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The Asian side of the world - II

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Jean-François Sabouret

Part One. Regional dynamics and globalization

Was Confucius Korean?

Sources of Chinese-Korean contention

Samuel Guex

Texte intégral

1December 2011

2Anti-Japanese feelings in the Republic of Korea have a long history, dating back for many to the Wako, the Japanese pirates who plundered the Korean coasts during the 14th century. More recently, it derived almost certainly from the painful experience of colonization (1905-1945), but it is perhaps mainly the way in which Japan manages this sensitive heritage that has fuelled the resentment of many Koreans. Since the 1980s, their grievances have focused on issues like history teaching, the fact that some Japanese political leaders offer their respects at the Yasukuni shrine, where Class A war criminals are buried, compensation for “comfort women”, who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Second World War and the territorial dispute over the Tokto/Takeshima islets.

3Whereas the conflicting relationship of the Republic of Korea – not to mention the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – with the old Japanese colonizer is well known, such that some western observers considered that being anti-Japanese was part of being Korean, the relationship with the old Chinese “suzerain” is no less complicated. A recent survey offers a contrasting picture of Korea’s recent relations with its two neighbours.

  • 1 During the same period, the proportion of Korean regarding their relations with Japan as bad fell f (...)

4The survey, carried out every year since 2007, showed that increasing numbers of Koreans consider that the relations between South Korea and China are bad, and the proportion has been growing steadily, from 34% in 2007 to 45% in 20101. Even though a slight majority still views the relationship positively, the figures clearly show a negative trend in the way Koreans see their big neighbour. Should we add that being anti-Chinese is also part of being Korean?

5At the beginning of the 2000s, when approval of a revisionist Japanese history textbook and repeated visits of the then Prime Minister, Koizumi Jun’ichiro, to the Yasukuni shrine caused a resurgence of anti-Japanese feeling in South Korea, China launched a research project on the history and current status of the northeast border region, known as “the Northeast Project”. One word in the list of research topics in particular drew Koreans’ attention: Koguryŏ (Gaogouli in Chinese), an ancient kingdom part of which lay within today’s China, was presented as an ethnic regime that was a tributary of the Chinese dynasties and should be part of Chinese national history.

6This idea was not new: Chinese historians had already expressed it during the 1980s, but it was the first time it enjoyed such public attention. Koreans’ astonishment at being deprived of a whole chapter of their history was particularly great owing to their attachment to a kingdom which, with Paekche and Silla, had fought for supremacy over the Korean peninsula between the first century BC and the seventh century AD. Although Koguryŏ probably did not differentiate the Chinese dynasties and its two other “Korean” rivals, for Koreans who look at that period through the modern lens of national history, Koguryŏ is perceived as the conqueror that proudly defied China and defended the “Korean nation” against “foreign” invaders.

7The anti-Chinese sentiment that gained ground in South Korea in the aftermath of this historical controversy was fuelled by the dispute over Mount Paektu (Changbai in Chinese) on the border between North Korea and China. China has recently been seeking to develop tourism, for both economic and strategic reasons. Concern about Korean irredentist claims over the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture, where most of the Korean ethnic minority lives, prompted Beijing to strengthen loyalty to China in this minority by sharing the economic benefits of tourism around Paektu/Changbai. On the Korean side, however, this move and the Northeast Project are mostly considered signs of a Chinese desire to take control of the northern part of the Korean peninsula if the North Korean regime collapses.

8Chinese initiatives around Paektu/Changbai, such as construction of an airport and a railroad and an attempt to have it listed as a World Heritage Site, have infuriated Koreans. For them, in both the South and the North, Mount Paektu is the cradle of their nation. The mythical founder of Korea, Tan’gun, is said to have been born there more than 2000 years ago. Another legend, spread by North Korea, contends that this mountain is also the birthplace of Kim Jong-il. The whole world, or at least the Asian continent, witnessed Koreans’ attachment to the mountain when South Korean female athletes held up signs proclaiming “Mont Paektu is our territory” at the award ceremony during the 2007 Winter Asian Games in Changchun. This incident in turn exacerbated Chinese hostility towards Koreans, who were already accused of stealing Chinese culture. The event that sparked the controversy occurred in 2005, when the Chinese heard in disbelief that the Gangneung Danoje Festival had been listed as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This festival is known for its reconstitution of past ceremonies with shamanistic rituals, traditional games and Gwanno masked drama. In order to understand Chinese astonishment at UNESCO’s announcement, one need only pronounce the name of the festival in Chinese: Duanwujie, best known in the west as the Dragon Boat Festival, because of the famous boat races organized in China and other Asian countries with large Chinese communities. China, outraged at being deprived of one of their festivals, responded in 2008 by declaring Duanwujie a national holiday and by having their version of this traditional festival listed as an intangible heritage of humanity in 2009.

9Following this bout, many rumours, often groundless, began to circulate on the Internet. One accused Koreans of trying to appropriate Chinese traditional medicine by having it listed as a cultural heritage, when in fact the Koreans wanted to list a 17th century Korean medical book. A flow of sensationalist news, relayed by official Chinese media such as The People’s Daily, reported Korean claims to Chinese inventions: the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, printing and even Chinese characters. The impact of these rumours was all the stronger that some were based on information reported in the Korean media, such as the theory of a Korean origin of Chinese characters.

10Although it is difficult to assess the repercussions of these controversies on Sino-Korean relations, the negative trend observed among Koreans is also perceptible among Chinese. According to the same survey, 40% of Chinese now consider relations to be bad, whereas only 6% did so in 2007. Even groundless accusations still have consequences. Hu Mei, director of the film Confucius, released in 2010, admitted that rumours about Confucius being Korean was one motivation for this project. Her case is far from an exception. Tired of refuting false allegations, a Korean student in Taiwan seized the opportunity of a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou in April 2011 to ask him to clear up the misunderstanding officially. Surprised by the student’s odd demand, Ma Ying-jeou complied and declared that Koreans were also convinced that Confucius was Chinese and not Korean.

11The recent disputes between China and South Korea reflect the same rigid national framework for interpreting geographical space, even in the ancient past with Koguryŏ/Gaogouli or for the cultural heritage with the Danoje/Duanwujie Festival. Even though the declaration of Ma Ying-jeou was symathetic, more will be needed to ease these disputes. In view of the importance of the interactions that characterize their relations, Koreans and Chinese should recognize the fundamentally hybrid nature of their border regions – which makes exclusive appropriation of the history of a kingdom like Koguryŏ/Gaogouli by a nation state illusory – and should reassess their cultural heritage by paying more attention to the complex processes of “Creolisation” and intercultural exchanges.

Notes

1 During the same period, the proportion of Korean regarding their relations with Japan as bad fell from 76.8% to 51.4%. Survey carried out by the Northeast Asian History Foundation, a research institute established in 2006 by the Roh Moo-hyun government to study historical disputes in Northeast Asia.

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