A common Thread: Korean Adoptee Networks Growing Worldwide

Presentation for the Minsok Forum, May 18, 2002, Korean Center, Inc./Intercultural Institute of California

Hello. I'm HyunJu Chappell of the Association of Korean Adoptees, San Francisco (AKASF). I'm happy to be talking about the Korean adoptee experience as part of this centennial celebration of Korean American immigration.

On a day when we're honoring our pioneers, I'd like to introduce you to some of the adoptees who've made contributions to a vast array of fields -- from politics and business to academia and the arts.

In politics, Paull Shin is a senator of Washington state. After he was adopted, he was denied entry to grade school. But he later went on to earn a PhD and become a professor, a senator and a finalist for U.S. ambassador to Korea.

 

In business, Thomas Park Clement is the president and CEO of a medical manufacturing company in Indiana. He was an Amerasian Korean War orphan who went on to invent medical devices, obtain patents, and do humanitarian missions in N. Korea.

In film, Nicole Bilderback from Texas is an actor who played a nemesis in the 2000 cheerleading film, “Bring it On.”

In music, Jodi Russell is a R&B/pop singer from Illinois who started her own record label in Los Angeles.

And finally in the visual arts, Kevin Kahiler drew the popular Warner Bro.s’ shows “Power Puff Girls” and “Dexter's Lab.” His wife, Meghan Dunn, formerly of San Francisco, drew the “Maggie Moon” comic strip that appeared in KoreAm Journal.

 

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These people vary greatly in age, location and walks of life, but they all have more in common than may be imagined, sharing the experience of being adopted from Korea.

They are among the more than 150,000 Korean adoptees worldwide. The U.S. has more than 104,000 Korean adoptees. The San Francisco Bay Area is estimated to have about 3,000 Korean adoptees.

The first Korean adoptees were adopted during the aftermath of the Korean War in the mid-1950s. The war had left thousands of Amerasian and other children orphaned. A couple named Harry and Bertha Holt responded by adopting 8 Korean War orphans and bringing them to the U.S. The Holts founded Holt International Children’s Services, and set the precedent for intercountry adoption in America and Korea.

Adoption expanded to children of unmarried parents and families torn by countless other circumstances. Korean adoption boomed, and at the height, 8,837 Korean children were adopted internationally in 1985.

The Korean government came under harsh criticism, especially during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. A year later, the Korean government started a policy to decrease and eventually end international adoption. The numbers decreased and Korea went from being the No.1 highest-sending country of adopted children in 1990 to the third-highest in 2001. Last year, the number of Korean adoptees to America was 1,870.

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Once in their new countries, the children went from being a Park, Lee or Kim to being a Miller, McPeak or Zollitsch. The majority were adopted by white, religious, middle- to upper-middle-class families in rural and suburban towns in the Midwest. While many of their environments were similar, adoptees vary widely in their perceptions of issues such as race, identity, culture, and searching for birthparents.

A local adoptee described her experience being adopted in 1960. Stacy was about 12 years old when she came to Southern California and then to New York.

She said, “I was the only Asian in my high school. I was totally alone. Back in the '60s, there were no other Asians to look up. But I always thought I have to live with what was dealt to me.”

Stacy said she never felt different and always fit in with everybody. She said, “Even if people look at you funny as a kid, it didn't bother me. I just look at them funny back and go about my way.”

Stacy said she didn't know a thing about Korea. She first met Koreans when she moved to San Francisco in 1976 and went to Korean restaurants, where she reawakened a strong appetite for Korean food.

Then in 2000, Stacy took her first trip back to Korea, 40 years after being adopted. She stayed an extra week to try to see her old orphanage but was unable to get any help. Overall, she was struck by the beauty and mountains of her homeland and would love to return soon.

A person from the next generation of Korean adoptees is Tom. Tom grew up in Indiana in a family of twelve children, ten of them Korean adoptees. He later spent six months in Korea, living with his birth brother. Tom is the new president of AKASF.

Tom said he sees many of the Bay Area adoptees trying to roll back the process of assimilation they went through in the Midwest.

After living here for 2.5 years, Tom said he‘s more in tune with Korean and other cultures. He says adoptees are a mix. “They're a product of adding whatever culture they grew up in, and their physical attributes, and their cultural and historical aspects they once had. So it's a mish-mash. And then what do you do with that? You see it in the Bay Area adoptees. They all do something different with it. Some are immersed in Korean culture. Some stay on the periphery and some are in between."

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From this position of balancing two worlds, adoptees have been amazed and overjoyed to find others who have had similar experiences. Since the mid-‘80s, adoptees have been building associations in Europe. In the U.S., the spread of the Internet helped far-flung adoptees start to find each other. In 1997, about 60 adult Korean adoptees met for the first time during the Global Korean Network's conference in L.A. At the time, three adoptee organizations had been formally operating -- in Minnesota, New York City, and Los Angeles. Now, the number of U.S. adoptee groups has grown to about fifteen from D.C. to Denver to Sacramento, with more beginning to form.

Some of the accomplishments of the adoptee groups around the world have been:

* Creating mentorship programs for young adoptees.

* Organizing adoptee tours to Korea.

* Being involved in adoption legislation and policy-making.

* Collaborating with Korean and Korean American communities.
* And achieving NGO status for the group in Seoul that serves adoptees visiting and living in Korea.

A milestone was reached in 1999 when the 1st International Gathering of Korean Adoptees was held in Washington, D.C. More than 400 people from the U.S. and Europe attended. The 2nd International Gathering was held in Oslo, Norway, in 2001. And the 3rd Gathering is being planned for 2003 in Seoul.

As we look to the future, there is much work to be done. President Kim Dae-Jung hopes adoptees will become bridges between their homeland and their adopted nations. Adoptees hope for a better path for young adoptees coming up behind us. And all of us can look forward to continuing positive relations with our fellow Koreans and Korean Americans -- for another 100 years to come.