The concept of "Minjok"

    For most Koreans, the term "minjok" is a familiar term and they do not doubt that minjok is a existing community. In nation-wide events such as World Cup or Japanese claiming Dokdo is theirs, Koreans gather and make a great synergy effect under the awareness that every Korean is one minjok.

The 2002 World Cup

But...is "minjok" a real concept?

   
     However, it is certain that defining minjok is a hard task. It is difficult to decide the exact people who should be the part of minjok. To translate minjok in English, nation could be the most similar term. However, the term minjok is not limited to people who are living in a nation. The concept of race and ethnicity is deeply in the minjok. But nowadays there are many people with other ethnicity living in Korea, or become Koreans, and if the concept of minjok is limited to the race the term is not opened enough. 

     This process makes us think "Is minjok a existing community?" To analyze minjok with an assertion made by a scholar named Benedict Anderson in his book Imagined Communities, minjok is not a old term that existed from long time ago. According to him, minjok is a made-up term in the process of modernization for political purpose. Minjok played the role of divine right, which is a collapsed concept by the procedure of enlightenment. It was a system to control as a familiar existence that prolonged for a long time. To analyze the Korean minjok, "Han minjok" in other words, with this logic, Han minjok would be a concept based on blood relations. By the inflow of western knowledge in the late of Chosun dynasty, the power of king collapsed and people started to think the community as a community based on horizontal relations by modernized newspapers and literature works. The print culture started to advance by enlightenment and "Hangul" appeared as a nation-wide print type. 

     The concept of minjok, which is a 'imaginary community thought to be existed for more than 5,000 years', rose by this process and as a sum with Japanese colonization insular attitude was spread. With the support of intelligents of Chosun, who used the concept of minjok as a key tool of independence movement, the concept of minjok was accepted by people without criticism.
     In the Japanes colonial period, Japan tried to unite Asians with the term "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere". August 1st, 1940, Japan's Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke proclaimed about it. The core of it is to get rid of the Western imperialists, Asia should gather around Japan. To put this concept in their colonies, they emphasized the Asian ethnicity.

The advertisement poster of
大東亞共營權, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere"

     What Korean intellectuals thought was using the similar concept for the independence movement. To make people cooperate, there should be a pivotal figure. The concept of minjok played that role by signalizing myths about "Dangun" to arouse romantic nationalism. One of the intellectuals, Shin Chae-Ho researched about Korean history emphasizing the national and minjok independence. What he did was emphasizing the role of minjok in history and populating the Dangun story, which replaced the story of Giza that is part of Chinese myth. This still affects Korean people to get into romantic nationalism. 

The story of Dangun, which replaced Giza story from China

Dangun
Known as the
common ancestor
of Koreans

     Under Park Jung-hee's dictatorship, the concept of minjok was used as a tool of gathering people in the country to use as a workforce and a tool of anti-communism. The minjok was re-defined in his period. Communists were excluded in the minjok that time. 
     The concept of minjok was used for such political purposes in the history and we knew that it is a "imaginary community". Then how does this term affects Korean nowadays?
     Minjok is a crucial point of forming national identity. Koreans pledge allegiance to the nation and promise their devotion to the minjok and nation. From young age, Koreans learn about the myths and history of minjok which makes them familiar and feel natural with the term. When defining words such as traditions, minjok always appears in the definition. What makes Koreans to join in one group is the bond of sympathy that makes them feel one minjok. What we should look at is a imaginary community is the mobility of national unity, which is very dangerous.
     Moreover, Minjok has a potential to affect the society in a negative way. It has the ability to make people into one group that is somewhat insular and isolated. With the pride of Han minjok, Koreans have tendency to disparage Chinese or Japanese. More than this, as minjok is a by-product of romantic nationalism, it has the danger of being extreme nationalism like the Nazis. Looking at the results, the concept of minjok was not a impetus of killing by exclusivism like the Nazis or the fascists, but the fundamental concept that were used is almost similar. Even though people think minjok is a academic concept and is irrelevant with fascism, minjok is potentially a dangerous term. In the trend of globalization, exclusionism does not help for the natural relationship between other countries. 

     As mentioned before, minjok is a byproduct of romantic nationalism. This means people become emotional rather than being rational in the case of events related to minjok. The term minjok has the potential to paralyze people's reason and become totalitarian. 
     The twenty-first century is the age of globalization. What should be done to the term minjok is it should expand its range to a cosmopolitan level. By altering the concept to a global level, minjok can be a concept that encourages to have open mind to other person even in other countries.