As the number of Korean-Chinese individuals—ethnic Koreans residing in China and recognized as one of China’s ethnic minority groups—continues to grow in South Korea, Korean cinema still exhibits a persistent issue of misrepresenting this population. Investigating media portrayals of Korean-Chinese is crucial, as films, functioning as cultural artifacts, have the capacity to reach broad audiences and shape intergroup dynamics by reinforcing or challenging negative stereotypes. This study explores how Otherness is constructed through the representation of Korean-Chinese in contemporary Korean films via a critical film analysis. The cinematic history of Korean-Chinese representation in South Korea is relatively recent, beginning with Failan (2001), the first film to feature a Korean-Chinese character. Focusing on mainstream Korean films released between 2001 and 2025, this research identifies portrayals that either reproduce or resist stereotypical depictions of Korean-Chinese individuals, while examining the rhetorical strategies used in these representations. The analysis considers several aspects of characterization, including role type (e.g., lead vs. supporting), occupational status and legality, involvement in criminal activity, and the thematic content of dialogue. Characters are coded into four categories: stereotype-producing, stereotype-resisting, ambivalent, and not applicable. The findings reveal a recurrent pattern in which stereotype-producing representations persistently generalize Korean-Chinese traits as backward and uncivilized, ultimately framing them as a societal problem. These portrayals are contextualized within broader discourses of social identity construction.

Authors:
Hyungkwon Choi, University of Arizona, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Hyungkwon Choi, just completed his Ph.D. degree and at this moment he is a independent scholar. His main research fields generally fall into representations of Chinese ethnic minorities, in particular, Tibetan, and Korean Chinese.

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