Sakhalin Koreans

] While most members of the older generations of Sakhalin Koreans used Korean names, members of the younger generations favor their Russian names. However, with the increasing exposure to South Korean pop culture, some younger Koreans have named their children after characters in Korean television dramas. The use of patronymics is not widespread.

In addition to Korean names, the oldest generation of Sakhalin Koreans are often legally registered under Japanese names, which they had originally adopted due to the "sōshi-kaimei" policy of the Japanese colonial era. After the Soviet invasion, the Sakhalin authorities conducted name registration for the local Koreans on the basis of the Japanese identity documents issued by the old Karafuto government; as of 2006, the Russian government uniformly refused requests for re-registration under Korean names.

Language

Due to their greater population density and expectation that they would one day be allowed to return to Korea, the Sakhalin Koreans have kept something of a sojourner mentality rather than a settler mentality, which influenced their relation to the surrounding society; even today, they tend to speak much better Korean than those who were deported to Central Asia. A weekly Korean language newspaper, the "Saegoryeo Shinmun" (새고려 신문), has been published since 1949, while Sakhalin Korean Broadcasting began operation in 1956. Korean-language television programmes are broadcast locally, but typically with Russian subtitles.cite news|url=http://www.hancinema.net/modele.php?page=voir_une_societe.php&id=16&news=2373#news|title="Autumn Fairy Tale" Sparks Hallyu Wave in Sakhalin|publisher=Korean Broadcasting System|date=2005-03-10|accessdate=2007-01-22] Additionally, during the Soviet era, Sakhalin Koreans were often hired to act as announcers and writers for official media aimed at the Koryo-saram in Central Asia. However, unlike the Koryo-saram, the spoken Korean of Sakhalin is not very closely related to Hamgyŏng dialect or Koryo-mar, but is instead descended from Jeolla and Gyeongsang dialects. As a result of the diplomatic situation up until the 1980s, during which South Korea had no relations with the Soviet Union, Korean-language instructional materials were provided by North Korea or developed domestically. Oddly enough, as a result, Sakhalin Koreans' writing, like that of Koryo-saram, follows the North Korean standard, but their spoken Korean in radio broadcasts has come to resemble the Seoul dialect of South Korea.ru icon cite paper|author=Kim, German Nikolaevich|title=О родном языке корейцев Казахстана (About the native language of Koreans in Kazakhstan)|url=http://world.lib.ru/k/kim_o_i/rtg1rtf.shtml|publisher=Al-Farabi University|date=2004-12-09|accessdate=2006-11-26]

Religion

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been significant growth in religious activities among the Sakhalin Koreans; the establishment of churches was noted in scholarly articles as early as 1990.ko icon cite journal|last=Kim|first=Yong-guk|title=사할린에 한인교회 설립 (Establishment of Korean churches on Sakhalin)|url=http://www.dbpia.co.kr/view/ar_view.asp?pid=54&isid=1567&arid=114035&topMenu=&topMenu1=|pages=3–9|month=July | year=1990|accessdate=2007-01-22|journal=North Korea|id=ISSN|1227-8378] Christian hymns have become popular listening material, supplementing the more typical Russian, Western, and Korean pop music.cite journal|last=Um|first=Hae-kyung|volume=9|number=2|year=2000|title=Listening patterns and identity of the Korean diaspora in the former USSR|journal=British Journal of Ethnomusicology|pages=pp. 127–144|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/music/mclayton/bje9-2finalpdf.PDF] The "Saegoryeo Shinmun" regularly publishes sermons written by the popular South Korean pastor Jaerock Lee.ko icon cite web|url=http://www.manmin.or.kr/introduction/int_history95.htm|publisher=Manmin Joong Ang Church|year=2006|accessdate=2007-01-22|title=교회 연혁] Korean churches also broadcast religious content through Sakhalin Korean Broadcasting; a Baptist church run by ethnic Koreans sponsors a journalist there.cite news|url=http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=331|publisher=Forum 18|title=RUSSIA: Local restrictions on mission in Sakhalin region|date=2004-06-01|accessdate=2007-01-22|last=Fagan|first=Geraldine] However, large-scale religious events can be subjected to restriction by the government authorities: in June 1998 the local Russian Orthodox Church and the regional administration of Sakhalin successfully pressured Korean Presbyterian missionaries to cancel a conference of more than 100 Presbyterian and other Protestant missionaries from around the former Soviet Union. [cite paper|publisher=U.S. Department of State|title=Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999: Russia|year=1999|url=http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/statedeptrussia0909.html|accessdate=2007-01-22]

Music

In one survey, a third of the Sakhalin Korean population expressed a preference for traditional Korean music, a far higher proportion than in any other ethnic Korean community surveyed. However, despite their better knowledge of Korean language, the same survey showed that Korean pop music is less widespread among Sakhalin Koreans than among ethnic Koreans in Kazakhstan, possessing about the same degree of popularity as in Uzbekistan. Sakhalin Koreans also reported listening to Western popular and classical music at much lower rates than Koreans in the rest of the former Soviet Union. Study of traditional Korean musical instruments has also been gaining popularity across all generations. The Ethnos Arts School was established in 1991 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to teach children's classes in traditional Korean dance, piano, sight singing, and the "gayageum", a zither-like instrument supposedly invented around the time of the Gaya confederacy.ko icon cite news|title=사할린 고려인 학생들, 국악사랑에 흠뻑 취한 사흘: 러 사할린 에트노스예술학교 (For Sakhalin Goryeo-in, three days filled with love of Korean traditional music: Sakhalin's Ethnos Arts School)|url=http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/music/52549.html|last=Chung|first=Sang-yeong|publisher=Hankyoreh|date=2005-07-25|accessdate=2007-01-21]

Prominent Sakhalin Koreans

* Park Hae Yong, head of the Korean Residents' Association on Sakhalin
* Kim Chun Ja, editor in chief of Sakhalin Korean Broadcasting
* Lee Hoesung, Zainichi Korean author, born in Karafuto and later repatriated to Japan

ee also

* Russia–South Korea relations
* Chinese people in Russia
* Japanese people in Russia
* Russians in Korea

References

External links

* [http://www.609studio.com/html/broadcasting/urimal.html Sakhalin Korean Broadcasting (사할린 우리말 방송국)]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_199801/ai_n8796294 A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans] (documentary)