ABSTRACT:
This study examines the alienation experienced by ethnic minorities in China and how they respond, focusing on Korean Chinese. Despite having long been conspicuous in national festivals and ceremonies with their phenotypic differences or traditional costumes, most ethnic minorities remain familiar strangers in the quotidian fabric of Chinese society. Using a mixed research method, this study traces what social categories are at play in categorising Korean Chinese and how they negotiate with the categorisation through managing ethnic boundaries strategically. Intersectional alienation arises from interrogations about their cultural distinction, nationality, and social class. The Korean Chinese participants are found to manage ethnic boundaries using approaches such as reinterpreting ethnic membership, asserting national belonging between foreign and family, and challenging the ethnic hierarchy of superiority and inferiority. This study underscores the everyday alienation experienced by Korean Chinese in China and illuminates the politics of subjectivation through ethnic boundary making and unmaking.

 

 

Ruixin WEI is a PhD candidate in the department of Korean Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her PhD project explores the spatial, temporal, and emotional dimensions of ethnic identity among younger-generation Korean Chinese, focusing on how their sense of belonging is shaped and expressed within transnational and translocal contexts. She has published articles and reviews in British Journal of Sociology of Education, Journal of Multiculture and Education, The Review of Korean Studies, and The European Journal of Korean Studies.