Second-generation Korean American Research Articles

Negotiating Identities and Re-acculturation of Second-Generation Korean Americans: The Role of Ethnic Media and Peer Group Dynamics

Negotiating Identities and Re-acculturation of Second-Generation Korean Americans: The Role of Ethnic Media and Peer Group Dynamics

Science Fiction and Postmemory Hain in the Contemporary Korean American Literature

As Marianne Hirsch observes in Family Frames (1997), children of Holocaust survivors often remember suffering that their parents endured. The memory of Holocaust is no less vivid for these children than is for mothers and fathers who experienced tragedy firsthand. Yet while members of postwar generation--Hirsch among them--mourn what their parents lost, that mourning is inevitably complicated by feelings of doubt, curiosity, and guilt. In Hirsch's words: relationship one have to traumatic events of one's parents' lives--horror? ambivalence? envy? negative nostalgia? How is possible to grieve for something that one never knew firsthand? What right does one have to feel traumatized by catastrophe from which one was spared? In addressing such questions, Hirsch likens Holocaust to a foreign that she and others of her generation can never hope to visit yet for which they often feel mysteriously homesick (244). Born after war, they are exiled from very experiences that haunt them--exiled by their belatedness, by fact that tragedy preceded their births. Such exile, Hirsch contends, is shared not just by children of Holocaust survivors but by children of those who have survived any collective tragedy (22). To designate this condition of spatial and temporal exile, Hirsch offers term postmemory. (1) In this essay, I explore representations of specifically Korean American type of that I call postmemory han. (2) Han, word with no equivalent in English, refers to Korean form of grief. (3) According to one writer, All Koreans feel it because our country has always had to shut up and listen to bigger countries--Japan, Russia, America. And because of war that split brother from sister and left everyone's family missing or dead (I. Park). Complex and dynamic, han cannot be neatly analyzed (A. Park). It ranges from bitter-sweet longing to despair that wracks your insides like fire (Freda; I. Park). Yet han never explodes. Writers repeatedly portray han as something shaped by repressiveness: han is the unexpressed anger felt inside (Luke Kim, qtd. in Somers), a pent-up historical and personal anguish (I. Park), compressed feeling of suffering caused by injustice (A. Park). Anthropologists have recognized as culture-specific medical condition whose symptoms include dyspnea, heart palpitation, and dizziness (Somers). (4) Someone who dies of han is said to have died of hwabyung (E. Kim 215). Despite evidence that han is medical condition, illness remains difficult to categorize. Are symptoms literal or figurative? Do they originate in body or are they psychosomatic? The answers are unclear. But if han is problematic, then han--the han that flows in blood of Korean Americans--is infinitely more so. A second-generation Korean American might be haunted by her parents' anguish, but she would be equally haunted by knowledge that she herself was not directly victimized by circumstances that led to such pain. For example, she is not one of Korean patriots who, in March of 1919, staged nationwide peaceful demonstration for Korean independence only to watch powerlessly as fellow protestors were shot to death by Japanese military. She is not one of students beaten for speaking their native language, or from one of families who starved because imperial government requisitioned crops from Korean farmers, or one of dysentery-stricken schoolchildren forced to spend months building airfields for kamikaze planes. She is not among girls who were abducted, sold to military brothels as comfort women, and routinely gang-raped by Japanese soldiers, nor is she among millions of Koreans who fled their hometowns in 1950 and walked south for hundreds of miles to avoid being killed by communist troops. How, then, does she remember pain caused by such experiences? …

"I'm Not Here, If This Doesn't Happen": The Korean War and Cold War Epistemologies in Susan Choi's The Foreign Student and Heinz Insu Fenkl's Memories of My Ghost Brother

"I'm Not Here, If This Doesn't Happen"The Korean War and Cold War Epistemologies in Susan Choi's The Foreign Student and Heinz Insu Fenkl's Memories of My Ghost Brother Jodi Kim (bio) What most Americans know about Korea has been told from the point of view of a U.S. military member or a missionary, about prostitutes, beggars, and orphans, many of them mixed race children, never speaking but always spoken for and about, souls being saved by the civilizing missions of neocolonialism and evangelism. No doubt they would have found it difficult to imagine that one day the voice of the native, having returned to the imperial center, might speak back—in English—from its very different positionality. Elaine H. Kim1 Post-1945 Korean migration has been shaped by the division and militarization of the Korean peninsula. The Korean War in particular has had a dramatic and profound impact. Most, if not all, of Korean migration since 1950 can be traced to the war and its consequences. Ji-Yeon Yuh2 In her poem, "fragments of the forgotten war," Korean American poet Suji Kwock Kim "speak[s] back—in English—" to American empire from a "very different positionality." The positionality expressed by the poem encompasses multiple generations of a Korean family divided and scattered by the Korean War: a Korean American daughter who dedicates the poem to her father and writes in his voice, and the father who in turn addresses in the poem the parent(s) he had to leave behind when fleeing [End Page 279] south during the war. Indeed, the poem opens with his address: "You whom I could not protect/ . . . when will I forget the NKPA soldiers who took you away for questioning,/so we never saw you again?/We three sons fled south in January 1951/without you. . . ."3 As one "note" in a collection entitled Notes from the Divided Country (2003), this poem captures the ironic disjuncture of remembering in graphic detail a war that, as the very title of the poem suggests, has been "forgotten." While the Korean War (1950–1953) has been dubbed the "Forgotten War" or the "Unknown War" by Americans, it remains for Koreans and the global Korean diaspora it engendered a defining moment of family and national history. The interrogative, "when will I forget," which opens Kim's poem transforms itself later into a declarative, "I'll never forget." The subject of the poem declares that he will "never forget" the horrors of war: the smells of burning and still living yet rotting flesh, the sight of a boy biting his arm in order to take his mind off the wound in his stomach. . . .4 Yet this first-hand witnessing, experiencing, and knowledge of such suffering exist in sharp contrast to and cannot fill in for that which he does not know: how the parents he was forced to leave behind must have suffered. In the poem, the recollected horrors produce a simultaneous knowing and unknowing: "I know you suffered, but I'll never know how."5 Similarly "speak[ing] back—in English—from [a] very different positionality," in an "Untitled" multimedia work by artist Ji-Young Yoo, one hundred shallow-relief faces, made of white clay and juxtaposed like tiles, act as a screen for the projection of digitized archival footage of the Korean War as well as textual excerpts from an oral history of Korean American memories of the war. One such remembrance, by second-generation Korean American Orson Moon, reads: "Why hold on to the past? For me, it is not the past. The fear and terror of this time period have carried forward into my dad's life. . . . It's carried forward to my sisters' lives, my life, as a hole, a silence." This piece is part of a unique interactive multimedia exhibit entitled "Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the 'Forgotten War.'" Ramsay Liem, the exhibit's Project Director, sees the exhibit as "a space of Korean American memory" that "lifts the silence shrouding the Korean War."6 Orson Moon speaks to how the silent memories of the Korean War are carried transgenerationally, passed from father to children...

Intergenerational Transmission of Religion and Culture: Korean Protestants in the U.S

This paper systematically examines the extent to which Korean Protestant immigrants in the United States have transmitted their religion and cultural traditions through religion. It is based on a survey of 1.5- and 2nd-generation Korean American adults and a survey of Korean English-language congregations in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. Previous studies reveal that the majority of Korean immigrants are affiliated with a Korean Protestant church and that their frequent participation in it enables them to preserve Korean cultural traditions. Results of our survey show that Korean Protestant immigrants are highly successful in transmitting their church-oriented style of Protestantism to the second generation. Approximately two-thirds of 1.5- and 2nd-generation Korean American adults who attended a Protestant church during their childhood were found to participate in a Protestant congregation regularly, with more than two-thirds of them going to a Korean congregation. Moreover, they also participate in a congregation as frequently as Korean immigrants. However, our study shows that Korean Protestant immigrants have failed to transmit their cultural traditions through religion. Korean English-language congregations for 1.5- and 2nd-generation Korean American Protestants have almost entirely eliminated Korean cultural components from worship services and other socio-cultural activities. Transmitting Korean cultural traditions through religion is difficult for Korean Protestant immigrants partly because there is a great dissociation between Korean Protestantism and Korean secular culture and partly because second-generation Korean American Protestants have embraced the white American evangelical subculture. Based on these findings, we argue that transmitting a religion does not necessarily help to transmit ethnic culture and ethnic identity unless there is a strong correlation between the two.

An Exception to the Exception: Second-Generation Korean American Church Participation

First-generation Korean Americans are characterized by nearly universal church membership and the highest levels of Protestant affiliation of all immigrant groups. However, most second-generation Korean Americans are not church members, and their departure from their parents’ immigrant churches has been referred to as a “silent exodus”. Various studies anecdotally propose reasons for the second-generation departure, yet no in-depth analysis has examined the context of second-generation Korean American church-stayers. The authors present an analysis of the only independent second-generation Korean American church in the state of Michigan. Participant observation and in-depth interviews are used to assess the importance of religious beliefs, inter-generational relations, and cultural factors insofar as they are associated with this church’s membership. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that religious internalization is a significant factor explaining church participation for second-generation Korean Americans.

“We’re Not a Korean American Church Any More”: Dilemmas in Constructing a Multi-Racial Church Identity

English Ministry churches, which serve second-generation Korean Americans, plan on becoming multi-racial in order to grow. This raises questions of how organizations change identities generally, and, in particular, how the churches plan to keep both current and new members comfortable within a multi-racial space. Pastors and members define their racial status in terms of their cultural differences, rather than inter-racial inequalities, from whites. Their interpretation of race shapes their plan for drawing in a multi-racial congregation. Pastors hope to create multicultural congregations that welcome diversity. Yet implementing this model while satisfying Korean Americans and non-Korean Americans is proving difficult. Churches strategically use distinct backstage and front-stage activities to appeal to all groups, thereby creating a potential dilemma in their long-term church identity. They may also impede membership from other minority racial groups through their approach to race.

Two Ways of Articulating Heterogeneity in Korean American Narratives of Ethnic Identity

This article explores the role of language in constructing relational identities among 1.5- and second-generation Korean Americans. Using the methodology of discourse analysis, we reveal two ways of articulating social divisions within the Korean American community among 1.5- and second-generation Korean Americans in Los Angeles. We analyze how their narratives present different ideologies about identity as: 1) an attribute determined by factors not under an individual's control or 2) an observable accomplishment, capable of being easily modified by individual choice. We analyze the discursive features of these two discourses, which we call the discourse of dispositions and thediscourse of agency, and we discuss the implications of this research for theories of race and ethnicity.

Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals: Ethnic, Multiethnic, or White Campus Ministries?

Why do those who can participate in more inclusive congregations instead choose to tum to those that draw strong ethnic boundaries? This article addresses this question through a little studied but growing phenomenon - Asian American college students' participation in separate ethnic evangelical organizations. Using data gathered from field research in a variety of ethnically diverse campus ministries, this paper examines why second-generation Korean Americans who can participate in pan-ethnic, multiracial, or predominately white campus ministries instead participate in separate ethnic campus ministries. In so doing, it contributes to the emerging literature on the religious participation of the children of today's post-1965 immigrants; it addresses the largely unformed debate regarding the prevalence of racialization versus ethnicization explanations for ethnic religious group formation.

Product Review: Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities

Product Review: Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities

Book Review: Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities

Book Review: Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities

Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities (review)

Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities (review)

Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American American Identities (review)

Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American American Identities (review)

Cultural Influences on Ratings of Self-Perceived Social, Emotional, and Academic Adjustment for Korean American Adolescents

This study investigated the appropriateness of the Self-Report of Personality (SRP) of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) with a sample of Korean American adolescents. The study further explored the extent to which Korean American adolescents experience social and emotional difficulties and how these difficulties might be related to acculturation status. Participants were 51 second-generation Korean American adolescents in sixth to twelfth grade in public schools. Results indicated that the SRP was moderately reliable for this sample of Korean-American adolescents. Furthermore, their average scores were similar to the norming sample on all but two of the SRP scales. One fifth or more of the participants scored in the at-risk or clinically significant range on four subscales, indicating the presence of social and emotional distress. Finally, acculturation status showed a strong positive correlation only with the Self-Reliance subscale. This study provides information to help teachers, counselors, and administrators improve their understanding of the social, emotional, and academic adjustment of Korean American adolescents.

Unveiling the Socioculturally Constructed Multivoiced Self: Themes of Self Construction and Self Integration in the Narratives of Second-Generation Korean American Adults (review)

Unveiling the Socioculturally Constructed Multivoiced Self: Themes of Self Construction and Self Integration in the Narratives of Second-Generation Korean American Adults (review)

The Korean Language in America: The Role of Cultural Identity in Heritage Language Learning

The paper examines the role of cultural identity and heritage language maintenance among the lives of 40 second-generation Korean-American university students in the United States. The study focuses on three questions: (1) what is the level of heritage language proficiency and language use among second generation Korean-American youths?; (2) which culture(s) do these youths identify themselves with, Korean or American, and to what extent?; and (3) is there a relationship between cultural identity and heritage language proficiency? Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the questionnaire data showed that most second-generation Korean-Americans achieve some level of Korean proficiency, but they overwhelmingly agree that it is not enough. They acknowledge the importance of knowing their heritage language, but feel that the existing language courses in the community-based language schools are not meeting their needs. The informants stated that the absence of societal recognition of the importance in maintaining their heritage language was the most significant factor in their lack of motivation to maintain their heritage language. However, they appear to have formed a unique bicultural identity composed of characteristics from both Korean and American cultures. A regression analysis showed that heritage language proficiency was related to strength of bicultural identification.

Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the College Korean Language Classes

This article examines the ways in which second-generation Korean-American students form and transform their senses of ethnicity through their participation in Korean language classes at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. These classes were largely populated by second-generation Korean-Americans. Called the "New Second Generation," these Korean-American students, who have "successfully" proceeded through the American educational system, show that adaptation to the host society does not necessarily lead to assimilated American identity, and that learning Korean (a "heritage" language) does not necessarily lead to homogeneous ethnic identity formation. Although "heritage" (or "ethnic") language has often been taken up as a symbol for group maintenance, my study shows that actual interaction with the language is complexly and heterogeneously experienced among the group members, especially in relation to the ethnic identity formation process. Korean classes (as a transnational social field) contain complicated and contradictory characteristics, resulting from their complex mixture of class participants, their institutional location, and their national and transnational situation. Korean-American language learners negotiate their sense of ethnic identity by interacting with social meanings initiated from words, passages, illustrations, and texts. Furthermore, Korean-American student's language performance and cultural tastes, which are perceived and evaluated by themselves and others, differently locate these students on a continuum of "Koreanness" and "Americanness," reflecting different relationships to Korea and different senses of being Korean.

THE SOCIOCULTURALLY CONSTRUCTED MULTIVOICED SELF AS A FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF SECOND-GENERATION KOREAN AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS

This article proposes a new framework for theory and practice of Christian education for second-generation Korean American young adults using the literature of sociocultural constructionism and the multivoiced self. This framework can provide holistic nurture and future trajectories in which to encourage a reflexive, praxis-generating faith. The author calls for a fostering of authentic community in which young adults can engage in self construction and self integration through their narrative.

College and Notions of “Asian American”: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean Americans Negotiate Race and Identity

(1999). College and Notions of “Asian American”: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean Americans Negotiate Race and Identity. Amerasia Journal: Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 29-52.

Preserving Patriarchy: Assimilation, Gender Norms, and Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals

This ethnographic study of a second-generation Korean American Protestant congregation explores the role of religion in assimilation, focusing on emerging gender and family norms. The study found that individuals maintained a substantial commitment to patriarchal gender norms and articulated these norms in language consistent with American evangelical theology rather than in ethnic/cultural terms. Members were also influenced by egalitarian norms from the broader American society, and women in particular offered partial resistance to female subordination. The findings suggest that religious affiliation should be given consideration alongside economic variables in analyzing assimilation trajectories among the new second generation.

What It Means to Be Christian: The Role of Religion in the Construction of Ethnic Identity and Boundary among Second-Generation Korean Americans

Despite a rich body of literature on the role of ethnic religion in immigrant communities, there has been relatively little attention paid to the role and impact of ethnic religion on the second generation. This is due partly to the earlier dominance of the assimilationist paradigm, which, based mostly on the experiences of the “old” turn-of-the-century European immigrant groups, tended to postulate a second-generation rejection of religion and ethnicity. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Korean-American Christians in Chicago, this study seeks to reexamine the role of ethnic religion for the second generation in the context of a contemporary non-white ethnic group. Contrary to earlier views, findings from Korean-American church-goers suggest that when an ethnic group is faced with a strong sense of social marginalization believed to arise from its racial status, the ethnic church can play a dominant role in the group's quest for identity and sense of belonging. This paper shows the ways in which the Korean ethnic church, more specifically the evangelical Protestant church, plays a role in the construction and maintenance of second-generation Korean ethnic identity and boundary. Serving as a primary site of the cultural reproduction of the second generation, the Korean ethnic church supports the development of the group's defensive and often highly exclusive ethnic identity in two key ways; first, through a general institutional transmission of Korean culture and second, by the way a set of core traditional Korean values are legitimized and sacralized through their identification with conservative Christian morality and worldview. In demonstrating how ethnic religion can remain highly salient for the second generation under certain situational contexts, this study illuminates the need to rethink the previous views regarding ethnic religion and the second generation, as well as the nature of second-generation ethnicity.