19세기 말, 한반도의 격동기에 인천의 청국 조계지를 통해 한국 사회에
첫발을 디딘 화교들은 한국 사회의 역사적 굴곡을 거치면서 그동안 차별
받고 억압받는 소수집단으로 전락해 왔다. 그러나 한국 사회에서 일어난
1992년 한중수교 및 1997년 IMF 외환위기는 외국인 투자유치의 필요성
과 함께 화교들에 대한 기존의 인식을 바꾸어 놓았으며 이는 차이나타운
의 재개발을 촉진하는 계기가 되었다. 1998년부터 본격적인 재개발이 시
작된 인천 차이나타운은 화교들의 거주지뿐만 아니라 한국인 주민들의 거주지까지 포함되어 있다. 이 두 경관은 재개발의 과정을 거치면서 경합
되고 협상되며, 이 과정에서 지방정부의 정치?경제적인 이해관계가 개
입된다. 경관의 경합 과정에서 화교들은 각각의 상황에서 인종 및 경계를
강조한 수사와 전략들을 사용하여 우위를 점하려고 한다. 차이나타운에
서의 이러한 화교들의 대응방식은 각기 다른 접촉과 상황 속에서의 정체
성 혹은 에스니시티의 다양성을 보여 주는 중요한 사례가 된다.The end of 19th century was a period of turmoil for Korea, when overseas
Chinese first came to Korea and settled in the Qing Chinese settlement area. What is
known as Chinatown thrived until the Japanese colonial period and experienced
stagnation after the establishment of the Republic of Korea which broke its relations
with China in 1948. In the 1960s, overseas Chinese became an oppressed and
discriminated minority under the strong nationalist policy of South Korea.
A new period for the overseas Chinese in Korea began when South Korea
normalized its relations with China in 1992. Soon afterward, the South Korean
government reformed the Foreigners’Land Acquisition Act and announced a plan to
re-develop Chinatown. Although Chinatown was planned by the South Korean
central government and the Incheon city government as a special zone for tourism
development, the new plan was perceived by overseas Chinese as a restoration of their legal settlement area where their unique ethnic identity would be preserved. As
they regained the once lost sense of territory, many Chinese residents of Incheon
expected to reconstruct a new community in Chinatown. Nevertheless, the new
Chinatown is different from the old“ settlement area”or“ Cheonggwan street”which
existed outside the Korean law and separated from Korean residential areas. The area
of Seollin-dong commonly called“ Cheonggwan street”or Chinatown is originally
the settlement area for Qing Chinese. The Chinese community suffered from
nationalist policies after the Japanese colonial period. Koreans came into the area and
the street thrived again as it was filled with inns and bars due to the expansion of a
port and fish market nearby. However, this prosperity ended when the port and the
market were relocated. Thus, Incheon’s Chinatown has two landscapes, one of
overseas Chinese and another, of Koreans.
The two landscapes of Chinatown share the fate of boom and bust but they are
very different and exclusive. It is these two landscapes that are competing and are the
subject of negotiations in the discourses of re-development plans for Chinatown. The
process is becoming more complicated, as a new landscape is invented by the local
government according to its political and economical interests. In this multi-layered
legal space which is re-created by the South Korean government, overseas Chinese
are the special kind of minority, and are not an ordinary minority who had to accept
discrimination and oppression in silence. In becoming a special kind of minority and
negotiating with other groups, overseas Chinese utilize the political means once used
by modern states. For examples, they use the strategies of emphasizing the racial
difference externally and setting boundaries internally. These differences are used
discursively to move ahead of everyone else in demanding consideration in the redevelopment
of Incheon’s Chinatown. These strategies illustrate an important
example of ethnic difference and redefinition of identity, which occurs when multiple
cultures come into contact.