ABSTRACT
Museums are social technologies of representation and legitimacy. Objects and images used to represent histories convolute distinctions between cultural representation and reclamation. This chapter examines the spatial and temporal bounding of the Koryo saram historical landscape in the Russian Far East by overlapping the South Korean national narrative and the Koryo saram past. At the Russian Korean History Museum, exhibits reproduce Koryo saram identity and history according to South Korean perceptions. Examining tourism as the primary process by which South Korea incorporates Koryo saram history into the national narrative, this research considers displays of collective identity from exhibits and tourists to elucidate the integration of Koryo saram history into South Korean collective consciousness. However, local Koryo saram claim the museum narrative over-emphasizes the peninsular perspective. Representations of normative South Korean history, culture, and society at the museum highlight complexities of global reproductions, representations, and consumption of Korean-ness. Amidst enhanced outreach to its diaspora communities and economic cooperation with Russia, this chapter discusses South Korea's efforts to incorporate the Koryo saram past as part of ethnic reconciliation through historical legitimacy. Coupled with convoluted citizenship policies, South Korea's efforts to incorporate the Koryo saram simultaneously “other” the diaspora.
