Overview
Chinese Name: 朝鲜族
English Name: The Korean people
Languages: Korean language 朝鲜语, Chinese 汉语
Total population: 1.83*106 (China mainland 2022)
Distribution: Mainly distributed in the three northeastern provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning
Brief introduction
The Korean people 朝鲜族 is one of the 55 ethnic minorities in China, and its inhabitants are mainly distributed in the three northeastern provinces of Jilin 吉林, Heilongjiang 黑龙江 and Liaoning 辽宁. Their largest settlement is Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延边朝鲜族自治州. The Koreans have their own language and writing. Although the attribution of Korean is still inconclusive, it is generally believed to belong to the Altaic language family 阿尔泰语系. The languages and scripts currently used by the Korean nationality in China are called Korean and Hangul.
The history of the Korean people
The Koreans are one of the cross-border ethnic groups in China that gradually moved into and settled in Northeast China from the adjacent Korea 朝鲜. From the middle of the 19th century, more and more Koreans moved in from the Korean peninsula one after another, which is the main source of Chinese Koreans.
The religion of the Korean people
Historically, the Koreans believed in various religions, including polytheistic belief in animism, world religious beliefs such as Buddhism and Christianity, and national religious beliefs that emerged in modern times. After the founding of New China, these religious beliefs gradually disappeared in Korean society. After Chinese economic reform 改革开放, with the re-implementation of the policy of freedom of religious belief, the influence of Christianity on the religious belief of the Koreans has gradually expanded, and its followers have also increased significantly.
The Cultures of the Korean people
Traditional Korean clothing 传统韩服
The traditional clothing of the Korean people is influenced deeply by their way of life. Korean clothing is mostly loose because they usually live in the centre of the heated Kang 炕, men sit cross-legged, and women kneel on both knees. They generally like to wear white clothes and plain clothes, showing their love for clean and simple characteristics.
The most distinctive in clothing and still popular today is women’s clothing. Korean women’s clothing is divided into top and bottom. The tops are mostly sewn with bright colours and beautiful patterns of satin or yarn. The placket is very short, only reaching the chest. Instead of buttons, the clothes are replaced by two long coloured belts tied in the shape of a butterfly. The bottom is a loose-coloured high-waisted long skirt, which is wrapped around two or three layers of underwear to make it fit better, wearing the skirt first and then the short shirt. This kind of dress can only be seen in various festive festivals and events today.
Korean foods 朝鲜族饮食
The Koreans live in the north and are mostly engaged in rice production, which directly affects the formation of their staple food habits. In the traditional Korean diet, rice and vegetables are the basic diets, and the dishes are usually characterized by spiciness. Most Korean people are vegetarians and do not like to eat greasy food. The characteristics of their diet can be summarized as spicy, cool and light.
Korean-style side dishes are very characteristic, with pickling and mixing as the primary form, especially the famous pickled side dishes, which are indispensable throughout the year. The Korean people are very particular about pickling, and each family has jars of different sizes for pickling vegetables. Pickles include cabbage, radish, tassel, cucumber, eggplant, kohlrabi, etc. Among them, spicy cabbage is the most famous. Every autumn, Korean women are busy pickling cabbage, which has become a unique scenery in the Korean area. In addition to pickled vegetables, mixed vegetables are also one of the favourite dishes of the Korean people, and there are many kinds of them.
Koreans are good at using various mountain vegetables and seafood such as ginseng, bracken, wild celery, sea cabbage, sea spinach and small fish, oysters and shellfish to make mixed dishes. This kind of raw mixed dish is very popular at banquets, especially raw mixed beef is an indispensable delicacy at traditional banquets.
Korean architecture 朝鲜族建筑
The traditional Korean buildings are mostly thatched or tiled houses with civil structures, the roofs are mostly sloped on all sides, and the number of dwellings is large. The doors and windows of the house are not divided. The room is separated from the outside and between the rooms with sliding doors. Pulling is the door for passage, and closing is the window or interval, so the house is bright, well ventilated, and easy to access. Today, traditional Korean houses are rare in cities, and their interiors have also changed in rural areas.
