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Opinion

Columnists

Hurrah for tasty cultural appropriation

A recent AP article titled, “New Asian American bakeries find bicultural sweet spot,” tells the story of Asian American bakeries innovating on traditional American cookies with ingredients from their cultural culinary traditions. For example, the article highlights a “Dimsum Cookie” that's infused with sesame seeds and red beans. But if you lived near a “Korea Town” in well-known center with a Korean population, bakeries that sell traditional Korean baked goods next to American staples infused with ethnic flavors is nothing new. At least in the Northern Virginia area where I live, Korean bak...

2021-09-05 17:05

A token, but not tokenized

I grew up in New York City in the 1980s, but went to a school that was largely devoid of Asians. In a class of a little over 100 students, I had one Korean kid who stayed for a year and another Japanese kid who stayed for two. At the same time, I had my own clique with good buddies belonging to the nebulous grey area between jocks and nerds. Despite the absence of others who looked like me, I felt as if I belonged.

2021-08-22 17:00

Korean men triggered by pinch symbol

An San, a member of the Korean women's archery team, won three gold medals in the Tokyo Summer Games. You would think that would earn her unconditional acclaim from all Koreans, especially since she achieved them in Japan. Apparently, however, her short haircut, attendance at a women-only university, and specific expressions used in her past social media posts drew suspicions of her as a potential feminist, attracting online attacks from presumably young Korean men. These suspicions quickly devolved from there into a surreal fight between those supporting An and petitioning the Korean Archer...

2021-08-08 17:02

Olympics and multiculturalism

“Hafu” is the term that's used in Japan to denote someone born from parents of different ethnicities. Apparently, 35 members of the 583-strong Japanese Olympic team are multi-ethnic. “Hafu” is the term that's used in Japan to denote someone born from parents of different ethnicities. Apparently, 35 members of the 583-strong Japanese Olympic team are multi-ethnic. What undoubtedly struck me watching the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics was seeing the tennis champion Naomi Osaka, daughter of a Haitian father and Japanese mother, a hafu, light the cauldron after walking up the mock-up of ...

2021-07-25 17:00

From Korean War to armistice

Growing up in Korea, the Korean War was always referred to by the date when it started: 625, for June 25, 1950, the date when well-armed North Koreans invaded South Korea across the 38th parallel. Referring to important historic events by their dates is typical in Korea, so I never questioned that 625 was the definitive term we would use to refer to the Korean War.

2021-07-11 17:05

We don't live on Planet Vulcan

An Economist article titled, “Closing the world's schools caused children great harm,” made the point that governments around the world closed schools for two-thirds of the school year due to the pandemic, even though the probability of a child between the ages of 5 to 14 years old dying from COVID-19 was only one in 500,000. The implication is that governments made a hasty decision that unnecessarily took educational opportunities away from children.

2021-06-27 17:00

Hell Joseon comes home to roost

This past week, Lee Jun-seok, 36, became the youngest ever to take the leadership of a main political party. Lee will now lead the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP), as it tries to win back the presidency next year. While Lee's been around for about 10 years ever since he was recruited by former President Park Geun-hye basically as window dressing for her appeal to younger voters, he has held his own since then against much more experienced and well-heeled politicians. Nevertheless, nobody expected a Lee victory this time around, especially against two well-entrenched vet...

2021-06-13 17:08

Les Miserables Coreennes

If you think I am talking about the famous novel by Victor Hugo, you are wrong. Rather, I am channeling another famous French man in Nostradamus by predicting the future state of Korea circa 2050: a country filled with a bunch of miserable, lonely old people surviving on alternative facts and conspiracy theories.

2021-05-30 17:05

Metastasis of moral judgment

In northern Virginia, where I live, everything was normal on Tuesday. Coming back from a quick errand on Tuesday afternoon, my wife stopped by a local gas station to fill up. Nothing was amiss. By Tuesday evening, however, cars were lining up around the block to fill up not only their cars, but all manners of tanks, drums, and other creative storage vessels. Within hours, most of the gas stations near my neighborhood had hastily handwritten notes taped on their pumps, apologetically informing customers that they had run out of gasoline.

2021-05-16 17:20

Academic wokeness, Korean style

In a 2008 article titled, “Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills,” the New York Times wrote about how successful specialized South Korean high schools had been in developing high-performing students geared to getting accepted into top Ivy League schools in the U.S. How successful were they? If SAT scores are a key performance indicator, then, “Their (Daewon) average combined SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. By comparison, the average combined score at Phillips Exeter, the New Hampshire boarding school, is 2085. Sixty-seven Daewon graduates had perfect 800 math scores.”

2021-05-02 17:27

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