The Search for Ethnic Education

Shattered by liberation and civil war, the Japanese-sponsored educational programs for Koreans in Manchuria were suddenly in utter disarray. In the meantime, several tens of thousands of Korean youth in China joined first the CCP-controlled Democratic United Force (minzhu lianjun) and then the People&s;s Liberation Army under Lin Biao during the Civil War. While Zhongguo shaoshuminzu mentions that 50,000 Koreans in China served in the PLA during the Civil War, other sources indicate a greater degree of Korean participation. About 90 percent of Civil War fatalities from Yanbian were Koreans. Staffed by about 60 teachers, it admitted 490 students and offered courses in Arts, Sciences, Medicine, Agronomy, and Engineering. It is reported that 4,600 Yanbian Koreans, including many middle school students, joined the Chinese People&s;s Volunteers in Korea. The Korean minority&s;s autonomous status provided a clear political and administrative framework for their ethnic education.