CONTESTED STORIES: CONSTRUCTING CHAOXIANZU IDENTITY Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Peace Bakwon Lee, A.B., M.A. Graduate Program in East Asian Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Mark A. Bender, Advisor Dr. Kirk Denton Dr. Chan Park-Miller Dr. Dorothy Noyes Copyright by Peace Bakwon Lee 2011 ABSTRACT The Chaoxianzu (Joseonjok or Chosonjok in Korean) are an ethnic minority group associated with the Yanbian Chaoxianzu Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China. As a part of Korea’s historically displaced people -- the Korean diaspora – the Chaoxianzu have evolved an identity that is tagged with the term “contested,” as their historical narratives, the history of their autonomous prefecture and other areas in northeast China, and their identity as “Koreans” all feature contested complexities, controversies and multiplicities. This dissertation explores the construction of the Chaoxianzu’s contested ethnic identity, as reflected primarily in Chaoxianzu oral traditions, and in part through early 20th century Manchuria Chaoxian writers and contemporary Chaoxianzu return migration literature. This dissertation examines the construction of Chaoxianzu identity through personal narratives, songs, and stories collected during fieldwork conducted from 2000 to 2004. This collected material has been transcribed and translated into English, and is presented as examples of constructed Chaoxianzu identity as both ethno-culturally Korean and ethno-nationally Chinese. In Chapter 1, the contested historical and territorial narratives of Chaoxianzu and the early Chaoxian migrants in Manchuria are discussed to provide a contextual background for understanding the formation of the Chaoxianzu Korean ethnic minority group in China. This chapter also includes selected ii Chaoxianzu literary works on return migration to South Korea. Chapter 2 presents translated transcripts of a Chaoxianzu storyteller’s personal narrative and one of his favorite stories that establish a basis for discussing the definition of what constitutes a Chaoxianzu story and Chaoxianzu identity. Chapter 3 presents an oral history of Chaoxianzu oral tradition collection projects, as told by a Chaoxianzu folklorist who participated in pre- and post-Cultural Revolution period collection and preservation efforts. Chapter 4 presents a translated transcript of a storytelling performance and the interactions between a prominent Chaoxianzu scholar and a Chaoxianzu storyteller in 2001. This storytelling session, along with the conversations between the parties, illustrates the story selection processes used in constructing Chaoxianzu Korean ethnicity. Chapter 5 explores Chaoxianzu oral tradition and the early Manchuria Chaoxian people’s written literary tradition to address the problems of preserving ethnicity through selective processes. Based on my research, it is clear that the ethnic category “Chaoxianzu” has been strongly influenced by the historic and geopolitical conditions in which the early displaced Chaoxian people of China (and later the Chaoxianzu) had to carefully negotiate between their ethnicity and polity. The return migration of Chaoxianzu to their ancestral land has created Chaoxianzu “Korean dream” experience stories, and their experience as the “Korean Others” triggered the re-examination of the hyphened identity of Chaoxianzu as Korean-Chinese. iii DEDICATION In Loving Memory of Mom and Mr. Jin iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank a number of people who, in various ways, have contributed in making this dissertation possible. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Mark A. Bender, for his unlimited patience, encouragement, guidance, and insight throughout my dissertation writing. Special thanks to my committee members, Professors Kirk Denton, Chan Park-Miller, and Dorothy Noyes for their guidance and support. I would also like to thank the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University for their support. Thanks also to Debbie Yu-chin Knicely for her many years of countless rescues, help with forms, deadlines, and much-needed moral support. I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Piao Changmo, who made my fieldwork in China possible. I am also indebted to all the Chaoxianzu performers and their families for sharing their homes and stories with me. I would also like to thank my friends, Deng Xiaojun, Kim In-hee, and Hu Lingyan for their endless enthusiasm, humor, and support. I would like to thank my family and CAM for their encouragement during my research and writing. A very special thank you goes to my beloved Mom, for sharing her folk stories when I was a child. Last but not least, my sincere appreciation to my loving and supportive husband, Brian Bare, whose unlimited patience was almost used up during my research and writing. I couldn’t have written this dissertation without him. v VITA May 6, 1971.........................................................................................Born – Seoul, Korea 1994....................................................................A.B., Washington University in St. Louis 2002.................................................................................M.A., The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: East Asian Languages and Literatures Areas of Research: Chinese Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions; Chinese Literature; Folklore Studies; Diaspora Studies vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..............................................................................................................................ii Dedication.........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................v Vita...................................................................................................................................vi Chapter 1: Complexities of Chaoxianzu Identity..............................................................1 Chapter 2: Mr. Jin’s Personal Narrative and “Red Cross Story”.....................................65 Chapter 3: Korean-Chinese Folklore Studies..................................................................98 Chapter 4: Collecting Korean Ethnicity: Giving and Taking Stories.............................152 Chapter 5: The Literary “Xiao Shuo” Context of Chaoxianzu Identity........................240 Bibliography...................................................................................................................274 Appendix A: Transcript of Mr. Jin’s “Red Cross Story” in Korean Hangul..................288 Appendix B: Stories and Song Transcripts in Korean Hangul.......................................296 vii CHAPTER 1 COMPLEXITIES OF CHAOXIANZU IDENTITY Introduction This dissertation examines expressions of ethnic identity of China’s Chaoxianzu (Joseonjok) ethnic group as represented in personal narratives of Chaoxianzu community members and related works of fiction and explores problems and issues in negotiating constructions of Chaoxianzu ethnic identity in individual, national, and international contexts. The study is based on research and fieldwork conducted in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture ( Yanbian Chaoxianzu zizhi zhou ) since September 2000. As a part of Korea’s historically displaced diaspora population, any discussion of Chaoxianzu is marked with the term “contested” (Park 2005, Lee 2005). As this dissertation will examine, oral narratives and written histories produced within Chaoxianzu communities in China contain contested complexities, controversies and multiplicities also found in official historical narratives of the Chaoxianzu people, histories of the autonomous prefecture as contextualized within northeast China, as well as in manifestations of Chaoxianzu identity in relation to “Koreans.” However, the examination of personal narratives reveals more intimate and personal perspectives than can be gleaned form other sources. Studies made within the last decade on the Chaoxianzu and issues of Chaoxianzu identity by scholars such as Woo-Gil Choi, Byeongho Gim, Hyangsuk Gwon, Longfan 1 Jiang, Jin Woong Kang, Chunok Ryu, Dong-Hoon Seol, and Hyunho Song to name a few, have offered insights into the dual identities of Chaoxianzu as both ethnically Korean and politically Chinese through historical, sociological, and anthropological research. The return migration of some Chaoxianzu to South Korea has initiated re- examinations of “being Korean,” for both South Koreans and the Chaoxianzu. These studies attest that the prevalent concept of one Korean race (dan il minjok in Korean) and the umbrella term minjok , which can mean “people,” “ethnicity,” or “nationality,” is being reassessed in order to explain the cultural clashes between South Koreans and Chaoxianzu and the phenomenon of multiplicity within one ethnicity. A note on North Korea: issues of relations between North Korea and the Chaoxianzu will not be examined in this dissertation. The major rationale for this exclusion is the minimal influence of North Korean culture on the Chaoxianzu, as opposed to the influx of South Korean culture and Chaoxianzu immigration to the South. Other studies, however, could be productively made on North Korean and Chaoxianzu cultural interaction in terms of North