Week 10 Blog: Winnie Chen

“‘10,000 Senora Lees’: Then Changing Gender Ideology of Korean-Latina-American Women in the Dispora,” by Kyeyoung Park, focuses on the transformation of South Korean women whom have migrated to South American and then later on to the United States, primarily in Southern California. As these women migrate from one continent to another, they bring along their ideologies and traditions, but living in a new culture and environment gives them leverage to shift or alter their perceived ideologies. Through this migration process, these Korean-Latina-American women allowed to experiment with their “selfhood – in particular, new ideas and practices toward work/labor and love, marriage and family” (Park 161). The impacts of the clothing industry becomes a starting point for these Korean immigrants to open their own businesses when they move to the United States, and with the historical context of imperial Japanese-Korean relations of patriarchy and rule, all of these experiences tie together to allow these women to take control of their own lives and decisions. What I find most interesting are the socio-economic differences of the Korean women and families in South America compared to those in the United States. According to Park, many children in South America quit their professional career paths in order to successfully run the family business. In the United States, however, values of individualism are very prevalent in American society, so immigrant children tend to pursue their own interests. It leads me to question, is this phenomenon due to the economic, social, and political differences in South America as compared to the United States, or it is the values of the United States that separate children from their immigrant families?

Questions: Is this phenomenon due to the economic, social, and political differences in South America as compared to the United States, or it is the values of the United States that separate children from their immigrant families?

Works Cited:

Park, Kyeyoung. ""10,000 Senora Lees": Then Changing Gender Ideology of Korean-Latina-American Women in the Dispora." Amerasia Journal. Vol. 28:2. 2002. 161-180. Print.

Image: From the Article – “Lima, Peru has had a Chinatown since the 1870s. Peru’s Asian Population is similar to the US’s at around 4 percent. Photograph by Jon Chang.”