In a previous post I outlined some of the context and conditions of ethnic Chinese in Korea, known locally as hwagyo 화교. This is a follow up to that post.

While in Korea I was fortunate enough to speak to many hwagyo and learn a great deal about the history and conditions as well as the dialect of Mandarin spoken by the older generation. I conducted a number of interviews over the period of a year, mostly speaking with ethnic Chinese who’d grown up in Korea, but also with a number of recent Chinese expats about their own lives in Korea.

The following is an interview with Ethan Chiang, a Chinese who grew up spending time between Korea and Taiwan. This interview was done over email. My questions are bold.

1. Could you please introduce yourself?

My name is Yih-Hong Chiang, I use “Ethan” as my nickname most of the time.

I’m an overseas Chinese from Korea. I was born in In-Cheon, Korea and grew up in Seoul.

I went to Taiwan for College when I was 18 years old, that’s when I really left Seoul, then I studied and worked in San Francisco for about 4 years, now live in Taipei.

2. On your photography blog as well as your Twitter feed, you call yourself a Korean-born Taiwanese. Do both parts of this, Korean as well as Taiwanese, have equal weight in terms of your sense of identity?

Actually we call ourselves Overseas “Chinese” in Korea.

Long story short, my great grandparents are the 1st generation who moved from China to Korea. They consider China as their home, that’s why we call ourselves Overseas “Chinese” until now.

The reason that I call myself as Overseas “Taiwanese” is because I don’t really have anything to do with China, except my great grandparents, grandparents and parents are from China.

I myself was born in Korea, and I only have Taiwanese citizenship(1). By calling myself Overseas Taiwanese is much easier for me when explaining my identity, so I don’t have to give people a history lesson about my background.

Being Taiwanese is more comfortable for me since both of my parents are Mandarin speakers, I speak Mandarin at home, at school, and I hang out with Chinese friends most of the time.

(1) Korean government doesn’t file any “citizenship” ID to people like me in Korea, they only give us “legal residential card(just like GREENCARD in U.S.)”, which means Korean government still consider us as foriegners.

Taiwanese government is willing to file us the official citizenship ID only if we live more than an year in Taiwan. Even if we weren’t born in Taiwan, they still consider us as Taiwanese citizen.

3. You are now living in Taiwan. How long did you live in Seoul before moving?

I lived in Seoul for 18 years.

4. Did you attend a Mandarin-language high school in Korea?

Yes, Mandarin language elementary school, junior high and senior high school.

5. In Korea, high school students spend a long time preparing for the College Entrance Exam (수능). However, Mandarin-language schools in Korea typically follow the Taiwanese curriculum. What affect does this have on many students in Chinese schools regarding their ability to attend top Korean universities? How does it affect the competitiveness of Chinese students?

No, Chinese students don’t have to take the same exam as Korean students.

Different Korean universities have different policies towards Chinese students. They have different ways of taking exams and different score standards, some of the schools only require face-to-face interview, while some of the schools require a full set of the examination. It really depends on the schools, the policies are changing every year.

6. Do you feel there is significant discrimination against Hwagyo in Korea? In what areas of life is it most obvious?

It happened in my grandparents’ and my parents’ generation, my parents weren’t allowed to play with native Korean when they were kids, my grandparents were very against native Koreans at that time, because Koreans at that time somehow consider Overseas Chinese as Refugees who lost their own identity and country.

But it’s a whole different story in my generation, we get along well with Koreans, we speak fluent Korean. and most of the Overseas Chinese in my generation has the advantage of bilingual ability, and Koreans nowadays want to learn Chinese more than English.

7. A number of Korean-born huaqiao keep Taiwanese passports, opting instead to live on an F visa in Korea. Do you hold Korean citizenship? If not, what was your reason for not having it?

I have Taiwanese ID and passport, and only have F-5 Visa in Korea.

Foreigners are not allowed to get the Korean ID unless they give up every other citizenships.

Overseas Chinese who holds Taiwanese ID can take full advantage of being a Taiwanese in Taiwan, and almost can live like a native Korean citizen in Korea with my F-5 Visa, so there is no reason for me to give up my Taiwanese citizenship.

But holding a Taiwanese passport and ID are different, Taiwanese government doesn’t consider you as Taiwanese citizen if you only have Taiwanese passport, and Korean government doesn’t consider you as Korean citizen if you only holds F-5 Visa, which makes the situation quite interesting. If Overseas Chiense doesn’t apply for Taiwanese nor Korean IDs, we’re just people without clear national identity.

8. I’ve met many Hwagyo residents of Korea who reject Korean citizenship. I’ve asked many people why they choose to have Taiwanese passports but live in Korea. The answer has often been simply “我不是韓國人”. Do you think many people feel this way? If so, what do you think is the main reason?

It’s because we are still being considered as foreigners, and are not being fully accepted by Korean society.

Why doesn’t Korean government give us the Korean citizenship ID on the date we were born? Just like U.S. government does.

9. Under Park Chung-hee (박정희), life was effectively made miserable for many Chinese living in Korea at the time. Limitations were placed on their bank accounts and on rights to own property. As a result, many people left Korea. While things have gotten better since his presidency, do you feel there are still many official forms of discrimination left over from this time?

Almost all the limitations are gone, but I don’t think we have the right to vote though.

and I have to say that Korea is not a very foreigner-friendly country. I have experienced so many difficult time while shopping online, my foreigner F visa doesn’t work on almost all the online shopping website*.

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Big thanks to Ethan for taking the time to answer some questions. Be sure to take a look at his photography blog which has been featured on Korean expat sites and through which I heard of him.