User:Madalibi/Korean ethnic nationalism (draft)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Korean ethnic nationalism is a political ideology and a form of ethnic identity that is prevalent in modern Korea. It is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, or an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture.[1] It is centered around the notion of the minjok (민족; 民族), a term that had been coined in Japan in the early Meiji period on the basis of Social Darwinian conceptions. Minjok has been translated as "nation," "people," "ethnic group," and "race-nation."
This conception started to emerge among Korean intellectuals after the Japanese-imposed Protectorate of 1905,[2] when the Japanese were trying to persuade Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock.[3][4] The notion of the Korean minjok was first made popular by essayist and historian Shin Chaeho in his New Reading of History (1908), a history of Korea from the mythical times of Dangun to the fall of Balhae in 926 CE. Shin portrayed the minjok as a warlike race that had fought bravely to preserve Korean identity, had later declined, and now needed to be reinvigorated.[5] During the period of Japanese rule (1910-1945), this belief in the uniqueness of the Korean minjok gave an impetus for resisting Japanese assimilation policies and historical scholarship.[6] Contemporary Korean historians continue to write about the nation's "unique racial and cultural heritage."[7]
In contrast to Japan and Germany, where such race-based conceptions of the nation were discredited after the Second World War because they were associated with ultranationalism or Nazism,[8] postwar North and South Korea continued to proclaim the ethnic homogeneity and pure bloodline of the "Great Han" race.[9][3] In the 1960s, President Park Chung-hee strengthened this "ideology of racial purity" to legitimate his authoritarian rule,[10] while in North Korea official propaganda portrayed Koreans as "the cleanest race."[3][4] This shared conception of a racially defined Korea continues to shape Korean politics and foreign relations,[9] gives Koreans an impetus to national pride,[11] and feeds hopes for the reunification of the two Koreas.[12]
Despite statistics showing that Korea is becoming an increasingly multi-ethnic society,[13] most of the Korean population continues to identify itself as "one people" (danil minjok; 단일민족; 單一民族) joined by a common bloodline.[14] A renewed belief in the purity of Korean "blood"[15] has caused tensions, leading to renewed debates on multi-ethnicity and xenophobia both in Korea and abroad.[16]