한국적 중국 담론의 가능성에 관하여— 2024년도 중국현대문학학회 라운드테이블 참관기

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the atmosphere of ‘hate-China’ rather than ‘anti-China’ is prevalent among the Korean public in recent years. In particular, as Chinese-related departments in Korean universities have disappeared or been merged with other adjacent departments in the near 3-4 years, the sense of crisis in Chinese academia is also increasing. Chinese studies are now rapidly falling into an example of ‘unpopular major’ that cannot be selected by subsequent generations of academics. This phenomenon has been very noticeable since Xi Jinping took power. Against this backdrop, the Winter Round Table of the Korean Society of Modern Chinese Literature held at the conference room of the Seoul Station Airport Railroad on February 16, 2024, was a meaningful place to review the process of our discourse on Chinese (humanities) for more than 30 years after Korea-China diplomatic relations (1992), review current major issues, and seek the direction of Chinese studies in an alternative sense. Under the theme of ‘How should we view China as a Chinese researcher in Korea?’, three presenters and discussants each gave presentations and discussions, and many other attendees expressed a variety of opinions. Through the various contents discussed on this day, this paper considered the limitations faced by Chinese (humanities) research in Korea from various angles. On the one hand, the phenomenon of our times called ‘hate-China’ is a response to China’s political non-democracy and violent patriotism, but on the other hand, it also reveals our own shabbiness and smallness. The inability to escape from the structure of fantasy-hate about oneself is our self-portrait in the phenomenon of ‘hate-China’. We are also ignorant of China, but also of others who exist outside of us. We are trapped only in our survival and interests, and lack the attitude to deeply understand the lives, institutions, and cultures of others outside us, and the attitude to truly sympathize with and comfort the pain and suffering of the world community. The new study of China will only be meaningful as an extension of the new ‘civilization theory’ that is formed around concerns about our problems. It must be constructed in a way that closely understands the trajectory of our history, but internalizes ‘Asian values’ that embrace diversity and heterogeneity by breaking away from historically formed feelings of resentment. Only when it is not exhausted as a passing intellectual fad, but is expressed as a capacity that changes our lives and constitutes our identity, will we be able to use it as a ‘standard’ and discuss our own ‘normative China’.