SKAS Book Review 2
(Originally published in IEKAS, 04-34, October 1, 2004)
 
    Korean-Americans: Past, Present, and Future  
    Edited by Dr. Ilpyong Kim  
    Professor Emeritus of Political Science
    University of Connecticut
    An Editor of SKAS
    An OKSPN member

    Published by Hollym International (www.hollym.com)
    August, 2004
    ISBN: 1-56591-121-0
    299pp, softcover, $24.50

    Reviewed by Moo-Young Han
    Editor-in-Chief, SKAS

    Last year, 2003, marked the first centennial of Korean Immigration to the United States and all across the land,
    Korean communities celebrated this historical passage of time.  Scores of commemorative activities were observed
    from coast to coast.  One such commemorative project was the book project titled Korean-Americans: Past, Present,
    and Future, and Dr. Ilpyong Kim of the University of Connecticut was appointed to lead the project.  This book is
    the culmination of that effort, edited by Professor Ilpyong Kim and contains essays from 14 contributors including the
    editor himself.

    The Korean immigration to the United States over the past 100 years can be roughly divided into 4 distinct phases:

            1. 1903 - 1924: Plantation laborers to Hawaii.  This was halted in 1924 by the Oriental Exclusion Act.

            2. 1924 - 1945: The exclusion act exempted students and some 1,000 Korean students came to American for
                education and professional training.  They became the leaders of the independence movement while
                Korea was under the Japanese colonial rule.

           3. 1950 - 1970: After the Korean War, a large number Koreans arrived at the American shores.  They consisted
               of three major groups - war brides, adoptees and a flood of college students.

               War brides were - and continue to this day - mostly located close to military bases and they are somewhat
               apart from the rest of the Korean-American communities.

               Adoptees also tend to be somewhat apart from the mainstream Korean-American communities, but they are
               very active among themselves.  They have networks of several regional, national and world-wide organizations
               and support groups.  Many adoptees achieved spectacular success in the American mainstream.

               College students, so many of them, attaining professional pinnacles - PhDs, medical doctors, lawyers,
               professors, journalists, media professionals, scientists, engineers, life science researchers, and so on.  This is
               the group who not only occupy leadership roles in the larger Korean communities but also provided - many
               returned to Korea - the backbone to the development of modern Korean science, technology, and economy,
               the "miracle on the Han river."

          4. 1970 - present: The repeal of the national origin quota system by the 1965 Immigration Reform Act opened
              the floodgate and the massive Korean immigration got under way.  Koreans came by tens of thousands, followed
              by their families.   These are the mainstream Korean-Americana now, the "Koreatowns" of LA and other
              Southern California areas, the greater New-York-New Jersey area,  the greater Washington-Maryland-
              Northern Virginia area, followed by Chicago, Atlanta, and practically all major metropolitan areas of this land.  

    In Part I (The Past) of the book, the history of the first and second phases are superbly summarized and reviewed by
    three papers:

    PART I. THE PAST
 
    1. A Century of Korean Immigration to the United States: 1903-2003
        Ilpyong J. Kim, University of Connecticut
 
    2. History of the Korean Church: A Case Study of Christ United Methodist Church
        Yong-Ho Choe, University of Hawaii
 
    3. The Korean Independence Movement in the United States: Syngman Rhee, Ahn Chang-Ho and Pak Yong-Man
        Han-Kyo Kim, University of Cincinnati

    All three papers contain rich chronicle of historical facts and data and represent invaluable contribution to the history
    of Korean Immigration in this period of 1903 - 1945.  There are several other books for this period.  One book that
    chronicles the oral history of the early immigrants to the Hawaiian islands is "Passages to paradise: Early Korean
    immigrant narratives from Hawai'i" by Daisy Chun Rhodes, Academia Koreana (1998).  

    It is in Parts II (The Present) and III (The Future) the novel and unique approach of this book comes into focus.
    Deviating from the more or less 'standard' approach of enlisting essays from older and more established experts,
    Dr. Kim turned to the present and the future, literally.

    For the part dealing with the present, Dr. Kim enlisted 7 essays from younger generation authors and the content of
    their essays reflect this very refreshingly new perspective. And for the part dealing with the future, Dr. Kim literally
    aimed to the future, essays from those who are currently enrolled at colleges and universities.  It was a stroke of
    genius that makes this book uniquely insightful.  The titles and subjects of these two parts tell the story:
      
    PART II. THE PRESENT
 
    4. The Dawn of a New Generation:  The  Historical Evolution of Inter-Generational Conflict and Cooperation in
        Korean-American Organizational Politics
        Angie Y. Chung, State University of New York at Albany
 
    5. In the Name of the Family: Gender and Immigrant Small Business Ownership  
        Eunju Lee, State University of New York at Albany
  
    6. Korean Immigrant Women's Work in the Nail Salon Industry: Gender, Race and Class in the Service Sector
        Miliann Kang, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
 
    7. Korean Adoptees Role in the United States
        Eleana Kim, New York University
 
    8. The Coming of Age of Korean Adoptees: Ethnic Identity Development and Psychological Adjustment
        Richard M. Lee, University of Minnesota

    9. Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals of Korean and Korean Americans: The Effect of Gender
        and the Level of Acculturation
        Yoon Joh, University of Connecticut at Storrs
    
    10. The Role of Religious Congregations in Formation of the Korean Community of the Washington, DC Area  
          Okyun Kwon, City University of New York
  
    PART III. THE FUTURE
 
    11. Confucian Ideals and American Values
          Brian Lee, Yale University
 
    12. Acculturation without Assimilation
          Jane Euna Kim, Boston University  
 
    13. CollegeVoter.Org
          Sean Oh, Dartmouth College  
 
    14. Korean-American Youth: Almost There, Yet So Far Away
          Howard Han, Yale University

    This book provides an in-depth thinking of the younger and future generation of Korean-Americans and it is a must
    read for all of us in the Korean-American community.  The book is available from the Hollym International Publishers
    located in New Jersey.  A link to Hollym is posted in the SKAS e-library at the SKAS website (www.skas.org).

    Extensive analyses of the Korean-American demographics, as well as many social, economic and religious data,
    based on the census 2000 have been carried out by Professors Eui-Young Yu and Timothy C. Lim at the Center
    of Korean-American and Korean Studies at the California State University at Los Angeles.  Over 100 tables are
    prepared, many in downloadable PDF format, and they are linked in the Links section of the SKAS website.

    The triad - this book, the book by Ms. Daisy Chun Rhodes, and the census 2000 Korean-American demographic
    tables - forms a comprehensive summary of the first 100 years of  Korean immigration to the United States.