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| Total population | ||||||
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| 2,489,076 (2009)[1] 1,923,842 are ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship (2005 statistics); almost all the rest are expatriates from North or South Korea |
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| Regions with significant populations | ||||||
| Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning provinces and other Chinese cities | ||||||
| Languages | ||||||
| Religion | ||||||
| Related ethnic groups | ||||||
The population of Koreans in China include millions of descendants of Korean immigrants with citizenship of the People's Republic of China, as well as smaller groups of South and North Korean expatriates, with a total of roughly 2.3 million people as of 2009[update][1], making it the largest Korean population living outside Korea.
Chaoxianzu (Simplified Chinese: 朝鲜族) or Joseonjok (Korean: 조선족), also referred to as Chinese people of Korean descent (Korean: 조선계 중국인, Hanja: 朝鮮系中國人), form one of the 56 ethnicities officially recognized by the Chinese government. Their total population was estimated at 1,923,842 as of 2005[update].[2] Most of them live in Northeast China, especially in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, which had 854,000 ethnic Koreans living there as of 2000.
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Throughout history, due to the close interactions between China and Korea, some degree of population movements have always occurred between the two neighboring countries. There were written records of Korean migrations in the early Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Tang dynasty and earlier. The majority of early Korean populations in China had assimilated with Chinese society. The current Korean population in China is mainly descended from migrants who came between 1860 and 1945. In the 1860s, a series of natural disasters struck Korea, leading to disastrous famines. Along with the Qing dynasty's loosening of border controls and acceptance of external migration into Northeast China, this pushed many Koreans to migrate. By 1894, an estimated 34,000 Koreans lived in China, with numbers increasing to 109,500 in 1910. After the Japanese annexation of Korea, larger numbers of Koreans moved to China. Some merely fled from Japanese rule or economic hardship, while others intended to use China as a base for their anti-Japanese resistance movements. By 1936, there were 854,411 Koreans in China. As Japanese rule extended to China, the Japanese government forced Korean farmers to migrate north to China to develop the land. During World War II, many Koreans in China joined the Chinese peoples in fighting against the Japanese invaders. Many also joined on the Communist side and fought against the Chinese Nationalist armies during the Chinese Civil War. After 1949, estimated at about 600 thousand individuals, or 40% of the Korean population at the time, chose to return to the Korean peninsula. But most Koreans chose to stay in China and took up Chinese citizenship between 1949 (the end of the Chinese Civil War) and 1952.[3]
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many Chinese of Korean descent joined the People's Volunteer Army on the side of North Korea during the Korean War.[4] Most Chinese of Korean descent have ancestral roots and family ties in the Hamgyong region of North Korea, and speak the Hamgyŏng dialect of Korean according to North Korean conventions.[5] Yanbian, where most ethnic Koreans live, was designated as an autonomous county in 1952, and was upgraded to an autonomous prefecture in 1955.[4] A Changbai Korean Autonomous County was designated in Jilin province, as well as several autonomous Korean districts in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia.[5] However, from around 1990, the ethnic Korean population of Yanbian began shrinking because of increased emigration. The share of the ethnic Korean population in Yanbian dropped from 60.2% in 1953 to 36.3% in 2000. This process is a result of social changes in the ethnic Korean community. The success of the economic reforms in China brought fast growth. In the past, most ethnic Koreans aspired to become good farmers. Now, success is increasingly associated with a college degree and/or migration to a large city such as Seoul. Koreans are one of the most educated ethnic groups in China,[6] and is regarded as a model minority.[7] They are also well represented in college professorships. Korean language publications are encouraged by the state, and most Korean high school graduates take the National Higher Education Entrance Examination in Korean.[8]
A significant proportion of China's ethnic Korean citizens now reside in South Korea; As of 2009[update], there were 443,566 ethnic Koreans with PRC citizenship residing in South Korea, making up 71% of all Chinese citizens in the country.[9] However, they receive less favourable immigration treatment than ethnic Koreans from other countries, such as Korean Americans.[10] Huang Youfu, a professor at the Minzu University of China and himself an ethnic Korean, as well as Scott Snyder of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, note that joseonjok who have worked in South Korea often develop poor feelings towards South Korea, due to the mistreatment they experience there; Huang believes their writing about their negative experiences on the internet has been a major factor in the spread of anti-Korean sentiment in China.[11][12]
There are 53,000 Chaoxianzu Koreans in Japan (approximately 33% of them are under student visas) as of 2011.[13]
Most ethnic Koreans in China speak Mandarin Chinese and many also speak fluent Korean as their mother tongue.[2]
Most of the ethnic Koreans in China are Buddhists,[2] but there is also a large proportion following Christianity, and using Korean language to do the mass.[14]
In recent years, there have been various cases of "international marriage" between ethnic Koreans from China hailing from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture marrying South Korean men.[15] This trend of has been argued by some as having resulted in an acceleration of the reduction of fertility among the Korean population in China.[15]
Chinese people of Korean descent are comfortable regarding themselves as part of the Chinese nation and see no contradiction between their Korean ethnicity and Chinese nationality.[16] Ethnic Korean identity has been strengthened in China since the 1990s, and the Chaoxianzu are "at the forefront of insisting on the use of their own language in the education system".[17] Despite the Chaoxianzu's strong assertion of their cultural identity in recent years, the Chaoxianzu are relatively free of tensions with the majority Han Chinese and harbor no secessionist aspirations. Reasons that have been put forth for this harmony include the destitution of North Korea, a shared Confucianism, and a lack of a religious cleavage between the Koreans and the Han.[18]
Although Chaoxianzu's intermarriage with other ethnic groups was rare in the past, it is increasing nowadays.[19] Li Dexiu (李德洙), the ethnic Korean head of the Ethnic Affairs Commission, has publicly mused a change of China's official ethnic policy from one of respect for differences to one of assimilation.[20] Despite such situation, Chaoxianzu people often claim a common cultural heritage between them and the Koreans in the Korean Peninsula but view themselves separately as one of Chinese minorities. Common Korean culture such as Korean food, Korean dance, and Hanbok are often explained as part of the many minority Chinese cultures by the Chaoxianzu.[21] Furthermore, some Chaoxianzu scholars were widely involved with the Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, whose approach to ancient Sino-Korean history has been criticized by the South Korean government.[22] Aside from that, some Chaoxianzu students studying in Korea were accused of violence towards South Korean demonstrators who were conducting anti-PRC protests at the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay.[23] The South Korean government gives some type of legal acknowledgments to overseas Koreans despite their citizenship.
China has a large number of North Korean refugees, estimated at anywhere between 20,000 and 400,000 as of 2006[update]. Some North Korean refugees who are unable to obtain transport to South Korea instead marry chaoxianzu and settle down in China, blending into the community; however, they are still subject to deportation if discovered by the authorities.[24]
As of 2011[update], there are an estimated four to five thousand North Koreans residing as legal resident aliens in China. An increasing number are applying for naturalisation as Chinese citizens; however, this requires a certificate of loss of North Korean nationality, which North Korean authorities have recently become more reluctant to issue.[25] Major North Korean universities, such as the Kim Il-sung University and the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies also send a few dozen exchange students to Peking University and other top-ranked Chinese universities each year.[26]
After the 1992 normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, many citizens of South Korea started to settle in China. Large new communities of South Koreans have formed in Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao.[27] The South Korean government officially recognises seven Korean international schools in China, located in Yanbian, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, and Dalian, all founded between 1997 and 2003.[28] Most of the population of Koreans in Hong Kong also consists of South Korea expatriates. Typically, they come to China as employees of South Korean corporations on short-term international assignments; when their assignments are completed, many prefer to stay on in China, using the contacts they have made to start their own consulting businesses or import/export firms. Other South Koreans also moved to China on their own after becoming unemployed during the 1997 financial crisis; they used funds they had saved up for retirement to open small restaurants or shops.[29] The low cost of living compared to Seoul, especially the cheap tuition at international schools teaching both English and Chinese, is another pull factor for South Korean migration to China.[27]
The number of South Koreans in China was estimated to be 300,000 to 400,000 as of 2006[update]; at the 2006 rate of growth, their population had been expected to reach one million by 2008.[27] By 2007, the South Korean Embassy in Beijing stated their population had reached 700,000. However, due to the global economic downturn in 2008 and the depreciation of the Korean won, large numbers of those returned to South Korea. A Bloomberg News article initially stated the proportion as 20% (roughly 140,000 people).[30] Between 2008 and 2009, South Korean government figures show that the number of Koreans in China dropped by 433,000.[1] The Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China reported 120,750 South Koreans in Mainland China, the largest single foreign group.[31]
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