Sovereignty Experiments: Korean Migrants and the Building of Borders in Northeast Asia, 1860–1945 (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)

Sovereignty Experiments tells the story of how authorities in Korea, Russia, China, and Japan—through diplomatic negotiations, border regulations, legal categorization of subjects and aliens, and cultural policies—competed to control Korean migrants as they suddenly moved abroad by the thousands in the late nineteenth century. Alyssa M. Park argues that Korean migrants were essential to the process of establishing sovereignty across four states because they tested the limits of state power over territory and people in a borderland where authority had been long asserted but not necessarily enforced. Traveling from place to place, Koreans compelled statesmen to take notice of their movement and to experiment with various policies to govern it. Ultimately, states' efforts culminated in drastic measures, including the complete removal of Koreans on the Soviet side. As Park demonstrates, what resulted was the stark border regime that still stands between North Korea, Russia, and China today. Skillfully employing a rich base of archival sources from across the region, Sovereignty Experiments sets forth a new approach to the transnational history of Northeast Asia. By focusing on mobility and governance, Park illuminates why this critical intersection of Asia was contested, divided, and later reimagined as parts of distinct nations and empires. The result is a fresh interpretation of migration, identity, and state making at the crossroads of East Asia and Russia. Review "Sovereignty Experiments is a terrific piece of transnational, multilingual research. With rich stories of smugglers, bandits, spies, and political intrigue, Park shows how a seemingly remote spot at the margins of Chinese, Russian, and Korean territory illuminates fundamental questions for any historian of early twentieth century global history. A riveting and entertaining read." (Andre Schmid, University of Toronto, author of Korea Between Empires ) "Alyssa Park has given us a fascinating book about the borderlands of the Tumen river valley in northeast Asia and the struggles over its control in the late nineteenth century by Chosŏn Korea, Qing China, Imperial Russia, and Japan. She shows how sovereignties came to be defined, not principally by diplomats or even by war, but over the allegiance of the Korean migrants who settled the area. This is an important book for East Asian history and global borderlands studies." (Mae Ngai, Columbia University, author of Impossible Subjects ) "Alyssa Park paints a detailed picture of Korean migrant communities in the Far East. There is no question that this book will make a significant empirical contribution to the literature and be of interest to scholars of Korean, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese history." (Eric Lohr, American University, author of Russian Citizenship )

Sovereignty Experiments tells the story of how authorities in Korea, Russia, China, and Japan—through diplomatic negotiations, border regulations, legal categorization of subjects and aliens, and cultural policies—competed to control Korean migrants as they suddenly moved abroad by the thousands in the late nineteenth century. Alyssa M. Park argues that Korean migrants were essential to the process of establishing sovereignty across four states because they tested the limits of state power over territory and people in a borderland where authority had been long asserted but not necessarily enforced. Traveling from place to place, Koreans compelled statesmen to take notice of their movement and to experiment with various policies to govern it. Ultimately, states' efforts culminated in drastic measures, including the complete removal of Koreans on the Soviet side. As Park demonstrates, what resulted was the stark border regime that still stands between North Korea, Russia, and China today.

Skillfully employing a rich base of archival sources from across the region, Sovereignty Experiments sets forth a new approach to the transnational history of Northeast Asia. By focusing on mobility and governance, Park illuminates why this critical intersection of Asia was contested, divided, and later reimagined as parts of distinct nations and empires. The result is a fresh interpretation of migration, identity, and state making at the crossroads of East Asia and Russia.

This book examines Korean migration and settlement in the Tumen valley, officials’ views of Korean migrants, and competing attempts by Korea, Russia (Soviet Union), China, and Japan to govern them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that these attempts derived from broader aspirations on the part of statesmen to establish exclusive claims over territory and people—the definition of modern sovereignty—in a borderland where such claims had been asserted but not actively enforced. Migrants posed a challenge because they transgressed borders and defied official efforts to contain their movements and to define them as part of distinct political communities. The book analyzes jurisdictional debates, diplomatic negotiations, international treaties, border regulations, legal categorization of subjects and aliens, and cultural and religious missions that were carried out among Koreans. It further explores migrants’ subversion and use of new laws to their own ends, especially in Russia. Integrating sources across contiguous geographies, this transnational history revises nationalist and imperialist histories that have subsumed the region and its Koreans under narratives of colonization or assimilation by a particular state and instead foregrounds the development of common concerns about mobility, borders, and political belonging across Northeast Asia. SOVEREIGNTY EXPERIMENTS Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Note on Places and Terms Introduction Part I ACROSS THE TUMEN VALLEY 1. Borderland and Prohibited Zone 2. People and Place: Jurisdiction and Borders, 1860–1888 3. Contested Border: Multiple Sovereignties, Multiple Citizenships in Manchuria 4. Civilizational Border: Subjects, Aliens, and Illegality in the Russian Far East Part II ACROSS THE TUMEN NORTH BANK: IN RUSSIA 5. Transforming Ussuri: Migration and Settlement 6. Transnational World of the Korean Settlement 7. Making Them One of Us Epilogue: Denouement of Borders Glossary Note on Sources Selected Bibliography Index "Sovereignty Experiments places Korean migrants and multiple efforts to govern them at the center of a transnational history about the building of modern sovereign states in Northeast Asia at the turn of the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher "Sovereignty Experiments places Korean migrants and multiple efforts to govern them at the center of a transnational history about the building of modern sovereign states in Northeast Asia at the turn of the twentieth century"-- Résumé de l'éditeur