In the spring of 2008, Doug and Mike Starn began building a wide, arch-shaped structure of lashed-together bamboo poles in a giant disused factory building in Beacon, N.Y. (It remains a work in progress.) At the end of last month, 3,200 similar poles and 30 miles of nylon rope were delivered to the Metropolitan Museum, and the Starns, along with a crew of rock climbers, began constructing a new iteration of Big Bambú. It’s quite a departure from their well-known layered photo works of leaves, trees and other organic material. But last year they completed an ambitious installation in the South Ferry subway station in New York City, so the brothers are not entirely unfamiliar with designing large-scale public artworks.
By the time the rooftop space opens on Apr. 27, the team will have completed a 30-by-50-by-100-foot bamboo scaffold; over the course of the exhibition’s six-month run, the rock climbers will continually fill in this shell so that it forms a dense, undulating wave of interlocking bamboo poles rising 50 feet in the air. Museumgoers will be able to walk around, beneath and even on Big Bambú: adventurous visitors can buy advance tickets on the Met’s website (some will also be available same-day) to ascend the sculpture and experience it from an inside perchSunday, December 13, 2009
The Conditions of Being Medium
In the years since his formal photography training at Chicago's Columbia College, Rashid Johnson's practice has increasingly subverted the dominant powers in diverse media by approaching them with the sub-cultural histories of black Americana. Currently on view in New York, there's his film The Sweet Sweet Runner (2010) (as part of his solo show, Our Kind of People) at Salon 94, inspired by the ur-blaxploitation work of Melvin Van Peebles. To Nicole Klagsbrun's group exhibition (LEAN), Johnson contributes Pink Lotion Box (2003)—a sculptural work made of Luster's pink hair lotion and Plexiglas, and a comment on the multi-million dollar black hair care industry.
RASHID JOHNSON, SWEET SWEET RUNNER INSTALLATION, 2010, FROM THE EXHIBITION OUR KIND OF PEOPLE. COURTESY SALON94.
"I say that I suffer from what Rosalind Krauss was calling the post-medium condition, where an artist essentially employs several mediums in order to bring to life whatever specific ideas that they have. For me it's always been that way," Johnson said, in an interview last week at his cluttered Bushwick, Brooklyn studio. The point at which Johnson "hijacks Krauss's language," as he said in a follow-up phone conversation, is where he looks at his work outside the classic definition of medium—that is, based on the limits of its materiality. For Johnson, another medium (a "consciousness") is created by his blending of sculpture, painting and photography. "The marriages [of those things] become the new mediums, not the separation of them."
Johnson frequently refers to the relationships between his different works: connections based on their proximity in a show, use of similar materials, or more basic principles.
"The way that light hits objects, I think, is one of the more important things that sculpture and photography share," Johnson said. "The way that light hits objects in life, three-dimensional objects before you photograph them, is really the story of photography." His shelving-unit sculptures made of black tile or covered in black soap and black wax depend on subtle illumination. Imagine a sculpture made of dark materials or a black-and-white photograph in a darkened room. "Light brings to life the gesture in the more articulate moments of [a] piece," Johnson said.
RASHID JOHNSON, PINK LOTION BOX, 2004-2010. COURTESY NICOLE KLAGSBRUN GALLERY.
Though film is a relatively new medium for Johnson, the ideas behind The Sweet Sweet Runner, are couched in the dominant themes of his work.
"I've always been interested in this idea of a privileged life, probably because it's something I hadn't seen much of," he says. The Sweet Sweet Runner was inspired by Melvin Van Peebles' 1971 chase flick Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Johnson's film follows the protagonist as he exits his tony Manhattan apartment and goes for a jog; it's a riff on Van Peebles' Sweetback character running from the police at the end of that film. With Johnson's runner, "[It's] this idea that he's just kind of jogging for his health, running for his own health and then at the same time kind of running for his life."
Meditations on survival and maintenance cut through Johnson's work. Our Kind of People takes its title from Lawrence Otis Graham's 1998 book about an American black upper class. Another of Johnson's bodies of work over the last few years includes large-format photographs shot in black-and-white. His sitters mimic the poses of James Van Der Zee's Harlem Renaissance portraits. "I was playing with that idea and I was kind of thinking more and more about this idea of the black secret society," Johnson saud.
For his installation at Art Basel in June, Johnson's free-standing, shelf-like sculptures will be arranged in close proximity to each other, not unlike a shrine. The small tile-based sculpture is in the front, and behind it (and just off to the side) is a larger steel sculpture, and behind that a black-soap and black-wax work. The photograph, situated on a wall adjacent to the set of sculptures, depicts a model in the same pose as a well-known portrait of Boulé founder Minton.
While he said he consulted his great-uncle, who is a member, Johnson said the ability to navigate between "the real and then the produced" was what most appealed to him about creating the project. "It was an opportunity to play both with real ideas and to project my own fictional kind of characters into a story," he said. "It's an opportunity more than anything else to inject myself into history without anyone fully knowing how clear my actual intervention into that kind of historical language is."
"It's really an interesting dance," said Johnson, regarding figuring out Boulé membership. "I get to be the person who makes the final decision as to whether this person was a member or not of this secret society." Johnson here takes on the artist's responsibility to historical accuracy and cultural authority. And while the artist selects characters for the narrative of his project, ultimately the viewer is the one who determines the interpretation of the piece.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
A Life in Smoke and Thread
The looms are packed up and five weavers have returned home to China after a 3½-month stint at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia as part of “Fallen Blossoms,” Cai Guo-Qiang’s two-venue exhibition at FWM and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Invited in 2005 by the late PMA director, Anne d’Harnoncourt, and Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud, founder and director of FWM, to do a joint project at their institutions, Cai was waylaid by his fireworks project for the 2008 Beijing Olympics; d’Harnoncourt died unexpectedly that year. Regretful at never having worked with the highly regarded director, Cai was also struck by the sense of loss he perceived in Philadelphia, and more particularly by that of Stroud, who had been friends with d’Harnoncourt for more than 40 years. In response, he conceived a project on the transitory nature of life in general, and the course of the two women’s friendship in particular. On Dec. 11, 2009, at sunset, he ignited a huge flower-shaped fireworks display mounted on the PMA’s facade. The bloom spectacularly exploded, then smoked and smoldered in glowing embers shaped like petals before turning to ash and crumbling to the ground.
Cai’s second piece, Time Flies Like a Weaving Shuttle, was more uncharacteristic. He arranged for five weavers to come to Philadelphia from the Xiangxi region of Hunan. They set up their looms in a row and worked at a steady pace to create some 20 tapestries. The artisans themselves designed the textiles, drawing on Stroud’s stories, photos of Philadelphia landmarks and their own imaginations, which made for some fanciful juxtapositions and inventions.
Oddly, Cai installed the project so that visitors entering at one end could see only the backs of the tapestries draped over a series of racks extending from the walls. “The backs of the tapestries have a stronger artistic sense,” he told A.i.A. in an e-mail, “and leave more room for imagination,” adding, “visitors see the hundreds and thousands of threads that make up a tapestry, which is more fascinating.”
It is unclear what will happen to the finished tapestries. Stroud has expressed her hope that some of the panels will wind up at her institution, which owns examples and archives of many of the projects completed in residency. (Contractually, the Time Flies tapestries belong to Cai.) One can only hope that the tapestries will be shown again somewhere in their totality so that this moving tribute to a life and a friendship can be seen by a wider audience.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Starry Night on the Lower East Side
Kiki Smith is nearing the completion of a stained-glass window commissioned for the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Designed with architect Deborah Gans, the 16-foot-diameter window will occupy the eastern wall, the direction faced during prayer. Inspired by existing painted elements in the sanctuary domes and on the wall surrounding the window, Smith and Gans came up with a design featuring a constellation of gold stars on a blue firmament. The window’s ribs radiate from a Star of David at the center. Since 1945, the space that held the original window, which was damaged and for which there is no known documentation, has been filled in with masonry and four vertical columns of glass blocks.
The still-functioning synagogue was built by Eastern European Jews in a neighborhood that many immigrant groups have first called home in America. The luminous neo-Moorish interior, with faux finishes painted to look like marble, stone and richer woods, provided a sharp contrast to the dismal living conditions of the area’s new residents. Because most Jewish families moved away as they became more prosperous (the area has now been overtaken by Chinatown sprawl), the congregation has dwindled to less than 30 members. The structure fell into disrepair and the main sanctuary was sealed in the mid-1950s. But a 20-year, $18.5-million restoration project, spearheaded by Roberta Brades Gratz, resulted in its reopening as a museum in December 2007. The project received an award in 2008 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, among other honors.
The window’s unveiling later this spring coincides with Smith’s exhibition, “Sojourn,” which is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through Sept. 12. “Lodestar,” a show featuring related stained-glass work by the artist, can be seen at Pace-Wildenstein on 22nd Street, Apr. 30-June 19.
Art of the Fashion Show
A fashion show generally begins with dead time as people file in, chit-chat, and have their picture taken. A publicist screams or a light is dimmed; men and women assume their hierarchical place in the rows, culminating in an approximately ten-minute organized procession of models up and down a runway (the announced occasion for the gathering); then the audience makes a mass exodus. Order builds, and then explodes as the audience becomes suddenly intent upon congregating elsewhere, another fashion show.
PHOTO BY WADE GUYTON
The premise of Design Within Riche stylist Avena Gallagher and artist Carissa Rodriguez's fashion-into-art performance at Guyton-Walker's temporary exhibition space Burning Bridges, entailed the communal aspects of such an event. A nonedescript, evidently Asian-in-descent model appeared and Guyton-Walker's one-off lamps of constallations of coconuts, accompanied by a pulsing soundtrack that one might automatically associate with a runway show. The model was dressed in a silver shift dress from Prada's spring collection, with a silhouette of a palm tree as a small tropical detail. The presentation organizers and the model are all from the same island in the Philippines, which as a nation is presumably a general stand-in for the rote labor that goes into making ready-to-wear clothing. The country's best known consumer in a Western context, Imelda Marcos, was invoked on the invitation by a memorable quotation, "Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all." She is the unparalleled example of rapid, unsophisticated consumption.
But all of the details about clothing and the lamp were really just that, details. The invitation, after all, had only listed the space and the artists, and they were the product being consumed in the event. She didn't convey product, as the dress was from Spring, and so had already been on racks for weeks (which probably would not have been identified by the audience assembled anyway, who were by and large not trade fashion professionals).The model's activity was dictated not by the demands of showing movement in clothing, but by effecting the attitude of an audience member channeling the affectation of a model—someone self-aware about being looked, and not appearing as such. The audience watched her until her novelty faded and she became boring, and then was integrated into the audience, which kept going and consuming until late into the night. It was an exercise in procession without direction, and the welcome disruption of novelty.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
LATVIAN AMERICANS
Latvia is situated in Eastern Europe on the Baltic Sea, bordered by Estonia to the north, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and Lithuania to the south. With a population in 1993 of about 2.6 million and a surface area of 24,903 square miles (64,600 square kilometers), Latvia—one of the three Baltic nations—is larger than Estonia but smaller than Lithuania. Nearly 69 percent of Latvia's population lives in cities, especially the capital, Rîga, which is home to about a third of the nation's people.
Although Latvia has always had a diverse population, the country's ethnic composition has become a growing issue among Latvians concerned with preservation of their culture. In 1993, according to Latvian government statistics, 53.5 percent of inhabitants were ethnic Latvians, while 33.5 percent were Russians. In some regions, particularly in southeastern Latvia as well as in the capital city of Rîga, ethnic Russians outnumber ethnic Latvians. Other ethnic groups often found in Latvia include Belarussians, Estonians, Germans, Gypsies, Jews, Lithuanians, Poles, and Ukrainians. The leading religions in Latvia include Lutheran, Russian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic. The official language of the country is Latvian, and the national flag consists of three horizontal stripes (maroon on top and bottom, white in the middle).
HISTORY
Latvia's experience as an independent nation has been limited. Inhabited as early as 9000 B.C., the region now called Latvia only began taking on a national identity in the mid-nineteenth century. The Latvians' ancestors—early tribes of Couronians, Latgallians, Livs, Selonians, and Semgallians— were established in the area by about 1500 B.C. Through the centuries, these pagan tribes gradually developed their society and culture, but beginning in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries they came under subjugation from German invasions. In particular, the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire forcibly Christianized the tribes and built an economic and political system that continued in power until the twentieth century. The Germans were responsible for the growth of Rîga, established in 1201, as an important Baltic Sea port that continues today to serve as a transportation link between western Europe and Russia.
As the Russian Empire expanded in the 1600s, German military control of the Baltic region weakened. Beginning in the 1620s and into the 1700s, the northern part of Latvia was under Swedish rule, while the south and the east came under Polish-Lithuanian domination. Only the Duchy of Courland, in western Latvia by the Baltic Sea, maintained some independence. The Duchy of Courland even managed to briefly extend its influence beyond its home, establishing colonies in Gambia in Africa (1651) and on the Caribbean Sea island of Tobago (1654).
With the signing of the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, settling the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden, the region that would later become Latvia came under the political and military rule of the Russian czar. Its economy, however, continued to be controlled by German barons who lived off the labor of Latvian peasants. Latvians began to gain some economic power after 1819, when serfs in the Baltic provinces were emancipated by the Russians.
Industrialization and the emergence of the socalled "National Awakening" in the late nineteenth century created discontent among Latvians over their social and political relationships with the Russians and the Germans. That discontent led to the 1905 Revolution in Latvia. Although the revolution failed, it served to bring together the Latvian working class and intelligentsia and to heighten hopes for independence. A year after the 1917 Russian Revolution, Latvia declared its independence and was a sovereign nation until its occupation by Soviet troops in 1940. In June of 1941, during the final three days of the Russian occupation of Rîga before its fall to the Germans, an estimated 30,000 Latvians were shepherded onto boxcars and deported to Siberia. Thousands died in what is now known among Latvians as the Baigais gads ("The Year of Terror"). "Liberated" by German troops in 1941, Latvia again fell under Soviet rule by the end of World War II. Forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union, Latvia only regained independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
THE FIRST LATVIANS IN AMERICA
Some historical evidence suggests that the first Latvians in North America may have settled with Swedish and Finnish migrants in the area of Delaware and Pennsylvania around 1640. In the late 1600s, a group from the island of Tobago migrated to Massachusetts. Latvians were also among the thousands of fortune seekers who headed to California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Two histories of Latvians in America claim that Mārtiņš Buciņš, believed to be a Latvian sailor, was among the first to die during the American Civil War.
SIGNIFICANT IMMIGRATION WAVES
Latvian American immigrants consist of two distinct groups: those immigrants—often called veclatvieši, or Old Latvians—who settled in the United States before World War II, and those who arrived after the war. Immigration before World War II is generally divided into three phases. The first phase began in 1888 with the arrival of several young men in Boston. (Among them was Jēkabs Zībergs [1863-1963], who became one of the most important Latvian American community leaders in the pre-World War II era.) Like other Latvian immigrants who followed in the early years of the twentieth century, these men journeyed to America in search of their fortunes—or to escape being drafted into the Russian czar's army. Politically, the early immigrants were further divided into two groups: one devoted to the creation of an independent Latvia; the other, influenced by socialism, concerned with freeing Latvian workers from the oppression of imperial Russia. This division was mirrored in Latvian American society.
The early immigrants were usually young, single men, although some single women and families also came to the States at the end of the nineteenth century. They settled primarily in East Coast and Midwest cities, such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago, as well as in some cities on the West Coast, including Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Scattered immigrants also settled in rural areas, although usually not in great enough numbers to form long-lasting communities. In most cities, in fact, Latvians were so few in number that they failed to create the sort of ethnic neighborhoods for which other groups, such as the Italians or Poles, are known. Only in the Roxbury district of Boston did an urban Latvian neighborhood develop. Latvians also attempted to create a rural colony in Lincoln County in north central Wisconsin, but political differences and hard economic conditions sapped the community of its members, which at one point is said to have numbered about 2,000. The first Lutheran church built by Latvians in America was erected in Lincoln County in 1906.
Among the early wave of immigrants were several hundred Latvian Baptists who also settled in various East Coast locations. Perhaps the best-known Latvian Baptist settlement was in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia, where beginning in 1906 a community was formed that eventually grew to about 100 individuals.
The next wave of immigration of Old Latvians began around 1906, following the failed 1905 Revolution in the Latvian province of the Russian empire. Many Latvian political leaders, as well as rank-and-file revolutionaries, faced certain death if caught by Russian soldiers, so they chose instead to emigrate and to continue the revolutionary movement from abroad. Most of the revolutionaries who arrived in the United States had more radical political views than the earlier Latvian immigrants, and this resulted in splits not only between conservative and leftist Latvians but also among the leftists themselves.
With the beginning of World War I, Latvia became a battleground between German and Russian forces. Latvian migration came to a halt until the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, when many revolutionary Latvians returned to their homeland to work for the creation of a Bolshevik government (a forerunner to the Communist party) in Latvia as well as in Moscow. Among those returning was Fricis Roziņš (1870-1919), a radical Marxist philosopher who had immigrated to America in 1913. He returned in 1917 to head a short-lived Latvian Soviet government. A few nationalist Latvian Americans returned to Latvia after the country declared independence in 1918.
The next wave of immigration was more of a trickle. U.S. immigration quotas put in place in 1924 limited the number of Latvians who could settle in America, while the creation of a free Latvia and the promise of better economic times in the homeland— coupled with the Great Depression in the United States—generally discouraged immigration.
The number of Latvians who journeyed to America before World War II is difficult to determine. Figures compiled by Francis J. Brown and Joseph Slabey Roucek, published in Our Racial and National Minorities in 1937, show that 4,309 Latvians came to the United States before 1900; 8,544 from 1901-1910; 2,776 from 1911-1914; 730 from 1915-1919; 3,399 from 1921-1930; and 519 from 1930-1936. Until the 1930 census, the U.S. government lumped Latvians in with Lithuanians and Russians. Ten years later, the census counted 34,656 people of Latvian origin, about 54 percent of them foreign-born.
World War II's ravages of Latvia turned many Latvians into refugees. Fearing the Soviet communists, they headed to western Europe. By the end of the war, an estimated 240,000 Latvians—more than a tenth of the country's population—were camped in Displaced Persons (DP) facilities in Germany, Austria, and other countries. About half were eventually repatriated to Latvia, but the rest resettled in Germany, England, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the United States, as well as in other countries. As documented by Andris Skreija in his unpublished thesis on Latvian refugees, an estimated 40,000 Latvians immigrated to the United States from 1949 to 1951 with the help of the U.S. government and various social service and religious organizations. Many of these Latvians had been members of the professional class in their homeland, but in America they often had to take jobs as farmhands, custodians, or builders until they managed to find better paying positions.
Most Latvian DPs settled in larger cities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. As with the Old Latvians, the DPs failed to create neighborhoods and had to rely on social events, the telephone, the mail, and the press to create a sense of community. In a few eastern cities, the newer immigrants found that some Old Latvian colonies remained active. (Some organizations and congregations begun by the Old Latvians, such as the Philadelphia Society of Free Letts, founded in 1892, continue to operate today.) In most cases, however, the Latvian DPs had to start from scratch and within a few years had managed to create a rather complete social and cultural world that included schools, credit unions, choirs, dance groups, theater troupes, publishers and book sellers, churches, veterans' groups, and political organizations.
Unlike the Old Latvians, many of whom considered themselves immigrants, the Latvian DPs saw themselves as living in trimda, or exile, and dreamed of the day they could return to a free Latvia. Since the reestablishment of an independent Latvia in 1991, however, few have returned,
These Latvian immigrants are newly arrived in the United States.
A CCULTURATION AND A SSIMILATION
The Latvians of the pre-World War II immigration are generally thought to have assimilated quickly into the American mainstream, while the exiles of the post-World War II period have maintained their ethnic distinctiveness but now are facing deepening concerns about their future.
In a 1919 article in Literary Digest, the attitude of Latvians (or Letts, as they were known then) toward acculturation was described thus: "Their first aim, except among the radical element, is to secure admission to American citizenship. Their children all are educated in our public schools, and the second generation of Letts are thorough Americans in the majority" ("Letts in the United States," Literary Digest, 21 June 1919; p. 37). While it may be true that many of the Old Latvians were eager to seek American citizenship, many also continued to keep up their interest in Latvia, especially between 1918 and 1920, when Latvia declared and fought for independence. At the same time, as the Literary Digest article noted, some Latvians who held leftist political views may have resisted becoming part of the American system. In 1919, for example, about 1,000 Latvians were among those immigrants who helped found the Communist Party of America.
Except for the political radicals among them, pre-World War II Latvian immigrants tended to assimilate easily. According to Brown and Roucek, 60.9 percent of the 20,673 foreign-born Latvians in the United States had been naturalized by 1930, while another 10.5 percent had declared their intention to be naturalized. Most Latvians, like other immigrants, started out in low-paying, unskilled jobs, but over the years gained experience and higher socioeconomic status. A report of the Committee on Racial Groups of the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary Inc., written about 1930, had this to say about the Latvians in Massachusetts: "The Lettish people cannot be classified among the rich, but neither are they poor. Many of them own their own homes. Partly due to the fact that the Letts are scattered, there are no Lettish banks, corporations, or big businesses that are worth mentioning. The same is true of the professional workers. Mostly, they are skilled workers, such as carpenters, machinists, painters, wood finishers, tool makers, railroad workers, garage mechanics. Some of them, however, have taken up farming as their chosen profession and are successful farmers" (Committee on Racial Groups of the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary Inc., Historical Review, 1930).
Latvians did not experience much of the stereotyping that plagued southern, central, and eastern European immigrants during the early twentieth century. This is most likely due to the fact that the Latvians were a little-known group. In one incident in Boston in 1908, however, Latvians as a group briefly made the front pages of local newspapers after three Latvians robbed a saloon at gunpoint. The newspaper coverage, the Boston-based magazine Arena complained, made the Latvians look like "a bloodthirsty, murderous people, lawless, criminal and altogether undesirable citizens" (Andris Straumanis, "'This Sudden Spasm of Newspaper Hostility': Stereotyping of Latvian Immigrants in Boston Newspapers, 1908," Ethnic Forum, Volume 13, No. 2, and Volume 14, No. 1, 1993-1994).
The arrival of the Latvian DPs after World War II sparked an era of heightened ethnic maintenance. Fiercely anticommunist, they saw the Soviet occupation of their homeland not only as an infringement on their right to autonomy but also as an effort to eradicate Latvians altogether. Migration of Russians and other non-Latvian groups into Latvia, part of a Soviet effort at "Russification," became a threat to Latvian culture. Latvian DPs in the United States reacted by launching a number of political and cultural movements to fight assimilation and help make Americans aware of Latvia's plight. Weekend Latvian schools were organized in several cities, while summer camps offered children and adults cultural immersion. Runāsim latviski ("Let's speak Latvian") was as much a political statement as an expression of cultural preservation. Marriage outside of the Latvian group often was discouraged, because it might mean that children of mixed couples would not learn the language.
As with the Old Latvians, few cultural misconceptions exist about post-World War II Latvians. Indeed the biggest difficulties Latvians have faced are their small numbers and the erasure, before 1991, of Latvia from many world maps. As a result, few Americans know anything about Latvians— and often confuse Europe's Balkan states with the Baltic countries, of which Latvia is a part.
TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND BELIEFS
Like many other ethnic groups, the Latvians in the United States have adopted some American ways, but they also maintain a cultural heritage from the homeland. Until the late nineteenth century, when industrialization created demand for workers in several Latvian cities, Latvians remained rural. As a result, many of the traditions, customs, and beliefs still acknowledged by Latvian Americans are based on agricultural life. Others are drawn from more ancient Latvian culture. For example, in the Latvian tradition, a bride-to-be proved her worthiness by knitting many intricately designed wool mittens, as well as linen handkerchiefs and wool socks. The more she had in her dowry, the more worthy she might appear to her suitor. In the States, wool mittens and socks are sometimes used as adornments in wedding ceremonies.
Among the Latvian people's strongest traditions are their songs, called dainas, and their interest in folk culture. The dainas— simple verses that tell old stories and reveal the wisdom of centuries of Latvian culture—were handed down orally over generations. Beginning in the nineteenth century, as interest in Latvian nationalism grew, folklorists transcribed about 900,000 of these songs, culminating in a multi-volume collection compiled by Krisjānis Barons (1835-1923). Even at the end of the twentieth century, dozens of Latvian ensembles maintained the musical tradition in the United States, often performing at community events and in ethnic festivals. On a grander scale, Latvians in America and in Latvia have organized song festivals that feature performances of traditional folk songs and dances, choral music, and even musicals and plays. These song festivals serve as a ritual, reminding Latvians of their common ideals. The first such festival was held in Latvia in 1873; the tradition has since been carried on in the States, beginning in Chicago in 1953.
CUISINE
Traditional Latvian foods include pīrāgi, pastry stuffed with bacon or ham; Jāņu siers, a cheese usually made for the Midsummer Eve's holiday; various soups; sauerkraut; potato salad; smoked fish and eel; and beer. At major celebrations, such as holidays and birthdays, a popular sweetbread—the kliņg'eris, flavored with raisins and cardamom and shaped like a large pretzel—is served. Because of the work involved in preparing many of these dishes, as well as the difficulty in obtaining some ingredients, many of these foods are now prepared only for special occasions. The foods tend to be rich, although Latvian Americans have been known to modify recipes by using lower-fat ingredients and less salt.
TRADITIONAL COSTUMES
Folk costumes are worn by Latvian Americans primarily when performing in song groups or dance troupes. Men's costumes are characterized by monotone (white, gray, or black) wool trousers and coats, white shirts, and black boots. Women's costumes usually include an embroidered white linen blouse and a colorful ankle-length wool skirt. Both men and women wear wide, bright belts and silver jewelry. Unmarried women wear a vaiņags (crown) on their heads, while married women wear a cap or kerchief. The designs of costumes are characteristic of specific locales in Latvia.
HOLIDAYS
Latvian Christians observe Easter and Christmas, attending church services and getting together with relatives and friends. At Easter, eggs are colored using onion skins rather than paint. The skins are wrapped around uncooked eggs, which are then boiled. One Easter dinner custom is to play a game to determine whose egg is strongest: two people each hold an egg, the ends of the eggs are knocked together, and the person whose egg does not break goes on to challenge someone else. At Christmas, an evergreen tree is brought into the home and decorated. Before Christmas gifts are opened, a line of poetry or words from a song are recited. At New Year's, some Latvians still observe a custom of "pouring one's fortune." The person who wishes to know what his or her fortune will be in the New Year pours a ladle filled with molten lead into a bucket of cold water. The shape of the hardened lead is then examined to determine the future.
Perhaps the favorite Latvian holiday, however, comes in June, during the summer solstice—the longest day of the year. Called Jāņi (also known as St. John's Eve or Midsummer's Eve) in Latvia the day was a traditional celebration of nature's fertility. An elaborate feast was prepared—including the symbolic Jāņu siers, a rich cheese—and the home was decorated with oak leaves and flowers. The celebration, featuring bonfires and sing-alongs, lasted through the night and well into the following morning. In the United States, many of these customs survive; in modern Latvia, Jāņi is an official holiday.
HEALTH ISSUES
Latvians in the United States have largely accepted modern medical treatments, although some folk cures are still used by some families. A number of Latvians have entered the medical profession. In addition to health insurance offered through their place of employment or through government programs, many Latvians also have joined the Latvian Relief Fund of America ( Amerikas latviešu palīdzības fonds ), founded in 1952. No illnesses specific to Latvian Americans are known.
L ANGUAGE
Latvian, along with Lithuanian, is considered part of the small Baltic language group of the Indo-European family. It is one of the oldest languages still spoken in Europe. Latvian uses the Latin alphabet, although the letters "q," "w," "x," and "y" are not part of the alphabet. In addition, Latvian uses diacritical marks on some letters ("ā," "č," "ē," "g'," " ī," "ķ," "ļ," "ņ," "ŗ," "š," and "ž") to differentiate long or soft sounds from short or hard sounds. Latvian words are stressed on the first syllable, and written Latvian is largely phonetic.
Due to Latvia's location and its history, the country's language has been influenced by German, Russian, and Swedish. During the 50-year occupation of Latvia by the former Soviet Union, the influence of Russian became particularly strong. A few dialects in addition to standard Latvian can still be heard in Latvia, most notably Latgallian, spoken in the heavily Catholic southeastern province of Latgale. In the United States, Latvian cultural leaders and schools have battled against the encroachment of English into their mother tongue; since Latvia regained independence in 1991 and declared Latvian rather than Russian the official language, more and more English words are creeping into Latvian.
Latvian continues to be used in the United States most widely among the first generation of post-World War II immigrants. According to the 1990 U.S. Census Bureau report, about 13 percent of those persons who claim Latvian ancestry—most of them aged 65 and older—said they do not speak English very well. Among second and third generation Latvian Americans, usage has dropped significantly, in some cases because of intermarriage. Latvian is still used in church services in many congregations, although some churches have begun to use English as a way to attract and serve non-Latvian speakers. In the United States, only one Latvian-language newspaper is published (the semi-weekly Laiks of Brooklyn, New York), but there are several small Latvian-language magazines and numerous church newsletters.
GREETINGS AND OTHER POPULAR EXPRESSIONS
Perhaps the most widespread salutation in Latvian is Sveiks ! ("svayks")—Greetings! It is commonly used when greeting friends but is also seen on bumper stickers on cars driven by Latvian Americans. Other terms include: Apsveicu ("ap-svaytsu")—Congratulations; Atā ("a-tah")—Goodbye; Daudz laimes dzimšanas dienā ("daudz laimes dzim-shan-as dien-ah")—Happy birthday; Labdien ("labdien")—Good day; Labrīt ("labreet")—Good morning; Labvakar ("labvakar")—Good evening; Lūdzu ("loodz-u")—Please; Paldies ("pal-dies")— Thank you; Priecīgus svētkus ("prie-tsee-gus svehtkus")—Happy holidays, used at Christmastime; Uz redzēšanos ("uz redz-eh-shan-os")—Until we meet again.
F AMILY AND C OMMUNITY D YNAMICS
Latvians in the United States tend to have small nuclear families, usually not exceeding two adults and two children. According to the 1990 census, a total of 37,574 households of Latvian ancestry were reported. Of those, 12,341 had only one family member (32.8 percent); 14,211 (37.8 percent) had two; 5,010 (13.3 percent) had three; and 3,985 (10.6 percent) had four. A total of 86.9 percent of children under the age of 18 were living with two parents. Most families are middle-class; the median household income in 1989 was $38,586. Four percent of Latvian families received public assistance in 1989.
Within the post-World War II Latvian emigre population, young men and women have been encouraged to seek each other out in the hope that new Latvian families would result. For some youth, however, the close-knit nature of Latvian community life made it difficult to transform longtime acquaintances into romantic involvement. Others, perhaps realizing that their involvement in the Latvian community would make a relationship outside
In this 1949 photograph, a Latvian immigrant explains the meaning of the American flag to his daughter upon their arrival in the United States.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN
Latvia extended broad democracy to its inhabitants and guaranteed equal rights to women. In the States, women have often been placed in such traditional roles as homemaker and cook. Despite their accomplishments in the professions, women for many years were not seen at the helm of the most influential local and national Latvian institutions. In recent years, however, that has been changing. For example, the Latvian newspaper Laiks, published since 1949, is now edited by a woman, Baiba Bičole.
EDUCATION
The Old Latvians, while recognizing the value of education, did not appear to want or to be able to afford college degrees. By 1911—more than 20 years after the first Latvian immigrants had arrived in the United States—only two individuals had obtained American university degrees, the first one being a woman, Anna Enke, who studied at the University of Chicago.
The majority of Latvians who came to the United States after World War II had received at least some higher education in their homeland. Many were already academic or cultural leaders, and they placed high value on education for their children. The 1990 census indicates that about 34 percent of people claiming Latvian ancestry had earned bachelor's degrees or higher. Between 1940 and 1982, according to a 1984 study, 28 percent of Latvian men outside the Soviet Union who had earned bachelor's degrees studied in the engineering sciences, while another 15.6 percent studied in the humanities. Among women, 22.5 percent studied humanities and 16.9 percent studied medicine.
R ELIGION
In 1935, 55.1 percent of religious Latvians followed the Lutheran faith, 24.4 percent were Roman Catholic, and 8.9 percent were Greek Orthodox ( Cross Road Country—Latvia, edited by Edgars Dunsdorfs [Waverly, Iowa: Latvju Grāmata, 1953]; p. 360). Although it is difficult to obtain accurate figures, the majority of Latvians in the United States follow the Lutheran faith, but there also are adherents of the Catholic and Baptist faiths, as well as a small group of dievturi, followers of a folk religion.
The first Latvian Lutheran church service in the United States was organized by the Boston Latvian Society in 1891. The earliest known congregation, St. John's Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church, was formed in 1893 in Philadelphia and continued to operate more than a century later. The Rev. Hans Rebane (1862-1911) became the first Latvian Lutheran minister ordained in America. Rebane, of Estonian and Latvian heritage, also served Estonian and German congregations. Together with Jēkabs Zībergs, he began Amerikas Vēstnesis ( America's Herald, 1896-1920), a nationalist and religiously oriented newspaper based in Boston; Zībergs also published an almanac and other religious materials. In a few short years, additional Latvian congregations were established in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, northern Wisconsin, San Francisco, and other locations. Radical Latvians in the United States criticized these early churchgoers; to them, the church in Latvia—largely controlled by German-appointed pastors—contributed to the oppression of Latvian peasants. By World War II, only a few congregations remained, but the arrival of Latvian DPs beginning in 1949 gave them new life.
Latvian Lutheran DPs saw theirs as a church in exile. Although a Lutheran church still existed back in Latvia, its activities were suppressed by the Soviet regime. The Latvian Lutheran church in the United States remains conservative but in many cities has become a focus of community activity. Many congregations have organized Saturday or Sunday schools offering language and cultural heritage lessons in addition to religious instruction. In cities where Latvians acquired their own church buildings, the facilities often double as cultural centers where concerts or other programs might be presented.
A key issue for Lutheran clergy has been whether they can continue to preach Christianity at the expense of Latvian ethnic maintenance. Attempts by some pastors to introduce English into religious instruction have in the past been met by resistance. Like other Latvian social and cultural institutions in the United States, the Lutheran church is concerned about decreasing membership, which erodes both the vitality of congregations as well as their financial base. According to Latvian statistics published in 1993, the number of church members totaled 26,265 in 1978, but dropped steadily to 18,557 over the next 15 years.
Latvian Baptists were also active in the States by the late 1880s. The first Latvian Baptist congregation was founded in Philadelphia in 1900; by 1908 congregations were also meeting in Boston, Chicago, and New York, as well as in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Latvian Baptists published a number of magazines and newsletters before World War II, including the monthly Amerikas Latvietis ( America's Latvian, 1902-1905) and Jaunā Tēvija ( The New Fatherland, 1913-1917).
Latvian American Catholic groups also sprang up after World War II, but they were not large enough in any city to have their own church. Latvian Catholics are represented by the American Latvian Catholic Association ( Amerikas latviešu katoļu apvienība ), formed in 1954.
Also active in the United States are the dievturi, followers of a folk religion registered as the Latvian Church Dievturi Inc., which developed in the 1920s in Latvia. The dievturi look to ancient Latvian culture, particularly folk songs, for their beliefs and are credited for their efforts in maintaining old folkways.
E MPLOYMENT AND E CONOMIC T RADITIONS
Many of the Old Latvians who left their homeland were either farmers or factory workers. Upon arriving in the United States, they at first took jobs as unskilled laborers; later, however, some moved into management and professional positions. Unlike the Old Latvians, many of the DPs had held professional positions in Latvia before migrating to America. Most, however, were unable to immediately resume their professional careers—at least until they had mastered English and proven their qualifications.
According to the 1990 census, 38,132 persons of Latvian ancestry were counted in the nation's civilian labor force, of which 1,653 (4.2 percent) were unemployed. About 48 percent of Latvians in the labor force had positions in management and the professions; 30 percent had jobs in technical, sales, and administrative support occupations. Almost three-fourths of the Latvians in the labor force worked in the private sector, about 16 percent had jobs in government and education, and about 10 percent were self-employed.
Like other Americans, Latvians were among those affected by the economic recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s. When a family was forced to relocate to other parts of the mainland States in search of employment, the move sometimes had a dramatic effect on Latvian social and cultural life. In Minneapolis, for example, when two young but large families had to move in the mid-1980s, their departure resulted in enrollment in the small Latvian Saturday school being trimmed by about a third.
P OLITICS AND G OVERNMENT
Latvian Americans have always been politically active. Before Latvia declared its independence, radical Old Latvians were particularly active in working for the creation of a socialist government in their homeland as well as in the United States. The first Latvian socialist organization, the Lettish Workingmen's Society, was started in Boston in 1893. By World War I, almost every city where Latvians could be found also had at least one socialist club. With the arrival of revolutionary Latvians after the failed 1905 Revolution, Latvian radicalism moved further to the left. Latvians were among those immigrants who helped form the American communist movement in 1919. Radicals produced a number of newspapers and other publications, but the most important was the Boston-based weekly Strādnieks ( The Worker, 1906-1919). The failure to establish a permanent socialist government in Latvia following the 1917 Russian Revolution— compounded by U.S. government repression of radical activities during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s—largely put an end to Latvian radical activity in America.
The radicals were opposed by nationalist Latvians who sought independence for their homeland. Under the leadership of Jēkabs Zībergs, Christopher Roos (1887-1963), and others, the nationalists organized in 1917 to support the American World War I military effort by selling Liberty Bonds. The American National Latvian League ( Amerikas latviešu tautiskā savienība [ALTS]) was formed the next year in Boston to represent Latvian interests in the United States. When their homeland declared independence later in 1918, ALTS representatives urged America to recognize the new nation of Latvia; de jure recognition came in 1922.
Soviet occupation of Latvia during World War II was criticized by nationalist Latvians in the States, who sought to inform the American public about atrocities committed by the Russians. The arrival of Latvian DPs after the war heightened political activity among Latvian Americans. A number of Latvian civic and political organizations were founded, including the American Latvian Association in 1951 and the American Latvian Republican National Federation in 1961. Latvians also joined with Estonians and Lithuanians to form groups such as the Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (BATUN), to press world governments to oppose Soviet power in their homelands.
Officially, the U.S. government never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the Soviet Union. Attempts by U.S. diplomats to ease tensions with the Soviets usually drew swift criticism from the Baltic groups. At election time, the Republican party tended to evoke more support from Latvians than the Democrats—particularly among the first generation of Latvian immigrants, who felt the Republicans had a stronger anticommunist foreign policy platform. Within the Latvian community, efforts during the 1970s and 1980s by some Latvian Americans to establish cultural exchanges with Soviet Latvia were viewed with suspicion and criticism.
Reestablishment of Latvian independence in 1991 opened the door to direct political involvement in the homeland. Latvian immigrants and their descendants were allowed to reclaim their pre-World War II citizenship and voting rights; by May of 1993 more than 8,700 Latvian Americans held dual U.S. and Latvian citizenship, according to American Latvian Association statistics. In June of 1993, during the first free democratic elections after the end of Soviet rule, a number of Latvian Americans were elected to Parliament. Among them were twin brothers Olg'erts Pavlovskis (1934– ) and Valdis Pavlovskis (1934– ), both of whom returned to Latvia to take government posts.
I NDIVIDUAL AND G ROUP C ONTRIBUTIONS
Latvians have made a number of contributions to American culture and society. The following sections list some of their achievements.
ART
Florida's famed Coral Castle, a sculpture garden carved from coral, was created over a 30-year period by Edward Leedskalnin (1887-1951), a Latvian immigrant. Leedskalnin, jilted by the girl he wanted to marry, journeyed to the United States and decided to build the sculpture garden as a testament to his love for her. The garden (located in Homestead, Florida) was completed in 1940 and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1984.
EDUCATION
Edgars Andersons (1920-1989) was a prolific historian who taught at San Jose State University in California. A specialist in European and early American history, he received a Distinguished Academic Achievement Award in 1978. Oswald Tippo (born 1911), a botanist by training, held several top academic posts during his career, including chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
FILM, TELEVISION, AND THEATER
Actress Rutanya Alda (1942– ) has appeared in numerous film, stage, and television productions, including The Long Goodbye (1973), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), The Deer Hunter (1978), and Prancer (1989). Actor Buddy Ebsen (born 1908), best known for his television roles as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in Barnaby Jones, is of Latvian and Danish parentage. Chicagoan Mārīte Ozere (1944– ) was crowned Miss U.S.A. in 1965. Actress Laila Robins (1959– ) has appeared in several feature films, including Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), A Walk on the Moon (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), and Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990). Anita Stewart (1895-1961) appeared in the silent movies Hollywood (1923) and Never the Twain Shall Meet (1925).
INDUSTRY
Augusts Krastiņš (1859-1942) began building gasoline-powered automobiles in 1896, several years before Henry Ford. The Cleveland, Ohio-based Krastin Automobile Company operated until 1904. Leon "Jake" Swirbul was a cofounder of the Grumman Aircraft Company and helped lead the company's production of fighter planes for the U.S. Navy during World War II. In 1946 Swirbul became president of the company, which is now part of Northrop Grumman Corporation.
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM
Anšlevs Eglītis (1906-1993), a novelist and movie critic, wrote many popular Latvian books and was a frequent contributor to the Latvian American newspaper Laiks. Jānis Freivalds (1944– ) has worked as a journalist, consultant, and entrepreneur. In 1978 he published a novel, The Famine Plot. Peter Kihss (1912-1984) spent nearly 50 years working as a journalist, including 30 years for the New York Times.
MUSIC
Several Latvian Americans have made significant contributions to symphonic music and opera, such as concert pianist Artūrs Ozoliņš (1946– ), who has recorded with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and composer Gundaris Pone (1932-1993), whose work received international recognition but whose radical politics did not endear him to Latvian Americans. Alternative pop singer-songwriter Ingrid Karklins (1957– ) of Austin, Texas, has released two albums, A Darker Passion (1992) and Anima Mundi (1994), some of which draws inspiration from traditional Latvian instruments and songs. The Quags, a Latvian rock group in Philadelphia, have made some recordings.
SCIENCE
John Akerman (1897-1972), a professor of aeronautics, had a long career teaching and researching at the University of Minnesota. Akerman Hall on the Minneapolis campus is named in his honor. Lectures about the Star of Bethlehem by retired astronomy professor Kārlis Kaufmanis (1910– ) have become a popular Christmas attraction in Minnesota. Mārtiņš Straumanis (1898-1973) was a professor of metallurgy at the University of Missouri at Rolla.
SPORTS
Latvians in America and in Latvia have become ardent fans of the San Jose Sharks team of the National Hockey League. Two Latvians, goalie Arturs Irbe (1967– ) and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh (1972– ), were acquired by the team in 1991. Gundars Vetra (c. 1967– ) was the first Latvian to play for a National Basketball Association team. He was recruited by the Minnesota Timberwolves after playing for the Russian-led Unified Team in the 1992 Olympics.
M EDIA
Laiks ( Time ).
A semi-weekly Latvian-language newspaper published in Brooklyn, New York.
Contact: Ilavars Spilners, Editor.
Address: 7307 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11209-2466.
Telephone: (718) 836-6382.
Fax: (718) 748-1426.
Latvian Dimensions.
Published by the American Latvian Association, it offers a national perspective on issues of interest to Latvians.
Contact: Elisa Freimanis, Editor.
Address: American Latvian Association, P.O. Box 4578, 400 Hurley Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20850-3131.
Telephone: (301) 340-1914.
Fax: (301) 340-8732.
RADIO
WVVX-FM (103.1).
Chicago Association of Latvian Organizations ( Čikāgas latviešu organizāciju apvienība ) sponsors a program.
Contact: Juris Valainis.
Address: 210 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park, Illinois 60035.
Telephone: (847) 831-5250.
Fax: (847) 831-5296.
O RGANIZATIONS AND A SSOCIATIONS
American Latvian Association in the U.S. ( Amerikas latviešu apvienība, ALA).
Founded in 1951, the ALA is largest Latvian association in the United States; it has about 9,000 members and represents approximately 160 organizations. In the past, it served as an umbrella organization that coordinated the political, cultural, and educational activities of Latvian communities and lobbied the U.S. government for legislation and policies supporting independence for Latvia. Since independence was achieved, the ALA has given increased attention to welfare and education efforts in Latvia.
Contact: Anita Terauds, Secretart General.
Address: 400 Hurley Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20850-3121.
Telephone: (301) 340-1914.
Fax: (301) 340-8732.
E-mail: alainfo@alausa.org.
Online: http://www.alausa.org/ .
American Latvian Catholic Association ( Amerikas latviešu katoļu apvienība, ALKA).
Founded in 1954, the ALKA represents the interests of Latvians of the Roman Catholic faith, many of whom trace their heritage to the Latgale province in southeastern Latvia.
Address: 2235 Ontonagon Street, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506.
American Latvian Youth Association ( Amerikas latviešu jaunatnes apvienība, ALJA).
Founded in 1952 and incorporated in 1964, the ALJA is a national organization for Latvian youth, generally those under age 30. It has served as a voice for its members in the exile community. During the 1970s and 1980s, it was especially active on the political front, organizing demonstrations at the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., and in other locations. Some former officers of the association have gone on to other leadership posts in the Latvian American community as well as in newly independent Latvia.
Contact: Pçteris Burìelis, Information Director.
Address: 10 Lois Lane, Katonah, New York 10536.
Telephone: (914) 232-2192.
E-mail: burgelis@pitnet.net.
Online: http://www.alja.org/ .
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( Latvieš evaņg'eliski luteriskā baznīca Amerikā, LELBA).
Founded in 1975, the LELBA carries on the work of a Latvian American church association formed in 1957. Before 1975, local Latvian Lutheran congregations belonged to one of the U.S. churches, such as the American Lutheran Church. Since then, many have dropped their ties to U.S. churches and now are only members of LELBA. As of 1994, LELBA included 53 congregations in the United States; not all congregations, however, have their own churches or ministers.
Contact: Rev. Uldis Cepure, Chairman of the Board.
Address: 2140 Orkla Drive, Golden Valley, Minnesota 55427.
Telephone: (612) 546-3712.
Latvian Welfare Association ( Daugavas Vanagi ).
Founded in 1945 in Belgium, this is a global organization of war veterans—primarily those who fought in the two Latvian divisions organized during the German occupation of Latvia in World War II. Aside from offering support for disabled Latvian veterans, Daugavas Vanagi also supports cultural and educational efforts and works to preserve the history of the Latvian military. The organization has national and local chapters in several countries.
Address: 3220 Rankin Road, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55418.
Telephone: (612) 781-7132.
Fax: (612) 789-2602.
M USEUMS AND R ESEARCH C ENTERS
Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, Inc.
Independent, nonprofit research association. Focuses on Baltic area, including the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and Baltic literature, history, and economics.
Contact: Kalle Merilo.
Address: 3465 East Burnside Street, Portland, Oregon 97214-2050.
Telephone: (908) 852-5258.
Fax: (908) 852-3233.
E-mail: aabs@teleport.com.
Online: http://www.lanet.lv/members/aabs/aabs.html .
Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies.
Houses Latvian material in its archives, including some records of St. John's Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Contact: John Tenhula, President.
Address: 18 South Seventh Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106.
Telephone: (215) 925-8090.
Fax: (215) 925-8195.
E-mail: balchlib@hslc.org.
Online: http://libertynet.org/~balch .
Immigration History Research Center.
Devoted to collecting archival materials concerning eastern, central, and southern European immigrants, as well as immigrants from the Middle East, the IHRC continues to expand its Latvian collection of books, newspapers, serials, and manuscripts. In 1993 the center embarked on a two-year project to organize materials pertaining to Displaced Persons from Latvia and Ukraine.
Contact: Joel Wurl, Curator.
Address: University of Minnesota, 826 Berry Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55114.
Telephone: (612) 627-4208.
Fax: (612) 627-4190.
E-mail: ihrc@tc.umn.edu.
Online: http://www.umn.edu/ihrc .
Latvian Museum.
Housed in the Latvian Lutheran Church in Rockville, Maryland, the museum opened in 1980 and provides an overview of Latvian life in the homeland and in exile.
Address: 400 Hurley Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20850.
Latvian Studies Center.
Serves as a focus for students of Latvian heritage. It includes a growing library and archives of Latvian materials that have been donated to the center by Latvians from throughout the country.
Contact: Maira Bundža.
Address: Western Michigan University, 1702 Fraternity Village Drive, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49006.
Telephone: (616) 343-1922.
Fax: (616) 343-0704.
S OURCES FOR A DDITIONAL S TUDY
Andersons, Edgars, and M. G. Slavenas. "The Latvian and Lithuanian Press," The Ethnic Press in the United States: A Historical Analysis and Handbook, edited by Sally M. Miller. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987; pp. 229-245.
The Baltic States: A Reference Book. Tallinn, Estonia: Tallinn Book Printers, 1991.
Dreifelds, Juris. Latvia in Transition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kārklis, Maruta, Līga Streips, and Laimonis Streips. The Latvians in America, 1640-1973: A Chronology and Fact Book. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1974.
Latvia, prepared by Geography Department. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1992.
Lieven, Anatoly. The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1993.
Misiunas, Romuald J., and Rein Taagepera. The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940-1980. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Plakans, Andrejs. The Latvians: A Short History. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1995.
Šīmanis, Vito Vitauts. Latvia. St. Charles, Illinois: Book Latvia, 1984.
Straumanis, Alfreds. "Latvian American Theatre," Ethnic Theatre in the United States, edited by Maxine Schwartz Seller. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983; pp. 277-318.
Veidemanis, Juris. Social Change: Major Value Systems of Latvians at Home, as Refugees, and as Immigrants. Greeley: Museum of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado, 1982.
KOREAN AMERICANS
Known to its people as Choson (Land of Morning Calm), Korea occupies a mountainous peninsula in eastern Asia. Stretching southward from Manchuria and Siberia for close to 600 miles (966 kilometers), it extends down to the Korea Strait. China lies to Korea's west, separated from the peninsula by the Yellow Sea. Japan lies to its east on the other side of the Sea of Japan.
Western societies have traditionally viewed the Korean peninsula as a remote region of the world. They have often referred to it as "The Hermit Kingdom" because it remained isolated from the western world until the nineteenth century. Yet it actually holds a central position on the globe, neighboring three major world powers—the former Soviet Union, China, and Japan.
At the end of World War II in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel into two zones of occupation—a Soviet controlled region in the north and an American controlled one in the south. In 1948, North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (the Republic of Korea) were officially established. North Korea is run by a Communist government, with Pyongyang as its capital city. South Korea's government is an emergent democracy, and Seoul—Korea's largest city—is its capital.
An estimated 67 million people live on the Korean peninsula, with a population of approximately 43.9 million in South Korea and another 23.1 million residing in North Korea. Together they are racially and linguistically homogeneous. They are the ethnic descendants of a Tungusic branch of the Ural-Altaic family. Their spoken language, Korean, is a Uralic language with similarities to Japanese, Mongolian, Hungarian, and Finnish.
EARLY HISTORY
In its 5,000-year history, Korea has suffered over 900 invasions from outside peoples. Accordingly, the Korean people have found it necessary to defend fiercely their identity as a separate culture. Tungusic tribes from the Altai mountain region in central Asia made the peninsula their home during the Neolithic period around 4000 B.C. These tribes brought with them primitive religious and cultural practices, such as the east Asian religion of shamanism. By the fourth century B.C. several wall-town states throughout the peninsula were large enough to be recognized by China. The most advanced of these, Old Choson, was located in the basin of the Liao and Taedong rivers, where Pyongyang is situated today. China invaded Choson in the third century B.C. and maintained a strong cultural influence over the peninsula for the next 400 years.
Historians commonly refer to the first period of recorded Korean history (53 B.C. -668 A.D. ) as the Period of the Three Kingdoms. These kingdoms were Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla. Toward the end of the seventh century A.D. Silla conquered Koguryo and Paekche and united the peninsula under the Silla dynasty. This period saw many advancements in literature, art, and science. Buddhism, which had reached Korea by way of China, was practiced by virtually all of Silla society. By the mid-eighth century the Silla people began using woodblock printing to reproduce sutras and Confucian writings.
In 900, the three kingdoms divided again. Within 36 years the Koguryo kingdom took control and its leader, General Wang Kon, established the Koryo dynasty. The word Korea comes from this dynastic name. During Koryo's 400-year reign, artistic, scientific, and literary achievements advanced further. Improving upon earlier Chinese printing methods, Korea became the first country in the world to use movable cast metal type in 1234. Medical knowledge also developed during the thirteenth century. Evolving out of local Korean folk remedies and Chinese practices, Korean medical science was recorded in books such as Emergency Remedies of Folk Medicine and Folk Remedies of Samhwaja.
Mongolian forces invaded Koryo in 1231 and occupied the kingdom until 1368. The Chinese Ming dynasty forced the Mongols back to the far north. This struggle eventually led to the fall of Koryo in 1392, when General Yi Song-Gye revolted against the king and founded the Yi dynasty. In control until the early twentieth century, it proved to be Korea's longest reigning dynasty and one of the most enduring regimes in history. The increasingly militant Buddhist state of the former Koryo dynasty yielded to the thinking of the new Choson kingdom, which was ruled by civilians who devotedly followed Confucian principles. Confucianism is not a religion but a philosophy of life and ethics that stresses an individual's sense of duty to family members and society as a whole. The Yi regime emphasized hierarchical relationships, with highest respect given to family elders, the monarch, and China as the older, more established country.
The Yi dynasty remained peaceful until 1592, when Japan invaded the peninsula. Chinese soldiers helped Korea seize control over its land from the Japanese armies. Japan attacked again in 1597, but Korea was able to force its withdrawal by the end of the year. Still, the country was left in tatters from the war. Korea suffered more attacks in 1627 and 1636, this time at the hands of the Manchus, who later conquered China. Western scientific, technological, and religious influences began to make their way to Korea during this period, by way of China. France, Great Britain, and the United States had already begun to dominate areas within China and other Asian countries. Calling Korea "The Hermit Kingdom" because of its closed-door policy toward non-Chinese foreigners, Western countries became interested in the peninsula in the nineteenth century.
In 1832 an English merchant ship landed off the coast of Chungchong province, and in 1846 three French warships landed in the same area. Eight years later two armed Russian ships sailed along the Hamgyong coast and killed a few Korean civilians before leaving the region. In 1866 the U.S.S. General Sherman sailed up the Taedong River to Pyongyang. The crew's goal of drawing up a trade agreement was thwarted by an enraged mob of Koreans who set fire to the ship, killing everyone aboard. Five U.S. warships appeared near the Korean island of Kanghwa the following year and also were fought off. Korean animosity toward Western countries stemmed largely from their awareness of China's troubles with these same nations, particularly Great Britain, which had devastated China during the First Opium War of 1839-1842. Despite Korean resistance, Japan forced the country to open to trade in 1876. In 1882 Korea reluctantly agreed to trade with the United States.
For two centuries China and Japan fought for control over Asia. China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) greatly weakened Chinese dominance. After this victory Japan invaded the Korean peninsula. Korean students from American-founded schools resented this invasion. These schools had become a place to learn about democracy and national liberation. The Japanese army despised the American missionaries who had established these schools but knew better than to confront citizens of the powerful U.S. government. Instead, they took advantage of Korean citizens and outlawed Korean customs. Korea turned to Russia for financial support and protection. What followed was a ten-year struggle between Russia and Japan for control over the Korean peninsula. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 ended in another Japanese victory. U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt mediated the treaty agreement and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in creating the Treaty of Portsmouth. Korea became a protectorate of Japan, and Japan officially annexed the country in 1910.
MODERN ERA
During its 35 years as a Japanese colony, Korea experienced major economic and social developments, such as soil improvement, updated methods of farming, and industrialization in the north. Japan modernized the country along Western lines, but Korea did not reap the benefits. Japan used half of the Korean rice crop for its own industry. Most Korean farmers were forced off their land. All Korean schools and temples were controlled by the Japanese. By the 1930s Koreans were forced to worship at Shinto shrines, speak Japanese in schools, and adopt Japanese names. Japan also prevented them from publishing Korean newspapers and organizing their own intellectual and political groups.
Thousands of Koreans participated in demonstrations against the Japanese government. These marches were mostly peaceful, but some led to violence. On March 1, 1919, a group of 33 prominent Koreans in Seoul issued a proclamation of independence. Close to 500,000 Koreans, including students, teachers, and members of religious groups, organized demonstrations in the streets, protesting against Japanese rule. This mass demonstration, which became known as the March First Movement, lasted two months until the Japanese government suppressed it and expanded the size of its police force in Korea by 10,000. According to conservative estimates from Japanese reports, the Japanese police killed 7,509 Koreans, wounded 15,961, and imprisoned another 46,948 in the process of quelling the movement.
Japan sided with Nazi Germany during World War II. The Japanese government put Koreans to work in munitions plants, airplane factories, and coal mines in Japan. Before the war, Korean nationalists living outside of the country (in Siberia, Manchuria, China, and the United States) organized independence efforts, often using guerrilla tactics against the Japanese. One of these nationalists residing in the United States, Syngman Rhee, went on to become the first president of South Korea. Another Korean who was making a name for himself as a rebel was Kim Song-Je. Born in 1912 near Pyongyang, Kim spent most of his childhood in Manchuria and took the pseudonym Kim Il Sung in 1930. He organized one of the first anti-Japanese guerrilla units in Antu, Manchuria, on April 25, 1932, and became North Korea's first president. North Koreans still celebrate April 25 as the founding date of the Korean People's Army.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, bringing the United States into World War II, the Korean provisional government created by such nationalists as Syngman Rhee finally had an opportunity to take a stand against Japan. On December 8, this provisional government declared war on Japan and formed the Restoration Army to fight alongside the Allies in the Pacific theater.
When Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945, ending the Japanese occupation of Korea, Koreans took to the streets in celebration of the end of 36 years under oppressive rule. But the freedom they expected did not follow. The Soviet Union immediately occupied Pyongyang, Hamhung, and other major northern cities. The United States followed by stationing troops in southern Korea. This division, which was supposed to have been a temporary measure, remained a source of turbulence and tragedy for Koreans at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
In the months that followed the end of World War II, postwar international decisions were made without the consent of the Korean people. The Soviet Union set up a provisional Communist government in northern Korea, and the United States created a provisional republican government in the South. In 1948 the Republic of Korea was founded south of the 38th Parallel, followed by the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. Both governments claimed authority over the entire peninsula and tempted fate by crossing the border at various points along the 38th Parallel.
On June 25, 1950, North Korea launched a surprise attack on South Korea, beginning a costly, bloody, three-year struggle known as the Korean War. It was perhaps the most tragic period in modern history for the Korean people. In the end, neither side achieved victory. On July 27, 1953, in the town of Panmunjom, the two sides signed an armistice designating a cease-fire line along the 38th Parallel and establishing a surrounding 2.5-mile-wide (four-kilometer-wide) demilitarized zone, which remains the boundary between the two Koreas. The war left the peninsula a wasteland. An estimated four million soldiers were killed or wounded, and approximately 1 million civilians died.
Both Koreas moved swiftly to rebuild after the war and have emerged into modern, industrialized nations. North Korea, which was more industrialized than South Korea before the war, restored the production of goods to prewar levels within three years. North Korea's economy and industry suffered, however, as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union, one of its major trading partners. South Korea has evolved from a rural to post-industrial society since the 1960s. It has become an important exporter of products such as Hyundai cars, GoldStar televisions, and Samsung VCRs. In the late 1980s the United States was the second largest exporter to South Korea, after Japan. In 1989, South Korea was the seventh largest exporter country to the United States.
Kim Il Sung ruled as a Communist dictator in North Korea for more than four decades, until his death in July 1994. South Korea, on the other hand, has undergone several political upheavals since the Korean War. South Koreans have become increasingly dissatisfied with the U.S.-South Korea alliance and with the presence of U.S. troops in the country. Corruption in the government and the lack of free elections have caused many student uprisings. President Kim Young-Sam, who took office in February 1993, has instituted economic reforms and an aggressive anti-corruption campaign. As of 1995, it was too soon to tell if his programs would bring the country closer to a true democracy.
All measures introduced to reunify the Korean peninsula have ended in a stalemate. U.S. concern over North Korea's nuclear weapons program during the 1990s has threatened to increase tensions between the two Koreas. North Korea's refusal to allow full international inspection of its nuclear facilities brought the United States close to proposing a resolution for a United Nations economic embargo against North Korea in June 1994. Before sanctions were implemented, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with the North Korean government and reported back that the country would be willing to freeze all activity that produces fuel for nuclear weapons if Washington would initiate high-level talks. In the past, planned meetings between the two Korean governments have broken down. Officials were cautiously hopeful that this time would be different, until Kim Il Sung's death once again put negotiations between the two countries on hold. Reunification remains the most pressing issue on the minds of virtually all Koreans.
THE FIRST KOREANS IN AMERICA
The first recorded emigration of Koreans from their homeland occurred in the eighth century, when thousands moved to Japan. Korean communities also existed in China as early as the ninth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Yenpien section of Manchuria and the Maritime provinces of Russia became home to many Koreans escaping famine on the peninsula. Emigration was illegal in Korea, but by the end of the century, 23,000 Koreans were living in the Maritime provinces. Natural disasters, poverty, high taxes, and government oppression were given as their reasons for leaving. As Japanese control over the peninsula began to spread, so did Korean discontent. The United States became a refuge for a small number of Koreans at the end of the nineteenth century. Three Korean political refugees moved to America in 1885. Five more arrived in 1899 but were mistaken for Chinese. Between 1890-1905, 64 Koreans had traveled to Hawaii to attend Christian mission schools. Most of these students returned to Korea after completing their studies.
SIGNIFICANT IMMIGRATION WAVES
The first major wave of Korean immigrants to the United States began in 1903, when Hawaiian sugar plantation owners offered Koreans the opportunity to work on their plantations. By 1835 sugar had become the main crop produced on the Hawaiian Islands, largely due to the prolific yield of the Koloa Plantation on the island of Kauai. Initially the sugar planters hired native Hawaiians to work as contract laborers on the plantations. By 1850 the native population had declined, the laborers became increasingly dissatisfied with the hard work, and the demand for sugar continued to grow. The resulting labor shortage forced the planters to form the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society to recruit outside sources of labor. Hawaii was not yet a part of the United States, and contract labor was therefore still legal. In 1852, the first immigrant laborers arrived in Hawaii from China. By the time the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, 50,000 Chinese immigrants lived in Hawaii. Low wages, long work days, and poor treatment caused many Chinese laborers to leave the plantations in order to find work in the cities. The sugar planters then began to recruit Japanese immigrants to supplement the work force on the plantations.
In 1900 Hawaii became an official U.S. territory, making it legal for the Chinese and Japanese workers to go on strike. Many of them did. America's Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited immigration of Chinese people to the United States. When Hawaii became a U.S. territory, Chinese workers were not allowed to immigrate to Hawaii. To offset another labor shortage and weaken the unions, Hawaiian sugar planters turned to Korea. In 1902 growers sent a representative to San Francisco to meet with Horace Allen, the American ambassador to Korea. Allen began recruiting Koreans to work on the plantations with the help of David William Deshler, an American businessman living in Korea. Deshler owned a steamship service that operated between Korea and Japan. The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association paid Deshler 55 dollars for each Korean recruited. The Deshler Bank, set up in the Korean seaside town of Inchon, provided loans of 100 dollars to each immigrant for transportation.
With conditions worsening in their homeland, the offer appealed to a great number of Koreans. They would be paid a monthly wage of 16 dollars; receive free housing, health care, and English lessons; and would enjoy a warmer climate. Newspaper advertisements and posters promoted Hawaii as paradise and America as a land of gold and dreams. Recruiters used the slogan Kaeguk chinch wi ("the country is open, go forward") to encourage potential recruits. American missionaries also helped persuade Koreans with stories of how life in the West would make them better Christians. Reverend George Heber Jones of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Inchon was one of the more well-known American preachers who encouraged Koreans to go to Hawaii.
In December 1902, 121 Koreans left their homeland aboard the U.S.S. Gaelic, and all but 19 of the recruits (who failed their medical examinations in Japan) arrived in Honolulu on January 13, 1903. This original group included 56 men, 21 women, and 25 children. Over 7,000 Korean immigrants joined them on the Hawaiian sugar plantations within two years. Most of these immigrants were bachelors or had left their families behind. They hoped to save their wages and return to Korea to share the wealth with their families. With the higher cost of living in Hawaii, only about 2,000 Koreans were able to return to Korea. By 1905 the Japanese government banned emigration from the peninsula because so many Koreans were leaving to avoid Japanese oppression.
The next wave of Korean immigration to the United States occurred when Japan issued the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907. This pact forbade further immigration of Japanese and Korean workers but included a clause that allowed wives to rejoin their husbands already in the United States. This law initiated the "picture bride" system, enabling immigrant men to have wives and families in America. Of the 7,296 Korean immigrants in Hawaii, only 613 of them were women. To improve the male/female ratio, Korean village matchmakers and the groom's family selected the women to contact. The men exchanged photographs with the prospective brides, and when a match was agreed upon, the groom's family would write the bride's name into the family register to legalize the union. The bride would then travel to the United States by boat and meet her new husband. Marriage ceremonies were often performed on the boat, so that the women could touch American soil as legal wives of the immigrants. Between 1910 and 1924, over 1,000 Korean picture brides came to the United States, mostly to Hawaii. These women were motivated to become picture brides by the opportunities for education and wealth they heard existed in America. Traditional Korean society placed many restrictions on women. Education, travel, and careers were not open to them at home.
The picture brides, however, did not find America paved with gold. Many discovered that their husbands were much older than they looked in the pictures. In fact, an alarming number of these women became widows at a very young age. They faced hard work and long hours, leaving little free time to learn English. In her introduction to Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989; p. 9), Sucheta Mazumdar recounts Anna Choi's description of her life in Hawaii as a picture bride: "I arose at four o'clock in the morning, and we took a truck to the sugar cane fields, eating breakfast on the way. Work in the sugar plantations was back breaking. It involved cutting canes, watering, and pulling out weeds.... The sugar cane fields were end less and twice the height of myself. Now that I look back, I thank goodness for the height for if I had seen how far the fields stretched I probably would have fainted from knowing how much work was ahead."
In the years between 1907 and World War II, a few Korean political refugees and students also came to the United States. Some were members of a secret Korean patriotic society called Sinmin-hoe (New People's Society). To escape persecution by the Japanese government, they crossed the Yalu River and took trains to Shanghai. From there, they made their way to America. By 1924, 541 Koreans living in America claimed to be political refugees. Among the political activists residing in the United States at this time were Ahn Chang Ho, Pak Yong-Man, and Syngman Rhee, the future first president of South Korea. Rhee immigrated to the United States as a student and earned a doctorate from Princeton University in 1910. He returned to Korea to organize a protest against the Japanese. He then came back to the United States to avoid arrest and remained there until the end of World War II. During his years in America, he founded one of the major Korean independence movements.
Korean emigration was discouraged by the South Korean government after World War II, and North Korea forbade any kind of emigration. Most of the Koreans who did immigrate to the United States after the war were women. The quota system created by the United States Office of Immigration in the 1940s allowed between 105 and 150 immigrants from each of the Asian nations into the country. This law favored immigrants with post-secondary education, technical training, and specialized skills. Most of the Koreans allowed to immigrate were women with nursing training. The War Brides Act of 1945 also helped women and children obtain papers to immigrate.
More women who had married American soldiers were allowed into the United States after the Korean War. By this time, Koreans and all Asians in America were able to acquire citizenship through naturalization as a result of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. Foreign adoption of Korean babies also began at the end of the Korean War. The war had left thousands of children orphaned in Korea. Over 100,000 South Korean children have been adopted abroad since the war, and roughly two-thirds of these children have been adopted by American families. An estimated 10,000 Korean children have been adopted by Minnesota families alone. Criticized by other countries for running a "baby mill," the South Korean government began to phase out the practice in the 1990s. Although adopting children is traditionally frowned upon in Korean society, social workers are attempting to encourage domestic adoption.
RECENT IMMIGRATION
In 1965 the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act. The quota system was replaced with a preference system that gave priority to immigration applications from relatives of U.S. citizens and from professionals with skills needed by the United States. Thousands of South Korean doctors and nurses took advantage of the new law. They moved to America and took jobs in understaffed, inner-city hospitals. Koreans with science and technological backgrounds also were encouraged to immigrate. These new immigrants came from middle-class and upper-class families, unlike the earlier immigrants. The portion of the law informally known as the "Brothers and Sisters Act" has also been a factor in the dramatic increase in the Korean American population. In 1960, 10,000 Koreans were living in the United States. By 1985 the number had increased to 500,000. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce's 1990 Census of Population, 836,987 Korean Americans had settled in the United States. The 1991 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service states that 26,518 Koreans were admitted to the United States in 1991, making up 1.5 percent of the total immigrants arriving in America that year.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
Virtually all of the first Koreans who immigrated to the United States settled in Hawaii and the West Coast. As Korean immigrants working on the Hawaiian sugar plantations became increasingly frustrated by the harsh conditions, they moved to cities and opened restaurants, vegetable stands, and small stores, or worked as carpenters and tailors. Some returned to Korea if they could save the money for transportation. Approximately 1,000 Korean plantation workers remigrated to the U.S. mainland by 1907. They settled in San Francisco or moved farther inland to Utah to work in the copper mines, to Colorado and Wyoming to work in the coal mines, and to Arizona to work on the railroads. Some Koreans moved as far north as Alaska and found jobs in the salmon fisheries. The majority of those who remigrated, however, settled in California.
Recent Korean immigrants have settled in concentrated areas around the country. In 1970 the highest percentage of Korean Americans lived in California, followed by Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington. In 1990 the U.S. Census reported 260,822 Korean Americans in California, 93,145 Korean immigrants in New York, 42,167 in Illinois, 38,087 in New Jersey, 35,281 in Texas, 32,918 in Washington, and 32,362 in Virginia. Maryland, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania each have over 25,000 Korean American residents. Every state has at least a small population of Korean Americans. Most Koreans who settle in the United States reside in large cities where jobs are available and Korean communities have been established. Koreatowns have developed in areas such as the Olympic Boulevard neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles, where over 150,000 Korean Americans live. The Flushing, Woodside, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods within the New York City borough of Queens also have substantial Korean American populations. Unlike the early immigrants, later immigrants generally traveled to America to take up permanent residence. Korean American professionals who can afford it have begun moving to the suburbs.
A CCULTURATION AND A SSIMILATION
Like all immigrants arriving in the United States, Koreans have had to make major adjustments to live in a country that is vastly different from their homeland. Coming from a traditional society greatly influenced by the Confucian principle of placing elders, family, and community before the individual, Korean immigrants struggle to make sense of the American concept of individual freedom. Since the first immigrants arrived in Hawaii, Korean Americans have preserved their identity by creating organizations, such as Korean Christian churches and Korean schools. The Korean word han, used to describe an anguished feeling of being far from what you want, accurately conveys the longing that accompanies most Koreans to America. Korean American organizations provide a sense of community for new immigrants and a way to alleviate this longing.
TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND BELIEFS
Korean immigrants bring with them a culture that incorporates aspects of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Western cultures. These influences have filtered into Korean society throughout its long history. Yet Koreans have also maintained native elements of their literature, art, music, and way of life. The result is a wonderful collage of elements, both foreign and indigenous to the peninsula. Korean Americans tend to maintain aspects of their culture, while also adopting elements of mainstream America.
LITERATURE, ART, AND MUSIC
Korean literature draws from Chinese and Japanese roots but has its own distinctive features. Poems, romances, and short stories represent only a portion of the breadth of the Korean literary tradition. This tradition includes both folk and highly advanced literary writings and works written in Chinese, as well as Korean. Korean poems, called hyangga, dating back to the sixth century, were written in Chinese characters. Hyangga were sung by Buddhist
Groups of immigrants often found themselves settling in neighborhoods together. These neighborhoods then took on characteristics of that particular group, as is shown here in Koreatown in New York.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art forms have many similarities, but Korea has also preserved its own creative elements in this field. Korean art is characterized by simple forms, subdued colors, humor, and natural images. Korea is known for its ceramics, especially the celadon. This highly sophisticated form of pottery was first introduced during the Koryo dynasty.
Korean music incorporates Confucian rituals, court music, Buddhist chants, and folk music. Ancient instruments used for court music include zithers, flutes, reed instruments, and percussion. Folk music, which usually includes dancing, is played with a chango (a drum shaped like an hourglass) and a loud trumpet-like oboe. P'ansori, stories first sung by wandering bards in the late Choson dynasty, are an early form of Korean folk music. Modern Korean composers often draw from Western classical music. Korean American musicians, like Jin Hi Kim, use traditional Korean elements in their compositions. Kim is a komungo harpist who came to the United States in her twenties. She incorporates traditional Korean musical styles with other non-Western styles. Kim is one of the leaders in the No World Improvisations movement, which promotes the performance and composition of new improvisational music.
SPORTS
Several sports native to Korea have become popular around the world. For instance, tae kwon do, a method of self-defense that originated in Korea more than 2,000 years ago, has now become a commonly taught form of karate in the United States. It involves more sharp, quick kicking than the Japanese style of karate. It was a demonstration sport in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The importance placed on family in Korean society is apparent from the way special events in family members' lives are celebrated. Traditionally parents—with the help of a marriage broker or gobetween—chose their children's marriage partners. The parents also planned and prepared the wedding ceremony. Female relatives spent days preparing special dishes for the wedding feast and making the wedding clothes. The picture bride system used to increase the population of Korean American females in Hawaii is one example of how this traditional system was maintained in America. While still common in rural areas of Korea, these customs are no longer standard practice in cities. Similarly, Korean Americans, who generally come from urban areas, usually allow their children to choose their own spouses. As members of Christian churches, most modern Korean Americans have Western-style wedding ceremonies and wear Western-style bridal gowns and formal suits. Another event that Koreans traditionally celebrate with great flourish is a baby's first birthday. The child is dressed in a traditional costume and seated amidst rice cakes, cookies, and fruits. Friends and relatives offer the child objects, each one symbolizing a different career. A pen represents a writing career, and a coin signifies a career in finance. The first object the child picks up is said to indicate his or her future profession.
PRESERVING TRADITION
Korean culture is maintained within Korean American communities through church organizations, Korean schools, and Korean-culture camps. Since the beginning of this century, Korean Protestant churches have offered classes in Korean culture and language. In 1990 an estimated 490 Korean-language schools operated in the United States. Approximately 31,000 students attend these schools, which are run by 3,700 teachers. Classes are held during the week and sometimes on the weekends. The April/May 1994 issue of The U.S.-Korea Review lists 19 summer Korean-culture camps across the country. Located predominantly in California, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York, these camps offer Korean American children, usually adoptees, an opportunity to learn about their heritage with other Korean American children.
CUISINE
Korean cooking is similar to other Asian cuisines. Like the Chinese and Japanese, Koreans eat with chopsticks. Common ingredients in Korean food, such as tofu, soy sauce, rice, and a wide variety of vegetables, are also staples in other far eastern cuisines. But Korean food is also distinct in many ways. It is often highly seasoned, including combinations of garlic, ginger, red or black pepper, scallions, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Blander grain dishes such as rice, barley, or noodles offset the heat of the spices. Red meat is scarce in both North and South Korea and typically is reserved for special occasions. Koreans do not usually designate certain foods as breakfast, lunch, or dinner dishes. A standard meal consists of rice, soup, kimchi (a spicy Korean pickle), vegetables, and broiled or grilled meat or fish. Fresh fruit is usually served at the end of a meal. Kimchi is considered the national dish and is served at virtually every meal. Made from cabbage, turnips, radishes, or cucumber, kimchi can be prepared many ways, from mild to very spicy. Korean cuisine includes many different kinds of namul (salads). A common type of namul is sukju namul, or bean sprout salad. Made with bean sprouts, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, black pepper, and other ingredients, it is easy to make and serve. A common soup served at breakfast is kamja guk (potato soup). It is often spiced with chopped onion and chunks of tofu. Koreans serve mandu (Korean dumplings) at winter celebrations. They are deep-fried wonton skins, usually filled with beef, cabbage, bean sprouts, onions, and other ingredients. Another common Korean dish is chap ch'ae (mixed vegetables with noodles). This popular stir-fry dish features cellophane noodles, which are made from mung beans and prepared with vegetables in a wok.
TRADITIONAL CLOTHING
Traditional Korean clothing is rarely worn in either the United States or in Korea on a daily basis. Modern Western-style clothes are standard attire in most of South Korea, with the exception of some rural areas. During holidays, however, Koreans in both the United States and Korea often wear traditional costumes. Women may wear a chi-ma (a long skirt, usually pleated and full) and cho-gori (a short jacket top worn over a skirt) during New Year's celebrations. Traditional attire for men includes long white overcoats and horsehair hats or colorful silk baggy trousers known as paji.
HOLIDAYS
Koreans in both the United States and Korea celebrate several important days throughout the year. Following Buddhist and Confucian traditions, Koreans begin the new year with an elaborate three-day celebration called Sol. Family members dress in traditional clothing and pay homage to the oldest members of the family. The festivities include several feasts, kite-flying, board games, and various rituals intended to ward off evil spirits.
The first full moon is also an ancient day of worship. Torches are kept burning all night, and often people set off firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. Yadu Nal (Shampoo Day) is celebrated on June 15. Families bathe in streams or waterfalls to protect them from fevers. Chusok (Thanksgiving Harvest) is celebrated in autumn to give thanks for the harvest. Kimchi is also prepared for the winter at this time. Other traditional holidays observed in many Korean American households include Buddha's birthday on April 8, Korean Memorial Day on June 6, Father's Day on June 15, Constitution Day in South Korea on July 17, and Korean National Foundation Day on October 3. Korean American Christians also observe major religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPES
Anti-Asian prejudice first erupted in the United States when Chinese and Japanese immigrants began arriving in the nineteenth century. Early Korean immigrants suffered discrimination but were not specifically targeted until they became a significant percentage of the population. Americans generally knew nothing about Korea when Koreans first came to the United States. What little information they could find was written by non-Asians and claimed Western superiority over Asian cultures. William Griffis' Corea: The Hermit Kingdom, Alexis Krausse's The Far East, and Isabella Bird Bishop's Korea and Her Neighbors are examples of books that perpetuated the myth of Western superiority. American writer Jack London was also responsible for giving Americans
Many different ethnic groups display their pride in their diversity through annual parades.
Anti-Asian sentiments grew during the early twentieth century when San Francisco workers accused Koreans, along with Japanese and Chinese immigrants, of stealing jobs because the immigrants would work for lower wages. Restaurants refused to serve Asian customers, and Asians were often forced to sit in segregated corners of movie theaters. Violent white gangs harassed Korean Americans in California, and the government did nothing to help the victims. In fact, California laws in the first few decades of the twentieth century supported anti-Asian attitudes. Asian students were banned from attending public schools in white districts in 1906. The 1913 Webb-Heney Land Law prohibited Asians from owning property, and the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924 banned all Asian immigration to the United States for close to 30 years.
Korean Americans continue to be discriminated against in the job market, often receiving lower pay and having fewer opportunities for promotion than non-Asian co-workers. The view of Korean Americans as "super immigrants" has also caused discord. Korean American success stories in business and education have led to resentment from outside groups. These stories are often exaggerated. Rumors that the U.S. government gives Korean immigrants money when they arrive are untrue. Only refugees receive aid from the U.S. government, and very few Korean immigrants qualify as refugees. Also, statistics that show the mean income of Korean American families to be higher than that of the general public are misleading because most Korean Americans live in large cities where the cost of living is much higher. These stereotypes have led to boycotts of Korean greengrocers in Brooklyn, Chicago, and elsewhere. In the April 1992 Los Angeles uprising that followed the verdict in the trial of African American assault victim Rodney King's attackers, black rioters targeted Korean grocers, destroying countless Korean American businesses. Korean immigrants refer to this tragic episode as the Sa-i-kup'ok-dong (April 28 riots). Korean Americans have come to represent wealth, greed, materialism, and arrogance because they have started businesses in inner-city neighborhoods that have been abandoned by corporations. The people still living in these neighborhoods often use the Korean small businessperson as a scapegoat for their anger against corporate America. Organizations such as the Korea Society in New York and the Korean Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles have begun to address these issues.
HEALTH ISSUES
Korean Americans hold a prominent position in the field of medical science. The proportionally large number of Korean American doctors and nurses attest to this fact. Data on the status of the health of Korean Americans is limited. Asian Americans in general have a longer life expectancy than Americans as a whole. Job-related stress and other factors have contributed to mental health problems within the Korean American community. Most Korean Americans receive health insurance through their employers. New immigrants and the elderly, however, often do not have access to medical care because of language barriers. Organizations such as the Korean Health Education Information and Referral in Los Angeles address this problem.
L ANGUAGE
Virtually every citizen in North and South Korea is an ethnic Korean and speaks Korean. Spoken for over 5,000 years, the Korean language was first written in the mid-fifteenth century when King Sejong invented the phonetically-based alphabet known as hangul ("the great writing"). The King created the alphabet so that all Korean people, not just the aristocracy who knew Chinese characters, could learn to read and write. As a result both North and South Korea have among the highest literacy rates in the world.
While most second- and third-generation Korean immigrants speak English exclusively, new immigrants often know little or no English. As time goes by, they begin to learn necessary English phrases. The earliest Korean immigrants in Hawaii learned a form of English known as pidgin English, which incorporated phrases in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese—all languages spoken by the different ethnic groups working on the plantations. Learning English is crucial for new immigrants who hope to become successful members of the larger American community. Yet most Korean American parents also hope to preserve their heritage by sending their American-born children to Korean-language schools.
Several American universities offer undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in Korean language and Korean studies. These universities include Brigham Young University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and the University of Washington, Seattle.
GREETINGS AND OTHER COMMON EXPRESSIONS
The following greetings are translated phonetically from the hangul alphabet according to the McCune-Reischauer System of Romanization: Annyonghasipnigga —Hello (formal greeting); Yoboseyo —Hello (informal greeting); Annyonghi kasipsio —Good-bye (staying); Annyonghi kyeshipsio —Good-bye (leaving); Put'akhamnida —Please; Komapsumnida — Thank you; Ch'onmaneyo —You're welcome; Sillyehamnida —Excuse me; Ye —Yes; Aniyo —No; Sehae e pok mani padu sipsiyo! —Happy New Year!; Man sei !—Hurrah! Long live our country! Ten thousand years!; Kuh reh !—That is so! True!
F AMILY AND C OMMUNITY D YNAMICS
Historically, the family-kinship system was an extremely integral part of Korean society. The male head of a household played a dominant role, as did the oldest members of the family. Parents practiced control over their children's lives, arranging their marriages and choosing their careers. The eldest son was responsible for taking care of parents in their old age. Inheritances also went to the son. These systems have changed in modern Korea, particularly in cities, but the family remains very important to Koreans in
The basic Korean alphabet
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Because of the well-defined familial structure in Korean society, Koreans traditionally rely less on public assistance. Receiving welfare is often considered to be disgraceful. Family support, however, began to break down in the 1980s and 1990s. Larger numbers of recent Korean immigrants, particularly the elderly, are in need of assistance. Organizations within the Korean community have begun to address this problem. The Korean Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles offers numerous programs and activities for children and their families who have recently immigrated or are economically disadvantaged. Services include employment assistance and placement, family and youth counseling, and education and tutorial programs.
MARRIAGE
In Korean American communities, the marriage bond has in some ways become stronger than filial piety. While honoring one's parents remains important, physical distance and cultural barriers between Korean Americans and their parents have shifted priorities. Korean Americans are less likely to have arranged marriages than their ancestors, because marrying outside of the Korean community has also become increasingly common. Recent surveys show that Korean American women in college are expressing a preference for mates from other ethnic groups.
Traditionally Koreans have frowned upon divorce. Even with the marriages arranged through the picture bride system in Hawaii, few ended in divorce. Recent statistics suggest that the stigma against divorce no longer exists. The divorce rate among Korean Americans has reached and is possibly surpassing the national average. Exhaustion due to working extremely long hours in order to survive contributes to failed marriages. Women in particular suffer from stress. They often work long hours in garment factories or managing small businesses and are also responsible for running their households. Again, Korean American community organizations attempt to address these problems in order to make life in America more fulfilling.
EDUCATION
Koreans have always valued education, and Korean Americans place a strong emphasis on academic achievement. Employment in the civil service, which required passing extremely difficult qualifying examinations, was considered to be the most successful career path to take. Koreans take great pride in their educational achievements. Recent immigrants are strongly motivated to perform well in school and come to the United States better educated than the general population in Korea. Korean American parents pressure their children to perform well. In 1980, 78.1 percent of Korean Americans over the age of 25 had at least a high school education, compared with 66.5 percent of Americans overall. While 33.7 percent of Korean Americans had four or more years of college education, only 16.2 percent of the general U.S. population did.
Korean society gives priority to the education of males. Many of the Korean women who chose to come to the United States as picture brides hoped to find more educational opportunities than they were offered in their home country. In the United States, the bias in favor of educating males persists. Of all Korean American males over 25, 90 percent were high school graduates in 1980. Only 70.6 percent of Korean American women had high school educations. In 1980, 52.4 percent of Korean American males had attended four or more years of college, compared with 22 percent of Korean American females. It is a common stereotype that Korean Americans excel in math and science. Although this is often true, they tend to perform well in all subjects.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN
Korean husbands traditionally work outside the home, while their wives take full-time responsibility for the children and household. Living in a modern industrialized nation, South Korean women do have full-time jobs today, especially in urban areas. Still, the majority of full-time female employees in South Korea are unmarried. In the United States, economic needs often require both parents to work. Running the household, however, usually remains solely the responsibility of the woman. Second-, third-, and fourth-generation Korean American women face conflicts between traditional familial values and mainstream American culture. These women have more opportunities than their mothers and grandmothers. Some of them have careers as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and businesswomen, but most have behind-the-scenes positions or are clerks, typists, and cashiers. Korean American women, like American women in general, are still discriminated against in the job market. Korean immigrant women often come to the United States with professional skills but are forced to work in garment factories or as store clerks because of the language barrier.
The view that Korean American women are passive also persists. Contrary to popular perceptions, Korean American women have a long history of political activism. Unfortunately their work has gone largely unrecorded. Korean female immigrants played a significant role in organizing protests against Japanese occupation both in Korea and America. They established organizations like the Korean Women's Patriotic League, wrote for Korean newspapers, and raised $200,000 for the cause by working on plantations, doing needlework, and selling candies. They also participated in labor strikes on the Hawaiian plantations. Korean American women of the 1990s joined other Asian American women in fighting unfair work practices in the hotel, garment, and food-packaging industries. Korean American women also participate fully in efforts to reunify Korea.
R ELIGION
Throughout Korea's long history, religion has played a prominent role in the lives of the its citizens. A variety of faiths have been practiced on the peninsula, the most common being shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
Shamanism, the country's oldest religion, involves the worship of nature; the sun, mountains, rocks, and trees each hold sacred positions. Based on a belief in good and evil spirits that can only be appeased by priests or medicine men called shamans, early shamanism incorporated pottery making and dances such as the muchon, which was performed as part of a ceremony to worship the heavens.
China brought Buddhism to Korea sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries A.D. This religion, based on the teachings of the ancient Indian philosopher Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), has as its premise that suffering in life is inherent and that one can be freed from it by mental and moral self-purification.
Christianity first reached Korea in the seventeenth century, again by way of China where Portuguese missionaries came to promote Catholicism. American Protestant missionaries arrived in Korea in the nineteenth century. The Korean government persecuted these missionaries because the laws of Christianity went against Confucian social order. By the mid-1990s, the majority of South Koreans were still Buddhists, but an estimated 30 percent of the population practiced some type of Christianity.
CHRISTIANITY
Of the original 7,000 Korean immigrants in the United States, only 400 were Christian. Those 400 immediately formed congregations in Hawaii, and by 1918 close to 40 percent of the Korean immigrants had converted to Christianity. Koreans immigrants relied heavily on their churches as community centers. After Sunday service, immigrants spoke Korean, socialized, discussed problems of immigrant life, and organized political rallies for Korean independence. The churches also served as educational centers, providing classes in writing and reading Korean. They remain an integral part of the Korean immigrant community. In 1990 there were an estimated 2,000 Korean Protestant churches in the United States. Most Korean Protestants are evangelical Christians, who study the Bible extensively and follow the word of the gospel closely. In large cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, Korean Protestants have their own buildings and hold several services a week. The Oriental Mission Church and Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles are two of the largest Korean Protestant churches in America with 5,000 members each. Most Koreans in the United States today practice Protestantism.
Over two million Catholics live in South Korea. The Korean American Catholic Community was established by Korean immigrants in the 1960s. The first Korean Catholic center opened in Orange County, California, in 1977. As of 1995, an estimated 35,000 Korean Americans practiced Catholicism. Most Korean American Catholic parishes are part of larger American Catholic parishes.
There are about 100 Korean American Catholic communities in the United States, most of which are headed by priests from Korea, who usually serve four-year periods. Many speak little English and are perceived as being ignorant of contemporary American life, insensitive to the problems of Korean Americans, and more loyal to the their dioceses in Korea than to their Korean American congregations. Some have been accused of having affairs with married women and of financial misdealing. To address these problems by providing a forum for open discussion of them, Korean immigrant Kye Song Lee founded the newspaper Catholic 21 in 1996. He felt that the two official Catholic newspapers for Koreans—both published in Korea—did not adequately address the problems. Catholic 21 has been controversial since its inception, with some welcoming its perspective and others labeling it divise, offensive, and even anti-Catholic.
BUDDHISM
Although Buddhism has undergone many upheavals on the Korean peninsula, nearly 14 million South Koreans practice Buddhism today. A Buddhist monk named Soh Kyongbo founded Korean Buddhism in the United States in 1964. Most Korean American Buddhists belong to the Chogye sect. Prominent Buddhist organizations in the United States include the Zen Lotus Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Korean Buddhist Temple Association, the Young Buddhist Union in Los Angeles, the Buddhists Concerned with Social Justice and World Peace, the Western Buddhist Monk's Association, the Southern California Buddhist Temples Association, and several Son and Dharma centers across the country. According to the Korean Buddhist Temple Association's reports, there were 60 temples in the United States and Canada in 1990. The Young Buddhist Union holds an annual arts festival where Buddhist monks dance, sing, read Son poetry, and perform comedy sketches, plays, and piano recitals. Still, Buddhism has not become widespread in the United States and is often viewed as a cult.
E MPLOYMENT AND E CONOMIC T RADITIONS
Early Korean immigrants living on the West Coast were restricted from many types of employment. Discriminatory laws prohibited Asian immigrants from applying for citizenship, which meant that they were ineligible for positions in most professional fields. They took jobs with low pay and little advancement potential, working as busboys, waiters, gardeners, janitors, and domestic help in cities. Outside the cities, they worked on farms and in railroad "gangs." Many Korean immigrants opened restaurants, laundries, barbershops, grocery stores, tobacco shops, bakeries, and other retail shops. With the changes in immigration laws after World War II, Korean immigrants have been able to move into more professional fields such as medicine, dentistry, architecture, and science. Recent immigrants, those who have come to America since 1965, are mostly college-educated, with professional skills. The language barrier, however, often prevents new immigrants from finding jobs within their fields. Korean doctors often work as orderlies and nurses' assistants. In 1978, only 35 percent of Korean teachers, administrators, and other professionals were working in their respective fields in Los Angeles.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: 1980 Report, the average Korean American household income was $22,500, which was higher than the average household income for Americans overall ($20,300). However, Korean Americans have, on the average, more persons living in each household and, as noted earlier, tend to live in urban areas where the cost of living is higher. The same report indicates that 13.1 percent of Korean American families had incomes below the poverty level, which is higher than the 9.6 percent reported for the total U.S. population. Asian American adults have lower unemployment rates than the U.S. adult population overall. In 1980 the U.S. Census Bureau also reported that 24 percent of Korean Americans age 16 or older held managerial or professional positions; 26 percent had technical, sales, or administrative jobs; 16 percent worked in service fields; nine percent held precision production, crafts, or repair jobs; 19 percent were laborers or operators; and six percent were unemployed.
SMALL BUSINESSES
Out of economic need, large numbers of recent Korean immigrants start their own businesses. Most of these immigrants did not run small businesses in Korea. In 1977, 33 percent of Korean American families owned small businesses, such as vegetable stands, grocery stores, service stations, and liquor stores. As a whole, they have a high success rate. In the 1980s an estimated 95 percent of all dry-cleaning stores in Chicago were owned by Korean immigrants. By 1990, 15,500 Korean-owned stores were in operation in New York City alone. Since then, a recession and internal competition has slowed the growth. New Korean immigrants are opening businesses in cities other than New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, where the competition is less fierce.
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS
Support within Korean communities has contributed to the success of small businesses. Recent immigrants still use the ancient Korean loan system, based on the kye, a sum of money shared by a group of business owners. A new grocer, for instance, will be allowed to use the money for one year and keep the profits. The kye is then passed to the next person who needs it. Organizations like the Korean Produce Association in New York and the Koryo Village Center in Oakland, California, are another source of support for new immigrants hoping to set up their own businesses.
P OLITICS AND G OVERNMENT
Koreans have a general distrust of central governments. Historically, individual citizens have had little power in Korea and have suffered through scores of tragic episodes at the hands of other governments controlling the peninsula. As a result, most Korean immigrants come to America unaccustomed to participation in the democratic process. Discriminatory laws against Asian Americans on the West Coast have contributed to this distrust. Korean American communities have traditionally isolated themselves, relying on their family and neighborhood networks. Korean American participation in these grass-roots organizations and in U.S. government politics in general is growing and evolving slowly.
GRASS-ROOTS ORGANIZATIONS
From the church meetings on Hawaiian plantations in the early 1900s to the efforts of the Black-Korean Alliance in the 1990s, Korean immigrants have created settings to voice their opinions. Racial tensions within Korean American communities have led to the establishment of several grass-roots organizations. The Black-Korean Alliance in Los Angeles and the Korea Society in New York have set up programs to educate the two ethnic groups about each other's cultures. In 1993, the Korea Society launched its Kids to Korea program. Designed to improve the strained relationship between the Korean and African American communities, the program enabled 16 African American high school students from New York City and Los Angeles to travel to South Korea in order to learn about its people, culture, and history. This successful program has been expanded to include students from other cities. The Korea Society also sponsors a program called Project Bridge in Washington, D.C., which offers classes in both Korean and African American cultures.
UNION ACTIVITY
While research experts have studied extensively the economic development and work patterns of Korean American professionals and entrepreneurs, the general American public knows little about Korean immigrant laborers. Yet since the beginning of the twentieth century, American industries have employed Koreans. By the 1990s, Korean Americans had begun to join forces with other Asian Americans to educate themselves about labor unions and their rights. Founded in 1983, the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) organizes Chinese and Vietnamese garment workers and Korean hotel maids and electronics assemblers in the Oakland, California area. They have staged demonstrations and rallies to draw attention to the unfair labor practices within the garment, hotel management, and electronics industries. The Korean Immigrant Worker Advocates (KIWA) in Los Angeles is another group that is bringing labor issues to the forefront. The KIWA is unique among Asian American organizations in Los Angeles because most of the members of its board of directors are workers themselves.
VOTING PATTERNS
Studies have shown that voter participation among Korean Americans is low. Historically, Korean immigrants have rarely been active in election campaigns and have seldom made financial contributions to individual candidates. Groups such as the Coalition for Korean American Voters (CKAV) in New York are working hard to address this problem. In just three years CKAV has registered 3,000 voters and sponsored programs that educate Korean immigrants about local and national government. The Coalition's efforts include airing public service announcements on Korean American television channels, establishing a college internship program to foster community service and leadership skills in students, and joining forces with other Asian American organizations to increase Asian American involvement in government.
MILITARY PARTICIPATION
In his book Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, Ronald Takaki describes the plight of a Korean immigrant named Easurk Emsen Charr. He was drafted and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. Afterward he argued in court that as a U.S. military veteran, he should be entitled to citizenship and the opportunity to own land in California. The court ruled that the military should not have drafted him because he was Asian and therefore ineligible for American citizenship. Despite such discriminatory treatment, Korean Americans were eager to volunteer for military service during World War II. Doing so gave them a chance to support the American effort to curtail Japanese imperialism. Some Korean Americans served as language teachers and translators, and 100 Korean immigrants joined the California Home Guard in Los Angeles. They also participated in Red Cross relief operations. The American government, however, was somewhat suspicious of Korean-immigrant support because Koreans were technically still part of the Japanese empire. In Hawaii, Korean immigrants were referred to as "enemy aliens" and banned from working on military bases. Today, many Korean American men and women hold positions in the military.
INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS OF KOREAN PENINSULA
Since Koreans first began immigrating to the United States, they have remained active in the politics of their homeland. Studies have shown that Korean Americans are generally more actively involved in the politics of Korea than in that of their new home. The lives of early Korean immigrants revolved around the Korean independence movement. In the 1960s Korean Americans staged mass demonstrations and relief efforts in response to the massacre of civilians by the South Korean dictatorship in Kwangju, the capital of South Cholla province. Today virtually every Korean American organization supports reunification of the peninsula. Groups such as the Korea Church Coalition for Peace, Justice, and Reunification were formed specifically for this purpose. Other American-based organizations, including the Council for Democracy in Korea, seek to educate the public about the political affairs of Korea.
I NDIVIDUAL AND G ROUP C ONTRIBUTIONS
EDUCATION
Margaret K. Pai (1916–) taught English at Kailua, Roosevelt, and Farrington high schools on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for many years. Her father, Do In Kwon, immigrated to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations in the early 1900s. Her mother, Hee Kyung Lee, was a picture bride and met and married her husband in Hawaii at age 18. Since retiring, Margaret Pai has been writing short Hawaiian legends, poems, and personal reminiscences, including The Dreams of Two Yi-Men (1989), a vivid account of her parents' experiences as early Korean immigrants in America.
Elaine H. Kim (1943– ) is a professor of Asian American studies and faculty assistant for the status of women at the University of California-Berkeley. Kim is also president of the Association for Asian American Studies and founder of the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates and Asian Women United of California. She is the author of Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and their Social Context.
FILM, VIDEO, TELEVISION, THEATER, AND MUSIC
Peter Hyun (1906– ) worked in the American theater for many years. He was a stage manager for Eva LeGallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York, director of the Children's Theatre of the New York Federal Theater, and organizer and director of the Studio Players in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During World War II, he served as a language specialist in the U.S. Army. After settling in Oxnard, California, he taught English to immigrant students from Asia. He is the author of Man Sei!: The Making of a Korean American (1986), a personal account of growing up as the son of a leader in the Korean independence movement.
Nam June Paik (1932– ) has built a worldwide reputation as a composer of electronic music and producer of avant-garde "action concerts." He grew up in Seoul and earned a degree in aesthetics at the University of Tokyo before meeting American composer John Cage in Germany. His interest in American electronic music brought him to the United States. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Kitchen Museum, all in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Among his video credits are TV Buddha (1974) and Video Fish (1975). He also produced a program called Good Morning, Mr. Orwell, which was broadcast live simultaneously in San Francisco, New York, and Paris on New Year's Day 1984 as a tribute to George Orwell's novel 1984.
Myung-Whun Chung (1953– ) was born in Seoul into a family of talented musicians. He made his piano debut at age seven with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and then moved with his family to the United States five years later. He studied piano at the Mannes School of Music and conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. He has served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, music director and principal conductor for the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrucken, Germany, and principal guest conductor of the Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy. He is now music director and conductor for the Opera de la Bastille, located in the legendary French prison.
Margaret Cho (1968– ) is a second-generation comedian who has broken barriers and stereotypes with her numerous television and film appearances. In 1994 Cho became the first Asian American to star in her own television show, the ABC-sitcom All-American Family, which centered on a Korean American family.
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
Herbert Y. C. Choy (1916– ) became the first Asian American to be appointed to the federal bench in 1971. Educated at the University of Hawaii and Harvard University, he practiced law in Honolulu for 25 years. He served as attorney general of the Territory of Hawaii in 1957 and 1958 and continued his law practice until President Richard Nixon appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Grace Lyu-Volckhausen comes from a family of female activists. Her mother and grandmother were members of organizations supporting women's needs in Korea. Moving to New York in the late 1950s to study international and human relations at New York University, Lyu-Volckhausen established an outreach center for women at a YWCA in Queens in the 1960s. The program now offers sewing classes, after-school recreation for children, counseling for battered women, and discussion groups. She has served on the New York City Commission on the Status of Women, on the Mayor's Ethnic Council, and on Governor Mario Cuomo's Garment Advisory Council. Still chairperson of her YWCA youth committee in the mid-1990s, she also worked with the New York mortgage agency to provide affordable housing for minorities.
INDUSTRY
Kim Hyung-Soon (1884-1968) immigrated to the United States in 1914 and started a small produce and nursery wholesale business in California with his friend Kim Ho. The Kim Brothers Company developed into a huge orchard, nursery, and fruitpacking shed business. Kim is credited with having developed new varieties of peaches known as "fuzzless peaches," or "Le Grand" and "Sun Grand." He also crossed the peach with the plum and developed the nectarine. Kim helped establish the Korean Community Center in Los Angeles and the Korean Foundation, a fund that offers scholarships to students of Korean ancestry.
LITERATURE
Younghill Kang (1903-1972) was one of the first Korean writers to offer Americans a firsthand, English-language account of growing up in occupied Korea. He wrote his first novel, The Grass Roof (1931), after spending many years struggling to survive as an immigrant living in San Francisco and New York. He later taught comparative literature at New York University and devoted the rest of his life to fighting racism in the United States and political oppression in his homeland.
Kim Young Ik (1920– ) is the author of several novels and stories for children and adults. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into many languages. They include The Happy Days (1960), The Divine Gourd (1962), Love in Winter (1962), Blue in the Seed (1964), and The Wedding Shoes (1984).
Marie G. Lee (1964– ) is at the forefront of the current boom in children's literature being written by and about Korean Americans. Raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, she graduated from Brown University and lives in New York City. She is the author of the young adult novel Finding My Voice (1992), which won the 1993 Friends of American Writers Award. Her other young adult novels include If It Hadn't Been for Yoon Jun (1993) and Saying Goodbye (1994). Her work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times and the Asian/Pacific American Journal, as well as several anthologies. She is president of the Board of Directors of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and a member of PEN and the Asian American Arts Alliance.
SPORTS AND MEDICINE
Dr. Sammy Lee (1920– ) has made a name for himself in both sports and medicine. He won the gold medal for ten-meter platform diving in the 1948 Olympic Games in London and again in the 1952 Games in Helsinki, along with a bronze medal in three-meter springboard diving. He received his M.D. in 1947 and practiced medicine in Korea as part of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Lee was named outstanding American athlete in 1953 by the Amateur Athletic Union and inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968. He served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 1971 to 1980 and coached the U.S. diving team for the 1960 and 1964 Olympics. He has also been named Outstanding American of Korean Ancestry twice—by the American Korean Society in 1967 and the League of Korean Americans in 1986. After retiring from sports, he ran a private practice in Orange, California, for many years.
M EDIA
Korean Culture.
Published quarterly by the Korean Cultural Center of the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles.
Contact: Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Editor in Chief.
Address: 5505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
Telephone: (323) 936-7141.
Fax: (323) 936-5712.
E-mail: kcc@pdc.net.
Korean Studies.
Journal addressing a broad range of topics through interdisciplinary and multicultural articles, book reviews and scholarly essays.
Contact: Edward J. Shultz, Editor.
Address: Journals Department, Hawaii 96822.
Telephone: (808) 956-8833.
Fax: (808) 988-6052.
E-mail: uhpjourn@hawaii.edu.
The New Korea.
A bilingual magazine published weekly for the Korean American community.
Contact: Woon-Ha Kim, Editor and Publisher.
Address: 141 South New Hampshire Avenue, California 90004-5805.
Telephone: (213) 382-9345.
Fax: (213) 382-1678.
The U.S.-Korea Review.
The bimonthly newsletter of the Korea Society, it is designed to improve the depth and breadth of information, news, and analysis in U.S.-Korea relations. It features chronologies of current affairs and trends in trade and business. It also includes literary excerpts and reviews.
Contact: David L. Kim, Editor.
Address: 412 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003.
Telephone: (202) 863-2963.
Fax: (202) 863-2965.
RADIO
FM-Seoul.
News programs broadcast in both Korean and English. Affiliated with Korean Times and KTAN-TV.
Address: 129 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90004.
Telephone: (213) 389-1000.
Fax: (213) 487-8206.
KBC-Radio.
Contact: Jung Hyun Chai.
Address: 42-22 27th Street, Long Island City, New York 11101.
Telephone: (718) 482-1111.
Fax: (718) 643-0479.
KBLA-AM (1580).
Korean broadcasts around the clock, seven days a week.
Contact: Ron Thompson.
Address: 1700 North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, California 90026.
Telephone: (213) 665-1580.
Fax: (213) 660-1507.
Korean-American Radio (AM 1400).
Contact: Mr. Chin P. Kim.
Address: 475 El Camino Real, Suite 202, Millbrae, California 94030.
Telephone: (415) 259-1400.
Fax: (415) 259-1401.
Radio Korea NY (AM 1480).
Contact: Byung Woo Kim.
Address: 44 East 32nd Street, New York, New York 10016.
Telephone: (212) 685-1480.
Fax: (212) 685-6947.
Radio Seoul (106.9 FM).
Contact: Ms. Rae Park.
Address: 1255 Post Street, Suite 315, San Francisco, California 94109.
Telephone: (415) 567-3585.
Fax: (415) 567-0909.
TELEVISION
KBC-TV (Channel 28).
Contact: Dave Kang.
Address: 5225 N. Kedzie Ave., #200, Chicago, Illinois 60625.
Telephone: (800) 236-0510; or (773) 588-0070.
Fax: (773) 588-8750.
Korean Broadcasting Corporation (Channel 53).
First East Coast television company owned and operated by Koreans.
Contact: Priscilla Ahn.
Address: 42-22 27th Street, Long Island City, New York 11101.
Telephone: (718) 426-5665.
Fax: (718) 937-0162.
Korean Cultural Television.
Contact: Seung Ho Ha.
Address: 111 West 30th Street, New York, New York 10001.
Telephone: (212) 971-0212.
Fax: (212) 629-0982.
KTAN-TV (Channel 62).
Diverse programming in Korean.
Contact: Ms. Kyung Chung.
Address: 4525 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90010.
Telephone: (213) 964-0101.
Fax: (213) 964-0102.
KTE-TV.
Exclusive distributor for Korean Broadcasting System's programming.
Contact: Mr. Cha Kon Kim.
Address: 625 South Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles, California 90005.
Telephone: (213) 382-6700.
Fax: (213) 382-4265.
O RGANIZATIONS AND A SSOCIATIONS
M. Y. Han at Duke University has an extensive list of links to Korean and Korean American interest websites ( http://www.duke.edu/~myhan/C_KAWWW.html ), including organizations and media.
Coalition for Korean American Voters, Inc.
Founded in 1991, this nonprofit, nonpartisan, volunteer organization promotes voter registration and education of Korean Americans in the New York City metropolitan area.
Contact: Johnny Im, Coordinator.
Address: 38 West 32nd Street, Suite 904, New York, New York 10002.
Telephone: (212) 967-8428.
Fax: (212) 967-8652.
The Korean American Coalition.
Founded in 1983, this organization seeks to bring together Korean communities within the United States through fundraising and educational programs. It also sponsors programs designed to educate non-Koreans about Korean culture. The Coalition publishes a monthly newsletter called the KAC Newsletter.
Contact: Charles J. Kim, Executive Director.
Address: 610 South Harvard Street, Suite 111, Los Angeles, California 90005.
Telephone: (213) 380-6175.
Fax: (213) 380-7990.
E-mail: kaclal983@aol.com.
Korean National Association (KNA).
Contact: Woon-Ha Kim, President.
Address: 141 South New Hampshire Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90004-5805.
Telephone: (213) 382-9345.
Fax: (213) 382-1678.
The Korea Society (U.S.-Korea Society).
The Korea Society is the result of the 1993 merger of the work and programs of the New York-based Korea Society and the U.S.-Korea Foundation based in Washington, D.C. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to strengthening the bonds of awareness, understanding, and cooperation between the United States and Korea, and among Koreans, Korean Americans, and all other Americans. The Society's efforts extend to education, public policy, business, the arts, and the media. Its Washington branch publishes The U.S.-Korea Review.
Contact: Ambassador Donald P. Gregg, President.
Address: 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York, New York 10022.
Telephone: (888) 355-7066; or (212) 759-7525.
Fax: (212) 759-7530.
E-mail: korea.ny@koreasociety.org.
Online: http://www.koreasociety.org .
National Association of Korean Americans (NAKA).
Individuals of Korean descent living in the United States. Seeks to safeguard the human and civil rights of Korean Americans; promotes friendly relations between Korean Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. Conducts educational programs.
Contact: John H. Kim, General Secretary.
Address: 276 Fifth Avenue, #806, New York, New York 10001.
Telephone: (212) 679-3482.
Fax: (212) 481-9569.
E-mail: nakausa@naka.org.
M USEUMS AND R ESEARCH C ENTERS
Many major universities have a "Centers for Korean Studies," including: Columbia University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Association for Korean Studies.
University professors and other scholars interested in the promotion of research in Korean studies. Sponsors six to eight seminars a year which are open to the public, featuring distinguished speakers. Presently inactive.
Contact: John Song, President.
Address: 30104 Avenue, Tranquila, Rancho Palos Verdes, California 90275.
Korean Cultural Center.
Founded in 1980, this cultural center offers programs that introduce Korean culture, society, history, and arts to the American public. It organizes exhibitions, lectures, symposiums, and multicultural festivals. The Center houses a 10,000-volume library and an art museum and gallery. Korean Culture Magazine is published by the Center.
Contact: Joon Ho Lee, Director.
Address: 5505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
Telephone: (213) 936-7141.
Fax: (213) 936-5172.
E-mail: KCCLA@PDC.NET.
Online: http://www.kccla.org/ .
The Korea Economic Institute of America.
Founded in 1982, this educational group includes politicians, academics, trade organizations, banks, and other Americans concerned with the Korean economy. The Institute publishes a quarterly update on economic issues in Korea.
Contact: W. Robert Warne, President.
Address: 1101 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 401, Washington, D.C. 20005.
Telephone: (202) 371-0690.
Fax: (202) 371-0692.
E-mail: rbw@keia.com.
Online: http://www.keia.com/ .
Korean Institute of Minnesota.
Founded in 1973, this nonprofit organization is dedicated to preserving Korean language and culture. It brings together Korean American and adoptive families with a variety of classes and social opportunities for all ages.
Contact: Yoonju Park, Director.
Address: 1794 Walnut Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55113.
Telephone: (612) 644-3251.
E-mail: lschulte@wavefront.com.
S OURCES FOR A DDITIONAL S TUDY
The Korean American Community: Present and Future, edited by Tae-Hwan Kwak and Seong Hyong Lee. Seoul: Kyungnam University Press, 1991.
Lehrer, Brian. The Korean Americans. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.
Mangiafico, Luciano. Contemporary American Immigrants: Patterns of Filipino, Korean, and Chinese Settlement in the United States. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988.
Patterson, Wayne. The Korean Frontier in America: Immigration to Hawaii, 1896-1910. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.
Patterson, Wayne, and Hyung-Chan Kim. Koreans in America. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1992.
The State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s, edited by Karin Aguilar-San Juan. Boston: South End Press, 1994.
Takaki, Ronald. From the Land of Morning Calm: The Koreans in America. Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff. New York: Chelsey House Publishers, 1994.
——. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown, 1989.
Won Moo Hurh. The Korean Americans. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Known to its people as Choson (Land of Morning Calm), Korea occupies a mountainous peninsula in eastern Asia. Stretching southward from Manchuria and Siberia for close to 600 miles (966 kilometers), it extends down to the Korea Strait. China lies to Korea's west, separated from the peninsula by the Yellow Sea. Japan lies to its east on the other side of the Sea of Japan.
Western societies have traditionally viewed the Korean peninsula as a remote region of the world. They have often referred to it as "The Hermit Kingdom" because it remained isolated from the western world until the nineteenth century. Yet it actually holds a central position on the globe, neighboring three major world powers—the former Soviet Union, China, and Japan.
At the end of World War II in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel into two zones of occupation—a Soviet controlled region in the north and an American controlled one in the south. In 1948, North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (the Republic of Korea) were officially established. North Korea is run by a Communist government, with Pyongyang as its capital city. South Korea's government is an emergent democracy, and Seoul—Korea's largest city—is its capital.
An estimated 67 million people live on the Korean peninsula, with a population of approximately 43.9 million in South Korea and another 23.1 million residing in North Korea. Together they are racially and linguistically homogeneous. They are the ethnic descendants of a Tungusic branch of the Ural-Altaic family. Their spoken language, Korean, is a Uralic language with similarities to Japanese, Mongolian, Hungarian, and Finnish.
EARLY HISTORY
In its 5,000-year history, Korea has suffered over 900 invasions from outside peoples. Accordingly, the Korean people have found it necessary to defend fiercely their identity as a separate culture. Tungusic tribes from the Altai mountain region in central Asia made the peninsula their home during the Neolithic period around 4000 B.C. These tribes brought with them primitive religious and cultural practices, such as the east Asian religion of shamanism. By the fourth century B.C. several wall-town states throughout the peninsula were large enough to be recognized by China. The most advanced of these, Old Choson, was located in the basin of the Liao and Taedong rivers, where Pyongyang is situated today. China invaded Choson in the third century B.C. and maintained a strong cultural influence over the peninsula for the next 400 years.
Historians commonly refer to the first period of recorded Korean history (53 B.C. -668 A.D. ) as the Period of the Three Kingdoms. These kingdoms were Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla. Toward the end of the seventh century A.D. Silla conquered Koguryo and Paekche and united the peninsula under the Silla dynasty. This period saw many advancements in literature, art, and science. Buddhism, which had reached Korea by way of China, was practiced by virtually all of Silla society. By the mid-eighth century the Silla people began using woodblock printing to reproduce sutras and Confucian writings.
In 900, the three kingdoms divided again. Within 36 years the Koguryo kingdom took control and its leader, General Wang Kon, established the Koryo dynasty. The word Korea comes from this dynastic name. During Koryo's 400-year reign, artistic, scientific, and literary achievements advanced further. Improving upon earlier Chinese printing methods, Korea became the first country in the world to use movable cast metal type in 1234. Medical knowledge also developed during the thirteenth century. Evolving out of local Korean folk remedies and Chinese practices, Korean medical science was recorded in books such as Emergency Remedies of Folk Medicine and Folk Remedies of Samhwaja.
Mongolian forces invaded Koryo in 1231 and occupied the kingdom until 1368. The Chinese Ming dynasty forced the Mongols back to the far north. This struggle eventually led to the fall of Koryo in 1392, when General Yi Song-Gye revolted against the king and founded the Yi dynasty. In control until the early twentieth century, it proved to be Korea's longest reigning dynasty and one of the most enduring regimes in history. The increasingly militant Buddhist state of the former Koryo dynasty yielded to the thinking of the new Choson kingdom, which was ruled by civilians who devotedly followed Confucian principles. Confucianism is not a religion but a philosophy of life and ethics that stresses an individual's sense of duty to family members and society as a whole. The Yi regime emphasized hierarchical relationships, with highest respect given to family elders, the monarch, and China as the older, more established country.
The Yi dynasty remained peaceful until 1592, when Japan invaded the peninsula. Chinese soldiers helped Korea seize control over its land from the Japanese armies. Japan attacked again in 1597, but Korea was able to force its withdrawal by the end of the year. Still, the country was left in tatters from the war. Korea suffered more attacks in 1627 and 1636, this time at the hands of the Manchus, who later conquered China. Western scientific, technological, and religious influences began to make their way to Korea during this period, by way of China. France, Great Britain, and the United States had already begun to dominate areas within China and other Asian countries. Calling Korea "The Hermit Kingdom" because of its closed-door policy toward non-Chinese foreigners, Western countries became interested in the peninsula in the nineteenth century.
In 1832 an English merchant ship landed off the coast of Chungchong province, and in 1846 three French warships landed in the same area. Eight years later two armed Russian ships sailed along the Hamgyong coast and killed a few Korean civilians before leaving the region. In 1866 the U.S.S. General Sherman sailed up the Taedong River to Pyongyang. The crew's goal of drawing up a trade agreement was thwarted by an enraged mob of Koreans who set fire to the ship, killing everyone aboard. Five U.S. warships appeared near the Korean island of Kanghwa the following year and also were fought off. Korean animosity toward Western countries stemmed largely from their awareness of China's troubles with these same nations, particularly Great Britain, which had devastated China during the First Opium War of 1839-1842. Despite Korean resistance, Japan forced the country to open to trade in 1876. In 1882 Korea reluctantly agreed to trade with the United States.
For two centuries China and Japan fought for control over Asia. China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) greatly weakened Chinese dominance. After this victory Japan invaded the Korean peninsula. Korean students from American-founded schools resented this invasion. These schools had become a place to learn about democracy and national liberation. The Japanese army despised the American missionaries who had established these schools but knew better than to confront citizens of the powerful U.S. government. Instead, they took advantage of Korean citizens and outlawed Korean customs. Korea turned to Russia for financial support and protection. What followed was a ten-year struggle between Russia and Japan for control over the Korean peninsula. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 ended in another Japanese victory. U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt mediated the treaty agreement and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in creating the Treaty of Portsmouth. Korea became a protectorate of Japan, and Japan officially annexed the country in 1910.
MODERN ERA
During its 35 years as a Japanese colony, Korea experienced major economic and social developments, such as soil improvement, updated methods of farming, and industrialization in the north. Japan modernized the country along Western lines, but Korea did not reap the benefits. Japan used half of the Korean rice crop for its own industry. Most Korean farmers were forced off their land. All Korean schools and temples were controlled by the Japanese. By the 1930s Koreans were forced to worship at Shinto shrines, speak Japanese in schools, and adopt Japanese names. Japan also prevented them from publishing Korean newspapers and organizing their own intellectual and political groups.
Thousands of Koreans participated in demonstrations against the Japanese government. These marches were mostly peaceful, but some led to violence. On March 1, 1919, a group of 33 prominent Koreans in Seoul issued a proclamation of independence. Close to 500,000 Koreans, including students, teachers, and members of religious groups, organized demonstrations in the streets, protesting against Japanese rule. This mass demonstration, which became known as the March First Movement, lasted two months until the Japanese government suppressed it and expanded the size of its police force in Korea by 10,000. According to conservative estimates from Japanese reports, the Japanese police killed 7,509 Koreans, wounded 15,961, and imprisoned another 46,948 in the process of quelling the movement.
Japan sided with Nazi Germany during World War II. The Japanese government put Koreans to work in munitions plants, airplane factories, and coal mines in Japan. Before the war, Korean nationalists living outside of the country (in Siberia, Manchuria, China, and the United States) organized independence efforts, often using guerrilla tactics against the Japanese. One of these nationalists residing in the United States, Syngman Rhee, went on to become the first president of South Korea. Another Korean who was making a name for himself as a rebel was Kim Song-Je. Born in 1912 near Pyongyang, Kim spent most of his childhood in Manchuria and took the pseudonym Kim Il Sung in 1930. He organized one of the first anti-Japanese guerrilla units in Antu, Manchuria, on April 25, 1932, and became North Korea's first president. North Koreans still celebrate April 25 as the founding date of the Korean People's Army.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, bringing the United States into World War II, the Korean provisional government created by such nationalists as Syngman Rhee finally had an opportunity to take a stand against Japan. On December 8, this provisional government declared war on Japan and formed the Restoration Army to fight alongside the Allies in the Pacific theater.
When Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945, ending the Japanese occupation of Korea, Koreans took to the streets in celebration of the end of 36 years under oppressive rule. But the freedom they expected did not follow. The Soviet Union immediately occupied Pyongyang, Hamhung, and other major northern cities. The United States followed by stationing troops in southern Korea. This division, which was supposed to have been a temporary measure, remained a source of turbulence and tragedy for Koreans at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
In the months that followed the end of World War II, postwar international decisions were made without the consent of the Korean people. The Soviet Union set up a provisional Communist government in northern Korea, and the United States created a provisional republican government in the South. In 1948 the Republic of Korea was founded south of the 38th Parallel, followed by the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north. Both governments claimed authority over the entire peninsula and tempted fate by crossing the border at various points along the 38th Parallel.
On June 25, 1950, North Korea launched a surprise attack on South Korea, beginning a costly, bloody, three-year struggle known as the Korean War. It was perhaps the most tragic period in modern history for the Korean people. In the end, neither side achieved victory. On July 27, 1953, in the town of Panmunjom, the two sides signed an armistice designating a cease-fire line along the 38th Parallel and establishing a surrounding 2.5-mile-wide (four-kilometer-wide) demilitarized zone, which remains the boundary between the two Koreas. The war left the peninsula a wasteland. An estimated four million soldiers were killed or wounded, and approximately 1 million civilians died.
Both Koreas moved swiftly to rebuild after the war and have emerged into modern, industrialized nations. North Korea, which was more industrialized than South Korea before the war, restored the production of goods to prewar levels within three years. North Korea's economy and industry suffered, however, as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union, one of its major trading partners. South Korea has evolved from a rural to post-industrial society since the 1960s. It has become an important exporter of products such as Hyundai cars, GoldStar televisions, and Samsung VCRs. In the late 1980s the United States was the second largest exporter to South Korea, after Japan. In 1989, South Korea was the seventh largest exporter country to the United States.
Kim Il Sung ruled as a Communist dictator in North Korea for more than four decades, until his death in July 1994. South Korea, on the other hand, has undergone several political upheavals since the Korean War. South Koreans have become increasingly dissatisfied with the U.S.-South Korea alliance and with the presence of U.S. troops in the country. Corruption in the government and the lack of free elections have caused many student uprisings. President Kim Young-Sam, who took office in February 1993, has instituted economic reforms and an aggressive anti-corruption campaign. As of 1995, it was too soon to tell if his programs would bring the country closer to a true democracy.
All measures introduced to reunify the Korean peninsula have ended in a stalemate. U.S. concern over North Korea's nuclear weapons program during the 1990s has threatened to increase tensions between the two Koreas. North Korea's refusal to allow full international inspection of its nuclear facilities brought the United States close to proposing a resolution for a United Nations economic embargo against North Korea in June 1994. Before sanctions were implemented, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter met with the North Korean government and reported back that the country would be willing to freeze all activity that produces fuel for nuclear weapons if Washington would initiate high-level talks. In the past, planned meetings between the two Korean governments have broken down. Officials were cautiously hopeful that this time would be different, until Kim Il Sung's death once again put negotiations between the two countries on hold. Reunification remains the most pressing issue on the minds of virtually all Koreans.
THE FIRST KOREANS IN AMERICA
The first recorded emigration of Koreans from their homeland occurred in the eighth century, when thousands moved to Japan. Korean communities also existed in China as early as the ninth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Yenpien section of Manchuria and the Maritime provinces of Russia became home to many Koreans escaping famine on the peninsula. Emigration was illegal in Korea, but by the end of the century, 23,000 Koreans were living in the Maritime provinces. Natural disasters, poverty, high taxes, and government oppression were given as their reasons for leaving. As Japanese control over the peninsula began to spread, so did Korean discontent. The United States became a refuge for a small number of Koreans at the end of the nineteenth century. Three Korean political refugees moved to America in 1885. Five more arrived in 1899 but were mistaken for Chinese. Between 1890-1905, 64 Koreans had traveled to Hawaii to attend Christian mission schools. Most of these students returned to Korea after completing their studies.
SIGNIFICANT IMMIGRATION WAVES
The first major wave of Korean immigrants to the United States began in 1903, when Hawaiian sugar plantation owners offered Koreans the opportunity to work on their plantations. By 1835 sugar had become the main crop produced on the Hawaiian Islands, largely due to the prolific yield of the Koloa Plantation on the island of Kauai. Initially the sugar planters hired native Hawaiians to work as contract laborers on the plantations. By 1850 the native population had declined, the laborers became increasingly dissatisfied with the hard work, and the demand for sugar continued to grow. The resulting labor shortage forced the planters to form the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society to recruit outside sources of labor. Hawaii was not yet a part of the United States, and contract labor was therefore still legal. In 1852, the first immigrant laborers arrived in Hawaii from China. By the time the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898, 50,000 Chinese immigrants lived in Hawaii. Low wages, long work days, and poor treatment caused many Chinese laborers to leave the plantations in order to find work in the cities. The sugar planters then began to recruit Japanese immigrants to supplement the work force on the plantations.
In 1900 Hawaii became an official U.S. territory, making it legal for the Chinese and Japanese workers to go on strike. Many of them did. America's Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited immigration of Chinese people to the United States. When Hawaii became a U.S. territory, Chinese workers were not allowed to immigrate to Hawaii. To offset another labor shortage and weaken the unions, Hawaiian sugar planters turned to Korea. In 1902 growers sent a representative to San Francisco to meet with Horace Allen, the American ambassador to Korea. Allen began recruiting Koreans to work on the plantations with the help of David William Deshler, an American businessman living in Korea. Deshler owned a steamship service that operated between Korea and Japan. The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association paid Deshler 55 dollars for each Korean recruited. The Deshler Bank, set up in the Korean seaside town of Inchon, provided loans of 100 dollars to each immigrant for transportation.
With conditions worsening in their homeland, the offer appealed to a great number of Koreans. They would be paid a monthly wage of 16 dollars; receive free housing, health care, and English lessons; and would enjoy a warmer climate. Newspaper advertisements and posters promoted Hawaii as paradise and America as a land of gold and dreams. Recruiters used the slogan Kaeguk chinch wi ("the country is open, go forward") to encourage potential recruits. American missionaries also helped persuade Koreans with stories of how life in the West would make them better Christians. Reverend George Heber Jones of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Inchon was one of the more well-known American preachers who encouraged Koreans to go to Hawaii.
In December 1902, 121 Koreans left their homeland aboard the U.S.S. Gaelic, and all but 19 of the recruits (who failed their medical examinations in Japan) arrived in Honolulu on January 13, 1903. This original group included 56 men, 21 women, and 25 children. Over 7,000 Korean immigrants joined them on the Hawaiian sugar plantations within two years. Most of these immigrants were bachelors or had left their families behind. They hoped to save their wages and return to Korea to share the wealth with their families. With the higher cost of living in Hawaii, only about 2,000 Koreans were able to return to Korea. By 1905 the Japanese government banned emigration from the peninsula because so many Koreans were leaving to avoid Japanese oppression.
The next wave of Korean immigration to the United States occurred when Japan issued the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907. This pact forbade further immigration of Japanese and Korean workers but included a clause that allowed wives to rejoin their husbands already in the United States. This law initiated the "picture bride" system, enabling immigrant men to have wives and families in America. Of the 7,296 Korean immigrants in Hawaii, only 613 of them were women. To improve the male/female ratio, Korean village matchmakers and the groom's family selected the women to contact. The men exchanged photographs with the prospective brides, and when a match was agreed upon, the groom's family would write the bride's name into the family register to legalize the union. The bride would then travel to the United States by boat and meet her new husband. Marriage ceremonies were often performed on the boat, so that the women could touch American soil as legal wives of the immigrants. Between 1910 and 1924, over 1,000 Korean picture brides came to the United States, mostly to Hawaii. These women were motivated to become picture brides by the opportunities for education and wealth they heard existed in America. Traditional Korean society placed many restrictions on women. Education, travel, and careers were not open to them at home.
The picture brides, however, did not find America paved with gold. Many discovered that their husbands were much older than they looked in the pictures. In fact, an alarming number of these women became widows at a very young age. They faced hard work and long hours, leaving little free time to learn English. In her introduction to Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989; p. 9), Sucheta Mazumdar recounts Anna Choi's description of her life in Hawaii as a picture bride: "I arose at four o'clock in the morning, and we took a truck to the sugar cane fields, eating breakfast on the way. Work in the sugar plantations was back breaking. It involved cutting canes, watering, and pulling out weeds.... The sugar cane fields were end less and twice the height of myself. Now that I look back, I thank goodness for the height for if I had seen how far the fields stretched I probably would have fainted from knowing how much work was ahead."
In the years between 1907 and World War II, a few Korean political refugees and students also came to the United States. Some were members of a secret Korean patriotic society called Sinmin-hoe (New People's Society). To escape persecution by the Japanese government, they crossed the Yalu River and took trains to Shanghai. From there, they made their way to America. By 1924, 541 Koreans living in America claimed to be political refugees. Among the political activists residing in the United States at this time were Ahn Chang Ho, Pak Yong-Man, and Syngman Rhee, the future first president of South Korea. Rhee immigrated to the United States as a student and earned a doctorate from Princeton University in 1910. He returned to Korea to organize a protest against the Japanese. He then came back to the United States to avoid arrest and remained there until the end of World War II. During his years in America, he founded one of the major Korean independence movements.
Korean emigration was discouraged by the South Korean government after World War II, and North Korea forbade any kind of emigration. Most of the Koreans who did immigrate to the United States after the war were women. The quota system created by the United States Office of Immigration in the 1940s allowed between 105 and 150 immigrants from each of the Asian nations into the country. This law favored immigrants with post-secondary education, technical training, and specialized skills. Most of the Koreans allowed to immigrate were women with nursing training. The War Brides Act of 1945 also helped women and children obtain papers to immigrate.
More women who had married American soldiers were allowed into the United States after the Korean War. By this time, Koreans and all Asians in America were able to acquire citizenship through naturalization as a result of the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. Foreign adoption of Korean babies also began at the end of the Korean War. The war had left thousands of children orphaned in Korea. Over 100,000 South Korean children have been adopted abroad since the war, and roughly two-thirds of these children have been adopted by American families. An estimated 10,000 Korean children have been adopted by Minnesota families alone. Criticized by other countries for running a "baby mill," the South Korean government began to phase out the practice in the 1990s. Although adopting children is traditionally frowned upon in Korean society, social workers are attempting to encourage domestic adoption.
RECENT IMMIGRATION
In 1965 the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act. The quota system was replaced with a preference system that gave priority to immigration applications from relatives of U.S. citizens and from professionals with skills needed by the United States. Thousands of South Korean doctors and nurses took advantage of the new law. They moved to America and took jobs in understaffed, inner-city hospitals. Koreans with science and technological backgrounds also were encouraged to immigrate. These new immigrants came from middle-class and upper-class families, unlike the earlier immigrants. The portion of the law informally known as the "Brothers and Sisters Act" has also been a factor in the dramatic increase in the Korean American population. In 1960, 10,000 Koreans were living in the United States. By 1985 the number had increased to 500,000. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce's 1990 Census of Population, 836,987 Korean Americans had settled in the United States. The 1991 Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service states that 26,518 Koreans were admitted to the United States in 1991, making up 1.5 percent of the total immigrants arriving in America that year.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
Virtually all of the first Koreans who immigrated to the United States settled in Hawaii and the West Coast. As Korean immigrants working on the Hawaiian sugar plantations became increasingly frustrated by the harsh conditions, they moved to cities and opened restaurants, vegetable stands, and small stores, or worked as carpenters and tailors. Some returned to Korea if they could save the money for transportation. Approximately 1,000 Korean plantation workers remigrated to the U.S. mainland by 1907. They settled in San Francisco or moved farther inland to Utah to work in the copper mines, to Colorado and Wyoming to work in the coal mines, and to Arizona to work on the railroads. Some Koreans moved as far north as Alaska and found jobs in the salmon fisheries. The majority of those who remigrated, however, settled in California.
Recent Korean immigrants have settled in concentrated areas around the country. In 1970 the highest percentage of Korean Americans lived in California, followed by Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington. In 1990 the U.S. Census reported 260,822 Korean Americans in California, 93,145 Korean immigrants in New York, 42,167 in Illinois, 38,087 in New Jersey, 35,281 in Texas, 32,918 in Washington, and 32,362 in Virginia. Maryland, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania each have over 25,000 Korean American residents. Every state has at least a small population of Korean Americans. Most Koreans who settle in the United States reside in large cities where jobs are available and Korean communities have been established. Koreatowns have developed in areas such as the Olympic Boulevard neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles, where over 150,000 Korean Americans live. The Flushing, Woodside, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods within the New York City borough of Queens also have substantial Korean American populations. Unlike the early immigrants, later immigrants generally traveled to America to take up permanent residence. Korean American professionals who can afford it have begun moving to the suburbs.
A CCULTURATION AND A SSIMILATION
Like all immigrants arriving in the United States, Koreans have had to make major adjustments to live in a country that is vastly different from their homeland. Coming from a traditional society greatly influenced by the Confucian principle of placing elders, family, and community before the individual, Korean immigrants struggle to make sense of the American concept of individual freedom. Since the first immigrants arrived in Hawaii, Korean Americans have preserved their identity by creating organizations, such as Korean Christian churches and Korean schools. The Korean word han, used to describe an anguished feeling of being far from what you want, accurately conveys the longing that accompanies most Koreans to America. Korean American organizations provide a sense of community for new immigrants and a way to alleviate this longing.
TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND BELIEFS
Korean immigrants bring with them a culture that incorporates aspects of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Western cultures. These influences have filtered into Korean society throughout its long history. Yet Koreans have also maintained native elements of their literature, art, music, and way of life. The result is a wonderful collage of elements, both foreign and indigenous to the peninsula. Korean Americans tend to maintain aspects of their culture, while also adopting elements of mainstream America.
LITERATURE, ART, AND MUSIC
Korean literature draws from Chinese and Japanese roots but has its own distinctive features. Poems, romances, and short stories represent only a portion of the breadth of the Korean literary tradition. This tradition includes both folk and highly advanced literary writings and works written in Chinese, as well as Korean. Korean poems, called hyangga, dating back to the sixth century, were written in Chinese characters. Hyangga were sung by Buddhist
Groups of immigrants often found themselves settling in neighborhoods together. These neighborhoods then took on characteristics of that particular group, as is shown here in Koreatown in New York.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art forms have many similarities, but Korea has also preserved its own creative elements in this field. Korean art is characterized by simple forms, subdued colors, humor, and natural images. Korea is known for its ceramics, especially the celadon. This highly sophisticated form of pottery was first introduced during the Koryo dynasty.
Korean music incorporates Confucian rituals, court music, Buddhist chants, and folk music. Ancient instruments used for court music include zithers, flutes, reed instruments, and percussion. Folk music, which usually includes dancing, is played with a chango (a drum shaped like an hourglass) and a loud trumpet-like oboe. P'ansori, stories first sung by wandering bards in the late Choson dynasty, are an early form of Korean folk music. Modern Korean composers often draw from Western classical music. Korean American musicians, like Jin Hi Kim, use traditional Korean elements in their compositions. Kim is a komungo harpist who came to the United States in her twenties. She incorporates traditional Korean musical styles with other non-Western styles. Kim is one of the leaders in the No World Improvisations movement, which promotes the performance and composition of new improvisational music.
SPORTS
Several sports native to Korea have become popular around the world. For instance, tae kwon do, a method of self-defense that originated in Korea more than 2,000 years ago, has now become a commonly taught form of karate in the United States. It involves more sharp, quick kicking than the Japanese style of karate. It was a demonstration sport in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The importance placed on family in Korean society is apparent from the way special events in family members' lives are celebrated. Traditionally parents—with the help of a marriage broker or gobetween—chose their children's marriage partners. The parents also planned and prepared the wedding ceremony. Female relatives spent days preparing special dishes for the wedding feast and making the wedding clothes. The picture bride system used to increase the population of Korean American females in Hawaii is one example of how this traditional system was maintained in America. While still common in rural areas of Korea, these customs are no longer standard practice in cities. Similarly, Korean Americans, who generally come from urban areas, usually allow their children to choose their own spouses. As members of Christian churches, most modern Korean Americans have Western-style wedding ceremonies and wear Western-style bridal gowns and formal suits. Another event that Koreans traditionally celebrate with great flourish is a baby's first birthday. The child is dressed in a traditional costume and seated amidst rice cakes, cookies, and fruits. Friends and relatives offer the child objects, each one symbolizing a different career. A pen represents a writing career, and a coin signifies a career in finance. The first object the child picks up is said to indicate his or her future profession.
PRESERVING TRADITION
Korean culture is maintained within Korean American communities through church organizations, Korean schools, and Korean-culture camps. Since the beginning of this century, Korean Protestant churches have offered classes in Korean culture and language. In 1990 an estimated 490 Korean-language schools operated in the United States. Approximately 31,000 students attend these schools, which are run by 3,700 teachers. Classes are held during the week and sometimes on the weekends. The April/May 1994 issue of The U.S.-Korea Review lists 19 summer Korean-culture camps across the country. Located predominantly in California, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York, these camps offer Korean American children, usually adoptees, an opportunity to learn about their heritage with other Korean American children.
CUISINE
Korean cooking is similar to other Asian cuisines. Like the Chinese and Japanese, Koreans eat with chopsticks. Common ingredients in Korean food, such as tofu, soy sauce, rice, and a wide variety of vegetables, are also staples in other far eastern cuisines. But Korean food is also distinct in many ways. It is often highly seasoned, including combinations of garlic, ginger, red or black pepper, scallions, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Blander grain dishes such as rice, barley, or noodles offset the heat of the spices. Red meat is scarce in both North and South Korea and typically is reserved for special occasions. Koreans do not usually designate certain foods as breakfast, lunch, or dinner dishes. A standard meal consists of rice, soup, kimchi (a spicy Korean pickle), vegetables, and broiled or grilled meat or fish. Fresh fruit is usually served at the end of a meal. Kimchi is considered the national dish and is served at virtually every meal. Made from cabbage, turnips, radishes, or cucumber, kimchi can be prepared many ways, from mild to very spicy. Korean cuisine includes many different kinds of namul (salads). A common type of namul is sukju namul, or bean sprout salad. Made with bean sprouts, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, black pepper, and other ingredients, it is easy to make and serve. A common soup served at breakfast is kamja guk (potato soup). It is often spiced with chopped onion and chunks of tofu. Koreans serve mandu (Korean dumplings) at winter celebrations. They are deep-fried wonton skins, usually filled with beef, cabbage, bean sprouts, onions, and other ingredients. Another common Korean dish is chap ch'ae (mixed vegetables with noodles). This popular stir-fry dish features cellophane noodles, which are made from mung beans and prepared with vegetables in a wok.
TRADITIONAL CLOTHING
Traditional Korean clothing is rarely worn in either the United States or in Korea on a daily basis. Modern Western-style clothes are standard attire in most of South Korea, with the exception of some rural areas. During holidays, however, Koreans in both the United States and Korea often wear traditional costumes. Women may wear a chi-ma (a long skirt, usually pleated and full) and cho-gori (a short jacket top worn over a skirt) during New Year's celebrations. Traditional attire for men includes long white overcoats and horsehair hats or colorful silk baggy trousers known as paji.
HOLIDAYS
Koreans in both the United States and Korea celebrate several important days throughout the year. Following Buddhist and Confucian traditions, Koreans begin the new year with an elaborate three-day celebration called Sol. Family members dress in traditional clothing and pay homage to the oldest members of the family. The festivities include several feasts, kite-flying, board games, and various rituals intended to ward off evil spirits.
The first full moon is also an ancient day of worship. Torches are kept burning all night, and often people set off firecrackers to scare away evil spirits. Yadu Nal (Shampoo Day) is celebrated on June 15. Families bathe in streams or waterfalls to protect them from fevers. Chusok (Thanksgiving Harvest) is celebrated in autumn to give thanks for the harvest. Kimchi is also prepared for the winter at this time. Other traditional holidays observed in many Korean American households include Buddha's birthday on April 8, Korean Memorial Day on June 6, Father's Day on June 15, Constitution Day in South Korea on July 17, and Korean National Foundation Day on October 3. Korean American Christians also observe major religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
PREJUDICE AND STEREOTYPES
Anti-Asian prejudice first erupted in the United States when Chinese and Japanese immigrants began arriving in the nineteenth century. Early Korean immigrants suffered discrimination but were not specifically targeted until they became a significant percentage of the population. Americans generally knew nothing about Korea when Koreans first came to the United States. What little information they could find was written by non-Asians and claimed Western superiority over Asian cultures. William Griffis' Corea: The Hermit Kingdom, Alexis Krausse's The Far East, and Isabella Bird Bishop's Korea and Her Neighbors are examples of books that perpetuated the myth of Western superiority. American writer Jack London was also responsible for giving Americans
Many different ethnic groups display their pride in their diversity through annual parades.
Anti-Asian sentiments grew during the early twentieth century when San Francisco workers accused Koreans, along with Japanese and Chinese immigrants, of stealing jobs because the immigrants would work for lower wages. Restaurants refused to serve Asian customers, and Asians were often forced to sit in segregated corners of movie theaters. Violent white gangs harassed Korean Americans in California, and the government did nothing to help the victims. In fact, California laws in the first few decades of the twentieth century supported anti-Asian attitudes. Asian students were banned from attending public schools in white districts in 1906. The 1913 Webb-Heney Land Law prohibited Asians from owning property, and the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924 banned all Asian immigration to the United States for close to 30 years.
Korean Americans continue to be discriminated against in the job market, often receiving lower pay and having fewer opportunities for promotion than non-Asian co-workers. The view of Korean Americans as "super immigrants" has also caused discord. Korean American success stories in business and education have led to resentment from outside groups. These stories are often exaggerated. Rumors that the U.S. government gives Korean immigrants money when they arrive are untrue. Only refugees receive aid from the U.S. government, and very few Korean immigrants qualify as refugees. Also, statistics that show the mean income of Korean American families to be higher than that of the general public are misleading because most Korean Americans live in large cities where the cost of living is much higher. These stereotypes have led to boycotts of Korean greengrocers in Brooklyn, Chicago, and elsewhere. In the April 1992 Los Angeles uprising that followed the verdict in the trial of African American assault victim Rodney King's attackers, black rioters targeted Korean grocers, destroying countless Korean American businesses. Korean immigrants refer to this tragic episode as the Sa-i-kup'ok-dong (April 28 riots). Korean Americans have come to represent wealth, greed, materialism, and arrogance because they have started businesses in inner-city neighborhoods that have been abandoned by corporations. The people still living in these neighborhoods often use the Korean small businessperson as a scapegoat for their anger against corporate America. Organizations such as the Korea Society in New York and the Korean Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles have begun to address these issues.
HEALTH ISSUES
Korean Americans hold a prominent position in the field of medical science. The proportionally large number of Korean American doctors and nurses attest to this fact. Data on the status of the health of Korean Americans is limited. Asian Americans in general have a longer life expectancy than Americans as a whole. Job-related stress and other factors have contributed to mental health problems within the Korean American community. Most Korean Americans receive health insurance through their employers. New immigrants and the elderly, however, often do not have access to medical care because of language barriers. Organizations such as the Korean Health Education Information and Referral in Los Angeles address this problem.
L ANGUAGE
Virtually every citizen in North and South Korea is an ethnic Korean and speaks Korean. Spoken for over 5,000 years, the Korean language was first written in the mid-fifteenth century when King Sejong invented the phonetically-based alphabet known as hangul ("the great writing"). The King created the alphabet so that all Korean people, not just the aristocracy who knew Chinese characters, could learn to read and write. As a result both North and South Korea have among the highest literacy rates in the world.
While most second- and third-generation Korean immigrants speak English exclusively, new immigrants often know little or no English. As time goes by, they begin to learn necessary English phrases. The earliest Korean immigrants in Hawaii learned a form of English known as pidgin English, which incorporated phrases in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese—all languages spoken by the different ethnic groups working on the plantations. Learning English is crucial for new immigrants who hope to become successful members of the larger American community. Yet most Korean American parents also hope to preserve their heritage by sending their American-born children to Korean-language schools.
Several American universities offer undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in Korean language and Korean studies. These universities include Brigham Young University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and the University of Washington, Seattle.
GREETINGS AND OTHER COMMON EXPRESSIONS
The following greetings are translated phonetically from the hangul alphabet according to the McCune-Reischauer System of Romanization: Annyonghasipnigga —Hello (formal greeting); Yoboseyo —Hello (informal greeting); Annyonghi kasipsio —Good-bye (staying); Annyonghi kyeshipsio —Good-bye (leaving); Put'akhamnida —Please; Komapsumnida — Thank you; Ch'onmaneyo —You're welcome; Sillyehamnida —Excuse me; Ye —Yes; Aniyo —No; Sehae e pok mani padu sipsiyo! —Happy New Year!; Man sei !—Hurrah! Long live our country! Ten thousand years!; Kuh reh !—That is so! True!
F AMILY AND C OMMUNITY D YNAMICS
Historically, the family-kinship system was an extremely integral part of Korean society. The male head of a household played a dominant role, as did the oldest members of the family. Parents practiced control over their children's lives, arranging their marriages and choosing their careers. The eldest son was responsible for taking care of parents in their old age. Inheritances also went to the son. These systems have changed in modern Korea, particularly in cities, but the family remains very important to Koreans in
The basic Korean alphabet
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Because of the well-defined familial structure in Korean society, Koreans traditionally rely less on public assistance. Receiving welfare is often considered to be disgraceful. Family support, however, began to break down in the 1980s and 1990s. Larger numbers of recent Korean immigrants, particularly the elderly, are in need of assistance. Organizations within the Korean community have begun to address this problem. The Korean Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles offers numerous programs and activities for children and their families who have recently immigrated or are economically disadvantaged. Services include employment assistance and placement, family and youth counseling, and education and tutorial programs.
MARRIAGE
In Korean American communities, the marriage bond has in some ways become stronger than filial piety. While honoring one's parents remains important, physical distance and cultural barriers between Korean Americans and their parents have shifted priorities. Korean Americans are less likely to have arranged marriages than their ancestors, because marrying outside of the Korean community has also become increasingly common. Recent surveys show that Korean American women in college are expressing a preference for mates from other ethnic groups.
Traditionally Koreans have frowned upon divorce. Even with the marriages arranged through the picture bride system in Hawaii, few ended in divorce. Recent statistics suggest that the stigma against divorce no longer exists. The divorce rate among Korean Americans has reached and is possibly surpassing the national average. Exhaustion due to working extremely long hours in order to survive contributes to failed marriages. Women in particular suffer from stress. They often work long hours in garment factories or managing small businesses and are also responsible for running their households. Again, Korean American community organizations attempt to address these problems in order to make life in America more fulfilling.
EDUCATION
Koreans have always valued education, and Korean Americans place a strong emphasis on academic achievement. Employment in the civil service, which required passing extremely difficult qualifying examinations, was considered to be the most successful career path to take. Koreans take great pride in their educational achievements. Recent immigrants are strongly motivated to perform well in school and come to the United States better educated than the general population in Korea. Korean American parents pressure their children to perform well. In 1980, 78.1 percent of Korean Americans over the age of 25 had at least a high school education, compared with 66.5 percent of Americans overall. While 33.7 percent of Korean Americans had four or more years of college education, only 16.2 percent of the general U.S. population did.
Korean society gives priority to the education of males. Many of the Korean women who chose to come to the United States as picture brides hoped to find more educational opportunities than they were offered in their home country. In the United States, the bias in favor of educating males persists. Of all Korean American males over 25, 90 percent were high school graduates in 1980. Only 70.6 percent of Korean American women had high school educations. In 1980, 52.4 percent of Korean American males had attended four or more years of college, compared with 22 percent of Korean American females. It is a common stereotype that Korean Americans excel in math and science. Although this is often true, they tend to perform well in all subjects.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN
Korean husbands traditionally work outside the home, while their wives take full-time responsibility for the children and household. Living in a modern industrialized nation, South Korean women do have full-time jobs today, especially in urban areas. Still, the majority of full-time female employees in South Korea are unmarried. In the United States, economic needs often require both parents to work. Running the household, however, usually remains solely the responsibility of the woman. Second-, third-, and fourth-generation Korean American women face conflicts between traditional familial values and mainstream American culture. These women have more opportunities than their mothers and grandmothers. Some of them have careers as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and businesswomen, but most have behind-the-scenes positions or are clerks, typists, and cashiers. Korean American women, like American women in general, are still discriminated against in the job market. Korean immigrant women often come to the United States with professional skills but are forced to work in garment factories or as store clerks because of the language barrier.
The view that Korean American women are passive also persists. Contrary to popular perceptions, Korean American women have a long history of political activism. Unfortunately their work has gone largely unrecorded. Korean female immigrants played a significant role in organizing protests against Japanese occupation both in Korea and America. They established organizations like the Korean Women's Patriotic League, wrote for Korean newspapers, and raised $200,000 for the cause by working on plantations, doing needlework, and selling candies. They also participated in labor strikes on the Hawaiian plantations. Korean American women of the 1990s joined other Asian American women in fighting unfair work practices in the hotel, garment, and food-packaging industries. Korean American women also participate fully in efforts to reunify Korea.
R ELIGION
Throughout Korea's long history, religion has played a prominent role in the lives of the its citizens. A variety of faiths have been practiced on the peninsula, the most common being shamanism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
Shamanism, the country's oldest religion, involves the worship of nature; the sun, mountains, rocks, and trees each hold sacred positions. Based on a belief in good and evil spirits that can only be appeased by priests or medicine men called shamans, early shamanism incorporated pottery making and dances such as the muchon, which was performed as part of a ceremony to worship the heavens.
China brought Buddhism to Korea sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries A.D. This religion, based on the teachings of the ancient Indian philosopher Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), has as its premise that suffering in life is inherent and that one can be freed from it by mental and moral self-purification.
Christianity first reached Korea in the seventeenth century, again by way of China where Portuguese missionaries came to promote Catholicism. American Protestant missionaries arrived in Korea in the nineteenth century. The Korean government persecuted these missionaries because the laws of Christianity went against Confucian social order. By the mid-1990s, the majority of South Koreans were still Buddhists, but an estimated 30 percent of the population practiced some type of Christianity.
CHRISTIANITY
Of the original 7,000 Korean immigrants in the United States, only 400 were Christian. Those 400 immediately formed congregations in Hawaii, and by 1918 close to 40 percent of the Korean immigrants had converted to Christianity. Koreans immigrants relied heavily on their churches as community centers. After Sunday service, immigrants spoke Korean, socialized, discussed problems of immigrant life, and organized political rallies for Korean independence. The churches also served as educational centers, providing classes in writing and reading Korean. They remain an integral part of the Korean immigrant community. In 1990 there were an estimated 2,000 Korean Protestant churches in the United States. Most Korean Protestants are evangelical Christians, who study the Bible extensively and follow the word of the gospel closely. In large cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, Korean Protestants have their own buildings and hold several services a week. The Oriental Mission Church and Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles are two of the largest Korean Protestant churches in America with 5,000 members each. Most Koreans in the United States today practice Protestantism.
Over two million Catholics live in South Korea. The Korean American Catholic Community was established by Korean immigrants in the 1960s. The first Korean Catholic center opened in Orange County, California, in 1977. As of 1995, an estimated 35,000 Korean Americans practiced Catholicism. Most Korean American Catholic parishes are part of larger American Catholic parishes.
There are about 100 Korean American Catholic communities in the United States, most of which are headed by priests from Korea, who usually serve four-year periods. Many speak little English and are perceived as being ignorant of contemporary American life, insensitive to the problems of Korean Americans, and more loyal to the their dioceses in Korea than to their Korean American congregations. Some have been accused of having affairs with married women and of financial misdealing. To address these problems by providing a forum for open discussion of them, Korean immigrant Kye Song Lee founded the newspaper Catholic 21 in 1996. He felt that the two official Catholic newspapers for Koreans—both published in Korea—did not adequately address the problems. Catholic 21 has been controversial since its inception, with some welcoming its perspective and others labeling it divise, offensive, and even anti-Catholic.
BUDDHISM
Although Buddhism has undergone many upheavals on the Korean peninsula, nearly 14 million South Koreans practice Buddhism today. A Buddhist monk named Soh Kyongbo founded Korean Buddhism in the United States in 1964. Most Korean American Buddhists belong to the Chogye sect. Prominent Buddhist organizations in the United States include the Zen Lotus Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Korean Buddhist Temple Association, the Young Buddhist Union in Los Angeles, the Buddhists Concerned with Social Justice and World Peace, the Western Buddhist Monk's Association, the Southern California Buddhist Temples Association, and several Son and Dharma centers across the country. According to the Korean Buddhist Temple Association's reports, there were 60 temples in the United States and Canada in 1990. The Young Buddhist Union holds an annual arts festival where Buddhist monks dance, sing, read Son poetry, and perform comedy sketches, plays, and piano recitals. Still, Buddhism has not become widespread in the United States and is often viewed as a cult.
E MPLOYMENT AND E CONOMIC T RADITIONS
Early Korean immigrants living on the West Coast were restricted from many types of employment. Discriminatory laws prohibited Asian immigrants from applying for citizenship, which meant that they were ineligible for positions in most professional fields. They took jobs with low pay and little advancement potential, working as busboys, waiters, gardeners, janitors, and domestic help in cities. Outside the cities, they worked on farms and in railroad "gangs." Many Korean immigrants opened restaurants, laundries, barbershops, grocery stores, tobacco shops, bakeries, and other retail shops. With the changes in immigration laws after World War II, Korean immigrants have been able to move into more professional fields such as medicine, dentistry, architecture, and science. Recent immigrants, those who have come to America since 1965, are mostly college-educated, with professional skills. The language barrier, however, often prevents new immigrants from finding jobs within their fields. Korean doctors often work as orderlies and nurses' assistants. In 1978, only 35 percent of Korean teachers, administrators, and other professionals were working in their respective fields in Los Angeles.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: 1980 Report, the average Korean American household income was $22,500, which was higher than the average household income for Americans overall ($20,300). However, Korean Americans have, on the average, more persons living in each household and, as noted earlier, tend to live in urban areas where the cost of living is higher. The same report indicates that 13.1 percent of Korean American families had incomes below the poverty level, which is higher than the 9.6 percent reported for the total U.S. population. Asian American adults have lower unemployment rates than the U.S. adult population overall. In 1980 the U.S. Census Bureau also reported that 24 percent of Korean Americans age 16 or older held managerial or professional positions; 26 percent had technical, sales, or administrative jobs; 16 percent worked in service fields; nine percent held precision production, crafts, or repair jobs; 19 percent were laborers or operators; and six percent were unemployed.
SMALL BUSINESSES
Out of economic need, large numbers of recent Korean immigrants start their own businesses. Most of these immigrants did not run small businesses in Korea. In 1977, 33 percent of Korean American families owned small businesses, such as vegetable stands, grocery stores, service stations, and liquor stores. As a whole, they have a high success rate. In the 1980s an estimated 95 percent of all dry-cleaning stores in Chicago were owned by Korean immigrants. By 1990, 15,500 Korean-owned stores were in operation in New York City alone. Since then, a recession and internal competition has slowed the growth. New Korean immigrants are opening businesses in cities other than New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, where the competition is less fierce.
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS
Support within Korean communities has contributed to the success of small businesses. Recent immigrants still use the ancient Korean loan system, based on the kye, a sum of money shared by a group of business owners. A new grocer, for instance, will be allowed to use the money for one year and keep the profits. The kye is then passed to the next person who needs it. Organizations like the Korean Produce Association in New York and the Koryo Village Center in Oakland, California, are another source of support for new immigrants hoping to set up their own businesses.
P OLITICS AND G OVERNMENT
Koreans have a general distrust of central governments. Historically, individual citizens have had little power in Korea and have suffered through scores of tragic episodes at the hands of other governments controlling the peninsula. As a result, most Korean immigrants come to America unaccustomed to participation in the democratic process. Discriminatory laws against Asian Americans on the West Coast have contributed to this distrust. Korean American communities have traditionally isolated themselves, relying on their family and neighborhood networks. Korean American participation in these grass-roots organizations and in U.S. government politics in general is growing and evolving slowly.
GRASS-ROOTS ORGANIZATIONS
From the church meetings on Hawaiian plantations in the early 1900s to the efforts of the Black-Korean Alliance in the 1990s, Korean immigrants have created settings to voice their opinions. Racial tensions within Korean American communities have led to the establishment of several grass-roots organizations. The Black-Korean Alliance in Los Angeles and the Korea Society in New York have set up programs to educate the two ethnic groups about each other's cultures. In 1993, the Korea Society launched its Kids to Korea program. Designed to improve the strained relationship between the Korean and African American communities, the program enabled 16 African American high school students from New York City and Los Angeles to travel to South Korea in order to learn about its people, culture, and history. This successful program has been expanded to include students from other cities. The Korea Society also sponsors a program called Project Bridge in Washington, D.C., which offers classes in both Korean and African American cultures.
UNION ACTIVITY
While research experts have studied extensively the economic development and work patterns of Korean American professionals and entrepreneurs, the general American public knows little about Korean immigrant laborers. Yet since the beginning of the twentieth century, American industries have employed Koreans. By the 1990s, Korean Americans had begun to join forces with other Asian Americans to educate themselves about labor unions and their rights. Founded in 1983, the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) organizes Chinese and Vietnamese garment workers and Korean hotel maids and electronics assemblers in the Oakland, California area. They have staged demonstrations and rallies to draw attention to the unfair labor practices within the garment, hotel management, and electronics industries. The Korean Immigrant Worker Advocates (KIWA) in Los Angeles is another group that is bringing labor issues to the forefront. The KIWA is unique among Asian American organizations in Los Angeles because most of the members of its board of directors are workers themselves.
VOTING PATTERNS
Studies have shown that voter participation among Korean Americans is low. Historically, Korean immigrants have rarely been active in election campaigns and have seldom made financial contributions to individual candidates. Groups such as the Coalition for Korean American Voters (CKAV) in New York are working hard to address this problem. In just three years CKAV has registered 3,000 voters and sponsored programs that educate Korean immigrants about local and national government. The Coalition's efforts include airing public service announcements on Korean American television channels, establishing a college internship program to foster community service and leadership skills in students, and joining forces with other Asian American organizations to increase Asian American involvement in government.
MILITARY PARTICIPATION
In his book Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, Ronald Takaki describes the plight of a Korean immigrant named Easurk Emsen Charr. He was drafted and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. Afterward he argued in court that as a U.S. military veteran, he should be entitled to citizenship and the opportunity to own land in California. The court ruled that the military should not have drafted him because he was Asian and therefore ineligible for American citizenship. Despite such discriminatory treatment, Korean Americans were eager to volunteer for military service during World War II. Doing so gave them a chance to support the American effort to curtail Japanese imperialism. Some Korean Americans served as language teachers and translators, and 100 Korean immigrants joined the California Home Guard in Los Angeles. They also participated in Red Cross relief operations. The American government, however, was somewhat suspicious of Korean-immigrant support because Koreans were technically still part of the Japanese empire. In Hawaii, Korean immigrants were referred to as "enemy aliens" and banned from working on military bases. Today, many Korean American men and women hold positions in the military.
INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS OF KOREAN PENINSULA
Since Koreans first began immigrating to the United States, they have remained active in the politics of their homeland. Studies have shown that Korean Americans are generally more actively involved in the politics of Korea than in that of their new home. The lives of early Korean immigrants revolved around the Korean independence movement. In the 1960s Korean Americans staged mass demonstrations and relief efforts in response to the massacre of civilians by the South Korean dictatorship in Kwangju, the capital of South Cholla province. Today virtually every Korean American organization supports reunification of the peninsula. Groups such as the Korea Church Coalition for Peace, Justice, and Reunification were formed specifically for this purpose. Other American-based organizations, including the Council for Democracy in Korea, seek to educate the public about the political affairs of Korea.
I NDIVIDUAL AND G ROUP C ONTRIBUTIONS
EDUCATION
Margaret K. Pai (1916–) taught English at Kailua, Roosevelt, and Farrington high schools on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for many years. Her father, Do In Kwon, immigrated to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations in the early 1900s. Her mother, Hee Kyung Lee, was a picture bride and met and married her husband in Hawaii at age 18. Since retiring, Margaret Pai has been writing short Hawaiian legends, poems, and personal reminiscences, including The Dreams of Two Yi-Men (1989), a vivid account of her parents' experiences as early Korean immigrants in America.
Elaine H. Kim (1943– ) is a professor of Asian American studies and faculty assistant for the status of women at the University of California-Berkeley. Kim is also president of the Association for Asian American Studies and founder of the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates and Asian Women United of California. She is the author of Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and their Social Context.
FILM, VIDEO, TELEVISION, THEATER, AND MUSIC
Peter Hyun (1906– ) worked in the American theater for many years. He was a stage manager for Eva LeGallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York, director of the Children's Theatre of the New York Federal Theater, and organizer and director of the Studio Players in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During World War II, he served as a language specialist in the U.S. Army. After settling in Oxnard, California, he taught English to immigrant students from Asia. He is the author of Man Sei!: The Making of a Korean American (1986), a personal account of growing up as the son of a leader in the Korean independence movement.
Nam June Paik (1932– ) has built a worldwide reputation as a composer of electronic music and producer of avant-garde "action concerts." He grew up in Seoul and earned a degree in aesthetics at the University of Tokyo before meeting American composer John Cage in Germany. His interest in American electronic music brought him to the United States. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Kitchen Museum, all in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Among his video credits are TV Buddha (1974) and Video Fish (1975). He also produced a program called Good Morning, Mr. Orwell, which was broadcast live simultaneously in San Francisco, New York, and Paris on New Year's Day 1984 as a tribute to George Orwell's novel 1984.
Myung-Whun Chung (1953– ) was born in Seoul into a family of talented musicians. He made his piano debut at age seven with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and then moved with his family to the United States five years later. He studied piano at the Mannes School of Music and conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. He has served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, music director and principal conductor for the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Saarbrucken, Germany, and principal guest conductor of the Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy. He is now music director and conductor for the Opera de la Bastille, located in the legendary French prison.
Margaret Cho (1968– ) is a second-generation comedian who has broken barriers and stereotypes with her numerous television and film appearances. In 1994 Cho became the first Asian American to star in her own television show, the ABC-sitcom All-American Family, which centered on a Korean American family.
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY ACTIVISM
Herbert Y. C. Choy (1916– ) became the first Asian American to be appointed to the federal bench in 1971. Educated at the University of Hawaii and Harvard University, he practiced law in Honolulu for 25 years. He served as attorney general of the Territory of Hawaii in 1957 and 1958 and continued his law practice until President Richard Nixon appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Grace Lyu-Volckhausen comes from a family of female activists. Her mother and grandmother were members of organizations supporting women's needs in Korea. Moving to New York in the late 1950s to study international and human relations at New York University, Lyu-Volckhausen established an outreach center for women at a YWCA in Queens in the 1960s. The program now offers sewing classes, after-school recreation for children, counseling for battered women, and discussion groups. She has served on the New York City Commission on the Status of Women, on the Mayor's Ethnic Council, and on Governor Mario Cuomo's Garment Advisory Council. Still chairperson of her YWCA youth committee in the mid-1990s, she also worked with the New York mortgage agency to provide affordable housing for minorities.
INDUSTRY
Kim Hyung-Soon (1884-1968) immigrated to the United States in 1914 and started a small produce and nursery wholesale business in California with his friend Kim Ho. The Kim Brothers Company developed into a huge orchard, nursery, and fruitpacking shed business. Kim is credited with having developed new varieties of peaches known as "fuzzless peaches," or "Le Grand" and "Sun Grand." He also crossed the peach with the plum and developed the nectarine. Kim helped establish the Korean Community Center in Los Angeles and the Korean Foundation, a fund that offers scholarships to students of Korean ancestry.
LITERATURE
Younghill Kang (1903-1972) was one of the first Korean writers to offer Americans a firsthand, English-language account of growing up in occupied Korea. He wrote his first novel, The Grass Roof (1931), after spending many years struggling to survive as an immigrant living in San Francisco and New York. He later taught comparative literature at New York University and devoted the rest of his life to fighting racism in the United States and political oppression in his homeland.
Kim Young Ik (1920– ) is the author of several novels and stories for children and adults. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into many languages. They include The Happy Days (1960), The Divine Gourd (1962), Love in Winter (1962), Blue in the Seed (1964), and The Wedding Shoes (1984).
Marie G. Lee (1964– ) is at the forefront of the current boom in children's literature being written by and about Korean Americans. Raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, she graduated from Brown University and lives in New York City. She is the author of the young adult novel Finding My Voice (1992), which won the 1993 Friends of American Writers Award. Her other young adult novels include If It Hadn't Been for Yoon Jun (1993) and Saying Goodbye (1994). Her work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times and the Asian/Pacific American Journal, as well as several anthologies. She is president of the Board of Directors of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and a member of PEN and the Asian American Arts Alliance.
SPORTS AND MEDICINE
Dr. Sammy Lee (1920– ) has made a name for himself in both sports and medicine. He won the gold medal for ten-meter platform diving in the 1948 Olympic Games in London and again in the 1952 Games in Helsinki, along with a bronze medal in three-meter springboard diving. He received his M.D. in 1947 and practiced medicine in Korea as part of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Lee was named outstanding American athlete in 1953 by the Amateur Athletic Union and inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968. He served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 1971 to 1980 and coached the U.S. diving team for the 1960 and 1964 Olympics. He has also been named Outstanding American of Korean Ancestry twice—by the American Korean Society in 1967 and the League of Korean Americans in 1986. After retiring from sports, he ran a private practice in Orange, California, for many years.
M EDIA
Korean Culture.
Published quarterly by the Korean Cultural Center of the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles.
Contact: Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Editor in Chief.
Address: 5505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
Telephone: (323) 936-7141.
Fax: (323) 936-5712.
E-mail: kcc@pdc.net.
Korean Studies.
Journal addressing a broad range of topics through interdisciplinary and multicultural articles, book reviews and scholarly essays.
Contact: Edward J. Shultz, Editor.
Address: Journals Department, Hawaii 96822.
Telephone: (808) 956-8833.
Fax: (808) 988-6052.
E-mail: uhpjourn@hawaii.edu.
The New Korea.
A bilingual magazine published weekly for the Korean American community.
Contact: Woon-Ha Kim, Editor and Publisher.
Address: 141 South New Hampshire Avenue, California 90004-5805.
Telephone: (213) 382-9345.
Fax: (213) 382-1678.
The U.S.-Korea Review.
The bimonthly newsletter of the Korea Society, it is designed to improve the depth and breadth of information, news, and analysis in U.S.-Korea relations. It features chronologies of current affairs and trends in trade and business. It also includes literary excerpts and reviews.
Contact: David L. Kim, Editor.
Address: 412 First Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003.
Telephone: (202) 863-2963.
Fax: (202) 863-2965.
RADIO
FM-Seoul.
News programs broadcast in both Korean and English. Affiliated with Korean Times and KTAN-TV.
Address: 129 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90004.
Telephone: (213) 389-1000.
Fax: (213) 487-8206.
KBC-Radio.
Contact: Jung Hyun Chai.
Address: 42-22 27th Street, Long Island City, New York 11101.
Telephone: (718) 482-1111.
Fax: (718) 643-0479.
KBLA-AM (1580).
Korean broadcasts around the clock, seven days a week.
Contact: Ron Thompson.
Address: 1700 North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, California 90026.
Telephone: (213) 665-1580.
Fax: (213) 660-1507.
Korean-American Radio (AM 1400).
Contact: Mr. Chin P. Kim.
Address: 475 El Camino Real, Suite 202, Millbrae, California 94030.
Telephone: (415) 259-1400.
Fax: (415) 259-1401.
Radio Korea NY (AM 1480).
Contact: Byung Woo Kim.
Address: 44 East 32nd Street, New York, New York 10016.
Telephone: (212) 685-1480.
Fax: (212) 685-6947.
Radio Seoul (106.9 FM).
Contact: Ms. Rae Park.
Address: 1255 Post Street, Suite 315, San Francisco, California 94109.
Telephone: (415) 567-3585.
Fax: (415) 567-0909.
TELEVISION
KBC-TV (Channel 28).
Contact: Dave Kang.
Address: 5225 N. Kedzie Ave., #200, Chicago, Illinois 60625.
Telephone: (800) 236-0510; or (773) 588-0070.
Fax: (773) 588-8750.
Korean Broadcasting Corporation (Channel 53).
First East Coast television company owned and operated by Koreans.
Contact: Priscilla Ahn.
Address: 42-22 27th Street, Long Island City, New York 11101.
Telephone: (718) 426-5665.
Fax: (718) 937-0162.
Korean Cultural Television.
Contact: Seung Ho Ha.
Address: 111 West 30th Street, New York, New York 10001.
Telephone: (212) 971-0212.
Fax: (212) 629-0982.
KTAN-TV (Channel 62).
Diverse programming in Korean.
Contact: Ms. Kyung Chung.
Address: 4525 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90010.
Telephone: (213) 964-0101.
Fax: (213) 964-0102.
KTE-TV.
Exclusive distributor for Korean Broadcasting System's programming.
Contact: Mr. Cha Kon Kim.
Address: 625 South Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles, California 90005.
Telephone: (213) 382-6700.
Fax: (213) 382-4265.
O RGANIZATIONS AND A SSOCIATIONS
M. Y. Han at Duke University has an extensive list of links to Korean and Korean American interest websites ( http://www.duke.edu/~myhan/C_KAWWW.html ), including organizations and media.
Coalition for Korean American Voters, Inc.
Founded in 1991, this nonprofit, nonpartisan, volunteer organization promotes voter registration and education of Korean Americans in the New York City metropolitan area.
Contact: Johnny Im, Coordinator.
Address: 38 West 32nd Street, Suite 904, New York, New York 10002.
Telephone: (212) 967-8428.
Fax: (212) 967-8652.
The Korean American Coalition.
Founded in 1983, this organization seeks to bring together Korean communities within the United States through fundraising and educational programs. It also sponsors programs designed to educate non-Koreans about Korean culture. The Coalition publishes a monthly newsletter called the KAC Newsletter.
Contact: Charles J. Kim, Executive Director.
Address: 610 South Harvard Street, Suite 111, Los Angeles, California 90005.
Telephone: (213) 380-6175.
Fax: (213) 380-7990.
E-mail: kaclal983@aol.com.
Korean National Association (KNA).
Contact: Woon-Ha Kim, President.
Address: 141 South New Hampshire Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90004-5805.
Telephone: (213) 382-9345.
Fax: (213) 382-1678.
The Korea Society (U.S.-Korea Society).
The Korea Society is the result of the 1993 merger of the work and programs of the New York-based Korea Society and the U.S.-Korea Foundation based in Washington, D.C. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to strengthening the bonds of awareness, understanding, and cooperation between the United States and Korea, and among Koreans, Korean Americans, and all other Americans. The Society's efforts extend to education, public policy, business, the arts, and the media. Its Washington branch publishes The U.S.-Korea Review.
Contact: Ambassador Donald P. Gregg, President.
Address: 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York, New York 10022.
Telephone: (888) 355-7066; or (212) 759-7525.
Fax: (212) 759-7530.
E-mail: korea.ny@koreasociety.org.
Online: http://www.koreasociety.org .
National Association of Korean Americans (NAKA).
Individuals of Korean descent living in the United States. Seeks to safeguard the human and civil rights of Korean Americans; promotes friendly relations between Korean Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. Conducts educational programs.
Contact: John H. Kim, General Secretary.
Address: 276 Fifth Avenue, #806, New York, New York 10001.
Telephone: (212) 679-3482.
Fax: (212) 481-9569.
E-mail: nakausa@naka.org.
M USEUMS AND R ESEARCH C ENTERS
Many major universities have a "Centers for Korean Studies," including: Columbia University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Association for Korean Studies.
University professors and other scholars interested in the promotion of research in Korean studies. Sponsors six to eight seminars a year which are open to the public, featuring distinguished speakers. Presently inactive.
Contact: John Song, President.
Address: 30104 Avenue, Tranquila, Rancho Palos Verdes, California 90275.
Korean Cultural Center.
Founded in 1980, this cultural center offers programs that introduce Korean culture, society, history, and arts to the American public. It organizes exhibitions, lectures, symposiums, and multicultural festivals. The Center houses a 10,000-volume library and an art museum and gallery. Korean Culture Magazine is published by the Center.
Contact: Joon Ho Lee, Director.
Address: 5505 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
Telephone: (213) 936-7141.
Fax: (213) 936-5172.
E-mail: KCCLA@PDC.NET.
Online: http://www.kccla.org/ .
The Korea Economic Institute of America.
Founded in 1982, this educational group includes politicians, academics, trade organizations, banks, and other Americans concerned with the Korean economy. The Institute publishes a quarterly update on economic issues in Korea.
Contact: W. Robert Warne, President.
Address: 1101 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 401, Washington, D.C. 20005.
Telephone: (202) 371-0690.
Fax: (202) 371-0692.
E-mail: rbw@keia.com.
Online: http://www.keia.com/ .
Korean Institute of Minnesota.
Founded in 1973, this nonprofit organization is dedicated to preserving Korean language and culture. It brings together Korean American and adoptive families with a variety of classes and social opportunities for all ages.
Contact: Yoonju Park, Director.
Address: 1794 Walnut Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55113.
Telephone: (612) 644-3251.
E-mail: lschulte@wavefront.com.
S OURCES FOR A DDITIONAL S TUDY
The Korean American Community: Present and Future, edited by Tae-Hwan Kwak and Seong Hyong Lee. Seoul: Kyungnam University Press, 1991.
Lehrer, Brian. The Korean Americans. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.
Mangiafico, Luciano. Contemporary American Immigrants: Patterns of Filipino, Korean, and Chinese Settlement in the United States. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988.
Patterson, Wayne. The Korean Frontier in America: Immigration to Hawaii, 1896-1910. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.
Patterson, Wayne, and Hyung-Chan Kim. Koreans in America. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1992.
The State of Asian America: Activism and Resistance in the 1990s, edited by Karin Aguilar-San Juan. Boston: South End Press, 1994.
Takaki, Ronald. From the Land of Morning Calm: The Koreans in America. Adapted by Rebecca Stefoff. New York: Chelsey House Publishers, 1994.
——. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Boston: Little, Brown, 1989.
Won Moo Hurh. The Korean Americans. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
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