Koreans of China

Our story about the Korean communities we will start with China, and do it for a very simple reason: the Korean community in China is the largest of all Korean emigrant communities, it has no small 2 million people (more precisely, 1 million 960 thousand as of 1997 ). This is great, but it is necessary to remember that China is a country, as is well known, so that numerous ethnic Koreans make up only about 0, 17% of its vast population.

China, in addition, is the only country in which Korean territorial autonomy has now exists – Yankyan Autonomous District. Autonomous Korean districts have ever been to the USSR, but were eliminated during the violent resettlement of Soviet Koreans in Central Asia in 1937. As for the two other centers of the Korean diaspora –Aponia and the United States, then there can be any autonomous formations and speeches: partly because Koreans live there mainly in large cities, and partly because the idea of ​​national territorial autonomy in these countries, let’s say gently, not too popular.

Koreans began to move in China a little more than a century ago, in the 1880s. The peak of emigration accounted for 1900-1925., And by 1939. China’s Korean population passed over a million. Introduction of immigrants to China basically the need, because the land in the very Korea was not chronically lacked, and in the areas bordering the Korea regions of the Chinese manchuria immigrants initially brought and gave them good land.

The overwhelming majority of the immigrants sent to China consisted of poor peasants. However, after the capture of Korea Japan in 1910. China has become the largest center of Korean political immigration. It is in China in 1919. The Korean government was created in exile, it was on its territory, in Manchuria, the Korean partisan detachments were mainly based – both nationalist and communist. As in the USSR, in China, most immigrants made up of immigrants from the provinces of North Korea (in Japan and, later, the United States moved mainly to Southerners).

And today, 95% of all Chinese Koreans live in the territory of Manchuria, that is, in the three provinces of Northeast China. The greatest concentration of the Korean population – in the border of the Yanbian Autonomous District, in which Koreans make up about 40% of all residents.

Yanbian District (before that – County) received autonomous status shortly after the arrival of the Communists to power in China, in 1952. It must be said that in his national policy, the Chinese Communist Government as a whole followed the Soviet samples, so that the external attributes of Korean autonomy are well acquainted to everyone who in Soviet times lived or has been in our autonomous republics: bilingual signs on official institutions, several newspapers and magazines on "Local" (In this case, Korean) language, own Union of Writers, Radio Station, Theater Trupper and University. However, all these attributes are not just symbols. Koreans live in Manchuria quite compactly, mainly in separate Korean villages, where there are almost no Chinese, and where people are among themselves mostly in Korean. In Yanbian, in principle, it is not bad to exist, without knowing the Chinese language at all, and bypassed one Korean. By this circumstance, by the way, illegal immigrants from North Korea are actively used, who are now hiding in those places. In addition, the Chinese authorities usually treated Korean language and culture quite benevolently, and provided them with all the assistance. The only exception was the period of ill-fated "cultural revolution", When Korean intelligentsia was persecuted, and the activities of Korean educational institutions were suspended.

Nowadays, Yanbian University, where 15 thousand students study (of which 5 thousand – on the day office, the rest are evening and bonds) and where a significant part of teaching is conducted in Korean, is largely unique. There is one more in the world "foreign" Korean University, in Japan, but also in size, and in prestigiousness it is significantly inferior to Yanbian. 7 Korean newspapers come out in Yanbian district, not only Korean radio, but also Korean television.

For most Koreans, the Korean language remains native. In this, they differ not only from the Soviet Koreans, but also from the Korean youth of Japan and the United States, which usually or with difficulty explicit in the language of their grandfathers, or does not know him at all. Of all major foreign Korean communities, Chinese – the least assimilated. However, it has a reverse side: a low degree of assimilation of Chinese Koreans is mainly due to the fact that they still live in "Places of compact accommodation", that is in the villages. This means that it is easier for them to maintain native language and tradition. However, this also means that the Chinese Koreans are most of the peasants, and often, very poor, and that their social status in Chinese society is not too high.

The overwhelming majority of China’s Koreans are citizens of the PRC, but some since the fifties have North Korean citizenship. Most people living in China owners of North Korean passports have good connections in Pyongyang. The rest of the Koreans of Manchuria (and the Chinese themselves) often and, it seems, not without reason perceive the owners of Pyongyang passports as potential or real agents of North Korean special services, and are very wary. On the other hand, in the last decade, when the economic situation in North Korea from just heavy became completely catastrophic, a lot of residents of North Korea ran to China. According to the most modest estimates, there are now several tens of thousands of North Korean faders. North Korean refugees are located in Manchuria illegally, work the bathers in the farms of local rich peasants, waitress and dishwashers in cheap restaurants, perform a different low-pay job. From time to time, the Chinese authorities catch these illegal immigrants and send them to North Korea. Until recently, the recently issued by Pyongyang authorities was waiting for almost true death, but now they are softer – too much now. However, the Chinese police officers do not show a special zeal in the hunt for fugitives, so the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants remain in China. Of course, the goal of many of them is -evy Korea, however, Seoul does not seek to invite fugitives to themselves who, most likely become a source of additional problems (both social – within the country and international – in relations with China). Therefore, the real chances of getting to the south are mainly of those who occupied important posts in the DPRK and, by virtue of this, has valuable information or those who have relatives in Seoul and managed to somehow contact them.

In recent years, the national self-assessment of Chinese Koreans has a lot of intensive development of the Ties of China with South Korea. This country in China is now often perceived as an example for imitation, so it is clear that the Chinese Koreans have recently become proud of their blood ties with it. That these ties are so "blood", It is impossible not to doubt, because 9/10 Chinese koreans their ancestors were immigrants from those provinces that after 1945 they became part of the North, and not South Korea. However, such historical and genealogical subtleties are now few known and few people are worried: to be associated with South Korea is prestigious. In 1992. South Korea and PRC established diplomatic relations among themselves. Following this in Korea began "Chinese boom", who came to shift "Russian boom" 1988-1992. From "Russian boom" I didn’t really have anything really, the hopes of Korean entrepreneurs on the rapid development of trade with Russia were illusory, but with China they were lucky much more. Now more than 10% of the total South Korean export is sent to China, and it is the second value (after the United States) the object of Korean investment. Cheap and disciplined labor now attracts many foreign capital in China. Korean businessmen, especially medium and small, often arrange their plants and workshops in Manchuria, and willingly hire local Koreans there. There are no linguistic problems with them, and they themselves are more clear to their miniments. On the other hand, the active activities of Korean business and Korean diplomatia in border areas cause some alertness from the Chinese authorities, who, as we assume, are afraid of the emergence of Korean separatism in the future.

Since the early 1990s, many ethnic Koreans of the PRC began to come (usually illegally) to earn money in South Korea. According to the South Korean immigration service, there are approximately 85 thousand citizens of the PRC in the country, for the most part -Nelegal immigrants. Among them, the majority make up the ethnic Koreans. From time to time in Korean printing, there are reports that the police managed to reveal the next group of illegal carriers, which were industrialed by the secret delivery of illegal immigrants in Korea. However, everyone does not fly, temptation is too great. Manchuria is one of the poorest regions of China, and those one and two thousand dollars who are lucky and working illegal can earn on some Seoul construction for a month, for Manchuria – a whole condition, an annual income of a well-paid employee.

In the past few years, even such exotic fishery developed as delivery to the brides from the Manychurian Korean. For these women, South Korea is a fairy tale, and they are ready to go for anyone, just only to get here. Entrepreneurial Deltsi took advantage of this and opened agencies in which girls woved girls for those who could hardly find a decent pair: disabled people, elderly widers, former prisoners and t.D. In 1996., For example, almost 10 thousand brides from China were imported into Korea. It is easy to guess that these marriages do not always turn out to be successful. Spending victims are speaking "Imported" wives, and sometimes – and "Exporters" Husbands that are becoming for other enterprising maidens only a springboard in the prosperous South Korea.