Visiting a Korean cultural center in Ussuriysk

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Mokrina Tatiana Nikolaevna
Photos = Mokrina Tatiana Nikolaevna


There's a small city in Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East called Ussuriysk. It's about two hours north from Vladivostok by bus. The town is famous as a city in which many ethnic Korean Russian citizens live.

In 2009, Ussuriysk got a huge Korean cultural center with a museum in it.

Since my childhood, it has been really important to me to study a lot about the history of ethnic Koreans in the Russian Far East. So I decided to take a small trip up to Ussuriysk to visit this Korean cultural center and its museum.

The Korean cultural center in Ussuriysk is well-known not only across the region of Primorsky Krai, but also abroad. For its grand opening ceremony, there were guests from mainland China, Japan, the U.S. and Korea.

When you enter the center, you see a big board with many names. You can see how many people were involved in the project of creating the center. In fact, these people took their work so seriously that they have created one of the largest Korean centers in all of Russia.

When I walked through the corridors of the Korean cultural center and its museum, I understood how much effort was spent on the creation of such a place. I was happy and I felt the unity of all ethnic Korean people all over the world. It was a feeling as if we were all part of a big family.

In this museum, the history of the resettlement of ethnic Korean people toward the coast of the East Sea in Russia is shown in detail. The creation of the museum was invested with some colossal work. There are copies of rare historical documents and elements that clearly demonstrate the originality of Korea. In particular, it attracts attention for its large number of photographs of ethnic Korean Russian and Soviet citizens.

The museum is always open, so kids and adults can visit and study the history of our grandfathers and grandmothers. I want to say thank you to all those people who are doing their best in order to save in our minds and in our hearts the history of ethnic Korean people across Russia.

I'm grateful to my mother for the fact that our family keeps up many Korean traditions. The situation with the assimilation and acculturation of ethnic Korean people in Russia worries me. I've spoken with a number of ethnic Korean Russians in the older generation, and they are all worried about the rapid assimilation of the younger generation and its reluctance to give due attention to many Korean traditions.

Although I am both Korean and Russian, it seems to me that it's very important to remember my Korean ancestors, as these are our roots that define ourselves. It's also very important to prevent the dissolution of the Korean people and Korean traditions. We need to teach the younger generation about our traditions in order to remember the history of Korea and the Korean people: our grandparents.

Finally, I want to recommend a song this week, too. Please go listen to the song "Dawn" by the pop group Needle&Gem (니들앤젬).

Thank you.

wisdom117@korea.kr

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