The moment I stepped off the plane at Yanji Airport in northeast China, pictures of Korean traditional marriage garments (hanbok) lining the sky corridor caught the eye. Hungry for some old-school Korean food, I made a beeline to a food stall selling tteok, a chewy, if often flavorless rice cake that, despite being a workout for the jaw, is a staple Korean dessert.
The tteok was exquisitely dull—as it should be—but the process of buying was essentially Chinese: Payment was through a WeChat QR code, the exchange of pleasantries conducted in Mandarin. The stall owners, wearing in purple and green hanbok, were ethnic Koreans, though, officially known in South Korea as jaeoe dongpo (“compatriots who live abroad”) and in China, Chaoxianzu (朝鲜族). With a population of around 2.5 million, Koreans are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in China.
I had arrived in Yanji, the seat of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and the city with the largest amount of ethnic Koreans in China. Although there are considerable Chaoxianzu populations in tourist hotspots like Harbin and Dandong, these cities have little to no overt traces of their hybrid Chinese-Korean culture. It is only in Yanji that the Korean alphabet’s straight lines and circles can be seen on the first row of every single shop, bank, and road sign, making this city “home” for China’s Koreans.
Create a free account to keep reading up to 10 free articles each month
Korea Town is a story from our issue, “The Masculinity Issue.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
Related Articles
