TWINSTERS
On February 21, 2013, Samantha, an American actor living in Los Angeles, received a message via Facebook that would drastically change her life. It was from Anaïs, a Frenchfashion design student living in London. Anaïs’ friends viewed a KevJumba YouTube video featuring Samantha. They were immediately blown away by the identical appearance of Samantha & Anaïs. After a few light Google stalking sessions, Anaïs & her friends discovered that both girls were born on November 19, 1987 & adopted shortly after. Anaïs knew immediately that it was possible for Samantha to be her biological twin sister & reached out to her through Twitter & Facebook.
KASCON - Korean American Student Conference March 22 - 24, 2013
There will be four sessions at KASCON XXVI.: (1) [ROOTS] Engaging the Past; (2) [IDENTITIES] Breaking Down the Walls; (3) [PASSIONS] Grasping the Present; (4) [VISIONS] Imagining the Future.
I. [ROOTS] Engaging the Past: Taking a comprehensive look at our history as Koreans as well as Korean Americans and how this historical heritage impacts our present.
Topics include:
- History of Korean migration
- Evolution of religion in Korean culture
- Impact of Korean War
- North + South Korean History
- Economic growth + Diaspora
II. [IDENTITIES] Breaking Down the Walls: Taking a critical look at the identities that we occupy and build, and what it means to examine ourselves as individuals and as members of communities that intersect, working with/against each other to produce the unique experiences each of us live. Topics include:
- Gender rights + LGBTQ activism
- Intergenerational tensions + family structure
- Media representations of Asians
- Adopted and/or Multiracial Koreans
- Relations w/ other ethnic groups
III. [PASSIONS] Grasping the Present: Viewing how Korean Americans are making inroads into industries today in entrepreneurship and their various other professional fields and industries. Does being Korean or Asian American influence where we stand in social and economic institutions today? Is it limiting? Is it empowering? What are the effects of our successes and of our failures?
Topics include:
- Contemporary Art
- Politics + Civic Engagement
- Entrepreneurs + Business
- Body Image
- Academic culture + Elitism
IV. [VISIONS] Imagining the Future: Envisioning a future that we create with our own hands, through establishing a clear sense of our identities and our goals, both as a group and as individuals. Anexploration of visions, goals, and hopes, diverse and sometimes disparate, and the bigger picture they create of a living, evolving community. Topics include:
- Education Reform
- Immigration Reform + Political Representation
- Social Entrepreneurship + Humanitarian Work
- Increasing economic presence of Asian countries
- Preservation of culture
Speakers include Maria Yoon, John J. Kim, Curtis Chin, Pauline Park, Iris Shim, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Keish Kim, Franny Choi, Steven Choi, Christine Yoo, Karen Chung, and Mark Ro Beyersdorf.
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program Timeline
This timeline provided by the Smithsonian APIA Program Timeline helps provide the Korean American experience within the context of the larger Asian Pacific American Community.
For more about her story, follow the link above.
A Korean woman raised in the US finds out she isn’t who she thought she was. An adopted man in the UK decides never to find out who his biological father is. And a man in Palestine discovers that he may have been switched at birth with another baby.
In response to some of the negativity that’s been circulating the KAD groups online.
Geographies of Kinship -The Korean Adoption Story
GEOGRAPHIES OF KINSHIP-THE KOREAN ADOPTION STORY(working title) is a feature-length documentary that follows 5-6 Korean adoptees from the U.S. and Europe, each on a unique journey related to their adoptions. One person is searching for roots and returns to Korea for the first time. Another undertakes a search for her birth family and the reasons for her adoption. Yet another is seeking community among other adoptees. Some are motivated by a sense of loss, while others are well adjusted but desire a connection to their past. These character-driven stories will unfold against a wider backdrop of the Korean War and the hidden effects of post-war industrialization and globalization on women and families in South Korea.
(Click the title for more)
Advice to Adoptive Parents - Stephanie D.
Holt's 2012 Happy Trail in Korea for Korean adoptees
The trip is July 11th - 24th , 2012
Application Deadline: March 31, 2012!
Info at the link:
http://www.holtinternational.org/adopteestoday/pdfs/2012Programguide_application.pdf
우리가 돌아왔다 (We Came Back)
Around 5000 to 6000 Adult Korean adoptees come back to Korea yearly. Mostly of them come back for a short time looking for their roots or satisfying their curiosity. Organizations as InKAS or GOA’L are here to welcome and help them connecting back to their birth country providing cultural/field trip, translation, housing and scholarship to learn Korean.
However, lately, more and more adoptees tend or wish to stay in Korea but they do face hardships as making a living or finding their place in the Korean society. These are new goals for InKAS and they started an awareness campaign to motivate Korean companies to include Korean adoptees into their international recruting policies and support/invest in adoptees professional projects.
Things are going on and right now, thanks to GOA’L, Korean adoptees are the only ones to be granted to obtain Korean dual citizenship.
Campaign produced by InKAS.
www.inkas.org
New Report Details the Struggles of Korean Adoptees
The New York Times has a story on a new report looking at the lives of adopted children from Korea. The study, issued by a nonprofit adoption research and policy group, is apparently one of the largest studies of transracial adoptions. It was released today: Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity.
The report, which focuses on the first generation of children adopted from South Korea, found that 78 percent of those who responded had considered themselves to be white or had wanted to be white when they were children.
Sixty percent indicated their racial identity had become important by the time they were in middle school, and, as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find their birth parents.
Most Korean adoptees were raised in predominantly white neighborhoods and saw few, if any, people who looked like them. The report also found that the children were teased and experienced racial discrimination, often from teachers. And only a minority of the respondents said they felt welcomed by members of their own ethnic group.
As a result, many of them have had trouble coming to terms with their racial and ethnic identities. While I think I have much to learn about the experiences Asian American adoptees, I don’t think these findings are particularly surprising. I think they illustrate what we’ve known, at least anecdotally, for a very long time.
South Korea was the first country from which Americans adopted in significant numbers. They currently make up the largest group of transracial adoptees in the United States and, by some estimates, are 10 percent of the nation’s Korean population.
Some of the experiences described in the article, about adoptees feeling alienated and rejecting their own ethnic identity, are just heartbreaking. I just hope that a study like this is helpful to the transracial parents and adoptees who are growing up and grappling with these issues right now.
A look at Natasha Driscoll of Atlanta and living the American Dream in the U.S.
Ladie K Productions, Ladie K is a filmmaker, model, actress, korean adoptee, living in Chicago. She makes films creatively for herself, other production companies, and commercially. Ladie K Productions is a mass media marketing and production company, Ladie K is a young asian entrepreneur and free thinker doing her best to make this world a better place. Check out her most recent film at www.melodymovie.com and google Ladie K or LadieK to find her online.
Beautiful, sexy, ambitious self-expressionist and starving artist Ladie K.
Starring: Ladie K
Director of Photography: Christian Hins
Director Editor: Scott Feigen
I miss the Filipino Heritage Camp (FHC), Filipino Adoptees Network, and everyone else I met on my experience there. Here is video for those who are Korean Adoptees and would like to be camp counselors or attend the heritage camp.
What’s your story? did you go to the camp? Are you an adoptee? Any thoughts on your unique background?
My last name’s Matthews. Not that I try to hide the fact that i’m adopted, just something that I don’t necessarily openly promote beyond DANakaDAN. This past weekend had the opportunity to speak and perform at the annual Korean Heritage Camp for adoptees. It was one of the most meaningful experiences i’ve ever been involved in. Met families+community members from all around the country who convene in Colorado at Snow Mountain Ranch to learn more about the adoptee experience. Here’s a video about the experience at the camp as well as my own personal story + an introduction to my own family. Thought it would be something that I’d like to share.
Read Blog + See Photos of Experience:http://afterschoolspecialmusic.com/life/my-adoption-story
I’d like you guys to meet Shane Carlin who is a Korean Adoptee. He told his story and also expressed his experiences growing up at my MAASU Leadership Retreat 2011 on a panel along with another Korean Adoptee, Joy Messinger from upstate New York, and me a Filipino adoptee, James Beni Wilson. We compared and contrasted from each other and built off a variety of struggles that Asian Adoptees face.
TEDxLakeshoreEast - Shane Carlin - Living in the Hyphen: A Korean Adoptee Story
There are over thousands of adoptees in the United States from all over the World. Shane Carlin, a Korean-American Adoptee will give his personal account growing-up in the US as one of these thousands of adoptees and not only enlighten us of his struggles and successes of identity development, but also give pointers to those parents who have or are going to adopt children from overseas.
Shane T. Carlin is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Advancement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also sits on numerous boards including the Midwest Asian American Student Union Board of Advisors, the Korean Cultural Center, and the National Association of Asian American Professionals. He was born in Seoul, South Korea and is a Korean American Adoptee.
About TEDx
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organised events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organised events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organised TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organised.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
