Movie Review: Zhang Lu's "Dooman River" (2009) - Part 3

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Choseonjok Under the Chinese Rule and Hybridity
What is notable in the movie is that most of the men of the village appear to be incapable, with the women holding the financial power. Changho also does not seem to go to school or receive any education in an institution. With the weak or absent fathers and the lack of education, the Choseonjok of this town are very vulnerable people with slippery identities.
Thus, China’s presence is big in the movie, although there is more Korean being spoken. The minor portrayals would be the Chinese programs being shown on the television, and the signs of the government buildings marked with Chinese characters. Throughout the film, however, glimpses of China’s strong authority are shown, such as when the Chinese police takes care of the bodies on the frozen river, or when they check the IDs of the people on the bus. When the old lady is being arrested, the police man is merciless and even the other Choseonjok on the bus are silent. Through these scenes, the audience is reminded again and again that the Choseonjok are under Chinese rule and that they are, in fact, Chinese on legal papers.
The movie shows that the children are affected by the Chinese government a lot more than the older generations. One of the popular hobbies of the children is collecting stamps; the designs of the stamps that they collect most likely represent China, as most Chinese stamps are designed with dragons or have pictures of Mao Zedong and his “Little Red Book” (Kolesnikov-Jessop). Also, when the town chief announces to the villagers on reporting the defectors, it is eventually the son of the market owner who calls the Chinese police to arrest Jeongjin.
In actuality, the Choseonjok are taught to have Chinese identities - that they are just one of the ethnic minorities in China. Even the text books of the Choseonjok schools do not mention anything about being a diaspora that once saw themselves as the same people of the Korean peninsula. Like other ethnic minority groups in China, the Choseonjok’s different cultures are acknowledged, yet, it is as long as they strengthen the “integration with the Chinese nation and the ‘Chinese-ness’ of the ethnic group” (Choi 123). The Chinese culture and policy have “strong assimilative power,” and if China senses that a minority group tries to use their cultural identity to separate themselves, the government will express strong oppression. Ethnic groups are given autonomy only culturally, not politically (Choi 123).
Thus, the movie represents the newer generations of the Choseonjok as hybrid identities, having been influenced by their grandparents of their relationship with the North Koreas and their parents of their connection to South Korea. But China also plays in shaping the identities of the younger Choseonjok.


Choi, Woo-Gil. "The Korean Minority in China: The Change of Its Identity." Development and Society30.1 (2001): 119-41. Print.
Dooman River. Dir. Lu Zhang. Perf. Cui Jian, Yin Lan, Lin Jinlong. 2011. DVD.
Kolesnikov-jessop, Sonia. "Revival of Stamp Collecting in China." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 19 July 2017.

-To be continued