Minority Students in East Asia (Sunnie Lee Watson, Purdue University)

摘要

As a person from an East Asian country, I know first hand that most East Asian countries historically have been homogeneous societies and that this tradition has been viewed as a positive to most people in these countries until recently. These countries have prided themselves on being of a single ethnicity and have had limited experience with minority populations in history. In South Korea, where I come from, the Department of Education has recently begun updating textbooks by deleting the notion of "Korea is a one blood ethnicity country" from the history and language textbooks in response to sudden increases in diversity created by the rapid inflow of migrant workers and the growing number of international marriages. However, with the recent modernization and globalization of East Asian countries brought about by a focus on economy and trade, many diversity and minority issues have emerged.