Being Asian in America: Second-Generation Korean American shares her experience

Netflix’s Squid Game, an original Korean drama, has become a worldwide phenomenon. Its increasing popularity, as well as its impact on Netflix’s streaming charts, has caused the show to become the ‘next big thing’. Despite there being no serious marketing tactics aimed toward Western audiences, the Netflix series grew to be the No. 1 show in multiple countries in less than 2 weeks of release. With a Survivor-slash-Hunger Games-slash-Escape Room-esque type of show, viewers from around the world tuned in to watch the bizarreness of it all, and it quickly became an internet sensation. Examples include TikTok challenges where users try to replicate the “dalgona” candy scene (where contestants on the show had to cut shapes out of honeycomb toffee), as well as the scene of the giant robotic girl singing “red light, green light” becoming a popular sound on the platform as well, with over 420,000 videos using it (Rosenblatt). With instances such as these, the immense globalization of the show has made these cultural aspects something so foreign and new to the United States. But for Soojin Seol, these are nothing new.

“I think it’s kind of funny to see non-Korean people go absolutely nuts over something that I’ve been eating since I was a child,” she comments.

Soojin Seol is a 21-year-old second-generation Korean American attending graduate school in Atlanta, Georgia. She is one of two daughters of first-generation Korean immigrants, who have seen firsthand what it is like to be an Asian immigrant in the United States. However, due to the hateful Asian-American sentiment pushed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Soojin now currently lives alone with her sister, as her parents traveled back to Korea.

“My parents are incredibly smart and accomplished people and were highly respected in Korea. When they moved to America, that level of respect dropped immediately. People assumed they didn’t speak English, that they were uneducated, etc. This, on top of the recent surge of anti-Asian sentiment in the US due to the pandemic, pushed them to go back to Korea.”

Second-generation Korean Americans living in America face the struggle of being a minority amongst their peers, something that their parents have never felt. South Korea is a homogeneous country; only around 5% of the population in South Korea is non-ethnically Korean (Liao). America is a huge ethnic melting pot, where everyone has their unique background yet still tries to conform to American life.

“My parents immigrated to the United States in the early ’90s. I haven’t spoken with them about their experiences very often, but from what they’ve said, they prefer living in Korea more.”

Born on American soil in a relatively suburban environment with little Asian representation around her, Soojin recounts how both she and her parents struggled with assimilating themselves to American culture.

“I grew up in a suburban environment, nothing really special. There weren’t a lot of Asian kids around me where I lived, I think my parents just moved somewhere where they could easily find a job. [...] My parents tried to assimilate to American culture but didn’t really end up doing that. They don’t really care much for American culture -- they do appreciate how progressive American society is compared to Korean society, though. I was born in America, so I didn’t really need to ‘assimilate’ as I was already growing up around American culture and adopting American behaviors.”

Having attended college at the University of Pennsylvania, she was able to experience life in an urban environment where diversity flourishes in comparison to her life back home.

“It was difficult finding people to relate with,” she confesses. That changed when she went to university. “I lived in an area where I saw and interacted frequently with people who looked like me and spoke the same languages as I did [...] my experience living in Philadelphia was pleasant,” she comments, voice slightly static over our FaceTime call. “I rarely felt out of place with my peers -- though, this is because I never really went out of my way to make friends with my White peers.”

It’s not unusual for ethnic communities to surround themselves with others that share similar lifestyles and cultural interests. Soojin was able to find that through other Korean friends.

“Many of my [Korean] friends and I speak the Korean language and still practice Korean traditions. We celebrate Korean holidays, we play Korean games, we listen to Korean music and watch Korean television slash movies, we practice Korean etiquette, etc.”

However, throughout the past decade, Soojin has seen the pros and the cons of living as an Asian in the United States.

“Up until high school, I frequently experienced bullying and othering due to my accent and the way I looked. I was called racial slurs, I was told I have ‘small eyes’, etc,” she explains. “I experienced microaggressions nearly every day. If I did well on an exam, it was ‘because I’m Asian’, not because I studied hard. In college, people also assumed I was submissive and weak for being an Asian female, then called me degrading names for being outspoken and firm.”

Asian Americans are faced with casual racism and constant fetishization just by merely existing in a dominantly white country.

“I’ve heard many stories from my male Korean friends of women approaching them on campus or at parties and describing their taste in Asian men,” Soojin recounts. “Many of these friends have told me they’ve felt objectified or fetishized in these experiences. My female Asian friends have told me very similar stories, where men would approach them and go as far as talking about being ‘submissive.’”

Most urban cities have high-density areas for specific ethnicities. For example, Chinatown exists in multiple cities where Chinese and occasionally Korean and Japanese restaurants, clubs, and shops thrive for that target population. These areas allow for a higher density of Eastern Asian people who can relate to their struggles to feel at home. Metropolitan cities are areas where culturally diverse communities thrive. In one instance, Korean Americans take up less than 1 percent of all individuals in Philadelphia (USA.com), so it is difficult for them to find places where they can relate to others and seek out necessities such as groceries and homely objects that would be used in their household.

“I’m incredibly grateful that more and more safe spaces [for Koreans] are popping up. I take so much comfort in the fact that I’m able to find food that I like in a grocery store.” Soojin describes her time in Philadelphia. “I take comfort in the fact that I’m able to find food that I want to eat at a restaurant that speaks Korean. I take comfort in the fact that the people I care about are able to find medicine or are comfortable with seeing doctors because they’re able to communicate in Korean.”

Within the last decade, The United States and the rest of the world have experienced a new cultural experience: the influence of South Korean culture on the rest of the world, or Hallyu. Hallyu (Hangul: 한류), literally translates to “wave/flow of Korea”; Beginning in the early 1990s and mid-2000s with TV dramas, Hallyu has gained significant popularity with the influx of K-Pop making its way onto the global stage. Notable drivers of Hallyu include the Korean boy band BTS and the film Parasite, both of which have broken the Western market and played a huge role in the globalization of Korean culture onto Americans and the western hemisphere (KOCIS).

“I first started noticing the signs of Hallyu in the US around… 2015? When BTS became popular. I didn’t really pay much attention to it, as most of my friends and I were never really interested in K-pop, but I thought it was interesting that so many people were growing more aware of Korean culture.”

The Korean Wave not only allows Koreans a sense of belonging but also a sense of community. An increasing amount of support in urban areas allows Koreans to create and form activities and clubs that surround Korean popular culture and discover local spaces that allow them to coexist and feel safe around other Korean Americans.

“In Philadelphia, I lived in an area where I saw and interacted frequently with people who looked like me and spoke the same languages as I did. A lot of my non-Korean friends were really interested in Korean culture. They enjoyed K-pop, Korean cuisine, Korean dramas, and television shows, etc. My university also had a Korean culture club as well as a Korean student club, which I thought was incredibly cool.”

Asian fashion, beauty, TV, and food have found a new level of western appreciation. To Soojin, that appreciation is only surface level.

“Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it, for the most part! I’m glad that more people are learning about Korean culture and are actually traveling to the country. It normalizes a lot of aspects of Korean culture that I was once bullied for, which puts me at ease. But it’s a double-edged sword,” she continues. “People treat these ordinary things seen by Koreans as something brand new and never seen before. I understand that it is in fact new to people, but it makes me think that these things would have never been recognized by American society if it had not been globalized.”

Before the Korean Wave, many Koreans felt as though they needed to blend in with their peers, embrace the more American side of them, and suppress the Korean aspect of themselves.

Most first-generation Korean Americans felt just as if they needed to survive as if they were back home in Korea, just in a land with more opportunity. Second-generation Korean Americans are faced with an identity crisis; Most are exposed to American culture and American behavior that forces them to separate themselves from their home experience.

“Suddenly being Asian is cool. Like, what?” - Soojin Seol

Now with Korean and Asian culture becoming steadfastly integrated into American society, Soojin faces a crisis.

“I feel as though I’m suddenly appreciated for being Asian as soon as my culture is accepted by Western society.”

The portrayal of Asians in American media and life, in general, has improved slowly. But for the longest time, the United States has struggled to portray Asians in an empathetic way, especially with foreign-born Asians who gain popularity such as BTS. Western media has been dominated by a white ideological process for so long that Asians are marginalized when being portrayed in the media. Korea and Asia are viewed as something so foreign to the United States that western media is unable to properly provide a non-demeaning narrative for them. This is where media such as YouTube and Twitter has given a platform for Korean media to influence the west and open the door for Hallyu. Second-generation Korean Americans believe that the Korean Wave is helping put South Korea on a pedestal where their culture can be proudly shown off.

“I never thought that being Korean was a bad thing in my life, but now that there’s a new appreciation for the culture, I think being Korean is now an advantage, at least in my perspective,” says Ian Park, member of Temple KSA. “There are so many positive things coming from South Korea that everyone seems to enjoy so I feel proud to be a component in that. It’s fun to see people attempting to learn the language and trying new food all because of normal things for me such as K-pop and Korean food.”

Despite some positive responses, others feel differently.

“Now people want to look like us and dress like us. They have no conscious awareness of how much Asians have struggled to assimilate and fit into western society,” says Soohyun Kim, a member of Temple KSA. “People would pull their eyes back to mock our monolids when we were kids. Now with BTS and Korean dramas and even anime -- don’t get me started on anime,” she scoffs, “People are getting “fox eye” lifts to make their eyes more almond-shaped. Now it's seen as beautiful and elegant to have that eye shape. It’s only pretty if it’s on white people.”

America is not unfamiliar with the concept of monopolizing other cultures for its own benefit. We’ve seen it everywhere; Cultures now become costumes for people to dress up as and parade around during Halloween, the gentrification of hip-hop and black music, to “western-style” alternatives to foreign food (basically just less flavorful and vegan). The internalized struggles that Asian Americans have to face every day carry out through their lives, even as America attempts to feel more welcoming.

“As a minority, you can never win,” Soojin shrugs. “They’re never going to accept you unless who you are suddenly becomes desirable by western standards.”

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References

Rosenblatt, Kalhan. “Netflix's 'Squid Game' Is a Sensation. Here's Why It's so Popular.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 13 Oct. 2021.

Liao, Ava. “Gi-Wook Shin on Racism in South Korea.” FSI, 11 Mar. 2021.

“Pennsylvania Korean Population Percentage City Rank.” USA.com.

Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS). “Korea.net.” Hallyu (Korean Wave) : Korea.net : The Official Website of the Republic of Korea.