Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots

290 Pages·1997·13.93 MB·English

by  Nancy Abelmann

Blue Dreams

Blue Dreams
Korean Americans and
the Los Angeles Riots
Nancy Abelmann and John Lie
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
Copyright © 1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
This book has been digitallyreprinted. Thecontent
renlains identicalto thatofpreviousprintings.
First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 1997
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abelmann, Nancy.
Blue dreams :Korean Americans and the Los Angeles riots / Nancy
Abelmann andJohn Lie.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-07704-0 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-07705-9 (pbk.)
1. Korean Americans-California-Los Angeles-History-20th
century. 2. Riots-California-Los Angeles-History-20th century
3. Los Angeles (Calif.)-Ethnic relations. I. Lie,John.
II. Title.
F869.L89K616 1995
979.4'94004957-dc20
94-23034
To our parents
Rena and Walter Abelmann, Jane and Harry Lie

Contents
Preface viii
The Los Angeles Riots, the Korean American Story
2 Reckoning via the Riots 11
3 Diaspora Formation: Modernity and Mobility 49
4 Mapping the Korean Diaspora in Los Angeles 85
5 Korean American Entrepreneurship 119
6 American Ideologies on Trial 148
Conclusion 181
Notes 193
References 225
Index 267
Preface
In this book we narrate the Korean American story in the context of
the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and simultaneously place American ide
ologies on trial. We probe the transnational dimensions and diversity
of Korean Americans in Los Angeles. In turn, Korean Americans' sit
uations and voices challenge cherished assumptions about the United
States and its minority populations. These concerns-the transnational
character of the Korean diaspora, the heterogeneity of Korean Amer
icans, and the critique of American ideologies-constitute the main
themes of Blue Dreams.
The transnational perspective necessitates transcending received
boundaries and frameworks. Indeed, any adequate account of Korean
Americans needs to take seriously the interpenetration of South Korea
and the United States. Although scholarship on Asian America must
challenge the presumption of irrevocable links between Asian Ameri
cans and their ancestral homelands, it should not neglect either pre
immigration backgrounds or post-immigration networks. This is
especially crucial for Korean Americans, many of whom are first
generation immigrants. Theyinescapablybringtheexperiencesoftheir
homeland and their ideas about what the United States is like into the
vestibule oftheirnewsociety. In manycases, theycontinueto maintain
political, economic, cultural, and personal ties with South Korea. Lim
iting our analysis to an American frame of reference would seriously
distort our understanding of this community and its diverse values,
beliefs, and actions.
Preface ix
Consider, at an ostensibly trivial level, the question of what most
Korean Americans call the L.A. riots: Sa-i-gu p'oktong (4-2-9 riot). In
Korean political history, integerchainsmarksignificantuprisings, dem
onstrations, and political turns; for example, the March First Demon
stration (1919) againstJapanese colonial rule is known as Sam-il undong
(3-1 movement), while the Student Revolution of April 19, 1960, is
calledSa-il-gu (4-1-9). To be sure, even naming is not simple orunified
among South Koreans or Korean Americans. When we spoke to a
friend in Seoul and told him that we were writing a book on the 4-2-9
riots, he retorted: "Oh, you mean the 4-2-9 uprising." The Korean di
mension was equally striking in the mourning for Eddy Lee, the only
Korean American to die in the riots. The frequently reproduced image
ofayoungman holdingEddy Lee's tasseledblack-and-white photowas
reminiscent of South Korean demonstrators mourning political mar
tyrs. The Korean dimension, moreover, is not restricted to Koreans or
to Korean Americans. A European American National Guardsman
posted in Koreatown, reflecting on his tour of duty in South Korea,
remarked how the streets reminded him of Seoul. Framing the L.A.
riots is a transpacific venture; we need to transcend national borders to
understand Korean Americans.
In reconnecting Korean immigrants to the Korea they left behind,
Blue Dreams-the color associated with dreams, hopes, and aspirations
in Korea is blue, like the clear blue sky-highlights invisible, even
repressed, threads: modern Korean history, class and status hierarchies
in South Korea, andresources andhopes that immigrants have brought
to the UnitedStates. The transnational Korean diaspora alerts us to the
enormous diversity ofthe people essentialized into the easy receptacle
of "Koreans" or "Korean Americans." Many reports on the riots, for
example, identified Korean Americans as prosperous ghetto shopkeep
ers. Yet not all Korean Americans are entrepreneurs, nor are they all
successful. Further, the stereotyped image of the Korean American
entrepreneur, which validates the ideal of the American dream, breaks
down against the recalcitrant reality of Korean immigrant lives in the
United States. Some Korean dreams have turned into American night
mares, oneiric blue into ominous blues.
The diversity and division among Korean Americans, even within
Los Angeles's Koreatown, elude facile generalizations. The timing of
immigration, for example, is a widely accepted marker of differentia
tion among Korean Americans. More striking, as we shall see, are class