On May 4th, 2021, The George Washington University Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) hosted its final installment of the Choson Korea book talk series of the semester. The event was moderated by Jisoo Kim, Director of GWIKS. The book featured is entitled: “Beyond Civilized and Barbarians: Understanding the Settlement of Chinese Migrants in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Choson Korea” by Adam Bohnet, Associate Professor of History at King’s University at Western.
Professor Kim began by introducing Professor Bohnet and his book, the first book in English that explores Choson Korea through the lens of foreigners. Professor Bohnet first described the main groups of foreigners in early Choson Korea. These groups were Jurchens and other northern peoples, Japanese and other maritime peoples, and Chinese and others who were employed as interpreters, legal specialists, medical experts. These foreigners were all given “Hyanghwain” status, which Professor Bohnet translates to “submitting foreigners.” This status means they were given tax breaks, land, Korean wives, and Korean last names. In return, they paid tribute. The reasoning for this status was the feeling by the Korean leadership that they were helping people who had come to live and learn in a morally right Confucian state. In late Choson Korea, the main foreigner groups were Jurchens, who could join the army or the government or settle further inland, Japanese who had defected to Choson during the Imjin War, Chinese who were deserters from the Ming military during the Imjin War, and refugees. The final group was Dutch and others. Bohnet then disproved the accepted idea that Chinese foreigners were given higher status, up to the 18th century there was no clear distinction between foreigners of Chinese origin and foreigners of Jurchen and Japanese origin. In fact, while Chinese deserters were often made to feel unwelcome, Jurchens and Japanese were warmly welcomed especially when they had specific skills or roles to play. Professor Kim then asked Professor Bohnet about his translation of “Hyanghwain,” the status of children, and the Chinese foreigners’ jobs as legal specialists. She then asked him some audience questions, which were questions about foreigner women, the maritime Muslims, the geographical distribution, and how this period is thought about now by the South Korean state.
