Contested History, Contested Present: The Northeast Project and Cultural Appropriation in China and South Korean Public Perception

This thesis investigates the enduring influence of China’s Northeast Project on South Korean national identity and historical consciousness. Though officially concluded in 2007, the Chinese reinterpretation of ancient Korean polities—especially Goguryeo and Balhae—remains active in public discourse, fueling contemporary cultural and diplomatic friction. Initially, a detailed historical and discursive analysis of how Chinese state-sponsored historiography is provided, particularly through the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, reclassifies both Goguryeo and Balhae as regional components of a “unified multiethnic state.” Drawing upon canonical sources such as the Old Book of Tang and the New Book of Tang, this chapter traces the selective deployment of primary materials to frame these kingdoms as peripheral, tributary regimes. In the process, the project advances a Sinocentric vision that subsumes non-Han polities into a continuous Chinese historical narrative. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study exposes the ideological functions underpinning this historiographical strategy—namely, legitimizing modern territorial integrity and reinforcing a national identity built on historical continuity. It also contrasts this with counter-narratives from Korean scholarship, which foreground linguistic, archaeological, and textual evidence affirming Goguryeo’s and Balhae's indigenous Korean lineage. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrates that China’s Northeast Project operates as a deliberate form of cultural statecraft, shaping perceptions of historical sovereignty and regional identity. It reveals the ways contested histories remain potent in shaping Korea’s sense of self and its relations with China, underlining the broader geopolitical implications of historiographical power in East Asia.