KOREAN
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Korean people are an East Asian ethnic group. Most Koreans live in the Korean Peninsula, and speak the Korean language.
Origin
Koreans are believed to be descendents of Altaic or proto-Altaic speaking tribes, linking them with Mongolians, Tungusics, Turkics, and other Central Asians. Archaeological evidence suggest proto-Koreans were Altaic language speaking migrants from south-central Siberia, who populated ancient Korea in successive waves from neolithic age to Bronze Age.
Recent advances in the study of polymorphisms in the human Y-chromosome have produced evidence to suggest that the Korean people have a very long history as a distinct, mostly endogamous ethnic group, as male Koreans display a high frequency of Y-chromosomes belonging to Haplogroup O2b that are more or less specific to Korean populations.
Though they have interbred to some extent with other East Asian ethnic groups over the ages, for the most part Koreans still display phenotypes revealing their Altaic origins. These features include tall stature, long bridged noses, higher cheekbones, and the Mongolian spot, a genetic predisposition for a bluish birthmark on the lower body which remains until early childhood.
Regional Differences
Significant regional differences exist.
Within South Korea, the most important regional difference is between the Gyeongsang region, embracing Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do provinces in the southeast, and the Jeolla region, embracing Jeollabuk-do and Jeollanam-do provinces in the southwest. The two regions, separated by the Jiri Massif, nurture a rivalry said to reach back to the Three Kingdoms Period, which lasted from the fourth century to the seventh century A.D., when the kingdoms of Baekje and Silla struggled for control of the peninsula.
Observers noted that interregional marriages are rare, and that as of 1990 a new fourlane highway completed in 1984 between Gwangju and Daegu, the capitals of Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do, completed in 1984, had not been successful in promoting travel between the two areas.
South Korea's political elite, including presidents Park Chung-hee, Chun Doo-hwan, and Roh Tae-woo, have come largely from the Gyeongsang region. As a result, Gyeongsang has been a special beneficiary of government development assistance.
By contrast, the Jeolla region has remained comparatively rural, undeveloped, and poor. Chronically disaffected, its people rightly or wrongly have a reputation for rebelliousness. Regional bitterness was intensified by the May 1980 Gwangju massacre, in which about 200 and perhaps many more inhabitants of the capital of Jeollanam-do were killed by Chun Doo-hwan's troops sent to quell the citizens and student's demonstration against military coup regime. The demonstration against military regime occurred all over the country, but only Gwangju was heavily damaged. Many of the troops were reportedly from the Gyeongsang region.
Regional stereotypes, like regional dialects, have been breaking down under the influence of centralized education, nationwide media, and the several decades of population movement since the Korean War. Stereotypes remain important, however, in the eyes of many South Koreans. For example, the people of Gyeonggi-do, surrounding Seoul, are often described as being cultured, and Chungcheong people, inhabiting the region embracing Chungcheongbuk-do and Chungcheongnam-do provinces, are thought to be mild-mannered, manifesting true yangban virtues. The people of Gangwon-do in the northeast were viewed as poor and stolid, while Koreans from the northern provinces of Pyongan, Hwanghae, and Hamgyong, now in North Korea, are perceived as being diligent and aggressive. Jeju-do is infamous for its strong-minded and independent women.
Koreans Outside of the Korean Peninsula
Large-scale emigration from Korea began as early as the mid-1860s, mainly into the Russian Far East and Northeast China; these emigrants became the ancestors of the 2 million ethnic Koreans in China and several hundred thousand ethnic Koreans in Central Asia. During the Japanese colonial period of 1910-1945, Koreans were often recruited and or forced into labour service to work in mainland Japan, Karafuto Prefecture, and Manchukuo; the ones who chose to remain in Japan at the end of the war became known as Zainichi Koreans, while the roughly 40 thousand who were trapped in Karafuto after the Soviet invasion are typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans. Korean emigration to America was known to have begun as early as 1903, but the Korean American community did not grow to a significant size until after the passage of the Immigration Reform Act of 1965; now, roughly 2 million Koreans live in the United States.
Large Koreatowns can also be found in Australia, Brazil, and Canada. The largest Korean community outside of Korea is in Los Angeles, California. British Koreans now form Western Europe's largest Korean community; Koreans in Germany used to outnumber the ones in the UK until the late 1990s. There are also Koreatowns in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Guatemala, and Mexico. In recent years, the number of Koreans in the Philippines and Koreans in Vietnam have also grown significantly.
Jilin
Koreans in China
The population of Koreans in China include millions of descendants of Korean immigrants with citizenship of the People's Republic of China, as well as smaller groups of South and North Korean expatriates. Chinese citizens of Korean descent, referred to in Chinese as Chaoxianzu (朝鲜族), form one of the 56 ethnicities officially recognized by the Chinese government. As of the year 2000, there were two million ethnic Koreans in China. Most of them live in Northeast China. The largest ethnic Korean population in China live in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (854,000 in 2000) in Jilin province.
Throughout history, due to the close interactions between China and Korea, some degree of population movements have always occurred between the two neighboring countries. There were written records of Korean migrations in the early Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and earlier. The majority of early Korean populations in China had assimilated with Chinese society. The current Korean population in China is mainly descended from migrants who came between 1860 and 1945. In the 1860s, a series of natural disasters struck Korea, leading to disastrous famines. Along with the Qing dynasty's loosening of border controls and acceptance of external migration into Northeast China, this pushed many Koreans to migrate.
Koreans in Taiwan
Koreans in Taiwan numbered 3,454 individuals as of 2005. Though a few Korean fishermen lost at sea during the Joseon Dynasty (July 1392 - August 1910) settled in Taiwan, they never formed a significant population. Even with the 1910 onset of Japanese rule in Korea, Korean migration to Taiwan was minimal; it was only in the aftermath of the March 1st Movement and the associated economic difficulties it caused that Korean migration to Taiwan became a mass phenomenon. Most settled in Keelung and other port cities, where they made a living by fishing. After the end of Japanese rule in Taiwan, an estimated 1,300 Korean soldiers serving with the Imperial Japanese Army and 2,000 civilians organised their own repatriation to the Korean peninsula, and by 1946, only 400-500 Koreans were recorded as living in Taiwan.
