KOREANS IN CHINA (ETHNIC KOREAN CHINESE)

ETHNIC KOREANS IN CHINA

Flag of Chinese Koreans

There are a little less than 2 million ethnic Koreans in China more than anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula. Many migrated to avoid Japanese rule on the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Others have arrived from North Korea in recent decades, seeking a better life as China's economy boomed while the North's stagnated and the country became more isolated because of its banned nuclear program. Many ethnic Koreans in China live in Jilin Province. Most reside there in and around Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, the largest administrative division in Jilin, near the North Korean border. There, Korean is an official language and Koreans make up half the population of Yanbian’s capital, Yanji.

Many Koreans in China are descendants of immigrants who arrived as early as the 17th century and settled in Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces. The largest Korean communities are in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province. At one time the Chinese believed the Koreans were cannibals and the Koreans thought the same thing about the Chinese. Koreans are considered more friendly than the Chinese and only rarely do Koreans marry Han Chinese. Koreans also have a reputation for being hard-working.

Most ethnic Koreans in China speak Mandarin Chinese and many also speak fluent Korean as their mother tongue. Most Chinese of Korean descent have ancestral roots and family ties in the Hamgyong region of North Korea and speak the Hamgyong dialect of Korean according to North Korean conventions. However, since South Korea has been more prolific in exporting its entertainment culture, more Korean Chinese broadcasters have been using Seoul dialect. The so-called Korean wave (Hallyu) has influenced fashion styles and increased the popularity of plastic surgery. [Source: Liu Jun, Museum of Nationalities, Central University for Nationalities, Science of China, China virtual museums, Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences~]

Most Koreans in China are engaged in agricultural production. Some are involved in forestry and trading with North Korea. The Chinese say they are exceptionally adept at growing rice, with region around Yanbian being the main rice producing area in northeast China. Most of the ethnic Koreans in China are Buddhists, but there is also a large proportion following Christianity and saying mass in Korean. According to the Chinese government: “The Korean nationality attaches special importance to culture and education, and is fond of singing, dancing and sports activities. At present, her average level of being educated ranks the highest among all the nationalities of the whole country. Diligence, frugality, plainness, tidiness, hospitality, respecting the aged and cherishing the young, as well as being united and helpful to each other are the good traditions and moral practices of the whole Korean nationality. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, China's War of Liberation and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the people of Korean nationality have performed immortal feats.” ~

Korean Population in China and Where They Live

Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Yanbian

Koreans are the 16th largest ethnic group and the 15th largest minority in China. They numbered 1,702,479 in 2020 and made up 0.12 percent of the total population of China in 2020 according to the 2020 Chinese census. Korean populations in China in the past: 0.1374 percent of the total population; 1,830,929 in 2010 according to the 2010 Chinese census; 1,929,696 in 2000 according to the 2000 Chinese census; 1,920,597 in 1990 according to the 1990 Chinese census. A total of 1,120,405 (0.19 percent of China’s population) were counted in 1953; 1,339,569 were counted in 1964; and 1,783,150 (0.18 percent of China’s population) were, in 1982. [Sources: People’s Republic of China censuses, Wikipedia]

Chinese Koreans live mainly in Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning Provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Yanbian—which borders the northern part of North Korea in Jilin Province—was home to 2.2 million people in 2010, of which about a third were Koreans. This is the largest concentration of Koreans in China. Jilin comprises most of China’s border with North Korea.

Koreans in China make up the largest ethnic Korean population living outside the Korean Peninsula. Many think the above figure for 2010 is too small. According to some sources if the smaller groups of South and North Korean expatriates are added in the total number of Koreans in China is roughly 2.5 million people. The percentage of Koreans in Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Yanbian, Jilin Province shrank from around 40 percent in 1990 to 32.5 percent in 2010. Worldwide there are about 83 million Koreans, with 50.4 million in South Korea, 25.3 million in North Korea, 2.1 million in the U.S., 900,000 in Japan, 176,000 in Russia and 176,000 in Uzbekistan.

History of Koreans in China

The ancestors of the Koreans in China today are Koreans who settled in northeast China from the Korean Peninsula, which is south of northeast China to the south of the Yalu and Tumen Rivers. The earliest Korean settlers can be traced back to more than 300 years ago. Many emigrated from Korea during the 19th century, and again during the Japanese Occupation in the early 20th century. In the 1860s, a series of natural disasters struck Korea, leading to deadly famines. Along with the Qing dynasty's loosening of border controls and acceptance of external migration into Northeast China, this pushed many Koreans to migrate. By 1894, an estimated 34,000 Koreans lived in China, with numbers increasing to 109,500 in 1910. Koreans in both China and Korea suffered during the Japanese occupation of northeast China and Korea. They were forced to speak the Japanese language and adopt Japanese surnames and some were put to work as forced labor in mines and factories. [Source: Liu Jun, Museum of Nationalities, Central University for Nationalities, Science of China ~; Wikipedia]

Korean soldiers and Chinese captives in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 – 1895)

David Volodzko wrote in The Diplomat: “For centuries, Koreans lived under the political roof of their suzerain China and drank from the well of its culture. But they didn’t emigrate to the Middle Kingdom in large numbers until the 1800s, initiating a transformation that would take almost 200 years to complete and altering the course of history along the way. The Korean exodus began with a series of floods, droughts and famines, on top of the levy of severe taxes even upon famine-stricken regions and unused land. This sparked a peasant revolt in 1811, an attempted coup in 1884 (aimed at eliminating yangban, the Confucian one-percenters) and a peasant revolution in 1894. Add to that the Catholic Persecution of 1801, the cholera pandemic of 1859 and the abolition of slavery in 1886, which liberated roughly 40 percent of the population. [Source: David Volodzko, The Diplomat, August 21, 2015]

“All these events triggered the flow of a river of people into China, most of whom settled directly over the border in Yanbian, Jilin Province. From 1881 to 1931, Yanbian’s Korean population mushroomed from 10,000 to nearly 400,000 people. Then in 1932 Jilin became part of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo, and the heart of the Korean liberation movement. This is where Kim Il-sung cut his teeth battling Japanese troops; he adapted so well that he later had to study up on his Korean before delivering public speeches.

Koreans in China Under the Communists

After the Japanese were forced out of Korea and China in 1945, there was a resurgence of cultural awareness among the Koreans. Newspapers in the Korean language sprang up, including the Jilin Daily (later renamed the Yanbian Daily), Heilongjiang Daily and the Liaoning Daily. In 1947, the Yanbian Korean Publishing House was founded in Yanji, and the Yanbian People's Radio went on the air. Special Korean programs are also aired by the Central People's Broadcasting Station and the Heilongjiang People's Broadcasting Station. [Source: China.org |]

David Volodzko wrote in The Diplomat: ““By 1945 there were 1.7 million Koreans in China, 37 percent of them in Yanbian. And though some 600,000 returned home after the liberation of their homeland, a second wave of migration began in 1953, spurred not only by the Korean War but by China’s show of solidarity with North Korea. Mao Zedong embodied this spirit in a speech before the People’s Political Consultative Conference in February 1953, in which he said, “the only course for the Chinese people is to remain determined to go on fighting side by side with the Korean people.” [Source: David Volodzko, The Diplomat, August 21, 2015]

Korean woman carrying the bag of a Chinese soldier

“The number of Korean Chinese rose 72.8 percent from that year until 1990, when Jiang Zemin called Yanbian a “model prefecture.” After generations of unspeakable hardship, it seemed Korean Chinese had finally hit their stride, and in 1995 the government invested in the region with a $30 billion development project known today as the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI). But as is often the case with multinational megaprojects, getting the GTI off the ground has been a painfully slow process.

When the Communists took over China particular attention was paid to education. In 1949, the Yanbian University was founded in Yanji. Other institutions of higher learning established during the early post-liberation period include the Yanbian Medical Institute, the Yanbian Amateur Agricultural University and a teachers college. Universal secondary education was realized as far back as 1958. As a result, there are now large numbers of people of Korean origin at all levels of leadership in many areas of China, and at renowned educational institutions in China's major cities. The Korean ethnic minority has set up an efficient network of health care centers and hospitals, including the Yanbian Hospital, a tuberculosis treatment center, an anti-epidemic hospital and a psychiatric sanatorium. The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture boasts high standards of maternity, childcare and family planning, as well as an enviable record in the fight against endemic diseases. |

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture

The largest concentration of Koreans is in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Jilin Province. Under its jurisdiction are the cities of Yanji and Tumen, and the counties of Yanji, Helong, Antu, Huichun, Wangqing and Dunhua. Covering a total area of 41,500 square kilometers, Yanbian encompasses mountains and valleys. The highest point 2,744-meter-high Changbai Mountain —White Head peak. Located on the border of North Korea, this extinct volcano contains a crater lake, from which the Yalu and Tumen rivers originate, flowing south and north respectively, and forming the boundary with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to the east. [Source: China.org |]

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is one of 30 administrative districts within the People’s Republic of China that are ruled, to some degree, independently of the central state. Yanbian is a major tobacco and rice producer and is famous for apples and pears. The ginseng, sable and deer antler produced in Korean areas have long been known as the Three Treasures in China and other places in Asia. The Yanbian area is noted also for its culture and art troupes and cultural organizations. At the prefectural level, these include the United Association of Yanbian Culture and Art Workers and the Yanbian Branch of the Chinese Writers Association. The Yanbian song and dance, modern drama and theatrical companies are famous all over the country, and many Korean artists study at advanced institutes in other parts of China. |

David Volodzko wrote in The Diplomat: ““Yanbian is no longer the “model prefecture” it once was. Its economy has failed to stir, many locals are destitute, and the prefecture, sitting at the crossroads of China, North Korea and Russia, has become a beehive of illegal activity. Refugees are smuggled out of it to South Korea, women are trafficked into it and sold to farmers or forced into prostitution, and drugs (particularly methamphetamine) flow from North Korea into China through this bottleneck. From 1990 to 2010 only three ethnic groups in China shrank in number: Tatars, Uzbeks (who won their own homeland in 1991), and Koreans. What caused this? For one thing, female infant mortality rates have been stunningly high in Jilin, even by Chinese standards. More importantly, during these two decades per capita GDP in South Korea rose from $6,642 to $22,151, and many moved there seeking economic opportunity. [Source: David Volodzko, The Diplomat, August 21, 2015]

Another community of Koreans lives in the Changbai Korean Autonomous County in southeastern Jilin. Yanbian and Changbai have traditionally been among of China's major sources of timber and forest products, including ginseng, sable pelts and deer antlers. They have also been a habitat for many wild animals, including tigers. Copper, lead, zinc and gold have been mined here since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and the area also has deposits of iron, antimony, phosphorus, graphite, quartz, limestone and oil shale.

Chinese shops smashed by Koreans in Pyongyang

Korean and Chinese Identity in China

David Volodzko wrote in The Diplomat: “Koreans face persecution in China...as evidenced by the various media and public attacks, both verbal and physical, that have taken place involving football matches in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and so on. But here’s the difference: Korean Chinese are considered Chinese by their government, their compatriots, and themselves. As Cui Shengchun, former secretary general of Yanbian’s External Culture Exchange Center, once said, “First, I am a Chinese. I grew up here in Yanbian and I love this place. My mother country is China.” The recent influence of hallyu (the Korean Wave) has popularized Korean culture in China beyond the borders of Yanbian or the Koreatowns of Shanghai’s Hongqiao or Beijing’s Wangjing. And the reputation of Korean Chinese has been aided by the illustrious accomplishments of China’s ethnically Korean heroes: the cinema star Jin Yan, Zheng Lucheng (composer of the PLA’s anthem), Cui Jian (“the Father of Chinese Rock”), the choreographer Jin Xing, and many others. [Source: David Volodzko, The Diplomat, August 21, 2015]

Steven Denney and Christopher Green wrote in The Diplomat: Given such a strong Korean influence on the region, it may seem logical that of Jilin’s ethnic Korean population many (if not most) would identify with one or both of the Koreas. Ethnic Koreans are, after all, described in Korean as tongpo; brethren abroad, compatriots borne of one ethnicity but living beyond the borders of their native land. However, while this characterization generally holds true for older Chinese Koreans, in particular those who fled across the border to North Korea during the famine years of the Great Leap Forward and the mayhem of the Cultural Revolution, it is by no means applicable to the youngest generation. For them, the contemporary connection with South Korea is little more than functional, while that with North Korea barely exists at all. [Source: Steven Denney and Christopher Green, The Diplomat, June 9, 2016]

“Having grown up in the era of China’s rise, at a time when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shown very little practical interest in the preservation of ethnic minority cultures and devoted a great deal of attention to forging some kind of “unified” Chinese identity, today’s youth of Yanbian identify as resolutely Chinese. In this brave new world, the pull of the “Korean Wave” and South Korean-based education and employment opportunities lack the power to shake China’s national foundations. Conversations with Chinese Korean youth suggest as much. Indeed, when asked to reflect on their Korean identity, a common response is borderline incredulity: “Why? We are Chinese.” Of course, young people are not unaware of their ethnic difference vis-à-vis the majority Han; simply, it is not a defining characteristic of their national identity. Reflecting thoughtfully on their own educational experiences, we were told that students receive a minjok (ethnic) history education that situates the (Korean) ethnic community as a factor in the broader struggle of the Chinese state. Education about other ethnicities is one thing, but education about other states, namely the ROK and DPRK, is treated in the same way as a British youngster might learn the history of France or Germany, or a Canadian might approach the study of his or her giant southern neighbor. They are taught as places abroad — foreign lands.

North Korean-Chinese friendship

“And while South Korea has all but entirely surpassed North Korea in the minds of younger Chinese Koreans, the connection with South Korea is itself a tenuous one driven by little more than a weak cultural affinity and a functional relationship. South Korean cultural production is sexy and attracts adherents all throughout Asia, but a Korean Wave does not make a Korean national identity. The ROK is also a rich country that speaks a language that some — though by no means all — Chinese Koreans are competent in, and this opens up the road to jobs and education that they can utilize. But primarily this furthers life goals back home in China. Degrees and work experience in South Korea are highly valued, but as functional aspirations – means to an end. The goal is not to return to the native homeland, but rather to settle comfortably in Beijing or Shanghai, the center(s) of the aspiring Chinese world order.

How a Chinese Identity was Adopted by Chinese Koreans

Steven Denney and Christopher Green wrote in The Diplomat: “In its early years, the CCP took up a carbon copy of the Soviet Union model for governing the multitude of ethnic minorities that fell under its control, and in 1952, when ethnic autonomous rule formally arrived in this corner of Jilin Province, relative administrative autonomy and an acceptance of dual national-ethnic identities followed. One could identify as an ethnic “other” (i.e., not Han) whilst remaining nationally Chinese; indeed, an inclusive embrace of diversity was desired.

“For China’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities (in addition to the Han majority) there was nothing unduly appealing about being Chinese in those days. States that fail — as the People’s Republic repeatedly did — to deliver basic public goods or a stable political and economic environment do not tend to readily generate loyalty and enduring feelings of patriotism and national pride. As a consequence, many Chinese Koreans who came of age in the turbulent years of the 1960s and ’70s are said to hold ambivalent or even anti-CCP attitudes. [Source: Steven Denney and Christopher Green, The Diplomat, June 9, 2016]

“Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening” marked the beginning of the end of China’s era of economic uncertainty. Events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989 were a tremendous shock to the system. The government was in no mood to let a surfeit of independent spirit get in the way of the country’s trajectory, and this necessitated a recalibration of national policy toward ethnic minority education.

Decline of Korean Language Schools Areas in China

The impact emphaszing a Chinese identity over a Korean one is evident in the number of Korean-language schools in China. Steven Denney and Christopher Green wrote in The Diplomat: In 1990 there were 1,106 Korean elementary schools in the Yanbian autonomous region, but this was down to just 138 by 1999 and 31 another decade after that. In the same period, 155 middle schools withered to 49 in 1999 and 27 in 2009, and 25 high schools shrank back to 19 in 1999 and then lost a further six in the following ten years.

“The same pattern has been repeated — and amplified — elsewhere in Jilin. In 1991, 26 Korean middle schools were in Liuhe County, an administrative district of the industrial city of Tonghua in the west of the province, but by 2011 there remained only one. Another of Tonghua’s administrative areas, Ji’an, which borders the North Korean town of Manpo, had 14 schools in 1991, but in 2011 this number was also one. The pattern is repeated across the region. [Source: Steven Denney and Christopher Green, The Diplomat, June 9, 2016]

“Where did all the children go? Some certainly now live in South Korea, where immigration authority statistics show that the Chinese Korean diaspora, a mere 7,400 strong in 1995, now numbers more than seven hundred thousand. However, a great many more are enrolled in Chinese schools, where they study in Chinese and receive a Chinese education. Ultimate destination of the students aside, one thing is abundantly clear: the education of developing young Chinese Korean minds in the Korean language is a rapidly declining phenomenon.

“The reasons for the dominance of Chinese-language education among Chinese Korean youth, a local university professor informed us during our recent visit to the region, are twofold: First, sustained economic growth and development has altered perceptions of the Chinese state and what it means to be Chinese today. While political challenges to the CCP’s right to rule exist, economic opportunity for those who more fully assimilate, reinforced by a sense of pride in being Chinese, means more people (parents prominent among them) are willing to buy in. And second, in part a response to the challenges facing the Party today, the CCP has changed its nation-building strategy. Whereas in the past it was possible to be Chinese and ethnically Korean, today one is expected to be thoroughly Chinese.

Business Relations Between North Koreans and Koreans in China

Ju-min Park of Reuters wrote: “In the 1990s, ethnic Korean businessmen often met with North Korean officials. Now, they rarely bother. Jin cited a number of reasons why his colleagues found it hard to do business with the North. These included having to do deals in cash and the country's unpredictable politics."In big cities, we tell each other to avoid doing too much business (with the North)," said Jin, whose father was born in what is now South Korea and migrated to China to avoid forced labor by Japanese colonialists. [Source: Ju-min Park, Reuters, July 3, 2013]

Korea-China cultural festival

“It was once common for members of Jin's association to broker sales of North Korean jeans or oriental medicines to the South. But when Seoul severed most economic ties in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean at a tourist resort in the North, that trade largely dried up. The North also shut a factory park it ran with the South in April at the height of recent tensions on the peninsula. Those moves, combined with the wariness of the Korean diaspora, has left the North almost totally dependent on Chinese firms for trade, who typically buy the country's gold, coal and mineral resources, and on small Chinese traders along the 1,400 kilometers (875 mile) land border. That has sparked some concern in South Korea and among ethnic Koreans in China that the North is becoming so dependent on China that if North-South relations ever improved, Chinese firms would have the market sown up. “It's not just business ties that have suffered between ethnic Koreans and North Korea. Few of them want to live or work in North Korea either.

“Despite the collapse of economic incentives to deal with the North, emotional ties remain strong, especially for the older generation. "If a neighbor has a relative from North Korea visiting, we give them pollack (a Korean staple fish) ... or a bicycle or bedding," said Ryu Pil-lan, a 55-year-old Korean woman who moved to Beijing in the late 1980s from Yanbian, an ethnic Korean region near China's border with the North.

Ethnic Koreans Chinese Aim to Bond with South Rather Than North Korea

Ju-min Park of Reuters wrote: “When a delegation of North Korean officials visited the head of the Korean business association in China last year asking him to drum up investment in their impoverished country, Jin Rong-guo turned them away. The 200-strong ethnic Korean business group has its eyes on a more inviting prize — South Korea. "North Korea has lost credibility for investment. Korean Chinese businessmen always question if they can recoup their money," said Jin, 51, whose office is in Beijing's Korea Town, where South Korean franchise cafes and restaurants line the streets. [Source: Ju-min Park, Reuters, July 3, 2013]

Jilin Province, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, North Korea and South Korea

“North Korea had long been the main foreign investment and trade option for ethnic Koreans in China. But when China and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1992, that gave them an alternative.Annual trade between North Korea and China is $6 billion. By contrast, South Korean and Chinese trade was worth $215 billion in 2012, according to South Korean data. "For the Joseonjok (ethnic Koreans in China), the North is a burden," said Lee Jang-sub, an expert on the Korean diaspora at South Korea's Chonnam National University.

“Jin's story shows how things have changed. He worked for five years at an ethnic Korean-run company that sent Chinese corn, animal feed and sewing machines to North Korea in exchange for nylon up until 1990. When the Chinese government started demanding payment in hard currency, many of those companies, including Jin's, went bankrupt. Jin now does advertising for South Korean companies in China and organizes cultural events for performers from Seoul.On top of that, he has two sons studying at South Korean universities. "Conglomerates like Samsung and LG treat us well. One of my friends recently got moved to a senior managing level at one of those companies," said Jin, referring to two of the biggest corporate names in South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics.

“Ethnic Koreans are also investing in the South. While there is no data, ethnic Korean entrepreneurs are involved in a $300 million property project in Jeju, a tropical island popular with Chinese tourists. Ethnic Koreans also do business in fashion, food and household items with their counterparts in the South.Meanwhile, South Korean companies have poured more than $40 billion into China. When the North Korean officials came to his office, Jin didn't tell them his association members were not interested. Instead he pointed them to a Chinese partner who might have been willing to invest in a wig-making venture.

Korean Chinese in South Korea

More than 350,000 ethnic Koreans from China were guest workers in South Korea in the early 2010s, according to South Korea's statistics office. According to to Reuters they work as babysitters, cooks and construction workers and account for nearly half the entire foreign workforce in South Korea. In addition, Some 50 percent of all Chinese small businesses in South Korea are run by ethnic Koreans, the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said. [Source: Ju-min Park, Reuters, July 3, 2013]

There were 377,560 Korean Chinese legally registered in South Korea as of 2009. Tens of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — more work illegally in the country. Many send money back to relatives in China. New arrivals are helped by churches and organized groups to adapt to their new lives and find jobs.

Korean Chinese began arriving in South Korea in early 1990s when China’s northeastern provinces suffered as they were excluded from Beijing’s economic reforms. Their numbers began to increase after a new law passed in South Korea in 2004 allowed migrant workers and a work visa was created for Korean Chinese in 2007. Between 2003 and 2009 the number legally-registered Korean Chinese in South Korea rose from 132,305 to 377,560 in 2009.

Many ethnic Koreans in China long to go to South Korea. Yin Shuilan, an ethic Korean who emigrated to South Korea in 1998, told the Los Angeles Times, “For us going to Korea is like going to heaven, a place where money grew on trees. There is nothing in China. Yiu toiled in fields and at restaurants to save enough money to emigrate and was repeatedly denied visas and was cheated by shady brokers, When she finally made it to South Korea she was $80,000 in debt to friends and family. Her husband arrived eight months after she did and together they worked six years ro pay off the debt.

Poor Treatment and Living Conditions of Korean Chinese in South Korea

David Volodzko wrote in The Diplomat: ““Sadly, many newcomers have suffered human rights violations at the hands of their South Korean brothers and sisters, prompting the South Korean Ministry of Justice to announce a crackdown on such behavior, while others have themselves perpetrated violence against their South Korean hosts. Illustrating how little things have changed, the 2013 South Korean film New World features a group of Yanbian Koreans portrayed as uncultured imbeciles. [Source: David Volodzko, The Diplomat, August 21, 2015]

Yiu has found that life in South Korea is no picnic. She works six days a week, 12 hours a day, in a fish soup restaurant in Seoul and spends an addition two hours a day commuting back and forth between her workplace and home, often returning from work just shy of midnight. “I work a lot, but I make more money than I ever dreamed of when I was in China,” she said.

Most of the jobs that are available to Korean Chinese are in restaurants, factories, construction sites and as domestic servants. Yoon In-jin a sociologist at Korea University told the Los Angeles Times, Korean Chinese “make an economic contribution in sectors most Koreans don’t want to work in but need to be covered in society.” A big issue now is whether or not to extend the five-year work visa or reform it so that workers don’t have return after they have invested a great amount of time creating a new life for themselves in South Korea.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: 1) "Encyclopedia of World Cultures: Russia and Eurasia/ China", edited by Paul Friedrich and Norma Diamond (C.K. Hall & Company; 2) Liu Jun, Museum of Nationalities, Central University for Nationalities, Science of China, China virtual museums, Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences, kepu.net.cn ~; 3) Ethnic China *\; 4) Chinatravel.com \=/; 5) China.org, the Chinese government news site china.org | New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Chinese government, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wikipedia, BBC and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated October 2022