Historical origins Reality alienation

When it comes to overseas Chinese, I always feel that they are doing well everywhere. In Southeast Asia and North America, the Chinese community has a great economic influence, and its income and education level are much higher. But the Korean Chinese are different. They have a large number of people, about 1.2 million, mainly concentrated in Seoul, Incheon and Busan. However, their living conditions are far lower than the Korean average. Most of them do lower-level work and their income is barely enough. This is not bad luck, but the deep entanglement between history and reality.

Most Korean Chinese come from Northeast China and Shandong. The ancestors of the old Chinese in the early years crossed the sea from Shandong at the end of the 19th century. At that time, in the late Qing Dynasty, Shandong suffered many famines and people were living in poverty. Japan had already built factories on the Korean Peninsula for economic development. Shandong people made a living nearby and became hawkers or contract workers. By 1922, the peak of Chinese people reached 220,000. Under Japanese colonial rule, the peninsula economy took off and the Chinese benefited from it, but the Japanese provoked conflicts between China and the North Korea, and the Chinese had already been unstable.

The Wanbaoshan incident in 1931 is a typical example. Japanese consul Tian Dai Chongde and landlord Hao Yongde privately rented land for North Korean immigrants, destroying Chinese farmland. Chinese farmers protested, and Japanese police shot and suppressed them, killing dozens of people. The Jilin authorities wanted to expel them, but the Japanese military and police intervened, and asked the Korean Ilbo to spread fake news that the Chinese massacre North Koreans.

This incident was sent back to the peninsula, and the wave of anti-Chinese erupted suddenly. Within a month, 142 Chinese were killed, with heavy property losses, and the number of Chinese dropped to 30,000. At that time, the Chinese tasted the pain. With the support of Japan, the Koreans were incited and the Chinese became the punching bag.

After the September 18th Incident, Japan invaded the Northeast and supported the puppet Manchukuo. The number of Chinese people once rose to 80,000 in 1942. However, the Japanese were afraid that Chinese people would resist Japan and stipulated that enterprises should not employ more than 1/3 of Chinese people. They also implemented priority for Japanese people, high taxes and heavy penalties, and Chinese could only open Chinese restaurants or clinics to live a life of scramble. By 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Chinese had just over 20,000 left.

After World War II, other countries such as Malaysia and the United States opened to naturalization, and Chinese gradually turned into Chinese, but South Korea did not have such treatment. In 1948, when North Korea and South Korea divided the country, South Korea regarded China as its enemy, continued Japan's old policy and banned Chinese people from buying land. The old Chinese speaks it well in Korean, but the house can only be rented, and the savings of decades cannot be saved.

In the 1950s, Chinese people dropped from 80,000 to 20,000 in 1980, and most of them went to the United States or Taiwan. At that time, South Korea did not establish diplomatic relations with China, and old Chinese could only take a Taiwanese passport and teach in Chinese in schools, barely maintaining their culture. But the population structure has changed. Since the 1980s, Chinese Koreans began to flock to South Korea to work. The Korean population in Yanbian, Jilin and Dandong, Liaoning has severe outflow. Now the total number of Koreans in China is 1.69 million, and 40% of them work in South Korea.

They communicate with each other, and South Korea's economy is taking off and they need cheap labor, so they relax their visas, first visiting relatives, and then allowing employment. Up to now, 90% of Korean Chinese hold Chinese nationality, 60% are Korean, and 40% are Han.

The descendants of the older generation of Shandong Chinese still retain their Chinese identity. Although the new generation of Koreans have great language advantages, they are still economically underdeveloped, and most of them have construction workers and factory work. Although their income is higher than that of the Northeast, it is even more difficult to integrate into Korean society. South Korea is a single nation-state, with strong sense of immigration resistance, Chinese people are always marginalized, and historical origins make reality even more alienated.

Policy shackles Social prejudice

South Korea's policy toward Chinese has never been relaxed, and Park Chung-hee has become more strict after he came to power. On May 16, 1961, Park Chung-hee was in power in a military coup. He was a hard-core nationalist and he recommended South Korea as the first time he started. In the same year, the Foreigners Land Law was promulgated. Chinese people could not buy land, and a large number of enterprises closed down, leaving only the catering industry barely supporting it. The ID card is also marked with a special mark, the rental deposit is high, the loan interest doubles, and the Chinese are suddenly stuck in the economy.

The currency reform on June 10, 1962 was even more ruthless. The old coins were exchanged for 10 to 1, and if they were not deposited, they would be abolished. Chinese people hid cash to prevent inflation, and their wealth shrank by 90% overnight. Many people turned from well-off society to paupers. This policy is clearly aimed at Chinese people and cut off their economic lifeline. During Park Chung-hee's era, Chinese people could only squeeze in Dalindong, Seoul, and opened Chinese restaurants to make a living. Koreans also called them fried sauce men, which originated from Korean pasta invented by Shandong people.

On October 26, 1979, Chun Doo-hwan took over the coup and continued to have an xenophobic approach. The Nationality Law of 1980 raised the threshold for naturalization, media speculated on the theory of Chinese infiltration, and Chinese became the scapegoat for social conflicts. The government forced Chinese people to change their Korean names, ban Chinese in public, and schools used Korean textbooks, and there were very few Chinese classes, and cultural heritage was cut off.

After the second and third generations of Chinese grew up, they chose to leave South Korea. Politically, Chinese people have low participation, South Korean laws do not allow foreign nationality to enter politics, and there is no member of parliament or mayor. The prejudice among the people is deeper. Koreans regard Chinese people as inferior people, especially Chinese Koreans, who are regarded as poor relatives, and their accents and living habits are always ridiculed.

Job search discrimination is serious. In 2003, the Korean Human Rights Commission investigated that 77% of Chinese people encountered a wall during interviews. Whenever the media is nervous about North Korea and South Korea, they will exclaim their anger on the Chinese. The Chinese are wearing their tails and walk down on the street to avoid showing their accent.

The naturalization policy is also stuck. South Korea does not encourage Chinese to become naturalized. 90% of the old Chinese are unwilling to apply, thinking that their ancestors come from the East Asian Cultural Center and have a sense of national pride. It was only in 1993 that offspring born in Korea were allowed to choose Korean nationality at the age of 18. Chinese women and their children who married Korean men could also be admitted, but there were fewer actual applications. According to the survey by Hanlin University of South Korea, the willingness to enroll was less than 6%.

Although the Xian people have a close language, their nationality is Chinese. Koreans regard them as Korean Chinese, but they still discriminate in society, and do dirty and tiring work in the economy, making it difficult to integrate into the mainstream. South Korea's single ethnic group has a strong mentality, endures Japanese and Americans, and vents historical resentment towards Chinese. The peninsula has been deeply influenced by China in history. In modern times, inferiority complex turned into arrogance, and Chinese became scapegoats. Policy shackles and social prejudice have made Korean Chinese life difficult, have low economic status and complex cultural identity.

Turn on the road to establishing diplomatic relations and integrating into problems

The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea on August 24, 1992 was a turning point, and South Korea's policies were gradually relaxed. In 1993, Kim Yongsan came to power and started democratization. In 1994, the law on the foundation of the foreign compatriots' consortium and the land management law were revised. The descendants of Chinese born in Korea were selected, and Chinese women could also enter after marriage.

In 1998, the preferential policy for foreigners, the number of Chinese people stabilized, reaching 23,000 old Chinese in 2001, plus the total number of Koreans exceeded one million. The 1999 Entry and Exit Law regards Korean overseas as compatriots, but most Chinese are excluded, and Koreans have protested. The Foreigners Land Law was abolished in 2010, and Chinese people were able to buy houses and immigrate to invest and immigrate, and Dalin Cave became a trade hub. In 2015, the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement was reduced, and Chinese companies were busy importing and exporting, and there were more economic opportunities.

But the civil discrimination has not been eradicated, and Koreans are in a high mood for anti-China. Military exercises may cause Sino-US frictions, so they vent their anger on the Chinese. In the 1996 Pescados incident, seven Chinese Korean seafarers killed 11 South Korean crew members, and the media reported extensively, deepening prejudice. The Koreans have 700,000 yuan in South Korea, and their economy is better adapted and their income is higher than that in the Northeast. They can be marginalized by Korean narratives, and are not purely blood compatriots.

The social circle is small, and Chinese people go from overseas Chinese schools one-stop, use Chinese to kindergartens and middle schools, and go back to China or to the United States more often in colleges. 47% of the older generation stayed in South Korea, and 28% of the new generation are willing to stay, so they immigrate to other countries. Identity is entangled, the Han people are proud of Chinese roots, the Koreans are relative to South Korea, but they hold Chinese nationality, and stick to traditions during the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, which can be weak to South Korea. 45% of families use Chinese first, 25% speak Korean. Due to the slow economy of Northeast China and the high minimum wage in South Korea, it attracts families to move to South Korea, but it still discriminates against it.

The Korean Chinese community is a microcosm of China-South Korea relations, from the concession to the establishment of diplomatic relations, witnessing the change. But they wander without roots, dare not return to their entire lives with Chinese blood, and they do not want to integrate Korean life. In the future, South Korea's immigration policy may be relaxed, but the mentality of a single ethnic group is difficult to change, and the integration of Chinese people is still a big problem. After all, the story of Korean Chinese reflects the mentality of a small country, and the burden of history is heavy. The Chinese are stuck in the middle, and life has to be endured step by step.