China’s ethnic minority and neoliberal developmental citizenship: Yanbian Koreans in perspective

ABSTRACT

This study examines the changing nature of ethnic minority citizenship under China’s pragmatist developmental transition. Our analytical focus is placed on Yanbian Koreans in the Northeast region of the country. In the socialist period, Yanbian’s Korean Chinese population developed a form of socialist ideological citizenship, but it had to be refashioned into a complex set of developmental requirements and opportunities under post-socialist reform and globalization. The nominally communist regime, on the one hand, strengthened its politico-ideological control over society and, on the other hand, liberalized the economic system. As to Chaoxianzu (Korean Chinese), among other minority nationalities, the party-state has emphasized their national (Chinese) identity, whilst, at the same time, endeavouring to use the Korean ethnicity for transnational developmental linkages with South Korea. This situation has required Yanbian Koreans to negotiate the complementary and conflicting relationships between (post-)socialist citizenship, ethno-local developmental citizenship, and neoliberal compatriotic citizenship with South Korea.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• citizenship
• socialism
• development
• ethnic minority
• Yanbian
• Chaoxianzu
• South Korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See Suh (1990).

2. See the photo collection by Ryu (2010).

3. Notable Korean Chinese politicians include: General Cho Nam-Ki, the former Vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); Lee Deok-Su, the former Chair of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) and Vice Chairman of the United Front Work Department of CCP Central Committee (UPWD); Jeon Cheol-Su, the former Vice Chairman of the UPWD. Also, the Chinese diplomat and current Ambassador of Japan Gong, Hyun-U (Kong Xuanyu in Chinese) is Korean Chinese.

4. See also Tsurushima (1979).

5. The Wanda Group has already decided to undertake major development projects in Yanji, one being the construction of the Korean town. (Y.-R Park 2015b)

6. See also Freeman (2010).

7. The ‘red tourism’ is one of core projects promoted by Yanbian government. (Yanbianzhouzhengfu 2018)

8. One of these is the era defining Korean Chinese painter, Han Rak-Yeon, who is often called the Picasso of modern Chinese art. That he was one of first Korean Chinese Communist Party member of the Korean Chinese has been rediscovered and highlighted, and a monument to his life is being built in his hometown. Rather than his art, however, it is Han’s membership of the Communist Party that has become important. The Association of History of Korean Chinese set up a research team in 2017 to establish his worth as a party member.

9. See Kim et al. (2017) for details on Yanbian residents’ economic activities during the post-socialist period as well as for an account of the socio-economic inequalities in yanbian during this time.

10. On the formation of Yanbian’s local authority, please see Park (2019).

11. Since the enacted of the Overseas Korean Act the South Korean government grants foreign ethnic Koreans the Special Status of Overseas Korean Overseas Koreans. This status provides no political rights; that is, holders cannot vote in elections or stand for election. However, the Special Status of Overseas Korean status provides more economic rights than that available to non-ethnic Koreans. Holders can also extend its validity every three years as long as they have not been convicted of any crimes. This makes the Special Status of Overseas Korean a de facto right to permanent residence. In this sense, the status is close to the conventional concept of denizenship described by Turner (2016).

12. According to the Overseas Korean Act, there are two types of Overseas Koreans; the first is overseas Koreans who have foreign nationality, and the second is overseas Koreans who have South Korean nationality. Korean Chinese people are included in the second category.

13. This content is based on conversations the authors have had with the organizer of the association. On the exchanges between this association and the South Korea and Korean American, please see The Women’s News (2005) and Jang (2008).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Hansung University.

Notes on contributors

Park Woo

Park Woo is Assistant Professor in the Department of Liberal Arts at Hansung University, South Korea. He studied at Yanbian University in China and received his MA and Ph.D in sociology from Seoul National University. His main research interests are Korean Chinese, citizenship and Asian (Korea and China) studies. His related works includeChaoxianzu Entrepreneurs in Korea: Searching for Citizenship in the Ethnic Homeland (Routledge, 2020), The Asianization of Northeast China: Segmented Integration of Local Authority and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (Journal of Asian Sociology, 2019), and a short article The Politics of COVID-19 in China: Examining Challenges in Social Governance and Diplomacy (IIAS The Newsletter, 2020. forthcoming).

Robert Easthope

Robert Easthope is a Ph.D. candidate at Seoul National University. His current research focuses on the changing nature of citizenship, political identity and nationalism in East Asia. He is also interested in the history of social thought and has written accessible introductions to two cornerstone-works:An Analysis of Emile Durkheim's On Suicide (Routledge, 2017) and An Analysis of C. Wright Mills's The Sociological Imagination (co-authored with Ismael Puga; Routledge, 2017).

Chang Kyung-Sup

Chang Kyung-Sup, Professor of Sociology, Seoul National University.