Land of the Not-So-Calm

This morning I saw the notice below come through an email listserv that I subscribe to (and even occasionally read) about a national survey of Korean-Americans, and was ready to be completely ignored. I don’t know anything about the organization or project other than what’s written, but whenever I hear about the “Korean-American community” I somehow get the distinct impression that this does not include Korean adoptees.

Which is, of course, ridiculous.

Korean-American adoptees are also Korean-Americans, even if we don’t always feel that way, even if we don’t always choose to identify that way, and even if not everyone recognizes it. I (and many other Korean adoptees) frequently choose to self-identify as a Korean adoptee rather than as a Korean-American for a variety of reasons, but even so we are still Korean-Americans. We are still immigrants, even if the rest of our families didn’t come to America with us.

I know that sometimes my writing suggests a kind of ambivalence about this, and that’s because it reflects how I feel. And the truth is, some days (many days?) I don’t “feel” particularly Korean, or even Korean-American. But deep inside I still know that I am, and I don’t like it when other people (especially other Korean-Americans, of all people) imply that I’m not.

So anyway, I took the survey, fully expecting to be ignored as an adoptee. I wasn’t too hopeful when one of the early questions asked about how I identify myself, with “Korean,” “American,” “Korean-American,” and “Asian-American” all being options, while “Korean-American adoptee” was conspicuously absent. However, there was space to provide a write-in answer that I took advantage of for this purpose.

But a later question asked about family/ethnic background, and among the choices presented were (roughly) “birth parents both Korean; raised by adoptive parents” and “one of birth parents not Korean; raised by adoptive parents”. Aside from the fact that many adoptees (myself included) aren’t completely sure that both birth parents are Korean, I thought that it was nice that these adoption-related options were listed. Also, when asked to state the reason for you/your family immigrating to the U.S., “adopted by a U.S. family” was included in the list.

Although some of the questions did seem like they were written exclusively with non-adopted Korean-Americans in mind, on the whole I didn’t feel completely ignored. So if there are any Korean-Americans out there, adopted or otherwise, check out the link and notice below.

And hey, you might win a trip to Korea!

*************************************************************

www.koreanamericannationalsurvey.org
www.kansurvey.org

We ask for your assistance in distributing the Korean American
National Survey. The online and Korean language media outlet campaign
officially launched today – May 1, 2008 and runs until the end of the
month (articles attached – Korean language). The goal of the Korean
American National Survey (KANS 2008 ) is to create the first and
largest-scale comprehensive portrait of the Korean-American community
across the nation with approximately 10,000 respondents!

The survey is completely bilingual and takes approximately 15 minutes
to complete and covers the following areas 1) Demographics, 2)
Economic Activity and Employment, 3) Culture and Identity, 4) Family,
Health, and Social Welfare, and 5) Religion and Politics. The
resulting database of information will be the largest-ever for Korean
Americans and will be made available as open source, impacting
scholars, community leaders, non-profit agencies as well as U.S. and
Korean government agencies trying to better understand and serve
Korean Americans.

Please assist us by reaching out to your networks and organizations
in distributing and encouraging participation in this survey! We can
also provide a special group code for
organizations/groups/churches etc. anyone who
has a large enough
membership base that they would like to understand better through a
completely confidential comprehensive survey. At the end of the
research analysis period, we would be able to provide you with
information about your group versus the national norms for Korean-
Americans.

To participate in the survey, please go to:
www.koreanamericannationalsurvey.org or www.kansurvey.org . A link to
the survey is also available on the www.netkal.org site.

To encourage participation we have prepared some raffle prizes. One
must complete the survey to be eligible and prizes include:
- 2 Free Roundtrip Tickets to Seoul, Korea (1st prize - 1 winner)
- 1 Big Screen Television (2nd prize - 1 winner)
- 1 iPod (3rd prize - 5 winners)

The most easily distributed format will be online – but we are more
than happy to provide hard copies to those who request them. Please
be reminded that 2nd generation and younger Korean Americans are
often underrepresented in these types of studies. We hope that the
bilingual online format will make it easy for more of you to
participate!!

Thank you again for your assistance and let us know if you have any
questions. Please contact us for a group code for your organization,
if you¡¯re interested! Below is language about the survey in Korean
for those individuals organizations which might be better served ¡°in-
language.¡±

Je Hoon Lee, Ph. D.
Research Associate Professor and Director
Center for Asian Pacific Leadership
School of Social Work
University of Southern California
Tel. 213-743-2059 Fax: 213-743-2050
Cell: 213-268-5564
email:jelee@usc.edu

I haven’t even been back a week and I miss so much about Korea already… especially these drinks.

The drink that is closer is one that I had never heard of before I tried it in Korea: 앵두차 (eng tu cha), which is listed on the menu in English as “Korean cherry tea”. It is sweet, delicious, and especially refreshing when combined with a spongey 떡 (rice cake).

The far drink is 수정과, or sujeonggwa, a cinnamon-persimmon punch that LB absolutely adores. We can buy this in a can at a nearby Korean grocery store, but the taste is really different when it’s fresh.

These were the perfect drinks for us and kept us coming back to the Bizeun 떡 shop (or “riceteria,” as it bills itself) at Seoul Station. (There’s also one in Insadong, near the only Red Mango we could find that serves those “healthy” waffles.)

Oh 앵두차, how I do miss you! If anyone knows how to make it or where I can buy it, please let me know!

Ugh.

I am home, but am so jet-lagged that it’s hard to think, let alone write a coherent sentence. I am also sick with a cold that started a day or so before I left, and is now getting progressively worse.

I confess that I haven’t been a very good blog-citizen recently. I pretty much had to stop reading Other People’s Blogs about halfway through my trip, and couldn’t comment as much as I wanted on the ones that I did read. I am also behind on responding to comments people left on my blog, returning private emails, and reciprocating Facebook favors.

These are all things that I hope to catch up on over the next several days… along with, of course, sleep.

Tonight is our last night in Korea.

The last few days haven’t necessarily been busier than our first few days, but I have felt more tired (hence fewer posts). However, I still have lots more pictures and a few more reflections to share, so stay tuned.

Much of today was spent doing last-minute gift shopping/retail therapy, and thus much of this evening was spent packing and figuring out how to squeeze our newly acquired bounty into our luggage. Everything pretty much fits, so in terms of my physical belongings it appears that I am ready to leave.

But psychologically, I’m not ready yet. There are still so many things that I didn’t have a chance to see or do, including many of the excellent suggestions from some of you. And there are still so many things that I don’t know.

When we told friends and family that we were going on our first trip to Korea, there was someone who insisted on referring to our upcoming journey as a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. At the time I was both puzzled and annoyed, because even though we hadn’t even left, I had every intention of visiting again.

It’s the same way this time: I’m coming back. I don’t know when, for how long, or what exactly I’ll be doing. All I know is that I’m coming back.

So goodbye, Korea. Goodbye to all of the people I’ve met. Goodbye to family whose shadows I chased but never caught up with.

Goodbye… for now.

(I know that this stone Buddha isn’t actually waving goodbye, but it kind of looks that way, doesn’t it?)

You may remember the blaze that destroyed Korea’s Great South Gate, or Namdaemun, back in February of this year. (If not, read about it here.)

Here’s a picture of Namdaemun before the fire, at night (this photo only courtesy of Wikipedia; all others are mine):

There is now a large temporary wall surrounding where Namdaemun once stood. While we were there, people were hanging panels on the wall to create a picture of how it used to look:

On one side of the wall there is a plexiglass window that we looked through to see the remains of the gate:

Since I’ve been in Korea I have met many other adoptees, and on several occasions we have quickly fallen into deep, emotional, and intensely personal conversations about adoption. In these conversations, we will frequently talk about searching (or not), including what we’ve done so far or have been able to find out (or not). I am always interested in hearing people’s stories if they want to tell them, and have had no problem reciprocating by sharing my own story. I have even been able to connect with a couple of other adoptees who came through my orphanage.

The other night, however, I was approached by a (white) adoptive parent who Keep reading →

The other day we walked by Jogyesa temple, where preparations were in full swing for the upcoming Lotus Lantern Festival celebrating Buddha’s birthday. Unfortunately we won’t be here for the actual celebrations, but here is a picture of the lanterns anyway:

In case you’re wondering how they got the lanterns up there, note the scissor lift in the picture below:

I believe these white ones are hung for people who have died:

And here are sections of wire and bare lights still waiting to be dressed: