Read this to begin understanding, how ‘some’ Korean people think about the ‘other Koreans’. Recently chatted with a Korean on FB, and thought that she was a German adoptee since there were somethings on her FB page in German. After she cleared that up she made the claim that “I am 100% Korean”. Some would say “really Korean”, or “Pure Korean”. I asked her about “Ethnically pure Korean Adoptees, and millions of emigrants that have left Korea. “Oh, they are not Real Korean any more”. Sigh! From JoongAng Daily:
Koreans abroad are still Korean - INSIDE JoongAng Daily
Sept. 21, 2009
“One of the characters in “Take Off,” a film that has attracted nearly 8 million moviegoers so far, is a Korean American called Bob. He happened to be a member of Korea’s national ski jump team when he came to Korea to look for his biological mother.
(This is baffling, how could he become a member of the team? Was he adopted, if he was looking for his biological mother, then he would be a citizen of the USA. Hmmm?)
But Heon-tae, which is his Korean name, cannot recite even the first part of the national anthem. Naturally, he fought with his teammates, who called him “a Yankee.”
It is not a story limited to the big screens. SK Wyverns Manager Kim Sung-geun, who is Korean-Japanese, faced similar challenges when he first visited Korea as a member of a student baseball team made up of Korean residents in Japan on Aug. 7, 1959.
In a collection of recently published autobiographical essays “Bringing up the last to the first,” he recalls that he used a Japanese name, Kanebayashi Seikong, in his childhood and did not know that he had a Korean name until he came to Korea. At first he could not understand Korean but appreciated the warm smiles of female Korean students. He was fascinated by the taste of bulgogi and was captivated by the beauty of actress Kim Ji-mi, who starred in “Tragedy is Over.” He was moved to see the emotional scene of tearful meetings between his colleagues and their long-separated relatives in Korea when the latter visited the former at their quarters.
Of course, not all things went smoothly. When a ball thrown by the pitcher of the Korean residents’ team hit the head of Park Young-gil, the cleanup man of Kyongnam High School, the spectators jeered at them yelling, “Jap! Go home.” He said to himself, “How can they call us Japs? Don’t they know that we lead painful lives and are discriminated against in Japan because we are Korean? Don’t they know how difficult it is to organize a team of Korean residents in Japan?” Even after he was picked up as a member of the Korean national baseball team, the backbiting and calling him a “Jap” didn’t stop.
Even now the majority of “Real 100% Koreans” would agree with this point and “unreal Koreans” had better remember this fact.
The creed of keeping the purity of the “homogeneous race” has not yet waned. The leader of the boy band 2PM, Park Jae Beom, had to fly back to his hometown of Seattle because of a complaint about Korea he had posted on a Web site four years ago.
I put Park’s name ‘in Red’ for as some of you know names ‘written in red’ means someone is dead. Park Jae Beom is considered ‘dead’ to the majority of the thousands of fans who turned on him after a post on MySpace was discovered and put onto the internet. Another famous case was another Korean-American, Steve Yoo Seung-Joon, who made it as a singer then lied about joining the military, rushed back to swear in as a USA citizen. Koreans (those who consider themselves 100% Korean) still call him a traitor. Just google his name. There are many sports stars who choose to change their citizenship to avoid the draft and serve in the military.
The fact that he is a Korean-American who is exempt from military service in Korea is probably an additional reason that fanned antipathy toward him (Park Jae Beom). People poured a barrage of criticism against him, claiming that he should go home immediately.
I wonder whether the criticism that he was not familiar with the Korean way of life four years ago was why he wrote “I hate Koreans” on a Web site. What memory will he have of his homeland now that it has sent him away for committing a small mistake? Won’t the Republic of Korea be remembered a heartless country to other young people of Korean heritage overseas? As of today, the number of Koreans overseas amounts to 6.82 million.
The writer is the content director at JES Entertainment.
By Song Weon-seop
Korean War Baby comments:
One cannot blame the Korean students and fans for their feelings. They try to accept the Diaspora of 6.82 million Other Koreans who are living outside, but they will always be “Almost Korean” ONLY. Oh, they accept them as singers, actors, entertainers, but expect them to adapt to THEM. Cross them and you’ll find yourself kicked out on the next flight.
How about you fellow “100% genetically pure Korean Adoptees”, have you felt that you were accepted as Korean? Are you like us Half-Breed, HonHyolAh, Tuigi, ‘wanna be Korean’ adoptees who find out you will NEVER be call “100% Korean”? Send the Korean War Baby your reunion experience, tell him if you want names *redated**** or what.
What is a Korean? Many different shades, Hmmmm.
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