Chinese literature in general, and more specifically the literature of the Chaoxianzu, or ethnic Koreans in China, has undergone drastic changes since the state-wide economic reforms that were initiated in 1978. No longer burdened to partake in ideological war or oppressed by the Cultural Revolution, the Chaoxianzu began to embrace the new mainstream of the Chinese literary world as well as produce works exploring their own experiences and emotions in the form of elegies, scar literature, self-reflection literature, reform literature, and root-searching literature. In fiction, Jin Xuezhe, Li Genquan, Lin Yuanchun, Liu Yuanwu, Li Yuanji, Zheng Shifeng, and Piao Shanshi broadened the horizon of Chaoxianzu literature. In poetry, Li Yu, Ren Xiaoyuan, Jin Zhe, Jin Chenghui, Zhao Longnan, and Li Shangjue drew the attention of the Chinese literary world with poems of various forms including lyrical poetry, prose poetry, lyrical epic poetry, and long epic poetry. In literary theory and criticism, Zheng Panlong, Quan Zhe, Zhao Chegnri, Cui Sanlong, Quan Guoquan, Jin Fengxiong, Jin Dongxun, Zhang Zhengyi, Piao Hua, and Han Chun launched Chinese Chaoxianzu Literature, a new magazine on the history of Chaoxianzu literature.

Lin Yuanchun’s “Ragged Skirt” is a short story that depicts the conflicts and attachments that form between the Li family with vivid realistic detail. It also introduces a new type of Chaoxianzu woman based on a strong sense of ethnic identity through the conflicting characters of the diligent Lady from Tongfosi and the selfish Lady from Chaoyangchuan. In Geneology, Lin provides a glimpse into the perilous lives of the Chaoxianzu who had to survive in the foreign land of China during the Korean War, throughout the Cultural Revolution, and later as China opened its doors to the world.

Li Yuanji’s The Heart of the People is a tale about the noble life of a Chaoxianzu peasant suffering from severe poverty, ending with the message that the true owners of the state are its people. In his poetry “Characters of the North,” Jin Zhe projects the characteristics of the Chaoxianzu by borrowing the motif of azaleas from the eponymous Korean poem; while his long epic poetry The Tale of Saebyeol, based on a Chaoxianzu folktale, tells of Chaoxianzu peasants’ indomitable resolve to resist outside pressure and remain loyal. Jin Chenghui’s You People in White projects the ethnic characteristics of the Chaoxianzu using the motif of white clothes—“people in white” being a common expression Koreans use to identify themselves—while his Dear Changbaishan, Speak retells the history of great suffering and bloody sacrifice when the Chaoxianzu fought against Imperial Japan.

The History of Chinese Chaoxianzu Literature by Zhao Chengri and Quan Zhe is a compilation of the characteristics of the literary activities and works of the Chaoxianzu residing in the Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang Provinces, based on the perspectives of positivism and nationalism. In 1958, in order to write down the literary history of ethnic Koreans in China, Quan Zhe, at the time a professor of Korean Language and Literature at Yanbian University, and his students Zhao Chengri and Cui Sanlong, started conducting a full-scale investigation on the Chaoxianzu communities across the three northeast Chinese provinces. The resulting masterpiece follows 30 years of research.

While the economic reforms were a policy-based effort that changed the lives of every Chinese, the establishment of diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992 likewise had a profound influence on the lives and literature of the Chaoxianzu as an ethnic minority in China. The new diplomatic relationship encouraged many Chaoxianzu to think of South Korea rather than the North as their homeland, and provided the community with opportunities to experience capitalism through individual and state-level interactions. However, while the money sent home by migrant workers in South Korea greatly improved the economic status of the Chaoxianzu, it also caused the breakup of families and the questioning of traditional values. In their stories, many Chaoxianzu writers including Piao Shanshi, Cui Hongri, Li Huishan, Xu Lianshun, Piao Yunan, Cui Guozhe, Wu Guangxun, Li Rutian, Zheng Hengxie, Piao Chengjun, Piao Caolan, Nan Yongqian, Shi Hua, Jin Xuesong, Jin Kuanxiong, and Jin Huxiong depict South Korea as a land of opportunity that raises the question of what it means to be a member of two disparate groups—one based on citizenship, the other on ethnicity—as well as what it means to be of the same people.

Chaoxianzu literature, whose main source of inspiration is the lives and culture of the ethnic Koreans in China, can be said to be engaged in a detailed and practical search for a way to establish their ethnic identity. Xu Lianshun’s Who Saw the Nest of Butterfly uses the motif of stowaways into South Korea to show the impoverished conditions of rural Chaoxianzu communities, along with the daily joys and sorrows of life as a peasant—especially as a peasant woman—during the economic reforms and following the establishment of diplomatic ties with South Korea. In Apple Pears, Shi Hua likens the Chaoxianzu to apple pears, and thereby raises the question of how the Chaoxianzu have come to define themselves as they adapted to a foreign land. Cui Hongri’s The Tumen River Flows with Tears and Nan Yongqian’s poetry about ancient totems of the Korean people reveal a strong sense of ethnic awareness. Wu Guangxun’s works thoroughly explore the question of defining oneself as a member of two disparate groups. Jin Kuanxiong has pointed out that the Chaoxianzu are like missing children who have grown up but still haven’t found the home they hope to return to. Jin Huxiong refers to the Chaoxianzu as victims of a modern diaspora, as the decendants of a people who had to cross a border, i.e., leave their homeland, and were unable to return. These works all succeed in painting a vivid symbolic picture of the painful memories the Chaoxianzu share as an ethnic minority in China.

This shared identity is characteristically self-determined, developed as a result of efforts to make sense as both ethnic Koreans and members of the Chinese state. It is therefore meaningful that the establishment of diplomatic ties with South Korea necessitated a new phase for Chaoxianzu literature concerning ethnic identity, fostered by an international environment and interactions with their homeland. Before, the otherness of the Chaoxianzu and their literature was only recognized for its role within the framework of Chinese nationalism, but ever since formal diplomatic relations between the two countries increased, that otherness began to transcend the confines of Chinese nationalism, and was activated within the relationship between the Chaoxianzu and their homeland. As a result, the focus on the Chaoxianzu has shifted from their similarities with other ethnic Koreans or ethnic minorities of China, to their otherness as an entity that has grown unfamiliar to both their homeland and China. To borrow the expression of Professor Rey Chow of Duke University, the Chaoxianzu have reached a state of being not “both Chinese and Korean” but “neither Chinese nor Korean,” enabling the ethnic identity of Chaoxianzu literature to take on the truly borderline position of a clearly transnational nature. In the future, I hope to witness Chaoxianzu literature not settle with being defined by national uniformity or by ethnic homogeneity, but instead transcend that definition in search for a new deterritorial identity and develop into a process that makes manifest a detailed picture of the new identity.

(Excerpted from the keynote speech “On the Question of Ethnic Identity as Expressed in Chaoxianzu Literature” at the 11th International Symposium of the International Association for Literature of Korean Residents Abroad.) 

by Song Hyun Ho
Professor of Korean Literature
Ajou University