Establishing National Identity on a Nation-State Essay

Establishing National Identity on a Nation-State - Essay Example Benedict Anderson defined a nation as an "imagined political community". He explicitly used the term "imagined" because he says that people of a certain nation, no matter how small it is, will not have the ability to know a considerable fraction of their fellow nationals, will not have the opportunity to meet them all, nor to even hear about them. But though this is the reality, they have similar ideas and images in relation to descent; therefore in their minds and imagination, they are one as a community (Anderson). The definition of a nation as an imagined community is relevant in the creation and preservation of every modern state. It is through their imaginations that people can cultivate fraternity towards those of the same race and nationality and consequently, they will all join forces to uphold their nationalistic ideas, even though they do not get fully acquainted with each other. Heroism and the willingness of somebody to die for his nation is one good example that imagination plays a pertinent role in this concept of a nation, national identity, and nationalism (Anderson). To illustrate the concepts further, take the case of the country Korea, which is situated in Eastern Asia. Korea is now subdivided into two countries, North Korea and South Korea. Both the North Korean and the South Korean people have the same physical characteristics and the same language. But they do not have the same national-identity simply because they do not fall under the same nation-state sovereignty. Their respective governments are independent of each other, and are actually in full contrast. North Korea is a communist country, while South Korea holds on to their democracy. Most of the time, national identity boils down to the individual person, and his nationalistic sense toward his country (Yi). The people of Korea have the ability to migrate to another neighboring country or to for example, the U.S. If this happens, they leave their nation-state to join another. Although they now belong to a different nation-state, their national identity remains intact, and that is being a Korean by birth and ancestry (Yi) In the ancient ages of dynasty and kingship, the Korean national identity is relatively nil. History shows that Korea is so grossly involved with its surrounding nations that it has never really established its own national identity right there. Korea before, is constantly in the danger of being overshadowed by a bigger and a more powerful nation like China and Mongolia, who consequently, have similar physical features to them and belongs to the same Asian territory (Yi) Korea's national identity was developed through its own ancient tradition and culture. Iryon, a dominant figure of ancient Korea, went ahead and compiled myths, chronicles, and ideas that are directly related to Korea and its heritage, and called it the Samguk Yusa (Yi). Iryon's main purpose is to establish and develop Korea's innate nationalistic idealisms so as to resist stress and pressure coming from their neighboring nations that could probably result to colonization. Although Samguk Sagi was in a way, influenced by the Chinese philosopher Confucius, it did succeed in awakening Korea's threatened national