By Andrei Lankov
Visitors to the city of Incheon are well aware that in recent years the municipal authorities have been pro-active in promoting a new sight of interest: ``Incheon Chinatown.'' Frankly, the description of this area as ``Chinatown'' is more a marketing gimmick than anything else, since nowadays there are merely a few hundred Chinese families living in the city. However, Incheon did have a relationship to China; once upon time it was a home to a large Chinese community.
The history of the ethnic Chinese presence in Korea is relatively short: the first Chinese settled in the country only in the early 1880s. This community has had its ups and downs, but for most of its history Incheon was the major center. This is understandable: Incheon is located ``across" from China, and usually served as the base for trade with Korea's giant neighbor.
In a sense, the transformation of a small cluster of fishing villages in the city of Incheon was the result of booming sea trade with China. In 1893, 50 percent of all export-import operations in Incheon were conducted with China. In the colonial period, the figures went down, but still even in the 1930s about 20 percent of Incheon's overseas trade was China-oriented.
In 1883 a Chinese settlement was first established in Incheon, and in early 1884 it was given official status when a special agreement was signed between the governments of China and Korea. Such foreign settlements, which often enjoyed considerable autonomy, existed in all major ports of East Asia. In some cases the settlements were managed by individual nations, while in other cases there were joint international settlements for all foreigners (the huge international settlement of Shanghai, a state-within-a-state, is the best known example of such an institution). This Chinese settlement is usually described as ``Old Incheon Chinatown.'' It was located in an area now known as Sinlim-dong.
Back in the 1880s, the Chinese merchants dominated in the trade between Korea and China: Korean companies lacked experience, capital, and the connections necessary to conduct export-import operations, so the Koreans usually acted as local agents of the Chinese entrepreneurs. Incheon's Chinatown attracted a number of foreign visitors, until the early 1900s nearly all Westerners who came to visit Seoul reached the capital via Incheon.
Isabella Bishop, the famous British female traveler and journalist, described Chinatown in the mid-1890s as the liveliest quarter of Incheon. She spent some time in the Steward Hotel which was Chinese-owned, but which catered to Western visitors (in those days, Seoul had no Western-style accommodation). As was customary for the Chinese merchants overseas, the Incheon traders established a powerful business association, and its large hall was the focal point of the community.
The Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 dealt a heavy blow to the Chinese business community. The Japanese companies, relying on the complete support of their government, strove to drive Chinese businesses away from Korea, and eventually their efforts were successful. The Chinese merchants remained prominent in trade with China, but this trade became rather insignificant compared to the commercial exchanges with Japan.
Nonetheless, throughout the colonial period Incheon Chinatown remained a notable feature of the Korean community. Although the advent of the colonial era saw it lose its special status and become merely a part of Incheon where many Chinese happened to reside.
From the very beginnings of Incheon Chinatown, the largest landlord was a person called Tam Kil-saeng, then a young but successful entrepreneur who would eventually become one of Korea's richest people.
The composition of the Chinese community in Korea changed over the course of time. From the 1910s, an increasing number of Chinese came to Korea for short stays, hoping to earn some money doing heavy and unskilled work, the then equivalent of the present-day ``3D jobs.''
In the late 1920s it was reported that on the average early spring day about one thousand Chinese workers disembarked at Incheon port. Most of them stayed for a few months, working on the construction sites, and then returned home. However, for these people Incheon was merely an entrance point, they seldom stayed there for long.
The statistics from the early 1930s indicate that most Chinese residents then in Incheon were employees of trade firms. According to the set of statistics collected by the city administration, 602 Chinese worked in trade companies, 76 were shopkeepers and retailers, 257 were employed by (or owned) inns and restaurants, 55 were barbers and 130 were described as ``others."
It is worth mentioning that until the end of the colonial era only a small portion of the Chinese were involved in the restaurant business, which came to be associated with them in later eras. In the vicinity of Incheon there were also a number of Chinese agricultural farms whose owners specialized in growing vegetables for sale in Incheon and Seoul.
In the early 1940s, the number of Chinese residents in Korea reached 90,000. However, independence saw this community decline, a fall mirrored in the Chinese community in Incheon. By the late 1940s most Chinese had left the country, and Incheon itself lost the Chinese flavor it had retained from the 1880s. It was partially revived in the 1990s when the Chinese re-appeared on a large scale, and in new capacities.
Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.