korea. He
proposed many economical policies to develop the Korea’s economy. In fact, his
policy was successful and Korea started to grow rapidly. On the other hand, his
policy also called people’s protest. During the process of developing, President
Park suppressed the citizens’ freedom.
I thought it is very odd, that the leaders
gave the idea of ‘Minjok’ to their people and they were fallen because of the ‘Minjok.’
As we can see from the example of Park Jeong-Hui, he gave an idea of ‘Minjok’ to
the people to courage them and to make them follow his policies. It was
successful, but at the end, the people were gathered together under the name of
‘Minjok’ and stood up for their rights.
So, I think about this situation in another
way. What would have happened if President Park didn’t use the word ‘Minjok’ with
his policies? I thought that Korea would have become more like Japan in the
past time. As I said above, the term ‘Minjok’ had been weakened in Japan
because they have fixed term of country. Then, after the independence, if Korea
had strengthen the term ‘country’ instead of ‘minjok’, the idea of ‘minjok’
could also have been weakened like it had been in Japan. However, because of
the Korean War and political purposes, ‘minjok’ had not been weakened in Korea
and it made this situation.
As I thought that ‘Minjok’ had collapsed
the leaders in the past, I think the same thing will happen in the near future
too. The politicians in current society also abuse this term for their profits.
Politicians raised the past news and issues to cover their problems. For example,
they often bring back the land dispute problems or the issues about North Korea
to shift people’s interest from them. As ‘Korean Minjok’, people became upset
again with this issue and forget about the other problems. From these political
actions, I thought that maybe there isn’t a real ‘minjok’ mind in us. Maybe it’s
just an illusion made by the government to control the people easily.
As I wrote this essay, I thought and
learned about many things related to the minjok. Still, I am not sure what
minjok is and whether it is truly existing theme or not. However, what I am
sure is that although the idea ‘Minjok’ is only a necessary illusion made by
the government, it still gave power to the people and made them to stand up. It
seems that the people are all taken in by the term Minjok, but I believe that someday,
as it had been happened before, the government will also be collapsed by the
term they made. Anyway, the truth will out someday.
