Kimchi Mamas

Free Kids and Family Program at LA Asian Pacific Film Festival

Film festivals sound like such fun, but when you have small people tethered to your legs - small people with early bedtimes no less - they don't seem like very practical endeavors. (Especially not when the last movie you saw was that bad Heigl rom-com from how many months back now?) Now the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival has a Saturday morning short film program, and a follow up fun performance artist in the theater lobby (with the irrepressible Kristina Wong). 

Here's the program info:

Itsy Bitsy Shorts at the L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival

Date:	Saturday, May 1, 2010
Time:	10:00am - 11:00am
Location:	Directors Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd (at Hayworth, One block west of Fairfax), West Hollywood

ITSY BITSY SHORTS: “FURRY FEATHERED FRIENDS AND MORE” TRT: 30 min.

The second edition of ITSY BITSY SHORTS returns to showcase films that speak to our youngest moviegoers, bringing us up close with a cuddly hand-drawn pup, sneaky 3D birds, multilingual stop motion animals searching for home, and two island brothers who court trouble in their quest for summer shaved ice…the fun continues with a special program appearance by performance artist Kristina Wong. (Appropriate for viewers age 3 and up)

DGA parking and tickets for this event are free! (This is a FREE admission, but a ticket must be ordered to hold your seat(s).)

Summer Camp in the Motherland

My in-laws live in Seoul and visit us about once a year. Our relationship is fraught and complicated, but (hopefully) improving with time. Regardless, they love our two sons and I know they try their best to be good to us.

When my first son was three months old and I was returning to school to finish my last quarter of undergrad, my mother-in-law pretty much offered to take him to Korea with her for the next three months. She was worried I wouldn't be able to handle a baby and school. I, on the other hand, was so appalled at the very suggestion of living an ocean apart from my infant for three months that, in my shock, I blurted out rudely, "I would never do that!"

Fast forward a few years and now we have two sons who are four and nearly two. Every visit, my in-laws drop hints that in a few years they expect us to send the kids to Korea for the summer to stay with them. I know that, as much as they want to spend time with the children, they also think of this as a generous way of giving us a much-needed break. But, much as my reaction to my mother-in-law's initial offer so ungraciously showed, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea. As much as I think that spending a summer (or summers) in Korea would be a wonderful experience for my kids, I still can't imagine sending them anywhere without me. I can barely leave them overnight at my parents' house when Yubo and I manage to plan a night away for necessary romantic purposes. And not just because I miss them, but because they seem insecure and overly irritable for days afterward.

Is this just me being overprotective and overly attached? Perhaps. But, to be honest, I'm comfortable with that. Even if the idea of a whole summer without the kids is mildly tempting (freedom!), I'd still much rather spend that time with them than without them. And as someone who tries to practice attachment parenting, I have a hard time believing that young children benefit from being away from their parents for extended periods of time. I know that there are plenty of Korean American kids (including some of my friends growing up) who spent summers with relatives in Korea and they turned out fine blah blah blah, but I'm still not sold on the idea.

3, 2, 1...Sae Hae Bok Mani Badusaeyo!

Happy New Year!

Sae hae bok mani badusaeyo!

I'm at my parents' house watching "Friends" reruns with my husband (Yubo) and waiting for the ball to drop (on repeat) in Times Square. Usually we don't even make it till midnight, but tonight I think I'll actually be getting kissed come midnight.

But while our New Year's Eves are rarely eventful, tomorrow will be filled with family, tradition and lots and lots of dduk guk.

We'll do seh bae to my halmoni and Yubo's relatives. Growing up, my family celebrated seollal sporadically, if at all, but since marrying Yubo, I have made a point of making it an important holiday for my family. This year I won't get a chance to make my own dduk guk (we'll be driving up and down Los Angeles all day visiting family), but my oldest son, C, has been practicing his bowing and I've got their hanboks ready. Yubo, C and I all dutifully wished my in-laws, who live in Korea, New Year blessings in Korean over the phone earlier this evening (accounting for the time difference, it was already January 1 in Korea.)

I may even track down my own wedding hanbok, which is hiding somewhere in this house.

Mine looks similar to this one via Rae's Creations, but with a darker green chogori. It was a gift from my mother-in-law.

My American self often chafes against the obligation and self-sacrifice that is part and parcel of being part of a Korean family, but I am also undeniably Korean in my views toward family and responsibility. The act of bowing to my elders, to pay respect and promise fidelity and wish blessings in the new year on my family, is ripe with meaning and the act each year means so much more than the little envelope of money given in reciprocity. It is a reminder and a promise.

And something I revel in passing down to my children, third-generation hapa Korean Americans who will grow up both more and less Korean than I ever was.

Sae hae bok mani badusaeyo! (Many blessings to you in the New Year!)

- Nina

Reunititing Families to Unite A Nation

Whenever North Korea is in the news, and lately that's been pretty frequently, I'm struck by how the media talks about the country as if it were separate - a truly alien and different entity from industrialized, modern, democratic South Korea. And no doubt there is much to separate - over a half century of disparate ideologies, influences and, of course, the DMZ, two and a half miles of the most militarized border in the world.

But if there is any evidence left that Korea is truly one nation waiting for reunification, it is the thousands of Koreans cruelly separated from their family members all these years. Children separated from parents, brothers from sisters. These tragedies are nearly mythic, part of the many narratives of war that our grandparents and parents have carried with them all these years. Over time they become nearly irrelevant, their potency diluted against the mongering of missile testing, sanctions, politics.

But this week, those stories are being told again. 97 families were reunited in the North Korean mountain resort of Keumgang and 99 will be reunited next week. These are families - Korean families - able to embrace each other again after decades of separation. They are the fortunate ones. There are thousands of families who applied who were not picked for this round (and hopefully there will be more) of reunification meetings.

I've read that many people in South Korea are ambivalent - or at least concerned - about reunification, whether it will ever happen and even, whether they want it to, considering the possible economic ramifications. But I know most Koreans still yearn for unification. They still know, despite all their modern differences and latent ideological and political hostilities, that the 38th parallel is truly just an arbitrary line drawn in the sand of one nation. They are not truly North or South, they are simply Korean and one day will be so in name too.

- Nina Moon

Euna and Laura sentenced to 12 years in labor camps

I'm in shock and I am angry. And worried. Very worried.

Of the conclusions I've seen floated around, this is the worst case scenario come true.

Here are the reports on CNN and the NY Times. Please feel free to add more links in the comments.

My thoughts and prayers are with Euna and Laura and their families right now. Especially Hannah, Euna's four-year-old daughter. God.

- Nina

Laura Ling and Euna Lee's families breaking silence

I know that a lot of us have been watching the news since Euna Lee and Laura Ling were captured, wondering why there haven't been substantial news reports on their plight. Yes, we understood that it's a sensitive situation, that North Korea is unpredictable and that there were surely efforts going on behind the scenes. But as news reports about an American ship captain captured by pirates and then dramatically rescued and then more recently the flurry of news surrounding Roxana Saberi's trial, conviction, appeal and release, the silence around Euna and Laura weighed heavily on my mind.

They are, after all, not so different from us. But more brave. Certainly, I'm sure they knew there was some risk involved in the reporting they were doing, but like so many reporters who report in conflict zones and areas without free press, they did so because they felt compelled to report on the often desperate lives of North Korean defectors in the Chinese border region. They didn't work for big time news organizations and they weren't going to get famous or rich from their reporting, but they were trying to shine a light on stories that would otherwise go untold, unheard, unspoken.

My heart goes out to the Lee and Ling families and I'm sure I cannot imagine how difficult the decision to stay silent - and now to speak out - must be. We must do whatever we can to make sure that Euna and Laura are released! Their June 4 (June 3, in the US) trial is approaching and the Lings and Lees have decided that they can no longer afford to keep silent.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee STILL not free one month later

In Iran, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been sentenced to eight years after being convicted of spying for the United States. She was originally arrested for buying alcohol.

One month after being captured by North Koreans at the China/North Korea border while reporting on North Korean refugees in China for Current TV, Laura Ling and Euna Lee are still being held in Pyongyang. They have been charged with entering North Korea illegally and of hostile acts against the state and could face 10 years hard labor if convicted.

Bloggers and jouranlists and concerned citizens, please sign the petition calling for their unconditional release at Reporters Without Borders. Enough is enough already.

- Nina Moon

The Unofficial Official Koreatown

Just as KoreAm Journal has a cover article in their March issue about the gentrification of Los Angeles' Koreatown, the New York Times is writing today about cross-ethnic tensions over the Bangladeshi community's push to name a certain section of what is assumed part of Koreatown, Little Bangladesh.

One of the things I love about Los Angeles is that even admist supposedly clear-cut neighborhood identities, there is usually significant diversity. This is especially true of Koreatown. It remains, however, the center of social and civic life for much of Southern California's Korean community. So go ahead and call me biased, but Koreatown is Koreatown.

- Nina

What if Metrodad were white?

It's no secret that we here at Kimchi Mamas love us some Metrodad. His posts are by turn insightful or touching, but mostly they make me snort my drink up my nose on a regular basis. If there are "characters" in blog-dom, MD, his lovely BossLady and their absolutely freaking adorable Peanut are some of the most colorful and endearing. Plus, Metrodad is just an all around cool guy.

So I have to say I'm thrilled - THRILLED - that he's getting some serious interest from major networks to turn Metrodad into a television sitcom. Plus a potential book deal! Wheee!

But then I'm very much not thrilled that pushing for an Asian American lead may mean that Metrodad may never hit the small screen at all.

So what do you all think? Should MD push for an Asian American lead in any would-be sitcom? Could we imagine Metrodad as a white guy? Can funny be funny whether the character is white, yellow or purple with pink polka dots? Or should we resign ourselves to the fact that a comedy about an Asian American dad raising his daughter in New York is just too much for "mainstream" America to swallow?

- Nina

North Korea to try Asian American journalists

Laura Ling and Euna Lee will be tried for hostile acts against the North Korean state. If actually tried and convicted (and really, who are we kidding here?), they could spend years in labor camps.

When I first heard about two Asian American journalists from Current TV being captured, I was worried and upset, but hopeful that they would be quickly released in some face-saving way. Who knows, right? But the idea that they might be kept there - even tortured or punished or God-I-don't-even-want-to-think-about-it - it's just too horrible to think about. From the first moment I read about their capture, I've felt protective of these two women. And yes, it is partly because they are Asian American. Even as a second-gen, there's a feeling of solidarity and kinship amongst those who have experienced life as we have experienced it. I guess it was a similar glued-to-the-TV/internet-for-any-updates that went on when James Kim and his family went missing. That sense that it could have been one of us, any of us, our friends or our family and, knowing how close-knit our communities are, that wasn't and isn't so far-fetched.

So I know we're supposed to be all measured and circumspect about this since so little information is doled out about North Korea, but can I just say that I am very, very worried and not a little upset by this newest turn of events?

But I'm still hoping and praying for their safety and their quick release. What else can we do, after all?