01 Feb / Century of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture in America: 1903-2003 edited by Jenny Ryun Foster, Frank Stewart, and Heinz Insu Fenkl + Authors Profile [in KoreAm Journal]
Catch a Tiger by Its Tales: Celebrating 100 Years of Korean American Literature
HONOLULU — Aesthetically, Century of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture in America 1903-2003 is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. What a delight that it is all about me and people like me — by extension, anyway — as it celebrates a century of literature, poetry, art and photography created by Koreans and Korean Americans. Edited by Jenny Ryun Foster, Frank Stewart, and Heinz Insu Fenkl and published by Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing and the University of Hawaii Press, in conjunction with the Centennial Committee of Korean Immigration to the United States, the result is an astonishing blend of colors and words that bring to life a hundred years of the Korean American immigrant journey. Kudos also belong to the book’s two gifted designers, Elsa Carl, a granddaughter of one of the first Korean immigrants, and Clarence Lee, designer of the annual Chinese New Year stamp for the U.S. Postal Service.
Divided into five sections, Tiger is both history lesson and literary feast. Each section begins with a perfect introduction that frames a specific historic period, followed by pertinent literary entries. Chapter One, “The Land of Morning Calm,” gives an overview of Korean history, followed by an excerpt from the first Korean American novelist, Younghill Kang’s The Grass Roof. Chapter Two, “Sailing to the Garden of Mugunghwa” (mugunghwa is the hibiscus, or rose of Sharon, Korea’s national flower), introduces the first wave of Korean immigrants who arrived in Hawaii, beginning in 1903 and later to the West Coast, including Mary Paik Lee, whose memoir, Quiet Odyssey, is the only autobiography by a woman from that first wave of sojourners.
Chapter Three, “Manse!,” highlights Korea’s struggle for independence during the Japanese occupation (officially 1910-1945), much of which was planned, supported and implemented by Korean immigrants living in the United States. Syngman Rhee, for example, was a Princeton-educated Hawaii resident fighting for Korean liberation before he became the first president of the Republic of Korea in 1948. “Lost Names,” an excerpt from Richard E. Kim’s Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood, details Japan’s attempts to obliterate the already brutalized Korean psyche by imposing Japanese names on all Koreans. …[click here for more]
Authors profile: “Catch a Tiger by Its Tales: Celebrating 100 years of Korean American literature,” KoreAm Journal, February 2003
Tidbit: Co-editor Heinz Insu Fenkl was a most informative guest for the Smithsonian’s Korean American Centennial Commemoration‘s fall program, “Literature,” on October 24, 2003.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2003