Protected: My Son said Mom Instead of Umma
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Tag: Korean
Go Away With … Grace Park
Born in the United States to Korean parents and raised in Canada — where she calls Vancouver home — Grace Park got the travel bug early. Though concurrent roles on “The Cleaner” and “Battlestar Galactica” — as well as the Canadian series “The Border” — preclude her from taking as many vacations as she’d like, Park says visiting new countries is one of the joys in life she shares with her husband, Phil Kim. India and Brazil hold special places in Park’s heart, but her favorite destination thus far is Italy’s quaint Vernazza.
Min Jin Lee: Former attorney takes on class distinction in ‘Free Food’
With her first novel, “Free Food for Millionaires,” Min Jin Lee has won the praise of literary critics. Though 562 pages, the book is a true page-turner, with a Korean-American protagonist and a compelling plot involving the universal clash of cultures, adultery and class distinction.
Asian stars are rising — Latest TV breakthroughs look like the real deal
We live in a time when the media tell us who we are. What “Lost” has done is tell the world what Asians aren’t. We aren’t all martial arts experts. We aren’t all college educated and over-employed. We’re not always the model minority. We don’t all own dry-cleaning businesses. And just as importantly, we’re not all nice.
Cho ‘Notorious’ for unstereotypical laughs
Over the past few years, Margaret Cho has grown comfortable with herself–a funny, whip-smart comic who doesn’t fit any of the glorified stereotypes of what an Asian American woman should be. She doesn’t play the violin. She doesn’t figure skate. She’s not good at math. She never wanted to be an anchorwoman. And if she knows how to make sushi or give a good back rub, she’s not telling.
Margaret Cho: “I’m the One That I Want”
In her one-woman show “I’m the One That I Want,” Margaret Cho recalls how getting her own sitcom in the mid-1990s signified acceptance to her–for the first time in her life. What she didn’t realize then was that acceptance came with a price.
Beyond Asian stereotypes
“Chink-a-Chink-a Chinaman sitting on a fence; Trying to make a dollar out of 59 cents.” My parents were mortified when their 5-year-old daughter came home from school singing this chant. My friends and I had learned to jump rope to this song from older kids who thought it would be fun to teach a bunch of kindergartners a thing or two. At the time, I had about as much concept of what a “Chink” was as I did the actual value of 59 cents. But I was too young to see past my parents’ forced smiles.
“A Cab Called Reliable” by Patti Kim
Patti Kim shows the eloquent anguish of an abandoned child in her debut novel, A Cab Called Reliable (St. Martin’s, 156 pp., $18.95 . Her story is told through the eyes of 9-year-old Ahn Joo Cho, a Korean immigrant whose life changes forever when she sees her mother and little brother drive off in a cab. Without her. The last thing she remembers seeing is the word “reliable” on the car door.
Jehsah (제사)
I was almost 5 years old when my family moved from Seoul, South Korea, to Chicago. Language barrier aside, I couldn’t figure out why some of my new pals were so excited about the arrival of an old man they didn’t know, who would slide down chimneys that some of them didn’t have, to drop off presents under decorated trees in their living rooms. Couldn’t this Santa person just use the door like everyone else?
Sooyoung Park, 26, Musician
Sooyoung Park’s theory is there’s a time and place for everything. When he majored in math in college, he didn’t worry that school was holding back his music career. And when Seam’s singer-songwriter-guitarist felt ready to tackle music full time, he put grad school on hold.