Challenges of Diasporic Koreans

The best thing that all these articles do best is describing the ways in which Korean diaspora’s livelihood is challenged.  This was either by some sort of ethnic discrimination, through employment opportunities, and through love. Honestly, I found the readings for this week to be quite upsetting. I think the barriers that are imposed by the Canadian government opposes the belief or hope that this country holds for immigrants. Canada presents itself as a country that supports immigration but it does not hold itself accountable for the wellbeing of the people once they enter the country.

I found the article by Ryang to be interesting because it challenged our conception of love as a western concept, and that this concept allows for other manifestations of love in other places in the world. While this does, as Viola mentions, produce an othering effect, I think it’s more important to think of it as an introduction to love.

There is the stereotype that Asians are emotionless and calculating machines, but Ryang is trying to show that for Korean diaspora in the Chongryun network at that time, there were different elements that ended up producing what becomes love (or a lifetime partnership/marriage) in the end. I believe Songrae was looking for comfort, which to Songrae meant a similar background. Though Ryang continues by saying that Songrae and her husband actually are not similar, and lists numerous ways in which they differ. However I think what Ryang forgets to mention is that they are more similar in other ways such as their education, or personality (the way that Chongryun and Korea University ended up raising them), or the difference between her and Japanese natives. There is comfort in ethnic relationships.

I think its also important to note that Ryang chooses to stress that there is no difference between public and private in the lives of Korea University students, but she does not ever explain the difference between personal? By personal I mean internal. Maybe it’s because they don’t have the vocabulary, and because of this they can’t probably convey their feelings when being interviewed. All of the time people say something along the lines of, “there are no words to describe it”. People can identify that there is something that they are experiencing but have no way of explaining.  In this way, Korean diaspora experience challenges with vocabulary. This specific challenge is interesting in that it is not a challenge that is present due to external factors being imposed upon the diaspora such as the required educational background and experience as is law in Canada, but something that comes about because of a cultural difference.

I think I would be most interested in knowing more about how religion intersects with immigration. I was interested in that the religious profile of Korean Canadians (using Canadian the same way as Jungwee Park) indicates that about double the population of Koreans identify as Christian while in Canada. What is so necessary about the religious aspect of the Korean identity? Or is it simply that church groups are the easiest ways to find people with the same ethnic or national background? Does this differ from other ethnicities? If so, that does make Christianity an important aspect of the Korean identity.

In the end, what I find most interesting is the contradictions to Korean identity. From an outsider perspective, Koreans are a homogenous unit. But there is still a divide between Koreans and national identity. As Changzoo Song describes, “This changed perception [discriminatory treatment of Korean Chinese in South Korea] of Korean Chinese imposes a challenge to Korean nationalism and national identity, which are based on primordial notions of Korean “blood” and ethnic homogeneity.” This is really important because it goes back to the notion of reunification. There was the idea that blood was stronger and would be able to overcome the struggles of reunification but it seems like that idea is too far in the past.

There is clearly a hierarchical structure involved in perceived ‘Koreanness’, especially between Koreans in the country and Korean diaspora. This was evident Nadia Kim’s article as well, in how the Korean Americans did not feel welcomed in their homeland trips. In fact, the Korea Americans felt like outsiders or others in a nation they believed to be home. So does that mean the betrayal that the Korean Chinese faced when the migrated to South Korean was actually betrayal that South Koreans felt towards these people leaving the land that creates Koreanness?

I definitely identify with how the Korean Americans felt. I also feel this dual nature of belong and not belonging to both Canada and Sri Lanka. Being othered in two places that I want so desperately to make my home, especially in a place where there is no external difference was so important to me. At this point, I definitely identify my national identity with my cultural and personal identity (such as the experiences of lining up in crowded areas).

One last thing I’d like to add: I remember last year Professor Cho was writing an essay about The Good, the Bad, and the Weird. Do you have any comments about what you wrote that would relate to that aspect of Korean diaspora mentioned in Changzoo Song’s article?