[KS] North Korea says multiracialism is poison

[Vladimir Tikhonov]

Dear Joerg and all others,

in fact, it looks as if the usage of the term "tanil minjok" is quite 
late, essentially post-colonial phenomenon. The great old man of Korea's 
"mainstream" nationalist history, the late Prof. Yi PyOngdo, wrote in 
September 1946 an article entitled "ChosOn minjok Ui tanilsOng", for the 
  8th issue of <Sinch'Onji>, but here, as well as in other post-1945 
publication, the emphasis upon "tanilsOng" was obviously connected to 
the protest against externally forced partition. In colonial and 
pre-colonial nationalism, the understanding of the "racial composition" 
of the Koreans was quite different. In Sin Ch'aeho's seminal 1908 "Toksa 
sillon" - usually considered the starting point for Korea's nationalist 
historiography, I guess? - there is a special chapter entitled "Race" 
(injong), where it is stated that the ancestors of the Koreans fell into 
at least six different 'racial categories' (mohe, jurchen, 
"aboriginals", and so on are all included), but there was one dominant, 
"chief" (chu) category among them - namely, the "sacred descendants of 
Tan'gun, the race of PuyO". This "sacred race" assimilated all the 
others, and, interestingly, "among the aboriginal people, the people of 
the yemaek tribes, the stronger did manage to survive, and the weaker 
were wept out, just in the same way as in the case of American Indians" 
(An PyOngjik ed., <Sin Ch'aeho>, Han'gilsa, 1979, pp. 62-63). Unlike 
today's North Koreans, Sin Ch'aeho also took attention to the existence 
of mixed blood children between Japanese and Mongolian invaders and 
Koreans. It looks as if in the pre-colonial nationalism, the story of 
"Korean race formation" looked more like the story about continental 
migrants conquering ainu and other "aboriginal people" in some 1900s 
Japanese historical accounts. That is, initial heterogeneity of "our 
race" was acknowledged, but then, successful process of "homogenization" 
by one "privileged" group of "our ancestors" was emphasized.

Best greetings,

Vladimir Tikhonov (Pak Noja)

On 30.04.2006 12:10, Joerg Plassen wrote:
> Dear Vladimir, 
> 
> having read your inspiring comments and enjoyed the overtones, a perhaps
> somewhat innocent follow-up question from a non-specialist: 
> Interested in the ideological underpinnings of the NK use of the Tan'gun
> myth, I recently came across the terms "hy*olt'ong" (as used also by Sin
> Ch'aeho) and "tanil minjok". - Is the latter only related to the
> Japanese post-war concept of "tanitsu minzoku" (which would make up for
> another nice twist), or can the usage of this term be traced back
> further?  
> 
> Best, 
> joerg 
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> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Dr. Joerg Plassen, (Jun.Prof. Geistesgeschichte Koreas)
> Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
> Fakultaet fuer Ostasienwissenschaften
> Sprache und Kultur Koreas
> D-44780 Bochum
> Germany
> 
> eMail: joerg.plassen at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
> Tel. (off.)  : +49-(0)234-32-22919
> Fax  (off.)  : +49-(0)234-32-14747
> Tel. (priv.) : +49-(0)234-798-1235
> 
> 


-- 
Vladimir Tikhonov,
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages,
Faculty of Humanities,
University of Oslo,
P.b. 1010, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway.
Fax: 47-22854828; Tel: 47-22857118
Personal web page: http://folk.uio.no/vladimit/
 
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