[KS] Mixed_race_offspring_are_outsiders_.htm (fwd)
jun yoo
junyoo at midway.uchicago.edu
Sun Jul 5 18:53:01 EDT 1998
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 08:03:31 -0500 (CDT)
From: jun yoo <junyoo at midway.uchicago.edu>
To: junyoo at midway.uchicago.edu
Subject: Mixed_race_offspring_are_outsiders_.htm
Home
Help
=20
Latest News
=20
Related Coverage
A week of stories from the Boston Globe's Washington bureau
=20
Latest News
National
International
Washington, D.C.
=20
_________________________________________________________________
=20
Click here for a table of contents and a list of special online
features
=20
Search/Archives
=20
Search the Globe:
__________
___Today
___Yesterday
______________
=20
_________________________________________________________________
=20
Sections Boston Globe Online: Page One Nation | World Metro | Region
Business Sports Living | Arts Editorials Columnists Calendar
Discussion Forums Classifieds Extranet Archives
=20
Low-graphics version
=20
[INLINE]
=20
[INLINE]
=20
Fleet Bank
=20
The Boston Globe OnlineBoston.com Boston Globe Online / Nation | World
Mixed-race offspring are outsiders in Korean homeland
=20
By Kate Wiltrout, Globe Correspondent, 07/05/98
=20
[INLINE] ANGJU, South Korea - Inside a darkened auditorium in this
rural village, In Suni captivated her crowd by shifting effortlessly
between East and West - from traditional Korean folk melodies to
Broadway show tunes; from pulsating Korean pop to bluesy jazz.
=20
The scope of her repertoire matched the impressive range of her voice,
her costumes, and her movements. Whether dancing like Janet Jackson or
a village shaman, In Suni was clearly at home on stage.
=20
But, like hundreds of other Amerasians for whom she performed on a
recent afternoon, In Suni is never fully at home in Korea. Though she
was born and raised here, though she speaks perfect Korean and broken
English, her African-American blood makes her an oddity in South
Korea, one of the world's most racially pure countries.
=20
In Suni has made it big. She has cut more than a dozen albums over the
past two decades. She is a television star. People want her autograph.
But she is an exception. Few groups are more shunned in Korea than the
small group of mixed-blood children fathered by US soldiers.
=20
Though most Koreans appreciate the sacrifices made by the 37,000
American troops stationed here, almost all revile the culture of
alcohol and prostitution that breeds in the towns around military
bases. Likewise, Koreans usually loathe the legacy that some soldiers
leave behind - children whom their fathers never meet, or may not know
they have. Mixed-race children are often seen as a blemish on Korea's
proud culture, a reminder that a large foreign army dwells in their
tiny country.
=20
''Koreans are very difficult people,'' said Kim Yong Soon, a tall,
strong-looking woman who watched In Suni's concert. ''I'm Korean, and
I cannot go to a Korean church. They know I have an Amerasian son, and
they abuse me.''
=20
Such a reaction may seem unfathomable to many Americans, taught as
children to admire their country's ''melting pot'' culture. But that
idea is abhorrent here, where people often know the names and
accomplishments of ancestors who lived 15 or even 20 generations ago.
=20
Despite a drive to open up economically to the outside world - Korea
was long known as ''The Hermit Kingdom'' for its propensity to turn
inward - Koreans guard their heritage fiercely. That tendency is
understandable: they have long been caught in struggles between China,
Russia, the United States, and Japan; they endured 35 years of
humiliating Japanese occupation.
=20
Still, the tendency to discriminate against half-Koreans - literally
called ''mixed bloods'' in the Korean language - is criticized by both
Amerasians and full Koreans ashamed of their country's behavior.
Theirs is not a major cause in South Korea: specialists estimate there
are fewer than 1,000 such children in the country since President
Reagan liberalized immigration laws for Korean-Americans born between
1950 and 1982. But thanks to In Suni and the new Kim Dae Jung
administration, the movement is getting a much-needed boost.
=20
Sae-woom-tuh, an organization that helps women who work around
military camps and their Amerasian children in the northern town of
Tongduchon, was chosen last week to receive grant money from President
Kim's Special Commission on Women's Affairs.
=20
The grant is small - about $5,700 - but significant in tough economic
times. ''When things are difficult in Korea, they're more difficult
for children with problems,'' said Kim Hyun Sun, Sae-woom-tuh's
director.
=20
Though In Suni is the most famous Amerasian in Korea, Lee Young Chull
has earned some attention, too. Lee - an Amerasian with cerebral palsy
- has recently published a book of simple, haunting poetry. A dozen or
so poems were displayed outside the Yangju concert hall, where Lee
came to hear In Suni sing.
=20
Many of them resonate with the themes of ethnicity and community, like
one titled, ''I'm a Korean, too.''
=20
''Am I not a Korean because my skin color is different?'' the poem
begins. ''Am I not a Korean because the shape of my face is different?
If my face is yellow, am I Korean?''
=20
In Suni struggles with the same questions. Asked whether she feels
more Korean or Western - or a blend of both - she does not hesitate
for a second. ''Korean,'' she said. Despite her success, however, the
scars of her childhood remain.
=20
''I'm an individual, and so I don't represent all mixed bloods or all
Koreans,'' she said through an interpreter. ''But people pointing
fingers at mixed-blood kids - that should change.''
=20
This story ran on page A09 of the Boston Globe on 07/05/98.
=A9Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
=20
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
=20
I N T E R A C T I V E
=20
Pass It On
Send this story to a friend... [INLINE] Add it to the Daily User
Is this story important? [INLINE] Related Stories Enter a search term:
__________ ___
=20
=20
Click here for advertiser information
=20
Fleet Bank
=20
=A9Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company Boston Globe Extranet
Extending our newspaper services to the webReturn to the home page
of The Globe Online
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
More information about the Koreanstudies
mailing list