Creating home in Koreatown
A resident of Koreatown and an avid cyclist, Doo Hyung Kang worked for Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance for many years. Currently, he works at a Korean restaurant company.
by Doo Hyun Kang
Immigrants will never be able to go back to their homes. Even if they return physically, the home they remember will not the same. It was the main lesson I took from the Asian American study class I took five years after I migrated to the United States. When I heard this, I felt strange despair that I will not be able to truly return home.
Although it is true that the home I remember is forever lost, Los Angeles Koreatown became my new home. Moving and living in Koreatown gave me a chance to be independent and become more aware of my cultural identity. When I was taking an ESL class, random questions about Korean culture shocked me because I could not respond. It was not the language skills that prevented me from answering, but I had never thought about my culture. I did not have to define my Korean identity when I lived in Korea. Immigration gave me strong motivation to discover who I am and Koreatown was where I built my own identity.
Because of the language barrier, I became the main translator for my family. I quickly realized that many Korean Americans suffer from language barrier. Being bilingual and bicultural, my first full-time job was as a reporter for a Korean newspaper in Los Angeles. After that, I worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) with the desire and hope of creating a better community.
Despite the perfect weather, Koreatown is far from perfect. Koreatown needs better communication within the community. Even after the Watts Riots in 1965, and the LA uprising in 1992, the economic polarization, lack of education, and opportunity still persist. If we can't solve these issues, we might face another violent chaos. However, I believe Koreatown has great potential. The majority of the residents in Koreatown are not Korean Americans; Caucasians/Hispanics is the dominant population. I believe this mixture of people and culture is the strength of Koreatown. It always fascinated me that only humans can be enlightened according to Buddhist teaching. Only humans can be enlightened because we can have pain and wisdom. Koreatown might be the place where we can start to understand each other and overcome problems together.