China’s Korean Minority: The Politics of Ethnic Education

The educational system in China’s Yanbian Prefecture presents a relatively successful model for Korean ethnic education. Koreans in China have a much higher percentage of literacy and middle school and college graduation than the national average or any other minority nationality. Despite the integrationist impulses of the Chinese nationality policy during the Rectification Movement and the Cultural Revolution, the Korean minority has successfully sustained its ethnic identity. Central to the well-being of the Korean minority in China is its continuing achievement of the highest level of educational attainment. Within the moderate nationality policy currently enunciated by Beijing, the ethnically based education system of the Korean minority in Northeast China presents a program to be studied and emulated by other minority nationalities.

Chae-Jin Lee is professor of political science and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Kansas.