The Harmony between Nationalism and Universalism in Northeast Asia: In search of the Cultural Community

Hyun-Chin Lim
Department of Sociology
Seoul National University
Seoul, 151-742
South Korea
hclim@snu.ac.kr

This paper seeks to find out a relevant measure for harmonizing nationalism and universalism among Korea, China and Japan in Northeast Asia. The three countries in the region have for a long time been involved in history distortions and territorial disputes. These history distortions and territorial disputes have so far constrained rather facilitated coexistence and cooperation among three countries. In recent years, however, the author can find increasing foreign trade and investment, cultural and educational exchange, and NGOs networks among Korea, China and Japan. It is argued in the paper that cultural community rather than economic one would be more effective in furthering mutual understanding among three countries. In particular, ‘Korea-China-Japan Meeting for Historical and Cultural Understanding’ (tentatively named) and ‘Korea-China-Japan Forum for Civil Society’ (tentatively named) are suggested to be established to consolidate social and cultural exchange and networks at both government and civil society level.