Unsustainable Survival and Intergenerational Memory in Family Conflicts Arising from the Gobonji Agribusiness of Central Asian Koreans

This study investigates the family conflicts and generational memory gaps triggered by Gobonji—a Korean agricultural business during the late Soviet era—which has traditionally been framed through narratives of pioneering success and socioeconomic achievement. By conducting oral history interviews with family members currently residing in Central Asia, the research illuminates the marginalized domestic crises and identity struggles hidden behind these dominant discourses. The findings reveal that for the parent generation, who endured Soviet oppression and forced assimilation, Gobonji served as a pragmatic means of achieving mainstream integration, despite the erosion of traditional values and social stigma. In contrast, the children’s generation, socialized within the formal Soviet system, perceived these unofficial spaces as socially isolating, unsustainable exploitation, and a manifestation of premodern hierarchical oppression. The study demonstrates that the parents’ survival strategy—centered on a “myth of family salvation” through mobilized labor—clashed profoundly with the socialist-influenced social memories of the children. This ideological and experiential disconnect ultimately transformed a socioeconomic survival mechanism into enduring relational trauma for the younger generation, highlighting the complex internal costs of the Korean diaspora’s economic adaptation in Central Asia.