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Paper short abstract

This paper revisits ethnicity through a diachronic analysis of Korean diasporic people categorized as Chaoxianzu in China and positioned as Chōsenseki in Japan, showing how postwar institutions and post–Cold War reinterpretations in South Korea reveal ethnicity as constructed.

Paper long abstract

This paper revisits the concept of ethnicity through a diachronic analysis of Korean diasporic people who have been categorized as Chaoxianzu in China and positioned as Chōsenseki in Japan. Although these people share a common diasporic history originating in migration from the Korean Peninsula, they have been differently classified and governed under distinct postwar state systems and institutional frameworks, resulting in divergent historical trajectories.

The paper further examines how such people have been taken up and interpreted within South Korean society since the post–Cold War era and under conditions of globalization. Focusing on the connections between their institutional and social positioning in China and Japan, it demonstrates that their visibility in South Korea reflects less inherent attributes than historically formed classifications and the social and political context of South Korea as a host society.

By tracing how Korean diasporic people are repeatedly categorized, positioned, and reinterpreted across multiple national frameworks, this paper approaches ethnicity not as a neutral or descriptive label but as a historically and politically constructed framework. In doing so, it challenges state-centered and linear understandings of identity and provides a theoretical foundation for the panel as a whole, connecting to subsequent analyses of social movements, literature, and film.