Minjok and Its Influence on Korea

           Being a Korean, the concept of Minjok has always been a part of me ever since I was young. I was a part of the Great Han race, a part of the Korean community. It was so natural for me that I never thought about the legitimacy or the logicality of it; it felt like an innate property for all people born Korean.

The statue of Dangun

           The concept of Minjok is widely spread in Korea and only Korea; it is a particular type of nationalism based on the idea that all Koreans share the same bloodline. Korean history dates back five thousand years, when the mythical son of god, Dangun, came down from heaven and founded a nation called Joseon (now called Gojoseon because of a later country of the same name). And by the concept of Minjok, all Koreans born ever since are the descendants of Dangun; therefore, they share the same bloodline and are all connected to each other. Considering that it is based on a myth, rationally thinking, it is not a very realistic theory to believe that all Koreans are the descendants of a heavenly being that lived five thousand years ago, but somehow it is deeply rooted in all Koreans’ minds as an important part of their existence.

The Japanese flag during WWII

Minjok was first introduced during the Japanese colonial era, in the first half of the 20^th century, by independence activists like Chae-Ho Shin, as a means to unite the Koreans to stand up to the violence and coercion of the Japanese soldiers. Back then, the Japanese committed a number of atrocities. After unjustly violating the national sovereignty and invading the Korean peninsula, they took everything—robbing Koreans of all their brassware to use them as materials for bullets and weapons; forcing people to change their names to Japanese ones; kidnapping teenage girls and used them as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. And if people resisted, they didn’t hesitate to kill them. The independence activists realized that unless they found a way to unite Koreans and make them all go against the Japanese, they wouldn’t stand a chance to get out of the Japanese hands. That’s why they introduced the concept of Minjok, derived from the then-popular European idea of Romantic Nationalism, a form of nationalism where the unity of people empowers and justifies the government’s actions. It did serve its purpose pretty well: the idea that all Koreans are one helped people build up social cohesion and participate in nationwide movements such as the March First Independence Movement. This didn’t have much direct effect on kicking the Japanese out of the country, but did result in the formation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Liberation Army that later contributed to the achievement of Korean independence.

The 2009 World GDP Rankings

Later, in the seventies, the Park Chung-Hee regime of South Korea used the concept of Minjok once again, this time in the process of industrializing Korea. There had to be a big change of paradigm for Korea to go through industrialization, which necessitated the sacrifices of a lot of citizens. For Korea, being industrialized meant a lot of people working hard in poor environments—many people worked in attics and small enclosed rooms for over 15 hours a day for small wages. There have been many resistant moves to this change, including the famous death of Tae-Il Jeon, a worker who burned himself to death in the middle of a marketplace to remind people how bad an ordinary worker’s life was. Also, many people were kicked out of their hometowns once it was decided that new factories and roads would be built there. And when faced with opposition, the government forced people with military power to comply with the situation. The Park regime tried to justify all this with the idea of Minjok, that we should sacrifice ourselves for a bright future for all. We might be working hard for now, but later, after we make economic growth, there will be better lives for all of us; since we are on this boat together, we should contribute and make Korea a better country. Ironically, although the process was brutal for many people, through this South Korea did successfully become industrialized and made a big leap in their economic scale, the so-called “Miracle on the Han River.” Now South Korea is one of the major economic powers, ranked 15^th around the world in GDP in 2009.

In the case of independence activists, the use of the concept Minjok seems to have been the perfect choice. Without it, they wouldn’t have been able to encourage people to resist against the Japanese because without the sense of unification, people would have been scared to do anything. Some of them might even have turned to the Japanese side and made it harder for Koreans to keep on with their resistance.

In the case of industrialization in the seventies, yes, the use of Minjok would have been a bit harsh on people. They had to do what the government told them to do just for the abstract idea of “a brighter future for all” without even knowing how exactly their work contributed to their country’s growth. However, in the end, it did help Korean industrialization and made Korea a major power. This rouses the question “Does the end justify the means?” And personally, in this case I think it does. If it hadn’t been for the Park regime’s use of Minjok and the people’s compliance with it, South Korea might still have been going through a lot of changes or remained as an agricultural society, an underdeveloped country. Would the citizens be happy in that kind of society? Probably not. All countries have to go through industrialization sometime, and the Park regime did a great job keeping the era of change short—less than half a century. And the idea of Minjok served a crucial job in the process. Although it was brutal for many people, this probably was better than any other way which would have made the change last longer and had more people suffer from it.

So what is this Minjok as a social value? Noam Chomsky, in his book Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, says that an effective leader of a country should make “necessary illusions”—“the ways in which thought and understanding are shaped in the interest of domestic privilege”—in order to divert people from the real major issue and make them do what the government wants. In the sense that Korean leaders have spread the concept of Minjok around the country and made people act accordingly, Minjok may be seen as a type of a necessary illusion. The interesting thing is that because of similar reasons, ultranationalism of Japan and Nazism of Germany during World War II fall into the same category.

But does it mean that Minjok is the same idea as ultranationalism and Nazism? No, I don’t think so. They may be similar in that they united people into one and made them follow what the government does, either voluntarily or forcedly. However, there is a big difference in the purpose of using the idea. In the case of Japan and Germany, the government used the ideas in order to make people blindly acquiesce to what they are doing, whether or not the people knew that it was bad. It wasn’t for the good of the whole; it was only introduced to the citizens to satisfy the certain people’s desire for power—especially Hitler’s. Also, they emphasized the superiority of their race over others, which can be clearly seen through the Holocaust. On the other hand, Korean leaders used it for the good of the country: in the first half of the 20^th century, to achieve independence from Japan; in the later half, to assist with the industrialization. And the concept of Minjok focuses on the part of uniting Koreans rather than the part of exalting the Korean race over others.

Still now, Minjok helps Korea as a nation. Take the IMF situation for an example. In 1997, Korea faced a severe foreign-exchange crisis, with a debt over 30 billion dollars, and ended up getting loans from three international organizations including the International Monetary Fund. Later that year, to rescue the country from the crisis, a voluntary nationwide movement arose among citizens to donate any kind of golden object to the government. Over three million people participated, giving away their wedding rings and jewelry, and this resulted in collecting 227 tons of gold. Considering the fact that the Korean government’s gold holdings before was only about 10 tons, this was a tremendous amount of gold, collected purely by the citizens’ will. With the help, Korea could overcome the situation fairly quickly.

The general opinion about this movement around the world is that it is a unique case for people to join forces for the nation’s recovery. There have been many cases of a country going close to bankrupt, but not one time did anything like this happen. I personally think that the reason is the existence of Minjok in Korea. It gave the people the notion that the whole country is like a family, which led to people spontaneously giving away their precious jewelry without hesitating.

Minjok does have a positive effect of uniting Koreans at hardships for sure, but coming into the 21^st century, a new factor called ‘globalization’ comes into the picture. And the question of ‘Does Minjok have a positive net effect on Korea in the 21^st century?’ is a totally different story.

It's all global now

The world is going through a rapid globalization these days. And without exception, Korea is part of it too. It all started under former president Kim, Young-Sam, under the name of ‘Segyehwa.’ Unlike the old times, it is now free for all Koreans to travel to another country and vice versa. There are a lot of immigrants to and from Korea for various reasons, probably the two most popular among them being work and marriage. K-Pop is one of the most famous music genres around the world with a massive fan base, and Psy’s Gangnam Style was a worldwide sensation with over a billion YouTube views. And in this kind of environment, Minjok may be an obstacle for Korean globalization.

While Minjok gives people a sense of unification, on the other side it implies that people from foreign countries are not a part of the Korean community. This is why foreigners and half-Koreans get the feeling of not being welcomed in Korea. They just don’t fit into the concept of Minjok in Koreans’ perspective. The number of international marriage between Koreans and people overseas has been steadily increasing, and the number of foreign workers in Korean factories is too. But the Korean society just doesn’t seem to be ready for it yet. Those who immigrate to Korea are ready to become a part of Korea, a Korean citizen, and embrace Korean culture. However, the society regards them as “people from other countries” or “a multicultural family” and refuses to take them in. No matter how long the immigrants have lived in the country, Koreans always get surprised when “foreigners” speak Korean, eat kimchi, or use chopsticks skillfully.

Robert Holley--He's a Korean!

Take Robert Holley for an example. He is a Californian-born lawyer, but has lived in Busan, Korea for a long time. He married a Korean woman in 1987 and was naturalized as a Korean citizen in 1997. In the process of naturalization, he changed his name to a Korean one, Il Ha, and now has three sons with Korean citizenships and Korean names. Now, this is more than enough to view him as a Korean. But later, when he started working as an entertainer and came on television, it became clear that maybe it isn’t enough. Every time he comes on television, he is called Robert Holley rather than his Korean name of Il Ha. Many Koreans who see him for the first time are surprised that he is so fluent in Korean, and even more at the fact that he can display humor through a nonnative language. And in fact, one of the most important points of his humor is that he speaks in Busan dialect. If he was Korean-born, there would be nothing much to laugh about, but since he speaks the dialect as a naturalized foreigner, people get amazed and entertained despite the fact that he has been living in Busan for decades.

Look! It's a foreigner!

And that was the case of one of the most well-known naturalized Korean citizens around the country. So what would life be like for other foreigners? No matter how long he lived in Korea, no matter how well he knows about Korea, people everywhere will regard him as a foreigner, a different race, a different kind of person. Everywhere he goes, he will face “Look, there’s a white guy!” and “Oh my god, you speak Korean!” and “Umm… Hi..? Where are you from?” From a Korean’s point of view, this may be pure curiosity, but many foreigners take offense from these kinds of reactions. They think of it as disregard and even a chauvinistic behavior trying to leave them out from the Korean society. And as long as the concept of Minjok remains deeply rooted in Koreans’ minds, this phenomenon of regarding all non-Koreans as foreigners will continue.

In sociology, the term “global village” refers to “the whole world considered as being closely connected by modern telecommunications and as being interdependent economically, socially, and politically” (Dictionary.com). Through globalization, the world is becoming a global village. If Koreans stick to the old idea of Minjok and confine themselves into a society of their own, refusing to embrace people from other countries as a part of their community, the country wouldn’t stand a chance of being completely globalized. The key to globalization is opening the minds and letting other cultures, other races soak into their society. Having the concept of Minjok has an advantage to it for sure, of uniting certain people into a big group, but to carry on with it in the 21^st century, it has to change.

What if Korea extends Minjok to a bigger extent? In the old times, localizing the idea to their own country was possible, but now it isn’t. Now there isn’t really a boundary between countries. It is a global village, and living overseas isn’t much of a barrier to set up close relationships. What if Koreans stop limiting the idea to themselves and think of the whole humankind as a part of their Minjok instead? All Koreans will be a part of the bigger community, and there wouldn’t be any “foreigners” left out from it. This way, it wouldn’t be a problem for the Korean globalization either. As a part of the Minjok community, Koreans will let other races and cultures mix with their own, and in turn fully become a part of the global village.

Now is the time to change, to adjust Minjok to the modern society.