About The History Of The Korean Nationality In Heilongjiang Province Northwest Countryside Of Ethnology

This thesis is an ethnological study on the history of Korean-Chinese towns’exploitation and construction in the northwest Heilungkiang. It is not only a document of villagers’exploitation and construction but also of the history that they wrote for themselves from the1950’s to the period of reformation and opening.Until now, the common people including the Korean-Chinese have not been able to get the opportunities to record their own history or express their recognition for themselves. That’s because the common people didn’t have the cultural abilities to record their own history; their history has remained only in their memories, while they devoted themselves to their occupations to suivive. However, the biggest reason is the repeated mistake that common people’s history has been neglected in contents as well as forms under the conditions that villagers have been excluded completely because of historical structure and paradigm.However, the history of common people and historical consciousness started to appear finally with the help of the reflection on this mistake and with the extensive application of the qualitative approach in methodology. Personal memories and scattered pieces in private areas were moved into public areas in the name of society. After personal memories were converted into public memories, we could classify the past events and previous experiences more systematically and realistically. The power that made it possible was an oral history method, which is one of the qualitative approaches. In the past, an oral history method was ignored totally or used as only a supplementary basis for truth in most cases; but it now makes modern humanities more fertile and colorful as the mainstream method.My study is based on the oral history method. The village of xianming published’the abridged version of its history’, but it was not possible for most Korean-Chinese towns to record their own history. Moreover, it’s like a mere drop in the ocean to find these records among common people who spent their entire lives working in the fields. It was the oral history method that overcame all these difficulties.Now the oral history method surpasses the stage’Problem Objection-Debates-Verification-Establishment’. Its importance is acknowledged widely and it plays various roles in humanities and social fields.I am trying to extract villagers’memories based on this method, to organize an individual or village history, and to analyze the way they realize historical meanings.When we begin, I would like to suppose and pose three points.First, vertical and horizontal examinations which are essential methods in Chinese ethnologic study have to be preceded. Let’s apply these methods to the Korean-Chinese. The previous Korean-Chinese study had focused on explaining their movement, their settlement and the Korean-Chinese town but it hasn’t attracted much attention with the temporal aspect. However, I found a lot of limits when I considered only vertical aspects in analyzing the diverse ethnic situations in details. To overcome these limits, we need to consider both the temporal aspect and the spatial aspect(horizontal examination) at the same time. After that, we can achieve a more scientific study.From this point of view, I wanted to pay attention to two Korean-Chinese towns which developed in Qiqihar in the1950’s. How did they go through their strife and exploitation? How could the Korean-Chinese take ethnic roots so deeply and play the main role in Chinese society? To find answers will be helpful to overcome the present Korean-Chinese crisis wisely. Therefore, we need to pay attention to the1950’s and the2nd period, when they enhanced their legal status as a minority group. This could fill in the empty parts of the study and have an important part in understanding the starting points of the Korean-Chinese history.Both mingxing villlage and xianming villange which are located in Longsha and MeilisiQu of Qiqihar were newly developed towns in the1950’s. mingxing villlage and xianming villange have kept the aspect of the Korean-Chinese ethnic village, but they are in the process of changing for a new era.As in other areas of northeast China, the Korean-Chinese moved in and settled in northwest Heilong Jiang including Qiqihar, in inner Mongolia(near Nunkiang and Great Khingan), in Liaoning, and in the northwest Jilin prior to1930. However, from the1930’s to the1950’s, they had to wander and move repeatedly because of poor agricultural conditions and poor human geographic situation. Consequently, they were always ready to move. Any places were acceptable as long as the people had better surroundings to survive and could meet more Korean-Chinese people.Some pioneers moved to Nen river neighboring Qiqihar. They experienced several floods and confronted serious crises but they started to develop mingxing villlage and xianming villange At that time, they experienced flooding and the overflowing in Nen river almost every year because of few irrigation facilities. However, they never became frustrated and overcame these challenges continuously. They also accepted the neighboring Korean-Chinese people widely and cooperated with them.Unfortunately, there came a time when they couldn’t get a grain to survive due to severe flooding. However, they finally built a strong river bank to stop the flooding after they fought barehanded against poor facilities and cooperated with each other. As a result, they gained an extensive paddy field. This was an event unprecedented in neighboring areas in the case of a single town, so villagers enjoyed wealth and honor as one of the No.10towns in Heilungkiang.The villagers’memories are in progress now. The memories about its best days begin to stir more strongly at a critical time for this disappearing Korean-Chinese town. If we ignore and overlook this point, their memories will disappear before there is an opportunity to talk to our descendants who are familiar with the modern market economy. The final decision depends on our descendant and on the academic world. If we don’t look at those alive in the present and only stick to look back on the remote past, we may be too busy with finding disappeared materials, because the present will soon turn into the faraway past someday.Public memories of mingxing villlage and xianming villange contain a complete history of exploitation and construction. The process is being reproduced constantly, with the memories of the river bank, flood and a Rag.