Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Koreans in Central Asia and the Korean Nation as a Whole. Book Review: Valeriy Han “Historiography of the Koreans of Central Asia: Main Directions and Stages of Development” Tashkent: Baktia Press, 2021.

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-4/372-381

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis, evaluation, reviewing of Valeriy S. Han's monograph "Historiography of the Koreans of Central Asia: Main directions and stages of development", published in 2021. The book certainly deserves it, as it has a number of undoubtedly important merits. First, it is voluminous and comprehensive (624 pages and more than 630 references and sources used); second, it is highly relevant. There have been virtually no historiographic works summarizing and classifying the already very rich database (more than a thousand of publications on the Koreans of tsarist Russia, the USSR, and the CIS, and hundreds of publications on the Koreans of Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia) so far. Third, the author critically evaluates numerous publications on Korean studies and is strict with himself as well. He strived to scientifically define the emergence of new global phenomena, including the formation of a new subethnic community and a new global stage in the evolution of the Korean people at the level of a "meta-nation," explaining the subethnic entity, “Koryo Saram”, based on strict scientific principles and extensive discussions with leading experts in Korean studies from various countries. Fourth, the uncompromising desire to achieve a rigorous scientific approach based on the standards, principles, and criteria of academic science in Korean studies both in their own country and in other post-Soviet states amidst the currently widespread pseudoscientific, amateur exercises in the field of "supposedly Korean studies".