[KS] Facing/Avoidng One's Own Heritage

Eugene Y. Park eypark at fas.harvard.edu
Fri Feb 5 15:38:49 EST 1999


Dear Prof. Robinson and List Members:

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my stock portryal of a white (or
"Caucasian" if your prefer) American Koreanist.  Coming from an unusually
diverse circle of friends most of whom have opted for an interracial
marrage and used racial generalizations light-heartedly (Irish are this,
Koreans are that, etc.), sometimes I forget the reality of race discourse
in America.

My comment wasn't so much a criticism against white American Koreanists as
perhaps too obvious a suggestion that all scholars studying a culture
should be more honest about acknowledging how their unique personal
experience might shape their interpretations.  Unfortunately, I see some
Koreanits who pretend that their scholarship is based on pure obejectivity,
without a grain of subjectivity.  As long as one can avoid this pitfall,
then I don't see why one should not incorporate his/her own heritage in a
comparative discussion of Korea.  That was my main point in response to Mr.
Hoare's original comments.

Yours,
Gene Park

>
>Re: your generalization about "white" scholars studying Korea or any other
>non-Western society as carrying an "incompleted" mission from the sixties
>or of being somehow "representative" of the sixties.  You're right it is a
>sweeping generalization.
>
>Mike Robinson


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Eugene Y. Park
Assistant Professor
Department of East Asian Studies
McGill University
3434 McTavish Street
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1X9

Phone:	(514) 398-6742, ext. 0209; (514) 281-9764
Fax:	(514) 398-1882
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