Jennie Jieun Lee
Being Korean American has been the longest journey of my life. It started off as self-hatred and turned into the biggest way to love myself…I started coming out of my cocoon and stopped poisoning myself.
Chang-Rae Lee
I lean towards the Korean culture the way a plant has a certain tropism towards the sun; but it’s not the only resource.
Most of the time, I feel fully American because I don’t walk around looking at myself. Although the instances are rare, it’s surprising when people react to me as if they’re seeing a foreigner.
The Korea that I know is the Korea my parents brought over in 1968, which doesn’t exist anymore. Their sense of value, culture and self were hermetically sealed and brought with them in boxes. Dai Sil Kim-Gibson …I feel homeless both in America and Korea. I believe the idea that the place of our births as the center of our universe is being dismantled, especially in our century of mass migration. The onyl way we can claim home again is to make every corner of the earth our home and think of ourselves as human beings…
— Snippets from artist CYJO’s (Cindy Hwang) Kyopo Project, a compilation of Kyopos (ethnic Koreans living outside of Korea) and their stories.
