Tullis, Calli

Figure 1. Spread of “dumplings” along the Silk Road through the Mongol Empire (1200-1350).

Korean Nationalism and Trans-Nationalization

         Mandu, and Korean cuisine more broadly, highlights the interaction of food, identity, culture and nation through the intentional promotion of a collective, national Korean culture. The Korean peninsula existed through eras of tribalism, unification, occupation, civil war, partition and now as a democratic nation across the southern half of the peninsula. Based on Colas’s framework, “culture” should be seen as “the basic ingredient of nationalist ideologies: the idea that the identity of the ethnic or territorial group that becomes the nation is preserved through history by attributes of language, custom, religion, and traditions” (2018, 132). Food is a salient example of culture through its “everyday reproduction of a ‘banal’ nationalism” (Colas 2018, 132). The government of South Korea understood the value of culture – in particular food – and employed intentional production as a means of global asserting power and ensuring domestic cohesion.

         The Republic of Korea (South Korea) formed in 1948 on the precipice of a Cold War proxy civil war and backed by the United States’ NATO bloc. Given South Korea’s beginnings as a nation fractured, efforts to assert an ethno-national identity date back to the earliest days of the Republic (Kim 2021). Following the stalling of the civil war, South Korea was non-democratic, unitary presidential republic until 1987 when a more traditionally liberal democracy was formed. With the creation of the 1987 constitution, South Korean leaders began an intentional, government backed effort to produce and export culture in order to generate economic value and positive sentiments towards Korea as a nation (Kim 2021). The effort of this “Korean Wave” focused on East Asia in the 1990s and expanded to its modern global footprint over the ensuing 20 years. K-Pop music, K-Drama TV and Korean films are increasingly internationally relevant and in turn introduce the public to Korean customs, all aided by the growing use of communications technology. Food is another form of exportable culture aided by burgeoning Korean media that promotes dishes and products abroad. Mandu found relevance as a regular feature of K-Dramas and through association with stereotypical Korean cuisine. The South Korean government intentionally includes food in its efforts to support and export culture. Government backed food programs range from supporting manufacturers to the creation of the Korean Food Foundation in acknowledging the importance of food on a multitude of dimensions (Kim 2021). South Korea leveraged food, and mandu specifically, as a component of Korean culture to intentionally instill domestically and export globally to simultaneously promote ethno-nationalist cohesion and demonstrate strength.

         The success of national pride expanded beyond the Korean peninsula into growing globally diasporic communities which come to rely on food as a cultural connection. Since the reform of United States immigration policy in 1965, Korean immigrants arrived in the United States and gradually established robust enclaves adjacent to urban centers. The most common immigration destinations center along coastal cities such as Washington DC, New York, Seattle, and most of California (Figure 2). Today about 1 million Korean Americans live in the United States facing natural forces of assimilation and acculturation common among immigrant communities (Batalova 2022). Such intense and intentional efforts to assert a common culture by the South Korean government translates into diasporic communities utilizing customs to maintain a sense of identity. Food preparation and mandu making work within Korean American immigrant communities to instill a source of connection to homeland and history as globalizing forces continue to impact cultural dissemination.

Figure 2. Korean immigrant arrival by share of metro population 2013-2017.

Mandu Reunions

         As growing diasporic Korean populations across the globe and the United States face forces of assimilation and acculturation, food as a feature of culture contributes to creating shared senses of history and community. The process of preparing mandu is inherently communal, drawing groups of women to prepare mass batches of dumplings (Park 1999). Anecdotes across generations, maintained the process of mandu making as a communal act either bringing families together or entire villages of women. Global modernization fundamentally alters food consumption patterns resulting in, among other implications, the proliferation of pre-processed foods. In the case of mandu, most – especially in America – consume mandu as frozen and readymade with one of the most well-known producers being Bibigo (WP 2021). With daily dietary changes, mandu’s role as symbolic and culturally significant to Lunar New Year is increasingly relevant. Especially within diasporic communities, Lunar New Year presents a time for reconnection to community and history facilitated by the practice of making mandu.

         One of the more prominent preparations of mandu, duk-mandu guk, is a soup common and essential to Korean Lunar New Year celebrations regardless of location. The soup is a beef, or pheasant, bone broth (guk) with rice cakes (duk), dumplings (mandu), among other ingredients (Pettid 2018). The dish eaten annually is meant to represent good luck and celebration of aging (Pettid 2018). Traditionally, Koreans marked their birthdays with the beginning of a new year leading duk mandu guk to serve as a celebration of life. Evidence of this dish dates to the Chosun Period and duk mandu guk is still consumed domestically and in the United States’ immigrant communities. The labor intensive preparation presents an opportunity and reason for families to return together even as modern social forces disperse communities.

         As Koreans spread into international communities, opportunities for cultural and familial connection become increasingly rare. Stories like that of Eunice Park and her return to her family for Lunar New Year exemplify the new reality of Korean American families – one straddled across time and space where the maintenance of cultural connections is intentional and tied to food. Park’s 1999 piece in the Los Angeles Times encapsulates the reunification of family centered around the preparation of these annually traditional foods. She notes the hours-long process of making mandu with her mother and sister as a special bonding time that mirrors the generations-long traditions connecting them to their family back in Korea (Park 1999). Park’s experience is not unique but representative of experiences that connect Koreans living outside of Korea. The time spent with family is increasingly rare and confined to special occasions. Korean families come to span continents resulting in an apprehension of losing a center of tradition. However, mandu and the process of its preparation presents the opportunity to connect with culture and tradition.

         Mandu making as a Korean practice is subjected to modernizing forces which witness its evolution from royal court food to an annual tradition serving as a reminder of heritage and history. The values of family and community centered around food that date back to the Chosun Period are intentionally supported by the government of South Korea but fundamentally maintained at the community and familial level. As identified by Park, Lunar New Year presents a reason to connect as such opportunities are increasingly rare. Mandu and the process of its preparation act as a poignant food ritual spanning across time.

Modernizing Mandu

         Mandu making as an impetus for community connections faces modernizing and transformative forces. Firstly, as mentioned previously, mandu mass manufacturing is an increasingly common phenomenon and preferred form of consumption for many due to its ease and accessibility (WP 2021). Brands' efforts for international commercialization of Korean foods are backed by the South Korean government and enable wider audiences and acknowledgement (Kim 2021). As the act of making mandu moves further from daily life, its significance to Lunar New Year encourages the return of the practice as an intentional connection and reflection to Korean culture. However, what constitutes the cultural practice of making and consuming mandu around Lunar New Year too evolves with new immigrant generations incorporating their lived experiences. 

         Annual practices around mandu for Lunar New Year continue to develop especially within immigrant and specifically Korean American communities. In part these adaptations come from changing resources; the guk broth was traditionally made with pheasant which is rarely available (Pettid 2018). In other senses, mandu making changes because families are increasingly dispersed and thus Lunar New Year preparations assume a new importance. However, for people like Grace Hong, the tradition expands beyond family to a tribute to community and ancestors. A piece by the Washington Post highlights Hong’s annual “Dumplingfest” which feeds some 60 guests with 600+ dumplings in joining Korean tradition with American modernism (Barrow 2014). Beginning originally in honor of her late mother, and their familial tradition of duk mandu guk, Hong began hosting friends and family in 2004 to make and eat mandu (Barrow 2014). The gathering gradually grew to its large scope in size. Hong is acutely aware of the immigrant transience within which she lives. While they prepare guk to boil mandu, they also deep fry the dish and change fillings to be vegan or include crab - all choices of which her Korean mother would disdain (Barrow 2014). “Dumplingfest” is a communal effort with attendees responsible for folding their own mandu and others aiding in the preparation - a reinterpretation of the traditional practice of the women gathering for the process (Barrow 2014). Immigrant experiences induce fundamental changes to cultural practices out of a need for adaptation which should not be viewed as inherently negative. The communal nature of “Dumplingfest” maintains the fundamental value of connection and community merely adapted for a modernized American society.

         Traditionally practices face unavoidable changes especially as groups move away from their homeland and mandu making is no different. Time to prepare mandu by hand is impractical for many Americans to do regularly. Yet, mandu maintains its significance as a connection to Korean family, culture and heritage in its role in Lunar New Year traditions. The community within which mandu is made changes, but mandu’s symbolic value holds resonance.