My Search for Belonging
My name is Jiae Kim, and this project began as a question about my own belonging, identity, and education as a South Korean who has moved between South Korea, the US, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
Koryo Saram are ethnic Koreans who were forcibly displaced from the Russian Far East to Central Asia in the 1930s and who have built new lives and communities in places like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Spending time with Koryo Saram communities, I wanted to understand how they preserve who they are and what histories they carry. In many ways, our backgrounds feel similar, and I’ve often felt that they hold onto Korean history even more strongly than many South Koreans do. Listening to their stories has become a way for me to reflect on myself and the histories I carry, too.
Who Are Koryo Saram?
Koryo Saram are the ethnic Koreans of the former Soviet Union, descendants of Koreans who lived in the Russian Far East. Their story is one of profound resilience and cultural preservation across generations and borders.
In 1937, nearly 172,000 Koryo Saram were forcibly displaced from the Russian Far East to Central Asia under Stalin's orders. Abandoned in the steppes of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, they overcame immense hardship to build new lives, transforming the landscape and maintaining their identity through language, food, and shared memory.
한민족: The Idea of One Korean People
한민족 (hanminjok) is often translated as “the Korean people” or “the Korean nation.” Han (한) refers to Korea, while minjok (민족) describes a people understood as sharing a common history, culture, and ancestry. The idea carries particular weight in modern Korean history. After decades of colonial rule and the division of the Korean Peninsula, a shared Korean identity became a powerful way of imagining continuity across borders and political divisions. Koreans could live in different countries—or on opposite sides of the 38th parallel—and still be understood as belonging to the same people.
But who gets to belong to 한민족? For communities in the Korean diaspora, that question can become complicated. Koryo-Saram are descendants of Koreans who migrated to the Russian Far East and were later forcibly deported to Central Asia under Stalin in 1937. Generations grew up speaking Russian or the local languages of Central Asia, developing customs and identities shaped by places such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their Korean ancestry remained part of their identity, but their experiences of “being Korean” developed far from the Korean Peninsula. When some Koryo-Saram encounter South Korea today, the idea of 한민족 can therefore contain a contradiction. They may be described as members of the same Korean people because of shared ancestry, while simultaneously being perceived as foreign because of their language, nationality, accent, or cultural practices. This tension raises one of the questions at the heart of this project: Is belonging something we inherit, something we practice, or something others allow us to claim? For me, 한민족 became a way to think about the distance between shared ancestry and lived belonging—and about whose experiences are included when we imagine what it means to be Korean.
Our Process
Oral Histories
I conduct in-depth interviews with Koryo-Saram women, capturing their lived experiences through professional audio and video recording.
Preservation
Each recording is transcribed and digitized with a Koryo Saram translator to ensure the preservation of our community's heritage for future generations.
Community
I collaborate with the community to gather submissions and ensure our archive remains a living, dynamic space for collective memory.