Representation of Korean-Chinese Female in the Media and Ethics of Care

The media representation of Korean Chinese shows a great difference by gender. Reproductions of Korean-Chinese men have been described as powerful criminal characters such as gangsters, organ traffickers, and serial killers since the movie The Yellow Sea (2010). In the TV show, Korean Chinese men were imprinted with typical criminal images that threaten Korean society. On the other hand, Korean Chinese women differ by age depending on how Korean society accepted them. From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, when immigrant women from marriage came to Korea, it was represented as a simple rural girl adapting to the patriarchal life of a patriarchal family. Since the mid-2000s, the representation of Korean Chinese women entering Korea as labor migrants rather than marriage migrant women has increased. Independent and strong characters appeared, and the layer of representation widened. Since 2010, crime films have been commercially successful in Korean society, and the recurrence of crimes such as violence and murder has increased in the media reproduction as a series of violent crimes, called the three Korean Chinese murders. Cruel Korean male characters such as organ traffickers, serial killers, and gangsters appeared in the OCN dramas Cheoyong (2014), Dual (2014), Black (2017), and Bad Guys (2017). For female characters of Korean ethnicity, crime representation became full-scale through MISSING (2016) and The Villainess (2017). In order to protect motherhood, the image of a Korean Chinese woman who was well-established and obedient to Korean society began to be reappeared as a violent criminal that commits murder without hesitation. However, the reality facing Korean-Chinese women who risk their lives and practice motherhood is far from a stable and peaceful life. They go to jail for their crimes or make extreme choices at the end of despair. Of course, exceptional repesentations also appear. The Korean-Chinese women appearing in JTBC’s Secret Love Affair and Wife’s Qualifications by Jung Sung-joo are portrayed as subjective women who make their claims. However, this is only a very small attempt when looking at the overall production of TV shows and the distribution of representation. This study analyzes the representation methods of the film MISSING and Mistress, which have projected criminal images of male Korean Chinese representations to female Korean Chinese through movies and TV shows. We will examine the problems of representing Korean-Chinese women in terms of ‘care’ and ‘hospitality,’ and explore the direction of reflection and solidarity to build an integrated narrative for Korean Diaspora in preparation for the unification era. The problem of media reproduction for Korean Chinese requires deep reflection and rewriting, as the narrative of unity can only begin when an equal place is created for each other. (jasin72@hanmail.net)