Saturday, November 2, 2013

Bridging by Diaspora

As I watched the documentary, I became curious as to why the director insisted in calling the school "Our School". Who does he exactly mean by 'us'? I think he meant it to be Koreans. North and South alike. His reasons for it is (I think) very clear. They are invaluable linkage between the great gap between the North and South. The generations of Joseon people in Japan consider the North their 'fatherland', the South their 'homeland', and their Joseon School their 'Alma Mater'. (I didn't know what Alma Mater was until I looked it up on Wiki: "any school, college, or university at which one has studied, and usually, from which one has graduated.") In Korean, they use the word equivalent to 'mother school'. They belong to all of 'us'.

One of the most striking thing from the film was the use of film grain for the shots of North Korea. Given that the quality of shots would not be the same as the director did not accompany the students and it was taken by a student with (presumably) a camera of less quality, the shots from North Korea are still a lot more grainy than those from Japan. In fact, it felt like a part of old proganda films of the North: very foreign and distant. The only thing that reminded me that it was a part of 'reality' (not a 'propaganda') was the familiar faces of students from Joseon School.

This idea of bridging the gap between North and South via students from "Our School" is evident in the shot of the students on the NK vessel. Director mentions that he only recognized the gap between the students and himself when they were on the ship. In other words, he (representative of the South, in general) was able to build such a strong bond with these students. And most remarkably, these students are well accepted by the North as well and they feel strong linkage to the North (even more than to the South).

When the long anticipated reunification of the peninsula occurs, the students and the Joseon people living in Japan would be a valuable bridge linking the now too great a gap between the North and South.

Also, watching this film reminded very strongly of the Joseon-jok students I met on my trip to Yanbian and Tumen two years ago. I got to go there and teach English to a group of middle school students during the English Camp that was held in Tumen-3 High school. Most of the students there speak both Chinese and Korean very well, but their Korean is so different from Seoul Korean that I often had to rely on English to communicate with the students. Unlike the Josen School in Japan, the Joseon Schools in Yanbian are public school and are funded by the regional government. I had realized during this trip how valuable indeed these Joseon-jok students are in global society. This film made me think about the role these Joseon people in China would have in linking the North and South.

As an extension, it also made me ponder about the of 'Joseon' diaspora outside of Japan and China that I am a part of. What is our role in global society? Are we included in this collective of 'us'? How similar/differnt are our struggles to keep our heritage?
Just the 'usual' repertoir of searching for 'self-identity' by 2nd, 3rd generation of Diaspora Korean.

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