The Resources page has been updated to include links to descriptions of these adoptee films. If a picture says a thousand words, a film must say a million (at least). If you know of others that we can include in the list, please let us know.
Resilience
Adopted the Movie
First Person Plural
In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee
A Brand New Life
Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy
Off and Running
My Father
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Sara Docan-Morgan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies
321 Center for the Arts
University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
Interviewees needed for study about birth family reunions
Hello,
My name is Sara Docan-Morgan, and I am a Korean adoptee and an assistant professor of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.
I am conducting a research study that examines Korean adoptees’ reunions with their birth families. I am interested in adoptees’ communication (or lack thereof) with their adoptive families about these reunions, as well as the communication that takes place with birth families before, during, and after reunions. My overall goal is to better understand Korean adoptees’ birth family reunion experiences and the interactions that surround these reunions.
If you are a Korean adoptee 18 years or older and have reunited with your birth family, I would be honored to hear about your experience. I will be in the L.A. area the first two weeks of January and would be happy to set up an interview at a time and location convenient for you. Interviews will last approximately 30-75 minutes, depending on the amount you would like to share. I am also able to schedule phone interviews for those who would like to share their story but who are unable to meet the first two weeks of January.
If you are interested or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 507-450-3561, or e-mail me at docan-mo.sara@uwlax.edu.
A little about me:
If you would like to see my faculty profile, please visit:
http://www.uwlax.edu/commstudies/faculty-staff.htm#SaraDocanMorgan
My work has recently been published in the Journal of Korean Adoption Studies, the Journal of Family Communication, and the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
…and you can now pay them online using the Donate button on the left sidebar. The 2011 dues are $24 for the year. Your paid membership helps support AKASoCal to continue existing as an organization in our endeavors to outreach, support, and meet on an ongoing basis. In 2010, dues paid for:
1) business expenses, and required filings to keep us a 501(c)(3);
2) 10 sponsorships to the Asian American Film Festival in San Diego that featured 4 films by Korean Adoptees;
3) a small reception for our co-sponsorship of Deann Borshay’s LA premiere of “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee”;
4) food for our first AKA all-chapters 2010 kick-off meeting.
Even with our small expenditures this year, we are still ending the year with a net loss (our dues revenue was not enough to cover the amounts listed here).
Also, $12 of the $24 goes to your chapter for purposes designated by your chapter.
The next book club meeting is the same day as the next Quarterly General meeting.
Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee
From Publishers Weekly
…On making Sunee’s acquaintance in the introduction to this charming memoir, it’s hard not to envy the young woman swimming laps in the pool overlooking the orchard of her petit ami’s vast compound in the High Alps of Provence, but below the surface of this portrait is a turbulent quest for identity. Abandoned at age three in a Korean marketplace, Sunee is adopted by an American couple who raise her in New Orleans. In the 1990s she settles, after a fashion, in France with Olivier Baussan, a multimillionaire of epicurean tastes and—at least in her depiction—controlling disposition. She struggles to create a home for herself in the kitchen, cooking gargantuan meals for their large circle of friends, until her restive nature and Baussan’s impatience with her literary ambitions compel her to move on. The gutsy Cajun and ethereal French recipes that serve as chapter codas are matched by engaging storytelling. Alas, for all Sunee’s preoccupation with the geography of home, her insights on the topic are disappointingly slight, and the facile wrapup offered in the form of resolution seems a shortcut in a book that traverses so much rocky terrain.
If you’re out there and want to meet other adoptees in your area, let us know.
Continuing its mission of helping overseas adopted Koreans, G.O.A.’L Korea is opening its first branch office outside of Seoul, Korea.
Seoul, South Korea – Since the 1950′s upwards of 200,000 Korean children have been adopted out of Korea. Since the 1980′s, many adult adoptees have returned to Korea to search for their birth families, to seek connection to Korean culture, language and identity, and to work and to live. While many adoptees make this journey successfully, the majority of adoptees encounter and continue to encounter significant barriers in navigating their way through Korean society.
G.O.A.’L was established in Seoul, Korea in March 1998 as an independent organization to assist adoptees returning to Korea. G.O.A.’L unites Korean adoptees from European countries and the U.S. together with the help of over 100 native Korean volunteers. G.O.A.’L's presence in Korea fosters awareness about adoption in the Korean government, adoption agencies, and Korean society. To date, G.O.A.’L has provided assistance to over 6,000 Korean adoptees.
G.O.A.‘L believes that with a branch office in the USA, where most Korean adoptees have been adopted to, G.O.A.‘L can provide support and advice about Korean culture, trips to Korea, language scholarships, adoptee programs, birth-family search, and other topics sooner and more easily to US adoptees than they can with G.O.A.‘L Korea. G.O.A.‘L USA also feels strongly about working with and being a resource for already established Korean adoptee organizations in the USA.
G.O.A.‘L USA will inform USA adoptees about valuable resources available to them from a branch office in the states so that services can be communicated more regionally and in a familiar environment. The result being a broader reaching message to adoptees and the ability to respond, react, and serve from a local office.
A G.O.A.’L USA launch party will be held in Santa Barbara, CA, USA on December 30, 2010. For more information on the launch party, G.O.A.’L Korea, or G.O.A.’L USA, please contact Betsy Schaffer (goal.usa.info@gmail.com).
Cartoon in LA Times on 12/10/10
I never, ever read the LA Times, but at a work training on Friday, the man sitting next to me offered up his paper. I spent about 3 hours on the crossword puzzle before I noticed this comic right next to it!
At first, I thought the bird was the adoptee, but then I looked closer…
The Association of Korean Adoptees (AKA) is a Southern California-based organization whose umbrella covers Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. Established in 1994, AKA is a non-profit, independent and secular group of adult, Korean-born adoptees and their associates. AKA is a 501(c)(3) California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation.
