Steps in the Tumen River

Abstract

This article records my field experiences with the Tumen River, which forms the boundary between China and Korea. Based on my field notes at three different locations—the river mouth, where territories belonging to China, North Korea, and Russia adjoin; a small town midway along the river where pioneer Korean immigrants risked their lives to cross the border; and the “source” of the contemporary border in a dense mountain forest—my narrative links historical memories of the Tumen border from the seventeenth century to the present. The trips, which were taken over the course of thirteen years, urged me to inquire about and rethink the meaning of state borders from the perspective of local residents, trespassers, and the environment. The article questions the popular notion that boundaries are naturally formed, static, and always clearly defined. On the contrary, they are arbitrarily made, fluid, and often ambiguous. As my physical and intellectual journey along this river revealed the humanistic aspect of boundaries, I myself completed a transformation from journalist to historian.