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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 14:01:45 GMT -5
Post by chinohillscalif on Sept 30, 2004 14:01:45 GMT -5
Bok means good fortune. -ja used to be a common girl name in the past and now it is rarely used anymore.
Lee Yoo Jin is a half Korean half Caucasian. It is highly unlikely that she wrote a screenplay. I believe she started her career as a VJ, a Video Jockey for a MTV like show. She is very outgoing and beautiful as a real person.
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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 20:03:02 GMT -5
Post by toranaga on Sept 30, 2004 20:03:02 GMT -5
she is half latina,her father is puerto rican I believe. she has faced a lot of obstacles in her life and career in korea.there is an article that was written about her and a bi-racial singer and some of what they went through,the singer's name is " SONYA" and she is half african american and was raised by her grandparent's her grandpa would always ask her what kind of ugly seed she came from when she was small,her break came when she was asked to play a latina actress in a korean version of "FAME"because of her brown skin.
I WILL POST A LINK TO THE ARTICLE WHEN I FIND IT.
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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 20:22:45 GMT -5
Post by jenny on Sept 30, 2004 20:22:45 GMT -5
a bi-racial singer and some of what they went through,the singer's name is " SONYA" and she is half african american and was raised by her grandparent's her grandpa would always ask her what kind of ugly seed she came from when she was small,her break came when she was asked to play a latina actress in a korean version of "FAME"because of her brown skin. I WILL POST A LINK TO THE ARTICLE WHEN I FIND IT. Please do! That's so sad that her own grandfather would say such a thing! Thanks, chinohillscalif! “Good fortune” is much prettier than “Let’s Eat!”
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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 20:41:11 GMT -5
Post by toranaga on Sept 30, 2004 20:41:11 GMT -5
toranaga, I fixed your link. For future reference, when you use the url "tag", you have to put your address BETWEEN the two--[ url ] address [/ url ]--I separated the letters for my illustration. - Bohere is a link to the kbfd board were a member cut and pasted the article,it is quite long but worth the time to read. www.kbfd.com/eng/messageboard.htm
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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 20:58:24 GMT -5
Post by toranaga on Sept 30, 2004 20:58:24 GMT -5
I decided to cut and paste the article because for some reason I couldn't insert a hyper link and the url just takes you to the sign-in page anyway so to make a long story short here is the article.
Posts: 121
Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 1:19 pm Post subject: In S. Korea, a Silver Lining to Being Biracial_LATIMES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times All Rights Reserved Los Angeles Times
August 6, 2004 Friday Home Edition
SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Foreign Desk; Part A; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 1326 words
HEADLINE: THE WORLD; In S. Korea, a Silver Lining to Being Biracial; The bias against those who have a foreign parent is eroding as the nation's Amerasians find fame and success.
BYLINE: Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer
For years, Lee Yu Jin kept her secret.
Whenever anybody asked -- and they did all the time as her celebrity as an actress and model spread -- she simply denied the rumors. No, she was not a foreigner. She was Korean.
Finally, last year, Lee called a news conference and tearfully acknowledged that her father was an American GI. As her fans had long suspected from her 5-foot-9 stature, she was of mixed race.
"People ask why didn't I come out earlier and why this is such a big deal," the 27-year-old said. "It wouldn't be anywhere else, but Korea is still a closed society where people like to talk about the purity of the race."
With her acknowledgment, Lee raised the curtain on what has become a phenomenon in the South Korean entertainment industry. Once considered a national embarrassment, a number of biracial entertainers have become famous in the last few years. Many of them, like Lee, have American fathers.
Sonya, a popular singer who goes by only her first name, has landed starring roles in the South Korean stage versions of the musicals "Fame" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Jennifer Young Wisner, a bilingual 20-year-old who grew up in North Carolina, has a television show on the English-language Arirang channel and will release an album this year. Another biracial South Korean, Kim Dong Kwang, is a well-known basketball coach.
In a country that prides itself on the homogeneity of its population, these success stories have helped to erode long-standing prejudices.
Changing attitudes toward race reflect the larger changes in the society. Korea was once nicknamed the "Hermit Kingdom" for its extreme isolation from the outside world, and few Westerners visited before the end of World War II. The first mixed-race children here were widely assumed to be the illegitimate offspring of GIs and were usually put up for adoption.
"My impression is that there is more discrimination against Amerasians in South Korea than anywhere else in Asia and that it has not improved significantly," said Janet Mintzer, president of Pearl S. Buck International. The Pennsylvania-based foundation, which is credited with coining the term "Amerasian," works with the biracial children in not only South Korea, but also the Philippines and Vietnam, among other Asian countries in which the U.S. military has had a presence.
To some extent, the discrimination is institutionalized. Biracial men cannot join the army, which makes them ineligible for many jobs and benefits.
South Korea uses a traditional Confucian-inspired family registry that requires children to be listed under their fathers' names and their fathers to be Korean -- so that children with foreign fathers are in effect nonpersons under the law. Lee, for example, was registered under her grandfather's name, making her, under the law, her mother's sister.
Her parents divorced when she was 1. All she remembers of her father is that he was Latino and lived in New York.
Lee grew up in Seoul. As a child, she was beautiful and athletic. She received excellent grades in school. Yet everybody pitied her.
"They said I would come to a bad end, maybe end up in a brothel, because I was of mixed blood," Lee said. "Even my mother felt sorry for me. She still does. Even if I became president, she would feel sorry for me. That's Korea."
She started modeling as a teenager and switched quickly to acting. She landed a part in a television sitcom, "My High School Days," in which she played a typical Korean schoolgirl. That's when she decided it would be better not to disclose the facts of her paternity.
But there were clues. Her creased eyelids, for example -- a feature many South Korean women and even some men obtain through plastic surgery. Lee sees a certain hypocrisy in a society in which people go under the knife to make themselves look more Caucasian, yet look down on those of mixed race.
She says her career has not suffered since she "came out of the closet." The main inconvenience is her height -- a full 5 inches taller than the average woman here.
"Next to other Korean actors and actresses, I look like the Incredible Hulk," she said. "That's the one thing I'd change about my looks if I could."
The offspring of African Americans face even more racism.
Sonya, the singer, grew up in the conservative city of Taegu. Her GI father was reassigned from South Korea shortly after her birth, and her mother died of cancer when she was 7, leaving Sonya to live with her grandparents.
"My grandfather hit me and called me names. He was embarrassed by me. He used to say, 'What kind of ugly seed did you come from?' " the lovely 24-year-old recalled, fighting back tears.
Last year, Sonya was reunited with her father, a car salesman in Raleigh, N.C. The South Korean television network MBC, which sent the actress to the United States for the meeting, broadcast the teary reunion. She acknowledges that her life might be easier socially in the United States but says she is not ready to give up on her homeland.
In many ways, her unusual look has become an asset, getting her, for example, her first big part as Carmen, a Latina high school student in "Fame."
Several of her closest friends today are classmates who ridiculed her as a child. "I don't hold grudges," she said.
Both Sonya and Lee consider themselves to be entirely Korean in mentality. As is customary for unmarried South Korean women, they live at home -- Sonya with her grandmother and Lee with her mother. Neither speaks much English.
Their problems with social acceptance stem not only from being biracial but also from being raised by single mothers. In cases in which the parents have remained together, the children are usually U.S. citizens and their experiences are somewhat easier.
Wisner, whose father is retired from the U.S. military, was spared much of the abuse faced by other Amerasians because her parents are happily married, she says, and because she attended an international Christian school in South Korea.
"In school, it was OK. Many of the teachers were Americans and the kids were Koreans who had lived abroad. But when we went out on the street, there was a sense that the grown-ups didn't like us or approve. We got dirty looks on the subway," said Wisner, a student at Seoul's Yonsei University in addition to being an actress and singer.
As the country becomes more cosmopolitan, it is attracting a more diverse and international population. Nowadays, mixed-race children in South Korea are as likely to be offspring of diplomats, expatriate bankers or academics as of GIs, and an increasing number come from unions in which the father is Korean.
Yet old stereotypes hold sway, and the assumption is that their mothers were either impoverished war brides, or even prostitutes servicing U.S. troops.
"The first experience South Koreans had of mixed race were the children of very poor women living in villages near the U.S. military bases," said Park Kyong Tae, a sociologist who worked on the recent report for Durebang, a human rights group.
The population of Amerasians near the villages probably numbers about 500 today, he said. Their experiences, Park noted, are different from the children of international marriages, who tend to be more affluent than ordinary South Koreans and live in an expatriate bubble.
"One of the first questions people ask me is, 'Is it your father or your mother who is Korean?' " said Maria Hajiyerou, a 24-year-old law student at George Washington University, who is working in Seoul for the summer. "When I answer, 'My mother,' they say, 'Oh,' and give me a certain look like they've figured out everything they need to know about my background. At first I didn't understand what that look meant, but then it was something I picked up on."
Her father, a Cypriot, met her mother while they were working in New Jersey.
"I think it is getting better," Hajiyerou said. "When I was here earlier, people would point at me and even follow me. Now people don't seem to take much notice."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: ACTRESS: Lee Yu Jin acknowledged her mixed heritage last year. PHOTOGRAPHER: Jean Chung For The Times PHOTO: SINGER: Sonya, right, born to a Korean mother and an American GI, has landed starring roles in the South Korean stage version of the musical "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." PHOTOGRAPHER: Jean Chung For The Times Back to top if anyone is interested in reading the replys to this article to understand my question just paste the url in your address bar and click on general diss. and go to page 3 and scroll to the thread being bi-racial in korea.
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Bok-ja
Sept 30, 2004 22:11:36 GMT -5
Post by toranaga on Sept 30, 2004 22:11:36 GMT -5
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Bok-ja
Oct 1, 2004 10:16:43 GMT -5
Post by TheBo on Oct 1, 2004 10:16:43 GMT -5
toranaga, I don't have time right now to discuss your article, (but I want to later along with your comment on Sonya), but right now--
I notice that you seem to be "shouting" a lot lately (putting all caps in your messages). Do you think you could try to find a different way to emphasize what you want to say? It's very hard to read.
I'm sorry to pick you out, but I want other people to note this, too. If anyone wants me to explain how to use the "tags" in the message posting section for colors, bolding, italics, quoting or url's, I'll be happy to do that for you. Just let me know, by instant message or in answer to this message.
Bo
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Bok-ja
Oct 1, 2004 10:34:28 GMT -5
Post by toranaga on Oct 1, 2004 10:34:28 GMT -5
do not worry about picking me out BO,I am not an overly sensitive person.AS far as the caps go it is a habit i got into a long time ago because I am not a very good typist and sometimes accidently hit the caps button and do not notice until I am done and just do not feel like retyping it most of the time,believe me it happens more times than you know,I just erase it most times but lately I have not done that.
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Bok-ja
Oct 1, 2004 11:27:12 GMT -5
Post by Lucy on Oct 1, 2004 11:27:12 GMT -5
They are both lovely, but I think Bok-ja is fantastic. Something about the severity of her look, with those slanted brows and her precisely cut bangs. Funny, the article says she's 5'9" and therefore 4" taller than the norm; it's true that she looks pretty gigantic next to the other actors in the Korean shows, but she's not as huge to us as she looks on Korean TV. She wouldn't look all that tall in America. I think she's just below the cutoff to be a fashion model, though she is also above the average height for an American woman, too. P.S. Fellow viewers of "One Million Roses," did you notice that her name is Yu-jin?
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Bok-ja
Oct 1, 2004 12:44:26 GMT -5
Post by TheBo on Oct 1, 2004 12:44:26 GMT -5
do not worry about picking me out BO,I am not an overly sensitive person.AS far as the caps go it is a habit i got into a long time ago because I am not a very good typist and sometimes accidently hit the caps button and do not notice until I am done and just do not feel like retyping it most of the time,believe me it happens more times than you know,I just erase it most times but lately I have not done that. Okey dokey, we can work with that, my dear. But, everyone, remember if you need help using the amazing "tag" buttons in the post-your-message window, I'm ready to give it. Bo
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Bok-ja
Oct 2, 2004 10:59:50 GMT -5
Post by Michael on Oct 2, 2004 10:59:50 GMT -5
Please do! That's so sad that her own grandfather would say such a thing! My mother's half Caucasian and half Korean, too, so I guess that makes me 3/4 Korean and 1/4 Caucasian.. anyway, I found this out little later in life, so I didn't understand it when my grandfather chided me saying, "You Yankee rascal!" when I was little. To their minds my mother is guilty of tainting the blood of Han family and that was one of the reasons why she was forced to divorce. My mother and they found it out after she was married. I'm not bitter at them.. what's there to gain to be mad at fools? I guess their logic originated from something like this: (per Korean origins legend) Koreans came from a son of god and bear-who-became-a-woman, the first being Dan-gun. (I suppose he had to marry one of his unnamed sisters to keep the blood pure.) Anyway, the legend doesn't tell you where all the other races came from so it's rather lacking isn't it? So all the other races must be some sort of demonic beings! And actually, all the non-Asians were called devils for a very long time... I guess to my grandfather's time. Historically speaking, Koreans are a mixed race too.. you have Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, even some Indians (one of the Indian princess came to marry a prince). I happen to believe we're all Noah's children. Yes, you're really my brothers and sisters! That's just how it was in the old world. And just because people in the old world had this thing about race wrong doesn't mean that negates everything else that the old world stood for. I hope we're wise enough not to make that kind of mistake. You don't tell truth by the calendar. What's worse? To be confused about race (though that brings out a lot of hard feelings in people) or to be confused about the truth itself? (Maybe I should go back to the philosophy board ) God bless, Michael
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Bok-ja
Oct 2, 2004 18:42:31 GMT -5
Post by xelaevoli unlogged on Oct 2, 2004 18:42:31 GMT -5
Wow, Michael! So she had to divorce your dad because she was half Korean (and didn't know it)? Was that the only reason they divorced? If so, that's awful. But, as you said why stay mad at <narrow-minded> fools.
I feel so blessed now to have my inlaws! They embraced me (a caucasian American) with open arms when I lived in Korea - MIL, FIL, BIL, and both SIL. Even before I had the only male grandson I was treated like a princess, now I know how "good" I had it!
My fear, small one in the back of my mind at times, is that my children will be treated differently being 1/2 Korean. I sometimes get "oh, that's what's wrong with them" when I explain my children's daddy is Korean. (They look caucasian for the most part, but have beautiful brown Asian eyes.)
Anyway, this turned out to be longer than I thought, but I'm stunned at what happened in your family...
Melissa
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Bok-ja
Oct 2, 2004 19:44:04 GMT -5
Post by Knov1 on Oct 2, 2004 19:44:04 GMT -5
In Korea, there's actually quite a few celebrities that are Korean-American. I'd like to share what I've heard from them. Some have said that in Korea there's a prejudice toward Korean-American's or half-Koreans. A female singer mentioned, earlier this year, that people often treat her "different" even though she's 100% full Korean because she looks mixed. Another singer mentioned that if you're not fluent in Korean, not only are you looked down upon but your parents as well for not teaching you to speak Korean. And it could very easily be family members doing this, not necessarily strangers, friends, etc.
Now, that's not to say everything I've heard is negative but those are a couple of the things I've heard them mention.
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Bok-ja
Oct 4, 2004 15:05:47 GMT -5
Post by jenny on Oct 4, 2004 15:05:47 GMT -5
I guess their logic originated from something like this: (per Korean origins legend) Koreans came from a son of god and bear-who-became-a-woman, the first being Dan-gun. (I suppose he had to marry one of his unnamed sisters to keep the blood pure.) Anyway, the legend doesn't tell you where all the other races came from so it's rather lacking isn't it? So all the other races must be some sort of demonic beings! And actually, all the non-Asians were called devils for a very long time... I guess to my grandfather's time. Historically speaking, Koreans are a mixed race too.. you have Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, even some Indians (one of the Indian princess came to marry a prince). I happen to believe we're all Noah's children. Yes, you're really my brothers and sisters! Wow, I had no idea! I just thought it was something like family pride. Very interesting! Michael, I'm so sorry your grandfather said that to you, and that's so sad about your mom. But you're right, we're all Noah's children! The part about all non-Asians being devils made me chuckle. Yeah, I've known a few.
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Bok-ja
Oct 4, 2004 15:39:35 GMT -5
Post by hachiue on Oct 4, 2004 15:39:35 GMT -5
there is an article that was written about ... a bi-racial singer and some of what they went through,the singer's name is " SONYA" and she is half african american and was raised by her grandparent's her grandpa would always ask her what kind of ugly seed she came from when she was small,her break came when she was asked to play a latina actress in a korean version of "FAME"because of her brown skin. Toranaga, have you ever watched shows that come before the dramas? I saw this show called "Music Camp" once. It was kind of like American Idol. Anyway, the singer who won the contest at the end was this woman who looked half Koran, half black and I'm wondering if might be the same person. I don't remember her name though. Maybe Fame is kind of like American Idol but I haven't heard of it (don't watch many reality/contest shows).
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