China’s Northeast Project (NEP), also known as the “Research Project of Northeastern
China,” has unleashed national sentiment among many Korean people.
Even if it originated in purely academic research, the NEP poses a grave
political challenge to contemporary Korea. The Korean response to the NEP
can be broadly categorized in two ways: The first is that while negative perceptions
of these moves by the Chinese have prevailed in Korean society, the
Korean government has been very cautious in expressing criticism of the NEP
due to national interests with the Chinese government. The other point is that
as time has progressed, a series of Korean self-reflections on the complex
nature of nationalism in response to the NEP has emerged. With the analysis
of these self-reflections, this paper attempts to address an inter-subjective
nationalist perspective of history as a solution that recognizes “mutual recognition
of national identity” in considering the prevailing reality of Northeastern
Asian nationalism.