Identity Grafting : The Use of Ethnic Symbols among Korean Chinese Youth in Interethnic Interaction

China is a multiethnic country with a population of 56 ethnic groups, including the Han Chinese majority and 55 ethnic minorities, over 30 of which are cross-border ethnic groups. Members of the Korean Chinese cross-border ethnic minority can trace their migration back to the mid-nineteenth century when people migrated from the Korean peninsula and settled in the historically volatile region of Manchuria. As Korean Chinese immigrants were the regional forerunners of transnational migration, prior academic interest has been primarily focused on how unskilled Korean Chinese labourers and marriage migrants experience confusion, frustration, and contradiction when confronted with their ancestral homeland (the Korean peninsula) and natal homeland (China) and how they grapple with a sense of a torn identity. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the generation of Korean Chinese youth and how they balance the Chinese and Korean aspects of their identities in daily interethnic interactions in China. This article conceptualises interethnic interaction as a process of identity grafting, wherein ethnic symbols are used by Korean Chinese youth to balance cultural differences and proximity when interacting with individuals of different ethnic backgrounds. Via a thematic analysis of ethnographic data collected at a multiethnic university campus in China and through interviews with 10 Korean Chinese university students, this article reveals that Korean Chinese university students draw on ethnic symbols to reconcile cultural differences in various ways, fostering a differential sense of ethnic belonging. The Korean ethnic minority has experienced increased geographical mobility since the late 1980s, with younger generations growing up in diversified surroundings due to migration from ethnic enclaves to coastal or metropolitan areas in China. This study adds to the existing literature by exploring the persistence of Korean Chinese ethnicity among this generation of young people and their ways of practising symbolic ethnicity.