The Northeast Project, ostensibly led by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is a project that began in 2002 to make Manchuria a part of China’s history from ancient times to the present. In the 21st century, why is China making Manchuria a part of Chinese history through the Northeast Project? The Northeast Project also newly presented Korean ancient history as a part of Chinese history. In this special lecture, I will examine the historical origins of the Kando/ Jiandao 間島 issue (Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, China), which is a border or territorial issue between Korea and China, and analyze how China is trying to change and strengthen the Kando issue in modern times to implement Chinese territorial claims. (See attached announcement for more details.)

Sunyoung Park is professor in the Department of History at Sejong University, Seoul. She holds a PhD in East Asian Modern History from Nanjing University. She has been a visiting scholar at Yenching Institute, Harvard University, and at the Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, Tokyo University. She is the author of Manchuria Volunteers (in Chinese, published in Beijing) and Glocal Manchuria (in Korean, published with a grant from the Harvard-Yenching Institute), among others.