Korean and Korean American Life Writing in Hawai'i

From the Land of the Morning Calm to Hawai'i Nei

Heui-Yung Park

Korean and Korean American Life Writing in Hawai'i examines such self-representing genres as lyric poems, oral history, autobiography, and memoirs written by Korean and Korean Americans from the early twentieth century to the present, in order to explore how these people have shaped their individual or collective identities. Their representations, produced in different periods by successive generations, reveal how Koreans in their diaspora to Hawai‘i came to terms with their ethnic and local selves, and also how the sense of who and what they are changed over the years, both within and beyond the initial generation.
Looking into their individual and collective identities in lyric poems, oral history, autobiography, and memoirs reveals how the earliest arrivals, their children, and their grandchildren have come to terms with their national, ethnic, and local selves, and how their sense of identity changes over the course of time, both within and beyond the initial generation. In the lyric poems found in Korean-language periodicals of the native-born generation, we can trace the significance of the motherland and Hawai‘i for these writers’ sense of identity. The oral histories of first-generation women, most of whom arrived as picture brides, also represent another “us”: often vulnerable Koreans who define themselves in relation to both the present culture and to Korean men. The self developed by the second-, third-, and in-between-generation Koreans diversifies because their identity is not defined exclusively by their ancestral land, extending to Hawai‘i and to America.
This study focuses on three main areas of emphasis: Hawai‘i; Korean language and culture; and life writing. By tracing how identity changes with each generation, this study reveals how identity formation for Hawai‘i diasporic Koreans has evolved.

Lexington Books

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-0767-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $121.00 • (£93.00)

978-1-4985-0768-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $115.00 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Asian / General, Literary Criticism / American / Asian American, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies

Korean and Korean American Life Writing in Hawai'i

From the Land of the Morning Calm to Hawai'i Nei

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Korean and Korean American Life Writing in Hawai'i examines such self-representing genres as lyric poems, oral history, autobiography, and memoirs written by Korean and Korean Americans from the early twentieth century to the present, in order to explore how these people have shaped their individual or collective identities. Their representations, produced in different periods by successive generations, reveal how Koreans in their diaspora to Hawai‘i came to terms with their ethnic and local selves, and also how the sense of who and what they are changed over the years, both within and beyond the initial generation.
Looking into their individual and collective identities in lyric poems, oral history, autobiography, and memoirs reveals how the earliest arrivals, their children, and their grandchildren have come to terms with their national, ethnic, and local selves, and how their sense of identity changes over the course of time, both within and beyond the initial generation. In the lyric poems found in Korean-language periodicals of the native-born generation, we can trace the significance of the motherland and Hawai‘i for these writers’ sense of identity. The oral histories of first-generation women, most of whom arrived as picture brides, also represent another “us”: often vulnerable Koreans who define themselves in relation to both the present culture and to Korean men. The self developed by the second-, third-, and in-between-generation Koreans diversifies because their identity is not defined exclusively by their ancestral land, extending to Hawai‘i and to America.
This study focuses on three main areas of emphasis: Hawai‘i; Korean language and culture; and life writing. By tracing how identity changes with each generation, this study reveals how identity formation for Hawai‘i diasporic Koreans has evolved.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 196 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-4985-0767-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $121.00 • (£93.00)

978-1-4985-0768-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $115.00 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Asian / General, Literary Criticism / American / Asian American, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies

Author

Heui-Yung Park is assistant professor in English at Kyungil University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I: Diasporic Selves of the First-generation Korean Immigrants to Hawai‘i
Chapter One:Early Korean Immigrant Selves in the Ethnic Periodicals
Chapter Two: Ethnic and Female Selves of the Korean Women Pioneers

PART II: Where Have I Come from?: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Place
Chapter Three: Peter Hyun’s Man Sei! and In the New World
Chapter Four: Margaret K. Pai’s The Dreams of Two Yi-min
Chapter Five: Oral Histories of Hawai‘i Second-generation Korean Americans
Chapter Six: Yobo: Korean American Writing in Hawai‘i
6.1 Victoria Sung Hye Chai Cintrón
6.2 David Hyun
6.3 Daisy Chun Rhodes

PART III: Third-Generation Diasporic Koreans and Homecoming
Chapter Seven: Glenda Hinchey Chung
Chapter Eight: Cathy Song
Chapter Nine: Brenda L. Kwon
Chapter Ten: Gary Pak
Chapter Eleven: Nora Keller

Epilogue: Continuing Generations and New Arrivals

Bibliography

Reviews

These life writing texts are meticulously assembled and attended to with utmost deftness, and Park’s book nevertheless lends itself as an excellent resource and entry into the study of Korean diaspora.
— Biography