Fissures and Breaks: Confronting homeland “Koreanness” and ethnic identity
While earlier chapters illustrate how visa issues and work experiences certainly constrain
and create opportunities for dongpo
returning to South Korea, the challenges in
interacting with South Koreans on a daily basis are often the arena in which notions of
belonging are both facilitated and threatened. For some Korean Americans, the return to
the homeland, the country from which their parents immigrated or even the land where
they themselves were born, is, at first, like a psychological relief. They have come to a
place where they “belong,” where wherever they look, everyone looks like them and they
do not stand out unlike in the US where their identities as racial minorities become a
primary label for them. When asked about his impressions about belonging in South
Korea, Peter, a 30 year old Korean American male, responds, “There were times, like
you said, if I just kept my mouth shut, I’d be on the subway and I would feel like I just
blend right in.” Similarly, Adam, a Korean American male in his early 20s, states, “It
would be really hard for any gyopo, even though Koreans might not feel it for me, there’s
some sort of cosmic one-ness with it. My parents came from here, my sister was born
here. My god, there are Koreans everywhere, It’s amazing!” Yet, this illusion of
belonging, for many interviewees, lasts for a short period at the beginning of the
migration experience, but develops cracks that deepen as they interact more with South
Koreans. The interviewees acknowledge that this belonging is tenuous and that, like
Adam puts it, there is “something about blending in that I’m not used to. It’s a good
feeling but I’m wary of it.” Sometimes, it is silence that makes one’s diasporic identity
1
Korean term for ethnic Koreans residing outside of the Korean peninsula. Gyopo is a
similar term used primarily by ethnic Korean residing in the “First World” (US, Canada,
Japan, Australia) that has connotations of countrypersons connected with the South
Korean state. This would exclude co-ethnics in countries like Russia, former Soviet
republics and China whose ancestors migrated before the establishment of South and
North Korea.
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Convention