Posted by Shadow Guide on Feb 23, 2010 in On Diverse & Global Books, On Korean Books & Culture | Comments Off on On the Path
Years and years ago, I asked a dear friend what I should read to get a true picture of the history of his people, the Lakota. He recommended
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.It’s more than twenty years later and I still haven’t read that book. Why not? Fear. Fear of knowing something unbearable.
I’ve tried to live up to a standard I’ve given myself: If they can bear to live through it, the least I can do is dare to listen to the story. But sometimes I fail to meet my own standards.
That’s the place to start on this path, the place where I duck, flinch, shrink or cower. Where I feel defensive. Where I resist. Where I have a thousand explanations, justifications, arguments and rationalizations.
The process of liberation from conditioned responses to race (or any other aspect of living and relating) is a path, not a destination. The first step can be paying attention. Discovering where I am, where the patterns I’ve learned are limiting my life (lots of tools for this coming up in the next few weeks). Looking at what I don’t want to see, what I can’t bear to feel.
The next step is to make one move, into the discomfort.
Pick up a copy of the book and read it.
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Posted by Shadow Guide on Oct 2, 2009 in On Diverse & Global Books, On Korean Books & Culture, On Other Resources for Educators | 4 comments
This is the fifth and final installation of my list of recommended books on Korean subjects.
Contemporary Koreans & Korean-Americans
Free Food for Millionaires by Min-jin Lee
Life in hip NYC with a modern 22-year-old Korean-American feminist struggling with jobs, money and love.
Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters by Annie Choi
Witty, poignant memoir about mother-daughter conflict in a Korean-American family in LA.
Once the Shore: Stories by Paul Yoon
Beautifully crafted short story collection of families on a fictional Korean island, from the Japanese occupation to contemporary times.
Once They Hear My Name: Korean Adoptees and Their Journeys Toward Identity by Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert, and Mary Anne Hess
Riveting, honest narratives from nine adoptees who grew up in white families.
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee
A richly detailed novel about a 28-year-old man working as a private spy in NYC, with vivid accounts of immigrant struggles and Korean-American life.
Over the Shoulder, Underkill, and Fade to Clear by Leonard Chang
Three noir novels with a disaffected Korean-American protagonist named Allen Choice (from Choi), wrestling with identity issues while investigating crimes.
Somebody’s Daughter by Marie Myung-ok Lee
A 20-year-old adoptee drops out of college to undertake a difficult journey to Korea where she tries to learn Korean, look for her birth family, and find herself.
Stop Me if You’ve Heard This Before by David Yoo
Teenage angst novel about a high school student who’s gotten used to being a loser until he develops a relationship with a popular girl.
Modern History
The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim
Just-released coming-of-age novel of a young girl born at the beginning of the Japanese occupation, beautifully crafted with memorable characters.
Traditional Korea
Everlasting Empire by Yi In-Hwa
Bestseller Korean historical novel in English translation, of late Chosun Dynasty court intrigue and mystery.
The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
Parallel and interwoven narratives of an English scholar at a modern-day academic conference in Seoul and 18th-century Crown Princess Hyegyong, whose memoir the scholar reads.
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Posted by Shadow Guide on Oct 2, 2009 in On Diverse & Global Books, On Korean Books & Culture, On Other Resources for Educators | Comments Off on Books on Korean Subjects – Ages 12-16
Contemporary Koreans & Korean-Americans
Everything Asian: A Novel by Sung J. Woo
Just-released novel of a young Korean boy new to the U.S.; charming, funny and moving depiction of the immigrant experience.
Girls For Breakfast by David Yoo
Funny, edgy story of a boy who’s the only Asian in his Connecticut high school.
Good Enough by Paula Yoo (sister of David, above)
Humorous romance novel about a teenage girl who plays violin and may not be quite the academic over-achiever her parents expect.
Necessary Roughness by Marie G. Lee
High school football player struggling to fit in when his family moves from LA to Minnesota, clashing with his more traditional father, surviving loss and finding his way.
Wait for Me by An Na
Beautifully written novel of a high schooler’s difficult coming of age, caught between a bitter demanding mother and her own desires, alternating with passages in the voice of her younger, deaf sister.
Modern History
Year of Impossible Goodbyes; Echoes of the White Giraffe; and Gathering of Pearls by Sook Nyul Choi
Trio of poignant novels about a North Korean girl and her family – forced to flee to the south as refugees, surviving the war, and traveling to the U.S. to study, based on the author’s own experience.
Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood by Richard Kim
Seven vivid scenes describing a childhood under the Japanese occupation, beautifully written.
Traditional Korea
The Color of Earth, The Color of Water, and The Color of Heaven by Kim Dong Hwa
Three gorgeous Korean graphic novels in English translation, about a young girl coming of age in a traditional Korean village, based on the author’s mother’s story.
Posted by Shadow Guide on Sep 15, 2009 in On Events & Presentations , On Korean Books & Culture | 2 comments
This year I once again spent a week of August at a Korean culture camp, Camp Sejong in New Jersey (more about camp in a later blog), as the Creative Writing teacher.
In preparation for camp, I compiled a list of recommended books that camp kids and their families could order. I’ll be presenting it here in five parts over the next few days, from picture books to adult literature.
I chose highly recommended books which were still in print and easily available, limited the entire list to no more than 50 books, and focused on books that weren’t as widely known (other books by Linda Sue Park, for instance, rather than her best-known, Newbery Award-winning
A Single Shard, which is often read in schools). There are a few that I haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading, but all that I included have strong reviews.
I’d love to hear comments and other recommendations.
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Posted by Shadow Guide on Jun 27, 2009 in On Korean Books & Culture | 3 comments
Since we arrived in Seoul in 1960, I’ve been drawn to the folk art of Korea with its bold design, brilliant colors, fantastical creatures, and whimsical humor. I filled up on such images this trip.
Dragons, angels and dog-like hae-tae at Buddhist temples; cranes, turtles, deer and other long-life symbols on embroidered screens and clothing; the um-yang (yin-yang) symbol on gates – all delight the eye and feed the soul.
Perhaps the symbolic meaning that these images convey, even subconsciously, explains the power of their charm.
One of my best finds was a book, Korean Patterns, with photographs by Jae-sik Suh, from a wonderful bookstore, Seoul Selections, which carries a wide selection of English-language books about Korea. Looking at the pictures in it makes me happy. It will provide an ongoing source of nourishment until the next time I return to Korea.
Photographs by Joshua Keough
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Posted by Shadow Guide on Jun 26, 2009 in Author's Korean Connections, On Korean Books & Culture, On Race & Culture | Comments Off on Reunion
Forty years ago this summer, between my junior and senior years of high school, our family and our Korean colleagues embarked on an extraordinary adventure.
Carpenters and cooks, nurses and nurses’ aides, and visiting doctors and volunteers, both Korean and foreign, together built a
community health project directed by my father on
Kojedo, a
remote rural island off the southern coast. The model we developed there influenced the design of South Korea’s rural health care delivery system.
The boldness and difficulty of what we attempted forged deep and abiding relationships, like those of war buddies.
I spent the year after high school and a year and a half after college as a volunteer with the project. My social peers were the nurses’ aides, island girls who were trained to deliver basic public health care to the subsistence-level farmers and fishermen of their villages.
In addition to creating posters for health education, my assistant Kun-sun and I ran the Mu-ji-gae Tabang (Rainbow Tearoom), where the aides gathered on their breaks for a snack of instant coffee and homemade cookies.
Last week, thirty-two years since I left Kojedo, I returned (with my daughter, Yunhee, and her fiance, Josh) for three days of reunions with former staff members, including many of the nurses’ aides. What a joy it was to see their faces again, unchanged despite our transformation from unmarried girls into middle-aged mothers, wives and professional women.
The island itself has been trans-formed by the presence of two of the world’s largest shipyards. Unpaved roads and walking paths among villages with straw- and tile-roofed houses have been replaced with a network of highways connecting busy towns and cities with clusters of high-rise apartments. The peninsula site of our project has returned to nature and is preserved as a city park, with a monument to my father and a soaring bridge connecting to the island across the channel.
But the island still has fresh air and ocean breezes; gorgeous vistas along a shoreline of steep hills, inlets and bays; fresh seafood cooked in spicy broths; and lovely people speaking the island dialect, warmly welcoming us home.
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