"Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....."

  "Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....." 

  Minjok is a term that we can hear a lot in Korea. We say minjok is important, and nobody doubt it. However, when we are told to define 'Minjok', lots of people have difficulties telling it. Then what is minjok? Why is it important to us? Defining the term 'Minjok' is one of the most vague questions to answer, but lot of people take minjok positively as they believe that it's a word that make Koreans into one.


  In definition, minjok is usually translated into ethnic group. Definition of ethnic group is group of people whose members are identified through a common trait. This can, but does not have to, include an idea of common heritage, a common culture, a shared language or dialect. These two words seem almost the same except that one is Korean and the other one is English. However, term minjok, which is also called korean ethnic nationalism, is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, or an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture. 

Dangun, who's known as a founder
of Gojoseon

  Not much people in the world know how long the Korean history is. Korean students were taught that Korean history have lasted for 5,000 years, starting from Gojoseon. Gojoseon have lasted over 2,000 years as united country. Although there were Three Kingdoms of Korea for 700 years, every Korean kingdom remained as an united country until 1910. So we could say that Korea stayed as an united country for nearly 4,000 years. Therefore, Koreans thought united country as a natural thing, and so is their purity. Koreans were able to keep their ethnic purity because Korean kingdoms didn't expanded their land for nearly a thousand of years. Therefore, when the term minjok was first used, minjok could be used as another word of Korean.




  Minjok is a term that was first used in the early 1900s. Before the colonial period in Korea,  Japanese tried to persuade Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock. To resist from Japanese persuasion, Korean intellectuals like used the term minjok to tell Koreans that they are different from Japanese. Minjok is a term that was formed by  few people recently. Somehow lots of people started using it, but definition of minjok was not clear when people began using it. In other words, there's no exact meaning of minjok. 

Minjok was used for various purposes. In 2002 for example, during 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea, South Korean soccer team became one of the best underdog upset in soccer history. People say that it was possible for South Korean to advance to semi-finals because there were millions of South Korean supporters who cheered for South Korea. How was this possible? Why did all these people supported South Korea as a united group? Reasons may vary. People could have come out to the street and cheered because it's rare to have their country host World Cup again and advance to the semi-finals in their first tournament appearance. However, it's still hard to understand why a million (literally million) of crowds came out to street to cheer. I believe that the answer is in minjok. At that time, there were lot of public commercials or sayings that encouraged people to cheer South Korea as they are a same minjok. Thus, a lot of people say that they felt unity when they went out to the street and cheered for their team, South Korea.

nearly 10 million people volunteered
 to clean the oil in Taean.

Another example that shows the positive function of minjok is Taean oil spill in 2007, which is recognized as one of the worst oil spill in Korean history. Oil spill was so serious that experts expected that it will take at least four to five years to clean the oil spill completely. However, it only took about an year to clean the oil spill thanks to ten million people who volunteered to clean the oil. It was possible because lots of people claimed that as Koreans(not minjok, but used as same meaning), they should help the other Koreans. There were no specific reasons for people to help Taean clean up the oil. It's about the unity as Korean(in terms of ethnic group). Because lot of people began to volunteered to clean the oil, other Koreans felt that they  should go help Taean, too. 

Immigrants in Korea is increasing

  By viewing the two examples that shows when term minjok is used, people mentioned minjok when they needed to be united to overcome difficulties or to make an advancement. In last 100 years, people and government also used the term minjok when they needed to unite and overcome difficulties. Considering how the term minjok was used, I believe that minjok is more than just an ethnic group. Lots of people tend to think that minjok is equal to Koreans (as an ethnic group), which may also mean that half-blooded people are not part of the Korean minjok. However, people immigrating to Korea is rapidly increasing. South Korea is not composed of 100% pure Koreans any more. Proportion of pure Koreans will decrease as the time pass. Thus, minjok, which is also defined as pure Koreans by many people will constantly decrease. If there's lots of Korean who tends to exclude immigrants or other ethnic group in Korea in defining minjok, it will be difficult for Korea to survive in globalized world. Because word minjok is a word that is not formed naturally by lot of people, but was made for a certain purpose by few people, it's likely to find an errors in the word itself. Thus, concept may change as the time pass.

                                              Lot of foreigners live in Itaewon