Let’s call ethnic Korean Chinese 'dongpo,' not ‘joseonjok’

By Park Sae-jin Posted : April 18, 2014, 15:54 Updated : April 18, 2014, 18:05
A South Korean professor has said that “joseon-jok,” the name for ethnic Korean Chinese, should be called “jaejung dongpo,“ or Korean residents in China.

Noh Young-don, a professor of the department of law at Incheon National University, and Choi Young-chun who is doing his doctoral studies at the department, said the word joseon-jok was invented by the Chinese government for political purposes in the 1950s.

They called on the people to call ethnic Korean Chinese “jaejung dongpo,“ as ”we, Koreans, call Korean-Americans and Korean-Japanese ‘jaemi-dongpo,’ or Korean residents in the United States and ‘jaeil-dongpo,’ or Korean residents in Japan, respectively.“

Noh and Choi made the demand in a paper published in the latest issue of a journal, named Studies on Korean Residents Abroad.

Calling them joseonjok indicates that “the state, media outlets and others lack knowledge and understanding on ‘dongpo,’ or our fellow countrymen,” the paper said.

According to the paper, Koreans living in Manchuria were called refugees by Chinese in 1927. A year later, they were recognized as one of ethnic groups in China for the first time.

In 1953, they were formally classified as one of ethnic groups in China. At that time, they were called “joseon minjok,” not joseonjok.

However, the name of joseon minjok was changed to joseonjok "for the sake of achieving political purposes" in 1955, it said.

Many people of Korean descent have lived in Manchuria, including Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces, just north of North Korea. They are now one of 55 ethnic groups in China.
기사 이미지 확대 보기
닫기