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There was a case that the National Museum of China deleted Goguryeo and Balhae from the timeline of Korean history posted on the special exhibition held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and China. It also switched ‘BC 2333’ that the Korean counterparty proposed as the founding year of Gojoseon to ‘?’, instead.  Since then, the media outlet and experts suggested various opinions on the meanings of such act and measures to prevent it from reoccurring.  Recently, it was found that no artifacts of Goguryeo and Balhae were included in the list of relics we provided for the exhibition through the recent parliamentary inspection and news report. Some argued that we intentionally excluded items that may have caused contentious with China. And, it was said that the Korean museum requested to ‘change’ or ‘entirely delete’ the items along with an apology when the issue of timeline went public.  There was an argument that such stance served as a reason for the National Museum of China to entirely delete the timeline.

I also discussed on the significance of this event and what it meant through taking interview with media and contributing to the press. I pointed out repeatedly that we have to make an effort to show the ancient history of Korea to the academic circles and international society and raise the stature of our ancient kingdoms such as Buyeo, Okjeo, Goguryeo, Balhae, etc. to solve this issue from the roots. Also, I raised concerns over the fact that the ancient history of Korea centered on the southern Manchuria is disappearing from history textbooks and local museums in China through an article titled ‘Ancient history of Korea being erased from China’ released in Northeast Asian History Report, a bimonthly magazine of the Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) (Issue No. 26, released on October 14, 2022).

Through this article, I want to deal with the issue of oblivion of history with regard to the ‘Ethnic Korean Chinese’ or ethnic Koreans living in China from the long-term perspectives. I believe that the event mentioned above is a testament to the significant distortion of Korean history by China and heralds the upcoming agony of ancient history of Korea in China.

It is well known that China took the stance of emphasizing the history of Gojoseon, Goguryeo and Balhae as part of Chinese history to conduct its Northeast project. In this regard, the focus was put on studying the civilization of Korean Peninsula as part of Chinese history in terms of relations between central and local governments, rather than having the perspectives of diplomatic relations between ancient kingdoms of Korea and China or that our civilization was rooted in Chinese nation. The research outcomes conducted based on such stance of the Chinese government are recently being published and they are even promoted through museums and halls of historic site exhibitions

Of course, we may point out and argue the issue of distortion of our history by China with historical evidence. However, it is a whole different story if the history of our ancient kingdoms centered on the southern Manchuria are removed from history textbooks and local museums, and are not mentioned at all in China.

Beware of the oblivion of ancient history of Koreans and ‘Ethnic Korean Chinese’ in China

The act of ‘deletion’ is equivalent to ‘oblivion’ in history. Chances are high that if our ancient kingdoms centered in the southern Manchuria are not mentioned by local museums or history textbooks, it may lead to the disappearance of ancient history of the ‘Ethnic Korean Chinese.’

The ‘Ethnic Korean Chinese’ refers to residents in China originated from the Han race migrated from the Korean Peninsula from the end of the 19th to mid-20th century. They largely live in the northeast China such as Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and many of them live in South Korea as well. The Chinese government recognized the right to autonomy of ethnic groups under its minority policy which led to the establishment of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous District in September 1952. Its status lowered later and became the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in December, 1955. It was easy to find history books written in Korean and streets were full of friendly Korean signboards during the visits to Yanbian or the three provinces in northeast China in the early 2000s. The history, language, and culture of ethnic groups were respected and considered as priorities.

When I visited the same places few years ago, however, I had to face totally different landscapes. Korean signboards had disappeared and in place were Chinese signboards. Also, it was hard to find books written in Korean.  Old ‘Korean-Chinese’ professors teaching the history of Goguryeo and Balhae had retired and many young people moved to big cities to find a job. I also heard that it was difficult to find a job, if they did not know Chinese language and history.  As the Chinese government decided to adopt the standard Chinese as the official language in schools located in the areas where minority groups live in 2020, the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, too, established a standard writing system by using Chinese as the official language coming July. Also, signboards on the streets have changed the written order where Chinese came first followed by Korean. It is also said that school textbooks have changed to the state-designated books. Thus, the landscapes of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture will also be changed to become unfamiliar to us.

Chinese historian Gu Jegang comments “The ethnic unification cannot be achieved based on lies”

In the early 1900s, China began to use the term 'Chinese nation' instead of the 'dynastic history' in order to establish the ‘history of China’ as a national history. Since then, the country started process to include multiple ethnic groups to the category of ‘ethnic Chinese groups.’ In the mid to end of 1980s, the country raised a concept of plurality and unity of Chinese nation’ to develop the history of China form the cultural anthropological perspectives. During the similar period, the Chinese archaeological community has established the hypothesis of the pluralistic origins and argued that the unified multi-ethnic groups to constitute a country of today was formed through the process of correlations and integrations of the archaeological culture of multiple tribes. Under such theoretical frameworks, it considered the Chinese culture as a single organic mechanism and combined multiple ethnic groups to unite as one Chinese nation centering on the Han ethnic group. The concept of ‘Chinese nation’ continues to evolve even today and the theory of ‘Chinese ethnic groups as a unity’ argued by Xi Jinping may be viewed as its final version.

If the country continues with such affairs, the unique history and culture of ethnic groups in China will fade and merge into the ‘Chinese nation’ to be erased from the history.

For instance, a significant reduction of the historical description of Goguryeo and Balhae from Chinese history textbooks, complete deletion of ancient history of Korea from world history textbooks, inclusion of ancient kingdoms of Korea to the chronicle of Chinese history. Examples are display of Buyeo artifacts by citing that they were originated from ‘Han (Buyeo)’, construction of a relics park in Manbal-balja site , where many of relics consisted to be Goguryeo artifacts were found, in Tonhua, Jilin, into one focusing on the Jurchen and the Manchus. And a policy to adopt Chinese as an official language in autonomous prefectures of ethnic groups. Such practices are beyond the distortion of historical evidence.

What we should be wary of is that the ancient Korean history is completely removed from China and that our own history is forgotten from ‘Ethnic Korean Chinese’. Also, the biggest challenge for us is to make academic and diplomatic efforts required to remove such fear. Chinese historian Gu Jegang said, “The ethnic unification cannot be achieved based on lies.” I hope that his word can arouse an echo to the Chinese government before we embark on this task.