Throughout the century, Koreans have been immigrating to different countries. I am one of these people, classified as “Jae In ni Dong Po”, which translates into brothers and sisters in Indonesia. There are many others: the Jae Mi Dong Po (Korean-Americans), Jae Il Dong Po (Japanese-Koreans), Jae Dok Dong Po (German-Koreans), etc. Although we live far away, being exposed/adapted to foreign cultures, we are always welcomed in Korea, and are included in the strong Korean family. However, unlike everyone else, the Chinese-Koreans do not receive the same treatment as we do; Koreans discriminate them and distinguish them as ‘joseonjok’ – not even ‘Jae jung Dong Po’ (Chinese-Koreans) as it logically should be. As a patriotic Korean, I found it unreasonable to differentiate ourselves from the joseonjok. To me, the fact that we share the same blood meant that they were Korean. In this research, I will focus on the question: “Should the Joseonjok be considered Korean?” by exploring history, culture and different perspectives involved regarding this question of identity. Who are the Joseonjok? Chaoxianzu (Simplified Chinese: ???) or Joseonjok (Korean: ???) is one of the 56 ethnic groups (minor) officially recognized by the Chinese government.1 The population includes descendants of Korean immigrants with the citizenship of the People’s Republic of China, as well as smaller groups of South and North Korean expatriates. With a total of 2.3 million people (2009), it is the largest ethnic Korean population living outside of the Korean Peninsula. The Joseonjok population is largely concentrated in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in the Eastern Jilin Province2, which covers a total area of 41,500 square km, home to 854,000 ethnic Koreans as of 2000.3 Joseonjok History The Joseonjok population consists of two immigration waves, one in the start of the 19th and the other in the start of the 20th century. In the midst of the 19th century, the Qing government control over the border between Korea and China weakened. This allowed hungry farmers living in the North-eastern part of Hamgyeong Province of Korea to migrate to Yanbian, Jilin Province of China, after extreme weather conditions devastated their crops. The Qing government maintained Yanbian as a clearance area to accommodate land for the surge of Korean peasants migrating into China. When Japan annexed Korea in 1910, independence fighters fled to China (Manchuria) to escape persecution while farmers moved to avoid colonial exploitation of Korea’s agricultural land. Wealthy freedom fighters bought land in Yanbian and constructed a Korean town to perpetuate the independence spirit.4 As the relationship between Korea and China worsened, many of these Koreans who migrated or fled found it impossible to return to their motherland, having no choice but to stay in China. When the two countries normalized their diplomatic relationship, many of these Koreans were able to return; however, only 40% of the population did go back, while the remaining 60% chose to remain.5 Those who chose to remain were distributed with land and equal rights as a Chinese citizen, and had to abide by the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy.6 Many took part in various communist revolutions and contributed to the development of China, which shifted and integrated many joseonjok ideals into a Ch