K/O/R/E/A/N

By Dorry Guerra

Sixteen half-Korean individuals I have thus far met, interviewed, and photographed. 

Sounding Korean; Looking Other

By Dorry Guerra

Iden* Image source: author’s own.

In my interviews, I include questions that get at my biracial interviewees’ perceptions and experiences of how they are racially appraised. In simple and direct terms, I ask the question “In Korea, do people see you as Korean?” To this question, Iden* immediately responds “No,” but then makes an amendment to his answer. He says, “When there is no image involved, they [Koreans] think I’m Korean. When they see my face, their reaction automatically changes.” So, when Iden is talking on the phone; texting; or, for whatever reason, when only his voice can be heard, most Koreans do not question his “Koreanness.” (This report hopefully gives the reader a fairly good idea of just how proficient Iden’s command of the Korean language—in terms of accent, vocabulary, idioms, nuance, and the like—is.) However, because Iden does not necessarily look Korean (or at least not “fully” Korean) phenotypically, most of the time, he is not viewed as Korean.

Interestingly, though, Iden’s language ability is so “convincing” that there are Koreans who say to him “Oh, you must have lived abroad for a long time,” as if to provide an explanation for why, although Iden may not look Korean, he speaks Korean so fluently. It seems that the underlying implication is that non-Koreans could not possibly speak Korean so fluently, and indeed, this is how Iden interprets it. He says, “It’s so ingrained within [Koreans] that Korean is too difficult to learn that if you’re that good at Korean, there’s no way you could not be Korean.”

“What Are You?”

By Dorry Guerra

Jaisey* Image source: author’s own. 

 

“What Are You?” This is a question with which many multiracial individuals are familiar. When I ask Jaisey* how she feels when she herself is asked this, she tells me that it depends on the context. It means something different to be asked this question in the States versus in Korea. In the States, her response to the question is something along the lines of “What do you mean ‘What am I?’ You hear me talking; I’m American!” In Korea though, Jaisey considers the question more of a compliment. She feels that it is an expression of Koreans’ “picking up on” or acknowledging (and accepting) her part-Korean heritage, and this is especially significant because while she is indeed half-Korean (her mother is Korean), most Koreans assume she is just “American” (or “Caucasian”).