Transcription
[Music] [Music] Hello viewers, this is Ham Jae-bong's "The Birth of Koreans," Ham Jae-bong. Since I was young, perhaps due to my wanderlust, I've traveled abroad a lot. When I went abroad, I was often asked, "What is a Korean?" and frankly, I experienced a lot of discrimination. Through this, I developed an early awareness of the question of how to define Koreans and how to explain them. So, I studied in that direction, and I've also written many books and given many lectures. Even now, I continue to explore this awareness by writing a book titled "Making Koreans." In "The Birth of Koreans," I will take the time to easily explain and share the results of my research with you. Ham Jae-bong's "The Birth of Koreans" will now begin. In the first segment, I will first talk about the background that led me to this awareness, that is, why I became curious about Koreans all of a sudden. It stems from my childhood experiences. It was 1966, and I was in the second grade of elementary school. My father was a university professor at the time, and he went to the United States on sabbatical. So, even though I was only in the second grade, I went to the United States without being able to speak a single word of English. When we got there and started living in the U.S., what was surprising was that in '66, there were very few Asians in America. They were very rare. So, when I walked down the street, people would stare at me, saying, "It's an Asian," and stare. While adults would try not to stare, children, especially, would stare a lot. And as they stared at me, they would always say, "Chinese, Chinese." I knew that wasn't right. So, after about a year and a half, I started to become somewhat proficient in English. Then one day, I made up my mind and gathered my courage, and went to a department store with my mother. There, a child saw me and said, "Chinese" again. So, I went up to him and said, "I'm not Chinese." I said it clearly. At first, he was startled, but then he quickly regained his composure and asked me, "Japanese?" He said, "Are you Japanese?" So, I replied, "I'm not Japanese either." Then he looked at me and asked, "Then, what are you?" So, I said, "Korean." I said, "I'm Korean." Then this child looked at me and asked, "What's that?" I was so surprised at that moment. Looking back now, it's understandable. In 1966, the country of Korea didn't even exist in the U.S. How could I explain what a Korean is to him? Especially, how is it different from Chinese or Japanese? This awareness struck me then. So, from that moment on, I started to wonder, "How can I explain a Korean in one word? What is the core difference that makes a Korean a Korean, compared to Chinese, Japanese, or people from other countries?" I became very curious about these questions. So, I majored in political thought. After studying abroad and returning to Korea, I taught Korean politics and Korean political thought. I researched how our thought differed from that of other countries, how Western thought differed from Eastern thought, and how our thought differed from Chinese thought. So, I was like you, too. How can I define a Korean in one word? What is the DNA that makes a Korean a Korean? I searched for these things. Then, in 1999, I was teaching at a university in the U.S. at the time. I was attending a regular academic conference in the U.S., a conference related to Korean studies. At the conference, an American professor was presenting. This professor had earned his doctorate at Sogang University in Korea, and his wife was Korean. He spoke Korean very well and had lived in Korea for a long time. But this professor presented something that struck me. He said that after living in Korea for a long time and learning Korean, he found something very peculiar about the Korean language as an English speaker. He said that there is no Korean word that corresponds to the English word "Korean." So, I and other Korean professors present were confused. "What does he mean? Why is there no Korean word for 'Korean'?" I asked him. Then the professor replied, "In English, when you say 'Korean,' if someone lives in South Korea, they are Korean. If they live in North Korea, they are North Korean. If they live in America, they are Korean-American. If they live in Japan, they are Zainichi Korean. If they live in China, they are Korean-Chinese. You can tell that they are all Koreans." He continued, "But in Korean, people living in Korea, South Korea, call themselves 'Hanguk-saram' (Korean). People living in North Korea call themselves 'Joseon-saram' (Joseon person). People living in China are called 'Joseon-jok' (Joseon ethnic group). Those living in Central Asia are called 'Goryeo-in' (Goryeo people). And Koreans living in America are called 'Jae-mi-gyopo' (Korean diaspora in America), and those living in Japan are called 'Jae-il-gyopo' (Korean diaspora in Japan)." He pointed out, "So, 'Hanguk-saram,' 'Joseon-saram,' 'Goryeo-in,' 'Joseon-jok' are all different. Furthermore, 'Jae-mi-gyopo' itself means someone who has gone to live in America. There is no subject in 'Jae-mi-gyopo.' It doesn't say who has gone to live in America. 'Jae-il-gyopo' also means people who have gone to live in Japan." He gave an example: "If a German person goes to live in America, they are called 'Jae-mi-gyopo.' If a French person goes to live in Japan, they are called 'Jae-il-gyopo.' If you say 'Jae-mi-hwagyo' or 'Jae-il-hwagyo,' you know it means Chinese people who have gone to live in America. But with 'Jae-mi-gyopo' and 'Jae-il-gyopo,' there is no such subject." Then this professor said, "Why do you keep calling them the same people when they are all different?" he asked, with a smile, half joking, half serious. At that moment, I was shocked. "That's right," I thought. "Why is that? Why have the terms become so different?" Jews are called Jews no matter where they live. French people are French, Germans are German, Japanese are Japanese, and Chinese are Chinese. But Koreans, if they live in North Korea, they are not called Koreans, right? Isn't that strange? So, I thought, "This is strange. Why has it become so different?" Then, as I pondered this question in my mind, the first thought that came to me was, "Come to think of it, the term 'Hanguk-saram' is strange." The term 'Joseon-saram' makes sense because there was a country called Joseon for 500 or 600 years. So, it's understandable that we are called 'Joseon-saram.' But where did the term 'Hanguk-saram' come from?" So, I returned to Korea and diligently searched. We searched extensively, my assistants and students and I. The oldest record we could find of our mass media and official media referring to Koreans as 'Hanguk-saram' was in the Chosun Ilbo on September 22, 1962. Before that, during the Japanese colonial period, we were called 'Joseon-saram' (Joseon people), right? So, it's a relatively recent phenomenon that we started calling ourselves 'Hanguk-saram.' And if you think about it, it's been about 62 years since '62. So, it seems that people started to feel that Koreans were different from the 'Joseon-saram' of the past, and that the system was different from the Joseon system. That's why they even changed the name. They started calling themselves 'Hanguk-saram' instead of 'Joseon-saram.' However, on the other hand, I also thought, "Well, the terms might be different. People in North Korea call themselves 'Joseon-saram,' and we call ourselves 'Hanguk-saram.' The terms might be different, but surely there are commonalities among us as one people throughout our half-millennium history? There must be something core that we share. Something that clearly distinguishes us from others. So, let's examine this. If there is such a thing, then no matter how different the terms are, aren't we ultimately the same people?" I started to think this way. So, I began to search. What was I looking for? When we say "one people," what do they usually share? Language, customs, ideology, religion, and race. So, if we share these things, aren't we Koreans, even if we are different? Aren't we the same people? So, first, I looked at language. Is speaking Korean well enough to make you Korean? No. Many second and third-generation Korean immigrants living abroad don't speak Korean at all. On the other hand, there are many foreigners working in broadcasting in Korea who speak Korean fluently. Some say they speak Korean better than Koreans, and there are more and more of them. Diplomats, corporate representatives, and students coming to Korea, of course, are all becoming very proficient in Korean. Speaking Korean well does not define a Korean. So, language does not make a Korean. Then, another thing we have is customs, etiquette, and manners. I often think this. It might sound shocking to you, but I think this: There are few countries where customs are as chaotic as they are in Korea. When we have a wedding, how do we have it? I did it too. We wear Western suits, then change into Hanbok in the middle, and then perform a 'pyebaek' ceremony, which is considered Korean style. But it's not really Korean style, it's Joseon style. If a foreigner friend asks to see a Korean wedding, can we confidently say that the wedding we are having is a Korean wedding? The same applies to funerals. Traditional funeral rites have disappeared. Modern funerals are held in hospital morgues, and we've only been doing this for a short time. So, important customs like weddings and funerals, among the traditional rites of passage, have completely lost their common etiquette, even though many people still observe ancestral rites. Then there's ideology. Well, it's too obvious. The country is split in half because of ideology. Even within that divided country, as we've seen in recent elections, we can't help but think that people have incredibly diverse ideologies, values, worldviews, and historical perspectives. So, ideology does not unite us at all. Ideology actually divides us. Then there's religion. I dare to say that Korea is the most religiously diverse country in the world. Even more so than immigrant countries like the U.S. or Canada. Or South American countries like Brazil and Argentina, which are immigrant countries. Our religious diversity is far greater. While there are various statistics, roughly 25% of people who identify with a religion are Protestant, 20-25% are Buddhist, and about 9-10% are Catholic. And so on. What's surprising is that among Asian countries, there are no other countries where Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic, is so prevalent. The Philippines is an exception because it was a Spanish colony for 400 years, so almost everyone is Catholic. But in other Asian countries, the combined percentage of Protestants and Catholics is less than 1%. In China, while they officially claim about 2%, Chinese statistics are unreliable, and it's unclear how many are truly Christian or Catholic, but it's definitely a very small number. Yet, in Korea, 25% of religious people are Protestant, 10% are Catholic, and 20-25% are Buddhist. On the other hand, consider Japan. Their religion is a mix of Shinto and Buddhism, almost 100%. Let's look at other Asian countries. For example, Malaysia and Indonesia are Islamic. Sri Lanka and Thailand are Buddhist. India is Hindu, Pakistan is Islamic, and the Middle East is all Islamic. In Europe, France, Spain, and Italy are Catholic. The UK is Anglican. Germany is half Catholic and half Protestant. Nordic countries are all Lutheran. Crossing the continent, South America is all Catholic. In the U.S., about 50% are Protestant, 15% are Catholic, and other religions also stem from the Christian tradition. Compared to this, Korea is truly a surprising religious museum. So, in most countries, religion and the nation, the ethnic nation, often coincide. But this is not the case in Korea. We are not like that. So, finally, there's the concept of ethnicity, bloodline, and so on. When I started writing this book, "Making Koreans," I did a lot of research. Up until 1985, there were traditional surnames in Korea, about 25 of them. Even then, more than half, 136 surnames, claimed that their ancestors were naturalized foreigners who came from abroad. They came from China, from the Qin Dynasty, the Yin Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and so on. If you look it up, most of them are like that. So, we were not a single ethnic group. We were very diverse racially from the beginning. Then, I found that after 2015, in 2015, there were about 4,500 surnames in Korea. If you search now, you can find on the internet, on Google, that there are about 5,800 surnames in Korea. This is because we have had multiculturalism since 2006. So, foreigners can come to Korea, live here, and become naturalized citizens, becoming Korean citizens. When they become Korean citizens, if someone is from Pakistan, say Mr. Muhammad, they would register their surname as Muhammad and their birthplace as Islamabad, for example. All of this is written in Hangeul. Among the over 5,000 surnames, more than 4,000 do not even have Chinese characters. So, looking at these things, and after reviewing them, as I mentioned earlier, I thought, "Even if the terms are different, there must be something we share. Language, religion, ideology, bloodline, etc. There must be something." But after searching and examining everything, the reality is that there isn't. So, when I was shocked as a child and went to the U.S., and was shocked, and wondered, "What is a Korean? What is the essence of a Korean?" I set out to find it. In a way, I spent my whole life studying this, got a doctorate in it, and taught about it, trying to find the DNA of Koreans, the Korean essence. But at that academic conference, hearing the question, "Why is there no word in Korean corresponding to the English word 'Korea'?" I was shocked. From then on, I started to delve into it, and the conclusion I reached was that there is no DNA that can define a Korean in one word, something that only Koreans possess. I couldn't find it. Because we are so diverse in religion, ideology, race, and ethnicity. Instead, as a political scientist, someone who studied political thought and researches Korea, I thought, "What should I do?" The conclusion I reached was that I need to change the question. The question is wrong. The problem is not finding the essence, the DNA that defines Koreans. Rather, the truly important question is: Why are Koreans so diverse? Why are Koreans so unusually diverse in ideology compared to other countries? Why are they so diverse religiously? Why have customs in Korea become so disorganized and disappeared? Why have traditional customs disappeared, and even Korean customs disappeared? Why have they become so diverse? From then on, I decided that I need to explain the diversity of Koreans. Explaining the reasons for this diversity would be the way to explain who Koreans truly are. And through this, we can understand how Koreans are being made and how they will be made in the future. So, I changed my question, and this is the work I've been doing, and what I want to share with you through this broadcast and this program is the process of the birth of Koreans. So, I mentioned earlier that there were "Joseon people." The process of transitioning from "Joseon people" to "Koreans" is the process of the birth of Koreans, the process of making Koreans. So, this time, let's talk about why the "Joseon people" disappeared and how "Koreans" were born in that process. The "Joseon people" disappeared with the disappearance of Joseon. The country of Joseon was destroyed on August 22, 1910, with the so-called Japan-Korea Annexation. Joseon ceased to exist. And from then on, the Joseon people lost their national sovereignty. But if you look at history, what's surprising is that by the time Joseon lost its sovereignty, around 1910, most Joseon people had already rejected Joseon. This may sound strange to you, but it's a historical fact. The loss of national sovereignty was sad. But they were not sad about the disappearance of Joseon. Few people mourned the disappearance of the country of Joseon, the Joseon dynasty's Confucian system, the country it built. As you know, even though a country that had existed for 500 years, Joseon, was destroyed, there were very few people who mourned its destruction and committed suicide. We learn about figures like Min Chung-jong, Min Yeong-hwan, and Maecheon Hwang Hyun, who wrote "Maecheon Yarok." But in reality, almost no one did. Most of the common people did not mourn the disappearance of Joseon. We can see this from the fact that Joseon people rejected Joseon early on, even before losing their country. For example, consider the introduction of Catholicism to Korea. Catholicism entered Korea in 1784. Yi Seung-hun received baptism at a Catholic church in Beijing, China. In the history of religion, it is extremely rare for missionaries not to have come, but people from a neighboring country to seek out missionaries and ask for baptism, to become followers of this new religion. Yet, in Joseon at that time, members of the yangban class went to receive baptism. Yi Seung-hun, and those who sent him, like Gwon Cheol-sin, were all from prominent yangban families. What is a yangban? They are the priests of Confucianism. There are no pastors or priests in the church. But in Confucianism, who is the officiant at ancestral rites? It's the father. So, yangban should be seen as the priests of Confucianism, the pastors of Confucianism. Yet, these people, who were supposed to uphold Confucianism, voluntarily went to a neighboring country to accept a completely new religion. And that religion demanded that they not perform ancestral rites according to traditional customs. So, they got rid of ancestral tablets and spirit tablets. Despite the government's persecution, they maintained that religion. These are the officiants of Confucian rites, the priests, the pastors, the yangban. I can interpret this in various ways, but the fact that people who were supposed to uphold Confucianism voluntarily, and not commoners, slaves, or women, who were marginalized, despised, and discriminated against by the Confucian system, but even the ruling class, voluntarily went to a neighboring country to accept another religion, shows that Confucianism had already lost its authority in Joseon society. This is a clear indication. We must look at modern history of the 18th and 19th centuries in this context. From this perspective, consider the Donghak Uprising in 1860, the emergence of the Gaehwapa (enlightenment faction) in the 1880s who sought to learn from Japan, or the rapid spread of Protestantism starting in 1884-85. How should we interpret this? It shows that it's not Joseon, that we need to rebuild society and the country with something other than Joseon's Confucian system. This awareness, that we need to build a new country, had spread widely. So, many people might ask, "But how can people not mourn the loss of their country?" This is a very sensitive issue. But as I said, they mourned the loss of national sovereignty. However, they did not mourn the collapse of Joseon. This is the point. And this was revealed very starkly in the March 1st Movement. The March 1st Movement occurred in 1919, exactly nine years after the fall of Joseon. And the day the March 1st Movement occurred was also the day of King Gojong's funeral. It was the funeral of Gojong, who was the emperor of Joseon, the king of Joseon, and the emperor of the Korean Empire. So, on that day, the movement for the recovery of national sovereignty, the 만세 (manse) movement, took place. The 만세 movement occurred. Think about it. The March 1st Movement was a movement to regain the lost country. It was a nationwide movement, organized secretly without the Japanese ever imagining it. However, if it was a movement to regain national sovereignty, the country lost nine years ago was Joseon. It could be called a great country, but it was the Korean Empire, which became Joseon. But during the March 1st Movement, with the nationwide 만세 movement to regain the lost country, was there even one person who said, "Let's re-establish Joseon"? Or "Let's re-establish the Korean Empire by reinstating the last surviving emperor, Sunjong"? Or "Let's bring back the last crown prince, Yi Eun, and place him on the throne to re-establish Joseon"? There was no one like that. And after the March 1st Movement, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established in Shanghai. Among the many leaders who participated in the Provisional Government, have you ever heard of anyone who said, "Let's establish a provisional government for the lost Joseon, the vanished Korean Empire"? You haven't. The fact that nine years after the fall of a 500-year-old country, with the last emperor and the last crown prince still alive, not a single person among the Joseon people wanted to re-establish Joseon means that they hated Joseon. So, what becomes the problem? The country was lost, national sovereignty was lost, and at the same time, the traditional Confucianism was rejected. After losing the country and rejecting its culture, what is left? Nothing is left. If national sovereignty is gone, and even the tradition and civilization that sustained the country are rejected, nothing remains. So, what happens? The awareness is formed at this point. The country was lost, but someday national sovereignty will be regained. The day the country is regained will come. But that country will not be Joseon. So, what is the problem? What happens? The country will be regained, but what kind of country will be established? Naturally, that becomes an important question. What kind of country will be established? Since it will not be Joseon, from this point on, people began to research what kind of ideology, philosophy, religion, system, and values should the new country, to be established on the day of liberation, independence, and regaining national sovereignty, possess? And for that purpose, they began to scatter across the world. Some went to Japan, to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, researching how Japan achieved modernization, how the Meiji Restoration created a modern nation. Some went to China, to Beijing, Nanjing, Chongqing, Shanghai, learning how they were trying to build a new modern country, what ideology they were pursuing. Some began to research how to build a Christian nation in America. Some, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, went to the Soviet Union, to Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, researching what the Soviets were and how to build such a communist country. In this process, they scattered across the world, converted to new religions, embraced new ideologies, organized, published newspapers, formed military units, and did all sorts of organizing. They thought, "Someday, when we regain national sovereignty, I will build a country like this, with this ideology, this religion, this system." They began to research this. During this process, for 500 years of the Joseon dynasty, no one from Joseon ever went outside. Westerners in the 19th century called Korea the "Hermit Kingdom." They said it was completely closed off. No one went out. Who went out during the Joseon dynasty? Only a few people who occasionally went to China for diplomatic missions, and those who went to Japan as envoys once every few decades. Apart from those, the only Joseon people who went abroad were those captured as prisoners of war during the Imjin War and the Byeongja Horan, and sold into slavery. Other than that, Joseon people did not go abroad. So, foreigners came and called it the Hermit Kingdom, a closed country. But these people began to scatter across the world, seeking to learn new ideologies, new systems, new religions. In this process, what we now know as the Korean diaspora occurred. Currently, there are 720,000 Koreans in 175 countries worldwide. The Overseas Koreans Foundation was recently upgraded. There are gatherings like the Korean American Association, and people doing business among overseas Koreans. These kinds of gatherings have been formed. This is how the Korean diaspora came about. So, for decades, they went out and sought to build a country through new ideologies, new systems, and new religions. Then, 1945 finally arrived. Although not by our own strength, liberation came. At that time, those who had scattered across the world, seeking to build a new country, who had endured all sorts of hardships, sought change, learned new things, and organized, all gathered. Thus, the period of liberation was formed. They came and said, "We must build an American-style Christian nation." "No, we must build a Soviet-style Soviet Union." "No, Japanese style." "No, Chinese style." Could they reach an agreement? They could not. Moreover, those who had learned from the world's superpowers, who had strong ties and organizations with them, came and proposed building a country in their own way. So, compromise was impossible. Because compromise was impossible, the country was eventually divided in half. And within South Korea, because it was formed by people with such diverse worldviews, religions, and ideologies, it became a divided country in terms of ideology, values, customs, and religion. That is what Koreans are. That is Korea. It is so diverse. So, while diversity can be endlessly discussed, I have personally categorized this diversity into five types. I have grouped them. Others may define more or different types of Koreans, but based on my studies, I believe these five types of Koreans encompass almost all the types of Koreans we have encountered and will encounter in our modern and contemporary society. So, I divided them into five categories: First, the pro-China, pro-Confucian faction. Second, the pro-Japan, enlightenment faction. Third, the pro-America, Christian faction. Fourth, the pro-Soviet, communist faction. And fifth, the racialist or racial nationalist faction. So, I will examine each of these five types. How did the pro-China, pro-Confucian faction form? What ideology did people embrace, and how did it form? Who, and under what circumstances, learned from Japan in the pro-Japan enlightenment faction? What aspects did they like, and what influence did it have? I will look at it this way. So, to summarize these five types briefly: The pro-China, pro-Confucian faction. Among Koreans, as I mentioned earlier about religion, there are so many diverse religions, with Protestants at 25%, Buddhists at 25%, Catholics at 10%, and so on. Yet, 72% of them still perform ancestral rites. Even Protestants. So, there is a layered, complex, and multi-layered religious system, yet they still perform ancestral rites. When asked who a Korean is, many people say that one must know the Three Bonds and Five Virtues, respect elders, use polite language well, and have clear relationships between seniors and juniors, and a clear hierarchy. If you don't know these things, they say that person is underdeveloped. And not only that. For example, if you know a lot of Chinese characters, you are considered knowledgeable. You must know classical Chinese. For example, the Four Books and Five Classics, the Analects, Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Great Learning. Are these Korean books? Or Chinese books? If you have to be precise, aren't they actually Chinese books? But Koreans don't distinguish between Confucius, the Analects, Mencius, the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao. Are they Chinese or Korean? To that extent, Chinese civilization, Confucian civilization, is deeply rooted, and we still have ancestral rites, Hyanggyo (Confucian schools), Seowon (Confucian academies), and when family law is revised, the Confucian scholars rise up. Thus, we have a very strong pro-China, pro-Confucian faction. Many people believe that to be Korean, you must be like this. I also believe that polite language is very important. So, what's next? The pro-Japan enlightenment faction. Starting in the 1880s, some people, by chance, as I will explain later, went abroad. Kim Ok-gyun, Park Yeong-hyo, Seo Jae-pil, Seo Gwang-beom, Hong Yeong-sik, and others. You know them, right? Yoon Chi-ho. These people went to Japan in the 1880s and saw Japan undergoing change, achieving rapid modernization through the Meiji Restoration. They thought, "We always believed that all civilization came from China. We thought China was the center of civilization. But here, we see that true civilization is now Japan. And the Western civilization that Japan is following is true civilization, while Chinese civilization is barbaric and pre-modern. Therefore, we must break away from this and quickly modernize." This was a truly astonishing paradigm shift. Among Joseon people, for the first time, those who believed China was barbaric and Japan was civilized, now thought the opposite: Japan is civilized, and China is barbaric. This is what I call the pro-Japan enlightenment faction. And in fact, even though Koreans dislike Japan, many people like Japan and want to follow it. Many people believe they should follow Japan. When Japanese scientists win Nobel Prizes, we always think we should follow them. It is very common to want to follow Japan. Therefore, to understand Koreans, one must understand the pro-Japan enlightenment faction. Third is the pro-America, Christian faction. Protestantism began to enter Korea in 1884-85. As Protestantism entered, schools like Ewha, Yonhui, Baejae, and Sungsil were established in Korea. And hospitals like Severance and Dongdaemun Hospital were built. They began to educate women, commoners, and ordinary people who had not received education in Joseon. They established hospitals and began to treat people who had been neglected and left untreated, and thus spread Christianity. In fact, among our past presidents, Protestants are likely the most numerous. And without understanding the role of Protestantism, it is impossible to understand the modern history of Korea. Korea is now likely the country that sends the most missionaries abroad after the United States. We must understand this aspect. This is also an important part of understanding Koreans. Fourth is the pro-Soviet, communist faction. In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution occurred, and the Tsarist Russian Empire became the Soviet Union. What is the Soviet Union? What is Marxism, which supports the Soviet Union? It is an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist ideology. For Joseon people, who were colonized by Japan, an imperialist and capitalist country, there was no ideology as perfect as anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. Moreover, at that time, Western countries and Japan were all indifferent to the independence of Joseon. Only the Soviet Union organized the Comintern and provided significant independence funds, organizational support, and ideological guidance to figures like Yi Dong-hwi, encouraging them to fight for independence. Therefore, countless Joseon intellectuals, like many intellectuals in the Third World, turned to the Soviet Union and communism, Marxism, thinking, "Let's build a Soviet-style system." These people came and eventually led to the division of the country, and the establishment of North Korea. People who wanted to build such a country, although it has been distorted now, started with that intention. In that sense, we must never ignore the pro-Soviet communist faction. Within Korea, even within South Korea, the so-called left-wing, progressive, and socialist tendencies are very strong. In fact, if we look at elections, we can divide them roughly 50-50. This ideological root comes from here. Without understanding this, we cannot understand Koreans. Fifth and last is racial nationalism. This came with Shin Chae-ho's book "Doksa Sillon" (Theory of Reading History) in 1908. It argued that the history of a nation should be written by tracing the history of the dominant racial group and its rise and fall. History written otherwise is empty. Racial nationalism took root strongly in Korea for the following reason: As I mentioned earlier, the country was lost, traditions were rejected, people scattered across the world, ideologies and religions differed, and languages differed. In such a situation, what binds us together? It is blood, ethnicity, race. This idea emerged. Today, perhaps, the only thing that North and South Korea share is this nationalism, this racialism. All other ideologies, values, economic systems, everything has changed. The only thing they can share is that they share the same blood. Therefore, North Korea also excessively emphasizes "Our People Together" and "Unity." In a way, racial nationalism can be considered one of the strongest discourses that defines Koreans today. Today was the first session. I don't know how you viewers felt about it. In the next session, I will talk about the "Joseon people" who existed before Koreans were made. How were those "Joseon people" made? How did Goryeo people transform into Joseon people? Why did they try to make Joseon people out of Goryeo people? Why did Joseon people have to be made? I will talk about this. Ham Jae-bong's "The Birth of Koreans," which explores Korean identity through historical events and figures, will return next time. Thank you for watching. [Music]