I've become quite cynical of the Korean-Canadian community at the moment
When I think of them, I can't help but associate them with having worst of both worlds.
If Koreans are known to be one-track minded yet ambitious, while Canada is more open-minded yet middling - Korean Canadians seem to have be doomed with mediocrity because of its myopia.
I've tried time and again to fit in with them, but perhaps to the detriment of my mental health. If any of this comes off as too negative, well you are free to stop reading.
But what shall I make of this culture that has no true ties with either Canada or Korea. They are a group without a significant history, who recognize only the plight of their parents and nothing before that, nothing that surrounded that. Their roots are shallow.
Little do they know about the history of Korea or Canada.
Little do they care about the history of Korea or Canada.
Instead, they inebriate themselves with limited cultures, with unreasoned religion and pop culture. Demonstrating zero passions towards all else.
I can only say this so clearly because I've been there. Completely. Tried to immerse myself in this too.
There can be a good side, I guess you can say they are especially demonstrative and affectionate with each other. Strong ties are created. Yet at the same time, this bond seems to demand a price - and the price is independence. What's left is conformity and strong punishments for outliers. Perhaps this is why certain Koreans just feel so alienated.
A person I know just recently dyed his hair, and he was completely obsessed with how the others would react to it. He thought the whole church would judge him. He fretted about while we tried to console him. Having two people respond in a not positive way on his facebook - he freaked out and dyed his hair back.
While he was doing this, I couldn't help but think - what is he doing? Why does he care so much? The whole 'well if you don't like it, it's your loss' mentality was lost on him. It was of utmost importance what the group thought...
My favourite quote has been "Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity, what it gains in intensity.
-Albert Camus"
I don't know if it was intended to be, but I see it with an open-ended view.
Lucidity or intensity are caught within a balancing act, and with Korean Canadians - well there's a lot of intensity there, that's all I can say.
I can only look upon it with regret. Especially comparing it to the South Asian community. Those who come with it have a strong linkage to their past and a strong linkage to whichever society they come to inhabit.
As Sen pointed out, there are writers for the Toronto Star which highlight the South Asian community's successes. There are numerous Indian politicians, such as Navdeep Bains. I can recall that the UW International Health Development Agency was started by South Asians. The South Asian events at Waterloo are wonderful - they partake in Indian dances. I look towards Koreans and I can tell you they would never be caught dead doing Korean dances. It's all about hip hop and break-dancing, perhaps some Britney type pop. Ok, there was a Korean politician - Ben Chin, former newscaster. And that was exciting for me. But these things are just too few and far between.
Sometimes I think perhaps this is because of our past circumstances - many people came here from lower middle-class families, simply looking to get a job, and so perhaps there was just a deficit of information for proper community building, while many Indians have come with their well-to-do families and abundance of ties as well as tools to build communities.
Or perhaps it was Korea's long-standing dictatorship that just flushed out political impulses among the common people, while India has had a democracy, fostering the political - whether it marry itself to the arts and what not.
Maybe it's like the Japanese thing. So quick to throw away what is ours. The pro-Westerners have won, having us succeed economically, but at the cost of a deep and thriving living culture.
I know I've come down perhaps a bit too harsh on 'my people', but it was only because I expected so much from them. I loved them, like I loved myself.
"Don't cry for me South Korea
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance
Have I said too much?
There's nothing more I can think of to say to you
But all you have to do is look at me
To know that every word is true"
2 comments:
Korea has a deep and rich history Jane. The problem is 99.9 percent of humans don't care about the past. that 0.1% that do care are enough to perserve, what you see as a dying culture being transformed by Western idiology.
Don't hate your Korean comrades, because they have lost touch with the old ways, but be proud of who you are! Most human beings are ashamed of their history; this merely Korea's way of recovering from the strong pyschological blows it has suffered in its past.
Just remember Jane you repesent Korea, in your own unique way, and its people like you that help show to the rest of us a different perspective of it.
Cheers
Koreans are a respectable people – nice, hardworking, upwardly mobile. This may not be a PC thing to say but I must admit Koreans are among my favourite ethnic groups. Your criticisms about Koreans are not off the mark, but the same can be said of the young people of most immigrant groups – the Sri Lankan Tamils I know only have a superficial understanding of their people’s history, and a heavily warped, politicized interpretation at that. As Tristan pointed out, most young people don’t really care about history and IMO that’s not really a bad thing – the more some people become concerned with the past, they become preoccupied with scoring old ethnic rivalries (as what’s happening in my country of origin). I prefer forward-thinking people who are more concerned with making money.
And the so-called South Asian “cultural” dances you cite – that’s not “real” Indian folk dancing but a Bollywoodized bastardization of it. The more pure form is Bharatanatyam and I have yet to see such a performance at UW. Also I think South Asians have more to learn from the Koreans than the other way around, but that’s just me :D
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