Rée’s Story Growing Up Korean-American
Rée describes herself as an interdisciplinary storyteller and educator. Her creative journey started early. With a background in art and film, she’s worked as a photographer, filmmaker, and graphic designer. Rée says her creative pursuits come naturally to her. Her brain works like a camera, constantly capturing images and patterns. This unique perspective led her to pursue careers in the visual and creative fields.
For 15 years, Rée also worked as an educator. She taught communications and multimedia-related subjects. Growing up, she always knew she was a creative person. Rée’s mother, a designer and singer-songwriter, played a significant role in her creative development. In fact, her mother is quite famous in South Korea. She’s known as the mother of Korean folk music. While Rée was proud of her mother’s reputation in South Korea, that social capital didn’t translate to growing up as a minority in the United States.
Rée didn’t grow up with her biological father. She often spent summers with her grandparents when her mother worked in South Korea. These experiences shaped her understanding of family and her cultural background. Rée describes her upbringing as that of a second-generation immigrant. She inherited her family’s culture while simultaneously navigating American society. Rée notes that this can feel like starting out without cultural roots in the country.
Let’s get more into growing up Korean-American with Rée.
What Cultural Norms Remain?
When interviewing children of immigrants, I like to know which cultural traditions the parents kept and which ones they adapted once moving to the United States. This is a decision most immigrants make once they move to the United States.
Language was one. Rée explains that the Korean language is very hierarchical. There is no direct translation for “you”. Hierarchy is embedded in each word. When Korean people speak, a lot of information is conveyed because of this hierarchy. This is why subtitles in movies and TV shows can be so long. The Korean language is rich in information. Maintaining the language was one thing they definitely kept in their household. Everyone knew their place.
Pride is another important aspect. Rée’s family took great pride in their identity and social standing in South Korea. They were also proud of their accomplishments in the United States. It was a very proud and culturally strong home. The pride they felt came from their accomplishments and what they could do for society in the US.
The Decision to Move Back to South Korea
Unfortunately, growing up in the United States, Rée felt a lot of shame about being Korean. She didn’t eat the same types of foods or have the same type of body. She didn’t have the double eyelid that most Western people do, and she was also very hairy. Rée rejected her culture for a significant amount of time. She stopped associating with her Korean culture, and she changed the way she spoke. She even learned how to sing the national anthem like an American.
When Rée went to college as an art major, she had to work on her identity. She wondered why she had rejected so much of her Korean culture. So, she began to consider the possibility of traveling to South Korea to learn more about her heritage. She also wanted to learn about her mother’s and grandfather’s legacies. After college, she got a job teaching English through the Korean government. She taught English for a year and learned a lot about her culture. She met her now husband. This is actually her third time going back and forth. Her husband’s company moved them there right after she finished her master’s in the States.
What Rée Learned About Her Family’s Legacy in South Korea
Rée learned that her mother’s songs have a far reach. If she mentions who her mother is to people of that generation, most will recognize her. She met her friends and acquaintances. They told her stories about the history of her songs and how many student-led revolutions have used her songs to send a message to the government.
Her grandfather was a very important engineer during his time. During the Park Jong Hee administration in South Korea, the authoritarian regime, Park Jong Hee sent his right-hand man to her grandfather. He wanted him to build tanks for the country to annihilate his enemies. However, her grandfather refused. He said he wasn’t going to create weapons to allow them to kill people in their country. That’s the reason he had to flee Korea and go into hiding. If he wasn’t going to create these weapons, they were going to hunt him down. Learning that her mother and grandfather were revolutionaries in their resistance and their integrity legitimized why they were so prideful while she was growing up. An act of resistance is social change. Learning that runs in her blood helped her realize what her purpose in the world is.
Learning these things helped change her perspective of her identity and culture. The reason why she started her podcast is because she thought they didn’t cater to people with different thinkers like her, to neurodivergent people, to social thinkers, to conceptual thinkers. She started her podcast to reform education and make it more inclusive. She has revolutionary blood in her. That’s given her a lot of push, expectation, and drive to do the work that she does. It really did change her.
What Does it Mean to Belong
In the context of belonging, she discusses fitting in and how it often stems from feelings of shame and embarrassment. It comes from not feeling like you are enough. Belonging is knowing that who you are is exactly who you are supposed to be. Don’t be afraid to be that person. Instead of trying to fit in, belong.
This is a perfect way to end a podcast episode, especially on an immigration podcast. You are who you are supposed to be.
Hopefully, this provides you with more insight into Rée’s story of growing up as a Korean-American.
Watch Now – Growing Up Korean-American
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