在韓國城市中灰飛煙滅的中華街──首爾中華街的形成、變化與消失（第三期）

Since 1980’s, Korea had become “a country without Chinatown,” a special case in which a country had enormous Chinese immigrants but could not conserve any Chinatowns. To overcome the Financial Crisis, in the early 2000s, Korea government attracted Overseas Chinese investments and started the Chinatown reconstruction project in Busan and Incheon. However, the new Chinatown primarily consisted of Korean-owned Chinese restaurants rather than Chinese-owned ones, implying that the new Chinatown does not connect with the old one. In Korean history, the first Chinatown established by Chinese emerged in Seoul. In 1882, Sino-Korean Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade was negotiated between representatives of the Qing Dynasty and the Joseon Dynasty. It is the first time that Seoul opened to Chinese merchant and immigrant. The regulations contributed to three Chinese settlements, which eventually became the Chinatown of Seoul. The Seoul Chinatown experienced the rules under Japanese occupation, U.S. Army military government, and Korea government, and eventually disappeared in the 1980s due to urban renewal in 1960-70s. Lacking land ownerships, Chinese could not conserve Chinatown in the progress of urban renewal. This is a case study of Seoul to discuss how the nineteen-century Chinese settlements in Seoul developed into the Chinatown, and to examine what transformations it had experienced and why it disappeared. This study comprises three periods and would be carried out in three years: the first year will focus on the period of Chinese Settlement, from late Joseon Dynasty to early Japanese Occupation (the late nineteen century to 1913); the second year on the period of Japanese Occupation (1914-1945); and the third year on the post-war period (1945-1980s).