Sunday, February 28, 2010

Chinese-Koreans in California ("화교")

I mentioned 50,000 ethnic Chinese-Koreans ([한국]"화교", 韓國華僑, 韩国华侨) living in South Korea out of a population of about 50,000,000. Well, I looked it up on the great free online encyclopedia that is Wikipedia and it actually cites a figure of 624,994 (2009, 71% of which are ethnic Koreans), but these represent all people with Chinese citizenship. And, rather than refer to the recent migrants, I was referring to the historic Chinese population dating back to 1882 -- fourth or fifth generation ethnic-Chinese Koreans that have largely retained their culture and language, while speaking perfect Korean. The site mentions:

It is estimated that only 26,700 of the old Chinese community now remain in South Korea; they largely hold Republic of China nationality.
And that:
Due to the South Korean regulations in the 1960s which limited foreign property ownership, many Chinese in South Korea left the country.[30] During the 1970s, 15,000 are estimated to have moved to the United States, and another 10,000 to Taiwan.
Amazingly, there are many Chinese-Koreans in California. If you're in the Berkeley-Oakland area, there are two Chinese restaurants on opposing sides of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. One of which, I know is owned by an ethnic-Chinese Korean family. In even the smallest of Korean communities, there's a good chance that the local Chinese restaurant that sells Sino-Korean dishes (such as Jja-jang myeon or 짜장면, I'm not sure what to call these dishes as I believe people in China proper do not eat them), then there's a good chance they are owned by 4th or 5th generation, ethnic Chinese-Koreans that have migrated from South Korea. In Los Angeles, there's so many of these restaurants that it's not difficult to meet Chinese-Koreans, but if you're in San Diego, the Chinese restaurant in the Asian business area of Convoy is also owned by a Chinese-Korean family. Their Korean is perfect so it is hard to distinguish that they are indeed ethnic Chinese. I find it amazing that from such a small community (say 50,000), many now live in California.

Talk about a direct connection with history.

Anyways, yes, I ate jja-jang-myeon (black bean noodles?) yesterday.

[DeCal] Readings - March 2nd and March 9th

The readings can be found here:

http://northxkorea.blogspot.com/2009/09/decal-end-of-history.html
http://northxkorea.blogspot.com/2009/10/decal-korea-as-japanese-colony-reading.html

[DeCal] *Edited* Review - Korean History: 2333 BCE to 1876 CE

As promised, Leah Yi and Tori Bazz's presentation and review of Korean History: 2333 BCE to 1876 CE can be found here. And, all presentations that are available online can be found by scrolling down on the right hand side.

Remember, the point of this course is not to dwell on history, but to use it as a tool to better understand contemporary events. With this in mind, names of figures or even names of kingdoms become rather irrelevant then. Naturally, then what is clear from our understanding of Korean history is this:

The borders of Korea have more or less remain unchanged since the unification of Korea by Silla in the 7th century CE and there have been no significant movement or immigration to the peninsula (until perhaps the last decade or so) since the fall of the last Han commandery called Lolang in 313 CE. Thus, Korea has had a single group of people - more or less (for more, I mentioned the Korean Haplogroup - O2b, which is present in a significant number of males on the Korean peninsula and the Japanese peninsula, but absent among China's population), who have come to speak the same language over the course of 1,300 years.

Note that France was united around the first decade of the sixteenth century (I believe), Spain - 1492, Germany & Italy - 1870, Russia - I believe some time in between - I think most of what is Russia today was occupied by remnants of the Golden Horde (or Mongols) until the 16th or 17th centuries... So, you can imagine why Korea could be so nationalistic and so xenophobic (not a single minority ethnic group). I believe Korea and Japan are the only two countries, where you'll find almost no ethnic Chinese communities in significant numbers in all of East Asia. Up until recently, I believe there were 50,000 ethnic Chinese out of a population of almost 50 million (about 0.1%).

In this context, the issue of whether these kingdoms, such as Goguryeo (高句麗) or Balhae (渤海) were "Korean" are rather unimportant and, perhaps, even irrelevant next to how it is the merger of the separate kingdoms' people and culture (for more: check out Samhan/Buyeo, 三韓/夫餘 - in Sino-Korean/扶餘 - in traditional Chinese script) that gave rise to the singular identity of a Korean people. This is probably the most important theme to take from ancient Korean history (along with the geography of the Korean peninsula and the geographical location of the Korean peninsula). Also, I mentioned the Gangnido Map (and how it has a really long name. Wikipedia cites the term, "Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Jido ("Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals", 혼일강리역대국도지도, 混一疆理歷代國都之圖) for the map. Nonetheless, it is an easy and quick way to visualize how Koreans saw themselves in relation to the outside world during the Joseon dynasty.  

Also, as discussed in class, I claimed that the North South States Period (남북국시대, 南北國時代) is a recent construct as it refers to a time when Silla (then Goryeo) controlled the bottom two thirds of the peninsula, but the rest was controlled by first Goguryeo (then Balhae) and the origins of the theory come from works during the mid Joseon period about a millenia later in the book Samguk Yusa (三國遺事). I also mentioned how this is used by modern (South) Korean scholars to justify the division of the Korean Peninsula.

Also, the name of the last Korean kingdom was touched upon and how it refers to North Koreans today in both the Koreas, all the Chinese languages and Japan. Perhaps, it's best understood by the Sino-Korean characters (or traditional -- classical? -- Chinese script): North Korean (Joseon Person (朝鮮人)) vs South Korean (Hanguk Person (韓國人)). Actually on second though, In South Korea, 朝鮮人 would probably refer to somebody from the Joseon Dynasty and the term 朝鮮族 would refer to ethnic Korean-Chinese (that have lived in China since around 1880. For more, See A Comparison of the Korean Minorities in China and Japan by Pyong, Gap Min). In both North and South Korea, they would just add the term South or North in front of their word for Korea. So, the term for North Korean would just be North (Hanguk Person) in South  Korea, while the term for South Koreans would just be South (Joseon Person) in North Korea.
 
Interestingly, in China the latter term was not used until after normalization of ties with South Korea. The term Hanguk actually derives from the period 1897-1905, when the Joseon dynasty fully joined the Westphalian (Western/Modern) International Order and which we have not yet discussed -- when it was no longer considered a vassal state after the first Sino-Japanese War (Became, the Great Empire of the Han People (not to be confused with the term Han used for Han Chinese (漢) vs Han (韓) Koreans)). On a side note, this is precisely the reason why classical Chinese characters are important as in both the Korean and Japanese languages there are a large number of homonyms that can't be described by words constructed from an alphabet (this is precisely why Kanji (literally Chinese Script or Sino-Japanese characters) are still in heavy usage in Japan and many (should) be in usage in the Koreas today...I believe -- there are 5 vowels in the Japanese language and no differences made through pitch. Korean is much the same except with a larger number of vowels and for the most part a single pitch as well).

 The historical connection between the Joseon Dynasty (the Hermit Kingdom, Land of the Morning Calm) and North Korea becomes very straight forward when thought in this light (and as we shall see over the rest of the semester).

Thursday, February 25, 2010

[DeCal] Groups presentation dates/topics/readings


*refer to required/recommended readings on spring 2010 syllabus! if there is no link provided you can try googling.. if that doesnt work, email! koreandecal10@gmail.com
GROUP 1: MARCH 9th
Eruption of Fissures: The Korean War as a Civil War (1945 1953)
Presentation: Civil War
Fissures in Korean society were not able to be reconciled as the Korean (Civil) War became just

a single battle and the opening shots of the larger, Cold War fought between the United States

and the Soviet Union. National reconciliation never occurred and this had profound implications in

the development of North Korea. 


GROUP 2: MARCH 16th
Divergence in Institutions Part I (South Korea)

Presentation: Divergence in Institutions I (South Korea)
Why is it that the southern half of the Korean peninsula came to be a fairly wealthy, middle

income country with democratic institutions? How did this process happen? After all, Korea was

for thousands of years a centralized bureaucratic monarchy (and then ruled by centralized

bureaucratic colonial government) with no history of democracy? The presentation will heavily

emphasize the development of economic institutions first that began in the early seventies.

Policies conducive to sustained economic growth over the long run that took advantage of

favorable endowments unique to South Korea (access to the U.S. market, U.S. oil regime) led to

prosperity in the South. Democratic institutions also took hold, but took much longer with South

Korea holding her first free and fair elections in 1987). 


GROUP 3: MARCH 30th
Divergence in Institutions Part II (North Korea)

Presentation: Divergence in Institutions II (North Korea)
How did the Korean War effect the development of North Korean institutions? How does North

Korea fit in historically into Korean history? Many of the peculiarities of the North Korean state

have a historical rationale behind it. The notion of North Korea being a hermit nation began only

after the Korean kingdom of Joseon was invaded by the Mongolians, Japanese, and then the

Manchurians. In more modern times, of course, the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese

War, and even the Korean War were also largely fought to answer the question of who would

hold sway over the Korean peninsula. Xenophobia against even diplomats in Pyongyang also

holds a historical precedent during the Joseon dynasty when Ming diplomats were not allowed to

roam the streets without of a guide. 


GROUP 4: APRIL 6th
Famine

Presentation: Famine in North Korea and its after effects.

Presentation will briefly go over why the famine occurred in the first place, but emphasis will be

placed on how this has changed North Korean society permanently. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Woodblocks, Metaltype Printing in Goryeo

I went back to Los Angeles this past Friday for a friend's birthday and more -- on Sunday Morning, I took my grandmother to the Korea (Goryeo) Buddhist Temple (고려사, 高麗史) in Los Angeles. I'm not a religious person as in, perhaps, I consider myself to be spiritually devoid -- though that seems to take on too much of a negative connotation here, but my core values and interests overlap with that of tradition, family, and history.

These sermons are very difficult for me to follow the sermons and the chants/recitations make no sense to me whatsoever. To me they are all archaic Sino-Korean characters (next to each Korean character is a Hanja character), so it's difficult to follow what goes on (of course, the interesting topic to pursue, would of course be on how to make Korean Buddhism relevant in today's Korea).

Fortnuately, a large part of Sunday's sermon revolved around the history of Woodblocks and Metaltype Printing done during Goryeo of Buddhist scripture. On a side note, my grandmother whispered to me that "you are so lucky that you came today." She knows that I do have a deep interest in Korea (I ask her all the time how life was like when she was young).  So, while usually I would have a difficult time following the sermon, it was somewhat easier this time as I had read up a little bit on the topic of woodblock and metaltype printing done in Goryeo.

Moveable metaltype printing is claimed to have first been developed in Goryeo (a Korean dynasty preceding Joseon), though woodblock prints have a history of much more extensive usage in Korea for a number of reasons. And, just as the Bible was the first book to be published in the West, so was Buddhist text printed in the Far East. However, unlike the Bible, and please, I'm not here to argue who invented what first or to even acknowledge that it's relevance in this discussion (though I do put up a link below on this topic below), but this printing could be considered a wonder of the world. It's not just a book that was printed, but an entire library. 

It [The Tripitaka Koreana, 팔만 대장경, 八萬大藏經] is the world's most comprehensive and oldest intact version of Buddhist canon in Chinese script, with no known errors or errata in the 52,382,960 characters which are organized in over 1496 titles and 6568 volumes. Each wood block measures 70 centimeters in width and 24 centimeters in length. The thickness of the blocks range from 2.6 to 4 centimeters and each weighs about three to four kilograms (The Tripitaka Koreana, Wikipedia).
It is and has been housed in Haein-Sa temple (해인사, 海印寺) for centuries now and was originally created so that Buddha would help defend the country from Khitans (early Manchurians). Anyways, I wanted to get a better idea of the Tripitaka Koreana/PalMan Daejanggyeong, so I thought I'd share a site that might be of interest to others as well.

For its historical relevance in terms of how it influenced East Asian Buddhist Scripture, check the UNESCO listing. For how it may have influenced the West (well and then the world over again), check out Gutenberg and the Koreans: Did East Asian Printing Traditions Influence the European Renaissance? (Thomas Christensen)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

[DeCal] Why Should I Care About Korea - Spring 2010?

This is an outline of the presentaiton I gave this past Tuesday.

Objective of the presentation:

1. The United States is committed to defending South Korea with twenty thousand U.S. soldiers, who by design, are supposed to die in the event of a North Korean attack. And, the committment is enormous (half a million soldiers - OPlan 5027 (original link was bad). There is also a OPlan 5029 that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak recently agreed to that outlines what the United States and South Korea will do in the event of the North Korean regime collapsing). 
2. The events that are unfolding in the Koreas have a direct historical explanation and that during the rest of this semester, we will examine the historical dimension behind these events.  

Why should I care about Korea?
The United States is bound to goto war, moreso than by treaty, but by the continuing presence of U.S. soldiers that serve as a "tripwire." In the event of a North Korean attack on South Korea, the United States would instantly find that about 20,000 American soliders would be dead and the country will instantly be at war. The United States is actually then committed to sending half a million soldiers to Korea (Operational Plan 5027).
According to the 04 December 2000 South Korean Defense Ministry White Paper, the United States would deploy up to 690,000 troops on the Korean peninsula if a new war breaks out. The United States apparently had considerably increased the number of troops that would be deployed in any new Korean conflict. The figure had risen from 480,000 in plans made in the early 1990s and 630,000 in the mid-1990s. The latest Time Phased Forces Deployment Data for any contingency on the Korean Peninsula is comprised of 690,000 troops, 160 Navy ships and 1,600 aircraft deployed from the U.S. within 90 days (OPlan 5027-00, GlobalSecurity.org).
This is a very scary thought, especially in light of current U.S. committments to Iraq and Afghanistan and potential problems that may arise with Iran and China (as the U.S. is committed to defending Taiwan as well). Moreover, as the United States is currently in a position of seeing rising government deficits for the forseeable future, it becomes even scarier that those in control of U.S. foreign policy with respect to North Korea could actually fail to form a single, coherent policy as happened during the first half of the first George W. Bush administration ("A Long Road to Pyongyang" : Foreign Affairs Nov/Dec 2007). This is probably the number one reason why Korea should be important to all Americans and that students such as ourselves should take an interest as to first what is going on over there and what it is the United States government is actually doing about it. Not many Americans or South Koreans actually think war is possible, but, as pointed out in class that is exactly what was said about World War I. World War I did in fact occur and Europe has yet to regain its position in the world that it had enjoyed in the time leading upto the Great War.

Past fifteen years or so...
Major trends and events on the Korean Peninsula in the past fifteen years were also explored -- the most significant of which was the belief that North Korea was indeed interested in giving up nuclear weapons and introducing market reforms. However, I pointed out that informal markets that did spring up in North Korea did not mean that North Korea was actually interested in reforming its economy (as many in South Korea, Europe, and some in the United States believed), but rather that it was a loss of North Korean state control over its people that led informal markets to spring up as they replaced the food distribution regime that collapsed during the famine. This did not become apparent until the twilight years of the second George W. Bush administration (Also, I did refer to a large market area in the northern outskirts of Pyongyang and I couldn't remember its name. The market district I was referring to is: Pyongsong (not to be confused with the city of the same name)). Moreover, the significance of the famine was also pointed out in that it has for the first time since the end of the Korean War, made it possible to get some idea of what is actually going on in North Korea.

A point that I also touched upon:

America does indeed have a government owned, news broadcasting agency that was formed after the end of World War II. However, as the United States Federal Government is prohibited by law of broadcasting directly to American citizens -- a form of propoganda, it is not widely known to Americans. However, in the 21st century and with access to the Internet, Americans can at any given time go and check it out.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

[DeCal] UPDATED* February 16th, 2009

Note: I've edited this posting as I was rereading, I saw a great deal of grammatical mistakes, particularly with respect to indefinite and definite articles. I was born, raised, and educated in the United States, so I find these mistakes to be particularly inexcusable.  Also, I rewrote the conclusion of the differing views part of the post. - Joseph: 02/12/2010, 12:14am

Decal Update
Next week, February 16th, 2009, is the second time we'll meet and the last meeting before the add/drop deadline. With this in mind, the Spring 2010 DeCal Team decided to put off the presentation of how the past twelve or thirteen years have played out on the Korean peninsula. The presentation will pay particular attention to both halves of the peninsula. The purpose of the presentation will be to jump directly into topics that have yet to run its course and how these events are relevant to those in the United States. This will now be given next week.

Differing political views in the classroom...
I recently received a question about my political leanings as I have posted my opinion on a large number of fairly controversial issues, such as, how I view [The People's Republic of] China's treatment of her citizins in both Xinjiang and Tibet. And, while this is the first time I heard a student that express concern over how this may influence how the course is instructed,  it did make feel that it warranted a thorough response.

In this course, and as I will show in my presentation next week, I do make an active effort to avoid editorializing. However, when there are issues that invite controversy, especially on ongoing issues that have yet to play out -- I will not avoid them. As the DeCal takes place in an academic setting -- and one in which the grading system is highly skewed towards encouraging discussion -- I will not hesitate to make claims that might not be agreeable to everyone. For example, Communist China, which is a signatory of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refuge, claims that North Koreans crossing into China are is adhering to not subject to the UN protocol on political refugees as the nation claims that these North Koreans crossing over into its country are not political refugees, but rather economic migrants. This is a claim that is rejected by many in the United States, though I cite a figure, who here that may be considered by some to hold views that lie on the may hold views on other issues that do not reflect those held by most fringe of those held by the Americans, as well as NGOs and their affiliated student groups on campus, such as Liberty in North Korea (LiNK).

For example, Paul Wolfowitz writes:
The key with the Chinese will be working, on the one hand, to reassure them that they would not be stuck with a permanent refugee population and, on the other, to remind them, as a signatory to the U.N. refugee protocol, that China needs to comply with its provisions, including allowing access for the UNHCR. Starting slowly, with smaller numbers, could also help. Even relatively modest levels, for example 25,000 per year, could permit resettlement of a quarter of a million refugees over a 10-year period ("How to Help North Korea's Refugees" || Wall Street Journal Online)
However, I reject this view as the work of Yooknok Chang, Stephen Haggard, and Marcus Noland's "Exit Polls: Refugee Assessments of North Korea's Transition" shows that an overwhelming majority of North Koreans crossing into China would like to go back to North Korea after making some money. Even if their assumption that refugees in North Korea reflect a representative sample of the populace in North Korea were false, it looks as if -- provided that their sample groups are representative of the (illegal) North Korean population in China, that these migrants are indeed crossing over for economic reasons and, thus, China is not subject to the UN protocol on political refugees sample were not taken to be representative of all (North) Koreans, then at the very least -- provided that their samples are more or less representative of the view of at least those North Koreans in North Korea, then China is indeed correct. As their surveys of North Koreans that have crossed over into China show, an overwhelming majority of North Koreans that have illegally crossed over into China see their stay as transient and would like to go not to places such as South Korea, Japan, or the United States, but rather back home to North Korea. Thus, most North Koreans are indeed economic migrants and not subject to the UN protocol on political refugees.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

[DeCal] The Spring 2010 Semester DeCal Team

Spring 2010 Semester, Breaking Down Borders: DeCal Team

We will have two new facilitators this semester, Leah and Tori.
 
Lead Facilitator:  Leah Yi
 
I am a second year, intended Chemical Biology major. I grew up in Seoul, Korea (Republic of Korea) and attended most of my school years at the public school in a very large US military base- a base that represents a “mini-America,” if you will, and hence a misfit in a quickly growing and developing Korean city. As you will learn in this class, the origins of this military base go back to the days of Japanese colonialization (1910-45) then was taken over my by US as a result of the subsequent US military occupation of South Korea. Although I lived in Korea for about 8 years, I was never very aware of the history of North and South Korea and the fact that they were once, in fact for a great majority of the time, a unified country. This was the incentive for me to take this class last semester, taught by Joe Chang, who in this spring semester will be assisting me and Tori (the other facilitator) in teaching this class. I hope this class will be as valuable of a learning experience for you as it was for me and look forward to a great semester (Leah Yi).
Facilitator: Tori Bazz


You will have to come to class to find out what she studies and why she is doing this decal. :)

Facilitator: Joseph Chang

I am graduating this coming May with a double major in economics and applied mathematics. I grew up in Southern California, at the boundary line between La Crescenta and La Canada-Flintridge. I attended both La Canada and Crescenta Valley High School, which by the way have very different cultures. Though I grew up or lived in areas with sizeable Korean minorities or absolute majorities (if South Korea is given consideration), I myself was not aware of how there are direct historical explanations as to why I would address my parents a certain way or even as to the way banks are named. For example, I think in South Korea I remember seeing a Shinhan Bank, which was a merger of two defunct banks during the IMF period -- though I wonder if Shinhan Bank is still around. The name of this bank is in English New Korea Bank, but in Los Angeles, I see quite a few Saehan Banks (versus Shinhan), which also means New Korea Bank; of course, the difference between the latter and the former is that Shin is a Sino-Korean word -- 新(신), whereas Sae (새) is a native Korean word. By the way, this is something I just thought of when I was driving when I was in Los Angeles this past winter and I'm not actually sure if transcribed in Sino-Chinese characters Shinhan is really this 新(Shin) character, but this would be an example of why I'm a student instructor for this course. I thought this was interesting. As this is my last semester at UC Berkeley, I'm also going to try and ensure that there is a smooth transition between the semesters I have been facilitating this course and the semesters I will not (Joseph Chang).

[DeCal] Spring 2010 Syllabus

The Spring 2010 Syllabus is available here. The course begins this Tuesday, February 9th at 6pm, 20 Wheeler. The reader will unfortunately not be available until the following Tuesday at the earliest -- it becomes fairly thick to put it mildly if I include all the optional reading. So, I'm still revising and collecting the various articles that will at one point be included in the reader.