Korean Popular Culture

The Textbook-in-progress of the Ivy League's first class on the Korean Wave. This blog is the work of University of Pennsylvania EALC 198/598 students (Spring 2006 & 2007). Please apply proper citation when using any part of this blog. For details on citing this site see: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html#1

Friday, January 26, 2007

Korea likes history and territory; so does China

A number of people talked about Korea's dispute with Japan over Dokdo in this forum, we read about the whole Tsushima/Taema-do thing, and I'm sure some of us are familiar with the East Sea/Sea of Japan debate, but there is another territorial dispute that I have learned about. This one also has roots in ancient history.

It seems that in the past few years Koreans were shocked by China's Northeast Project, which claims that the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo (Goguryeo) was actually Chinese because it extended into Manchuria, which is now Chinese land. (It's interesting to me how rewriting textbooks is a sure-fire way of making people angry. Also, I thought the claims of the Northeast Project were a nice contrast to the description of Koguryo under "Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians" in the Chinese dynastic histories up on Blackboard. It's amazing what a difference a couple of millennia make.) Some nationalistic Koreans started a global campaign (including getting the CIA Factbook revised) to make sure that everyone knows that Koguryo is definitely a part of Korean history. The Chinese attempt to take Koguryo most likely stems from a fear that if Korean reunification does happen, then Korea (or Koreans in Manchuria) will make a claim for the land along the northern border as Korean territory.

The funny thing to me is that it seems that only some people in Korea and China were/are really caught up in this whole drama; the rest of their countries and the world don't really seem to care all that much about Koguryo or a potential land grab. But, it does show how important history is in Korea. It's also interesting how Korean-Japanese relations seemed really strained with all the Dokdo and textbook controversies, but the Chinese-Korean relations have been mostly fine. But, speaking of drama, could the TV miniseries Jumong (Chumong), which is about the legendary founder of the Koguyro dynasty, be part of a greater plan to remind audiences across the world that Koguryo is not Chinese, but most definitely Korean?

2 Comments:

At 8:22 PM, Blogger TopTumblr said...

Good information/links in your post. I really don't see any reason why the Chinese government should be making these claims. In my opinion, China's claim is an irresponsible and myopic misuse of historiography designed to needlessly provoke. Both the peninsula and mainland governments have extremely long histories, so any meddling or "revision" is naturally going to incite strong and nationalist emotion. Unfortunately, history and politics don't exist in totally separate spheres.

 
At 9:10 PM, Blogger Teresa Dong (董泰利) said...

Wow, this is pretty interesting. Previously I hadn't heard of a Chinese-Korean conflict about land though I do know historically there are alot of ethnic Koreans living in Northeast China. In fact they've been there so long the Chinese don't really consider them as Koreans rather they are treated as a minority, the Chosons (CaoXianZhu). On the other hand, I have heard about conflicts about culture. For example the debate over the dragon boats for the Mid-autumn festival.

 

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