Almost all Koreans living outside Korea have
encountered the situation where an inquisitive new acquaintance asks us about
our nationality. They offer, 'China or Japan?' but never Korean it seems. Ten
years ago, most Westerners probably only ever heard of Korea as a country where
a major war had taken place about forty years before, but now many have tried
kimchee. Many Westerners now drive Daewoos and Hyundais, watch the news on a LG
big screen TV, and even listen to Mahler on a Samsung CD player, but despite the
gradual growth in Korean interaction with the West, China and Japan are the only
two countries you seem to be from.
Many adult Koreans felt true embarrassment when
the International Monetary Fund bailed Korea out of her fiscal meltdown. The
recent militant union activity seems to make Korea look like a land of no civil
order. Some Westerners may vaguely remember the endless riots that flared in the
cities back in the days of dictatorship. Certainly, my parents lamented that
Korea was always portrayed negatively in the press, but I, remembering that I
could only be from Japan or China, replied that no one else would remember by
the time they changed the channel or turned the newspaper page.
For one reason or another, the popular of image of
Asians is that they are shy, quiet, reserved and very patient. But if we take a
good look ourselves, we very quickly realise that Koreans can be loud, fiery and
impatient; you can throw out all those Asian stereotypes. I know many people who
have visited or worked in Korea and found the local people to be a far cry from
their polite and mild Japanese neighbours. Koreans are both proud and
embarrassed by their 5000 years of civilised history. The Korean people draw
upon a highly sophisticated cultural history as our identity, and regardless of
Chinese hegemony and multiple invasions, we are unique and different from our
neighbours. Indeed, Korea has been invaded many times; Korea's strategic
geography makes her vulnerable to attack from the large powers around her. But
we have never been truly conquered.
As a Korean-American student in law, I sense both
the hallowed traditions of my venerable ancestors and the righteous
individualism of Capitalist Liberalism. I try to balance Confucianism with the
doctrines of Locke and Rousseau. I munch hamburgers for lunch and relish den
jang jee ke for dinner. Despite earlier childish impulses to deny the colour
of my blood, I now begin to understand the import of my Korean roots. I freely
associate with my friends, who are all of different background and ethnicity,
but I acknowledge that, despite the melting pot pluralism of our modernity, I
sometimes feel the subterranean rumbling of isolationist sentiment and a
right-wing backlash against all the achievements of our multicultural society.
Our leaders like to say that we live in a plural society where, so long as we
respect democracy and human rights, all constructive cultures will be welcomed.
But as a Korean, I sometimes harbour the deep suspicion that this world is a
House of Cards, and that it is only a matter of time before a gust effortlessly
knocks it down. I know that many Koreans, living here in a foreign land, never
feel fully secure and at peace. Thus Koreans form tightly knit immigrant
societies to compensate for isolation from their home-town networks. Eventually,
we see various 'Koreatowns' springing up in major cities.
There is a danger, however, that Koreans are not
engaging in society to the extent that we should if we are to establish
ourselves as both Korean and American. The LA riots resulted in the Korean
community taking the brunt of the violence, but even more frustratingly, public
sympathy for the Korean community in the aftermath was starkly lacking. Even
today, despite the academic successes of our students and the economic success
of our communities, I see in many of my Korean friends, an idiosyncratic embrace
of the homeland and a lamentable lack of willingness to engage in Western
society. Certainly acknowledgment of our cultural history is healthy and to be
encouraged, but not if it impairs our realisation that, when in Rome, we should
do as Romans do. We must never forget that persecution and xenophobia remain our
perpetual enemies, but we must never let these fears push us back into the days
of a hermit kingdom.
Jewish and Overseas Chinese societies have managed
to thrive despite atrocities and persecution. Their influence in mainstream
politics, culture and society is waxing, and they are gaining more control over
their destinies. I see no sociological basis for asserting that Koreans can not
achieve the successes of our counterparts. Koreans have, throughout the
millennia, demonstrated that we are a remarkably resilient and determined
people, and in crises we have shown that we can work with cohesion of military
proportions. Unless we can constructively balance our cultural history and role
as citizens in a new home, our inquisitive Western friend will only ever present
us the question, 'Are you Japanese or Chinese?'
