Korean Chinese (Chaoxianzu): China’s Korean ethnic group and Yanbian

Who the Korean Chinese are

The Chaoxianzu (朝鲜族, Cháoxiǎnzú, literally ‘Joseon ethnic group’) are the people of Korean descent who are one of China’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups. The 2020 census counted 1,702,479, out of 125.47 million people (8.89% of the population) belonging to ethnic minorities. In English they are usually called Korean Chinese, Chinese Koreans or ethnic Koreans in China.

There were Koreans in China much earlier, but most of those early arrivals were absorbed into the population around them. Most Chaoxianzu today descend from families who came in or after the late Qing dynasty. After the Qing lifted its ban on settlement in the north-east in 1860, natural disasters and hardship in the 1860s drove many people north across the Tumen and Yalu rivers to farm. By 1910 about 260,000 Korean migrants lived in China, around 100,000 of them in what is now Yanbian.

In recent decades many younger Chaoxianzu have moved to big Chinese cities, or to South Korea, for work, so the population of Yanbian’s villages has been ageing.[1][2][3]

Yanbian and Yanji

The Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (延边朝鲜族自治州, Yánbiān Cháoxiǎnzú Zìzhìzhōu; in Korean 연변조선족자치주) in eastern Jilin was set up as an autonomous region on 3 September 1952 and became an autonomous prefecture in December 1955. It is the only autonomous prefecture for China’s Korean ethnic group. It is made up of six county-level cities, Yanji, Tumen, Dunhua, Hunchun, Longjing and Helong, and two counties, Wangqing and Antu, with the Changbai Mountains at its centre.

Yanji (延吉; Korean 연길) is the prefecture’s capital and its political, economic and cultural centre; its county-level city had 686,136 people at the 2020 census. Chinese and Korean are both official, all official signs are bilingual, and Korean food is available everywhere. Yanbian University, founded in 1949, is in the city.[4][5][9]

Language and schools

Most Chaoxianzu speak Mandarin, and many speak Korean as their mother tongue. Many families trace their roots to the north-east of the Korean peninsula, around Hamgyong, and speak its dialect, though broadcasters increasingly use the standard Seoul form.

In Yanbian, Korean is kept in everyday use through schools, periodicals, television and bilingual street signs. Children can generally attend Korean-language primary and secondary schools, and Yanbian University serves the Korean community at university level. At the Yanbian Museum, labels and explanations are in both Korean and Chinese.[2][6][4]

Dance and things to see

The farmers’ dance of China’s Korean ethnic group was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. Brought to China at the end of the 19th century, it is danced in fields and villages at community festivals to the sound of the suona, gongs and drums, with comic, masked or unmasked dancers whose steps imitate farm work, such as ‘walking the field ridges’.

Its best-known moment is the elephant cap dance: performers whirl their heads to spin a 12-metre ribbon tied to their caps in circles around them, while tambourine players pose as horse riders and archers. In Yanbian, people from toddlers to octogenarians join in at festivals and family gatherings.

In Yanji, the Chinese Korean Ethnic Park brings together Korean customs and architecture, and visitors can dress up in traditional costume; a rice cake hall there shows cakes shaped into flowers. Changbai Mountain lies to the south of the city. Yanji Chaoyangchuan International Airport has domestic flights, and the Changchun–Yanji Expressway links the city with the provincial capital.[12][13][10][5]