Illustration by Eunice Choi

It’s now known as the Purple Tunnel of Doom.

A covered passage below the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where on January 20, at least a thousand people waited for hours to be granted entry into the inaugural ceremony of Barack Hussein Obama.

Out of the estimated two million who swarmed into the nation’s capital to witness the historic swearing-in, those in the tunnel were considered the fortunate ones. They had tickets to the event — coded by the color purple to indicate a large standing section on the Capitol grounds.

I was there, too. Nearby in Virginia, I’d woken up at 5 a.m. and after contorting my body to fit into a stuffed subway car, I was spit out near the U.S. Capitol building right after daybreak. It was 20 degrees. At every turn, a sea of heads stretched for blocks, and everyone — from babies in slings to grandmothers in wheelchairs — was bundled up in blankets or puffy coats.

Illustration by John Park

My purple ticket in hand, I frantically searched for my line on Constitution Avenue, only to discover that it wasn’t a line at all. Instead, an amorphous throng of ticket holders filled the entire street and adjoining sidewalks outside the checkpoint. Several had been waiting since 3 a.m.

For the next six hours, I was crushed among the masses. Teenagers climbed trees for air. A woman next to me fainted during a panic attack. And as the disgruntled crowd became increasingly aware that their tickets were nothing more than glorified bookmarks, they grumbled and screamed: “Let us in! Let us in!”

I never made it in.

The irony is obvious: After a campaign and election largely successful for its philosophy of inclusiveness, an estimated 4,000 ticket holders — who included congressional staff, hardcore fans and some of Obama’s most diligent volunteers — were shut out. The sense of disappointment was palpable. “This is absolute horse crap!” one woman shrieked.

Surely, a logistical bungle of this magnitude is likely when millions converge on the same plot of land for an 18-minute speech. It was an unanticipated nightmare, truly it was.

And, yet, a heavy inaugural crowd was always expected — for good reason. Because after eight years of watching — in horror — as wars unfurled, as the economy collapsed, and as elders died on the streets of New Orleans, Americans no longer had the desire or option to remain disengaged.

Which is why the country chose a new type of American to inhabit the Oval Office. Why youth, ethnic minorities, progressives, and new immigrants cloaked themselves in stars-and-stripes for the very first time.

And why on January 20, a tunnel in downtown D.C. was teeming with Americans, all desperately facing the Capitol to see what would happen next.

***

From the moment I arrived in Washington, D.C. with my reporting colleague, Angela Chung, it was as if I’d ventured onto Barack country. It was January 17, and already, tourists were roaming the streets in bejeweled Obama beanies, clutching subway passes emblazoned with his beaming mug.

The last time I’d visited D.C. was for the swearing-in of George W. Bush. In 2001, the streets were lined with outraged protestors, voicing their belief that the G.O.P. had stolen the election. It was the first time I’d witnessed such citywide urgency in the United States, an uprising of sorts that felt simultaneously unifying and hostile.

Illustration by Kyungduk Kim

Eight years later, another inauguration. It’s been said that the one thing more powerful than the new president’s inaugural speech was the silence among the millions who stood peacefully on the grassy miles between the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial. Equally moving were the spontaneous, congratulatory conversations between strangers over this new day in our nation, with the word change frequently summoned.

The speech, however, often felt somber, as Obama noted “that the challenges we face are real. They are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.” As if deliberately attempting to terminate his honeymoon phase or messiah status, the president reminded us of our most gripping
anxieties: Iraq, Guantánamo, global warming, the recession, the crumbling of public schools.

Yet January 20, 2009 signified hope. And other than the crowds and cold, the moment couldn’t be any more different than when his predecessor took oath. When cannons were fired, signaling that Obama was now the 44th president of the United States, people cheered and wiped away tears. They passed out hot cocoa. Strangers hugged — and sang on the streets.

A celebration of this scale isn’t just pleasantly alarming and unusual. It’s groundbreaking.

On January 18, tens of thousands spilled onto the National Mall for the inaugural kick-off “We Are One” concert, scrambling on top of port-o-potties to catch a view of the president-elect, as well as Denzel Washington, Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé. I was stunned by the unveiling phenomenon of POTUS-with-rock-star- status. The revelers were young people, old. Black, brown and the not-so-mellow yellow. And when Obama appeared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he was met with their joyous, collective roar.

It was hip to unabashedly support the American president, so much that scores ordered “Obama-tinis” at sultry nightclubs, chanting his name under flashing disco balls.

It felt surreal, but hasn’t it all since November 4? For many, Obama’s victory signified the proudest cultural moment of their lives, and so the optimism and euphoria he symbolizes is hard even to articulate.

But the most common emotion among those I met in D.C. was excitement. And it was because they identified so strongly with Obama’s American experience.

“I don’t see Barack Obama [solely] as an African American president,” said Sukhee Kang, the newly elected (and first non-white) mayor of Irvine, Calif., while visiting the capital for the Korean Democratic Committee’s inaugural gathering. “He is one of us.”

The pleasure and awe surrounding Obama’s election was always partially defined by the color of his skin. Obama is the nation’s first black chief executive, but the multicultural bliss that he’s inspired is rooted in his radically unconventional background (for presidents, at least). A narrative that is both international and domestic, majority and minority — in short, American as defined by Asian Americans. Obama’s Hawaiian/Indonesian upbringing and foreigner father resonates with us. For the first time, the American president has a sister and brother-in-law cut from our cloth.

At the Asia Society’s inaugural reception on January 17, Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, active in mobilizing Asian Americans during her brother’s campaign, took the stage. “We’re seeing unprecedented levels of participation, cooperation and involvement,” she said to a packed ballroom of hundreds at the St. Regis Hotel that included more than a dozen dignitaries from Asia. “Thank you for the important work that you’re about to do, so that our country and our world is more gentle and kind and beautiful.”

Like their minority counterparts, Asian Americans rallied on inauguration week. According to exit polls, 61 percent of Asian Americans voted for the Democratic candidate. Several Asian Americans have already been tapped to join Obama’s team in the White House and now hold some of the administration’s most significant posts. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu is our Energy Secretary. General Eric Shinseki heads Veterans Affairs. And 24-year-old Eugene Kang, as special assistant to the prez, is being groomed as one of our generation’s future leaders. For an ethnic American minority that has long been pegged as quiet or invisible, Asian Americans couldn’t help but relish in such appointments.

At a briefing themed “Moving the Dream Forward” at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, sponsored by Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote, even registered Republicans couldn’t help but get swept away by Obama’s promise of change.

“Just as the civil rights movement really impacted and opened doors for minorities and for all Americans, this historic occasion is a great opportunity for us to represent our community,” said Hyepin Im, president of Korean Churches for Community Development. “He’s really been able to organize and mobilize the young folks and that will also bring about exciting changes in the years to come. I believe that.”

For panelist Gary Locke, the former Governor of Washington and the first Asian American to lead a mainland state, change has already come. “Barack Obama truly signifies that in America, glass ceilings are being shattered,” he said. “Asian Americans have given their blood, sweat and tears for this country. Now, we’re seeing that America really is that land of opportunity for people of immigrant backgrounds. That offers tremendous hope.”

It’s also especially gratifying for Asian Americans to know that trailblazers, such as General Shinseki, will now have the president’s ear. “I am deeply honored to have been nominated by President-elect Obama to help him create a veterans affairs department for the 21st century,” the general said at the Pearl Presidential Gala, an Asian American-hosted fête, on the eve of the inauguration. “This is a great opportunity for me to give back to those youngsters, some of whom I went to war with, some of whom I sent to war, and others whose shoulders I stood on, who are the great veterans of World War II and Korea.”

Illustration by Noah Dempewolf

That night, after Charice Pempengco belted out a soulful rendition of “God Bless America,” many couldn’t help but marvel how it made sense, for perhaps the very first time, that a songstress hailing from the Philippines could so perfectly pay homage to a country that wasn’t necessarily her own.

The next day, Barack Obama would make history.

Now, a fair number of those who voted for him and those who did not remain cautiously skeptical about whether “change you can believe in” will happen. But there are promising signs: In his first days, Obama signed an order to close the Guantánamo prison within a year, directed the Environmental Protection Agency to consider allowing states to pass their own stricter auto emissions laws, and granted an interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language TV news channel, to send a message to Arabs and Muslims everywhere: We are not your enemy.

But, as of the final week in January, all Republican members of the House of Representatives voted against the $819 billion, Obama-backed economic stimulus package that Democrats still managed to pass, recalling the partisan business-as-usual model of years past. Heavy questions hang in the air: Even if passed, as expected with Democrats dominating both houses of Congress, can the package shore up a nose-diving economy? Will the campaign promise of affordable health care be forgotten? Will Obama quickly end the war in Iraq?

Only time will tell.

As Sam Yoon, Boston city councilor-at-large currently running for mayor, said to a group of politically-engaged Korean Americans in D.C., “The work has yet to be done. If Barack Obama’s election means anything to us, it has to be that more of us are involved in this country’s future.”

The ways in which Obama may reshape our government are profound yet still difficult to envision. But a new sense of patriotism — inclusive, globally-friendly and motivated by hope, not fear — has taken shape. And perhaps, a governing body that looks nothing like we’ve seen before, because somehow, it’ll look a little more like us. The Census calculates that minorities, now about a third of the U.S. population, are expected to outnumber whites by 2042. Will our political culture transform to sustain this new majority? It already has.

By Namju Cho, Angela Chung, Julie Ha, Kai Ma, Michelle Woo and Fabiana Yu

TEAM OBAMA

The Sidekick / Eugene Kang

You may have wondered who that skinny guy golfing with the president is. As the special assistant to Obama, Eugene Kang is one of the lucky few who gets to go nearly anywhere the president goes. (For West Wing fans, think “Charlie.”)

Although only 24, Kang is no newcomer to politics. Just three years earlier, as a senior at the University of Michigan, he ran for City Council of Ann Arbor in his home state to represent the “student voice.” Narrowly defeated, Kang went on to play a key role as one of the 14 people on the Obama presidential exploratory committee in Chicago, as well as run an online website for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in support of Obama’s campaign.

So what is a “Special Assistant to the President”? Basically, a personal secretary for Obama, Kang will be responsible for the commander-in-chief’s scheduling, phone calls, emails, note-taking, in addition to — as the now famous photos expose — serving as his golfing buddy. He will no doubt have unique insight into the inner workings of this historic administration, which may later inform his own political aspirations.

The Liaison / Betsy Kim

Betsy Kim, a Democrat active in outreaching to Asian Pacific American voters, has been named the White House liaison to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Kim formerly served as counselor to the administrator of the Small Business Administration under the Clinton Administration. From 2005 to 2008, she was tapped by the Democratic National Committee to help increase APA participation in the party. She similarly ran outreach efforts in the APA community for the Obama for America headquarters in Chicago during the presidential campaign.

During the final two months of the election, she ran the Get Out the Vote operations in Northern Virginia.

A second-generation Korean American with roots in Hawaii, Kim graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in government in 1985 and holds a J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law.

The Big Spender / Ellen Kim

Wondering how much was spent on direct mailers from the Barack Obama campaign? What about those stage lights for the swearing-in ceremony? And just how expensive were the hors d’oeuvres at the Neighborhood Ball?

Just ask Ellen Kim.

During the presidential campaign, the 27-year-old former investment banker served as the budget manager for Obama’s paid media team, tracking its spending on media time and production, polling, direct mail and internet advertising. During the inauguration, she helped manage the spending on all of the festivities.

Kim, a graduate of both MIT and Stanford Business School, had no previous campaign experience, but a school connection and a quick phone interview landed her a spot on the 12-member team. “I thought it would be a unique, exciting and special experience to be at the forefront of an important presidential election, and it certainly was,” she explains.

From the Obama headquarters in downtown Chicago, Kim oversaw seven unique budgets, along with the payment processing for everything from hundred-dollar internet ads to multi-million-dollar TV time slots.

Because the campaign did not accept public financing, the team had no limits on how much money it could raise and spend. This kept Kim on her toes. “If we raised the funds, we aimed to spend them,” she says.

As her responsibilities come to an end, Kim relishes in the afterglow of her whirlwind journey.

“The greatest reward of the job was watching Barack Obama be sworn in as our 44th president and knowing I had a small part to do with it,” she says.

The Navy Fellow/Steven Lee

Long-term dedication to the military isn’t particularly common among Korean Americans, says U.S. Navy Commander Steven Lee, but the 38-year-old hopes to see that change with President Obama’s call for service.

“As someone who grew up in D.C., I’m sometimes cynical about politics, but this time around, you feel it’s different,” says Lee, who has lived in and around the D.C. area since emigrating from South Korea as a child. “I don’t think this country will ever be the same, in a positive way.”

Lee’s favorable comments toward Obama might surprise some who buy into the stereotype that servicemembers favor Republican administrations over Democratic ones because of the fear that the latter will reduce the defense budget.

But Lee says he believes the new president understands the nation’s military obligations abroad and will listen to senior military officials who want to “engage in a different [way], not just with a fist or military power, but with diplomacy.”

Such a balanced view suits the commander who currently serves as the Navy’s Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution, working as an intermediary between the policy world and the Navy. At the leading Washington, D.C. think tank, he conducts independent research on global maritime partnerships on behalf of the military.

After his service as a fellow concludes in 2011, Lee will assume command of a U.S. warship. He will become the first Korean American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to do so.

“I hope to see a lot more people that look like me in federal government and the military, in senior positions,” says Lee. “We have our first minority president. I’m sure people are now asking about the first Asian American president. So the door has been opened.”

The Messenger/Annabel Park

Innovative grassroots/netroots activist and filmmaker Annabel Park has just released her new YouTube documentary “9500 Liberty.” Jointly produced with her partner Eric Byler, this new feature film tackles the social and political tensions ignited by immigration in Prince William County, Va. Already generating a buzz, it has been featured by CNN and the Washington Post.

Self-described as a “bridge-builder,” Park worked as the national coordinator for 121 Coalition in 2007, a lobbying campaign to pass House Resolution 121, which called for redressing the human rights violations of Korean “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.

In 2007, Park became active in the Obama campaign, creating a channel on YouTube called “United for Obama” to encourage first-, 1.5- and second-generation Korean Americans to elect the Democratic candidate. For first-generation Korean Americans, Park says, “it took a lot to get to know Obama, because they could not hear his speeches, and that is where you get the impact of Obama.”

Among the 1.5-er’s well-known YouTube films are “My Mom is a Born-Again Democrat,” in which she documented her mother’s personal journey from longtime Republican to Obama devotee.

The Transporter/David S. Kim

Clogged freeways, greenhouse gases, alternative energy — these are some of the problems David S. Kim tackles as the deputy executive officer for Federal Advocacy and Government Relations at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It’s a mouthful, but it breaks down to serving as a lobbyist for the third largest transit provider in the nation. A native Californian, Kim has spent the last five years in D.C. working with Congress and two administrations on transportation policy.

Perfect timing for Kim, given that transportation policy, as the 45-year-old notes, goes “hand in hand with global warming, climate change, trying to reduce dependence on foreign oil” — all issues that the Obama administration will need to confront. Transportation is a key section of the current economic stimulus package.

Kim, married with two children, has served at various levels of state and federal government and is active in both the Korean and Asian American communities. He is a long-time member of the Korean American Coalition’s D.C. chapter, and at one time, served on the national board. Prior to his stint with the MTA, he served as acting deputy director in the Washington office of former California Governor Gray Davis.

The Interpreter/Cecilia Kang

Throughout the course of her prolific 15 years in journalism, Cecilia Kang has covered everything from the 1997 Asian financial crisis to the dotcom bust, the working poor in Seattle and the relationship between Korean grocers and Latino workers in northern Virginia. All of this experience culminated into one of the biggest opportunities of her life: covering the presidential elections and transition to an Obama administration from the epicenter of it all, Washington, D.C.

“I feel lucky to be in Washington in this time in history,” says the 35-year-old Kang, who now covers technology and policy for the Washington Post.

The Seattle native’s first job was as a copy editor at AP Dow Jones. She soon became the first Korean American to hold the post of bureau chief at the financial newswire’s Seoul office. After reporting stints in San Jose and Seattle, she was recruited by the Post in 2006.

For the past year, she has been writing about telecommunications policy decisions that she says have an immense impact on the industry’s bottom line and ultimately the consumers. “When President Obama speaks about making high speed internet a vehicle for job creation, suddenly this obscure thing I write about becomes a pillar of his economic recovery package,” she explains.

To keep up with the dark-suited power brokers in the capital, Kang does her fair share of breakfast meetings. She often leafs through tome-length legal briefs and clocks in at committee meetings. “When you find that tiny footnote that has the information you’re looking for, it’s a Eureka moment,” says Kang, who regularly scoops her competition.

The School Bully/Michelle Rhee

When KoreAm first spoke to Michelle Rhee as she stepped into her new post as chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, little did we know she’d become a national crusader, the woman Time magazine would later call “the most revolutionary — and polarizing — force in American education.”

Since Rhee was appointed to head the mostly African American district in June 2007, the 39-year-old double-Ivy-League grad has fired hundreds of teachers, principals and administrators, and has closed 23 underattended schools. She says it’s all in the name of her mission: to turn the troubled school system into the country’s “highest-performing” district.

While critics have called her methods “misguided” and “reckless,” supporters — which include Barack Obama and John McCain, both who tried to claim her as their own during their presidential campaigns — have praised her tough, no-nonsense approach and willingness to tackle the most “untouchable” issues.

“Whatever she says, I’m behind,” film director Spike Lee told the popular website DCist. “We need radical thinking, the same okie-doke isn’t going to get it. For kids, no education, and you’re dead.”

The Lens/Hyungwon Kang

Hyungwon Kang has flown on Air Force One. Many times.

“It’s overrated,” says the 45-year-old photographer and editor for Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news agency.

Kang isn’t being glib about his flight-time with former President George W. Bush. He’d just rather talk about capturing the image of the North Korean ajuma, who out of desperation during the 1997 famine, was harvesting vegetables in her front yard, or shooting the photo of 18-year-old Edward Lee lying dead with a bloodied T-shirt on the streets of Koreatown, the first Korean American casualty of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

“If photojournalists don’t record history as it’s happening, then future generations will be deprived of that knowledge,” says Kang. “There’s a heavy responsibility that comes with this job.”

And the weight of that responsibility literally used to be more than 30 pounds heavier. The 27-year veteran of photojournalism recalls carrying 50 pounds worth of camera equipment with him when he traveled to South Korea to shoot labor protests in the late 1980s, the pre-digital days, for Time magazine.

Kang, who emigrated from South Korea at age 13, discovered the camera after a fluke suggestion by a favorite high school teacher who also moderated the yearbook. A natural visual storyteller, he would go on to land an internship and then a job at the Los Angeles Times. Later, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for the Times’ coverage of the L.A. riots.

In 1997, Kang moved to Washington, D.C., where he again was part of a Pulitzer-winning team that covered then-President Clinton’s impeachment trial for the Associated Press. The married father of three joined Reuters in 2001 and boasts security clearance from the White House, Congress and the Pentagon.

The Politico/Mark Keam

In his early 20s, Mark Keam moved to Washington, D.C. to intern for the Democratic National Committee. “At that time,” Keam says, “if someone had said, ‘In 20 years, 150 [Korean Americans] from all across the country will gather to celebrate the election of our first African American president,’ I would have thought that they were smoking something.”

Keam, now 42, was addressing a group of Korean American Democrats (and some Republicans, too), who’d converged at Yee Hwa Restaurant in Washington, D.C., last month for a pre-inauguration celebration dinner. In two days, Barack Obama would become the 44th president.

And Keam helped to make it happen.

Starting in 2007, Keam worked as a grassroots organizer on the Obama campaign trail, knocking on doors and running phone banks in Virginia for more than a year. He also campaigned for Obama during his 2004 Senate run. “I know Barack,” adds Kim, based in Vienna, Va., “and he asked me to help.”

Keam is the former aide to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and also worked for the Clintons as the assistant chief counsel in the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Now a lobbyist for Verizon, the married father of two is a strong believer in Obama’s message for change. For the well-connected Democrat, it’s also a philosophy that just might help him win a seat of his own. Keam is running in the Democratic primary for Virginia’s 35th House of Delegates District (Fairfax County). Election day is June 9.

Before Keam announced his campaign, members of his party kept encouraging him to run. “We are a very white community,” Keam says of Fairfax. “But now, the mantra is, ‘Hey, we just elected the first black president, it’s time to not elect the typical white guys all the time!’ What’s happening in Virginia is a microcosm of what happened with the Obama campaign. We want change. People started telling me, ‘You should run! You’re like Obama. You’re unique. And that’s a good thing.’”

The Money Maker/David L. Kim

What could be cooler than working for the Mint? Well, for David L. Kim, who used to collect coins as a child, it doesn’t get any better than this. Since 2006, he has served as chief of staff at the U.S. Mint, the largest of its kind in the world.

An agency of the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Mint is charged with producing an adequate volume of circulating coinage for the nation to conduct its trade and commerce. It also sells coins to collectors. In 2007, the Mint produced more than 15 billion coins and contributed $825 million in earnings to the U.S. Treasury.

“Fort Knox is under our jurisdiction as well, so we guard and protect the nation’s gold reserves,” notes Kim, recruited by U.S. Mint Director Edmund C. Moy.

Formerly a 15-year veteran at Anheuser-Busch, where he was the director of Asian marketing and community relations, Kim is no stranger to public service and has served on several boards of various Asian American community groups. Presently, he chairs the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, which provides government-related internship opportunities for APA college students.

Kim says his current job is a “dream come true.” He describes a new gold coin unveiled by the Mint that was originally designed in 1907 by a sculptor under the direction of President Theodore Roosevelt. There are only two original Double Eagle coins, housed in the Smithsonian. The Mint took the coin plasters and, through digital mapping, has recreated them. “It’s a gold piece that many people consider the most beautiful coin in the world,” says Kim.

When asked if the coin, with a $20 denomination, can be used as money, Kim is taken aback by the question. The coin collector in him responds: “Why would anyone want to?”

Millions of people across continents tuned in to witness, and often celebrate, the change of power that took place in a nation long looked to for its leadership. When we asked Koreans and Korean Americans living abroad to describe what the future might be like under an Obama-led U.S., they used words like hope, collectivism, responsibility, accountability, transformation and peace. Here, they elaborate on the view from there.

Miyon Im, 29

Guildford, United Kingdom

“When Senator Feinstein introduced our 44th president, I couldn’t help myself. I made the smallest fist pump and murmured under my breath, ‘YES!’ I would like our government to set an example for transparency and accountability, two aspects that have been glaringly absent in the past and have caused more damage to our reputation than anything else.”

Ann Kim, 38

Ankara, Turkey

“It is exciting to have an individual who brings new energy to the White House and whose upbringing reflects the global world we live in. I fully expect the next four years to bring changes that will once again show the world America is a great nation.”

Hein Seok, 32

Seoul, South Korea

“I stayed up until 2 a.m. in order to watch the inauguration in Korea. I wanted to witness Obama taking the oath, but more than anything, I wanted to watch Bush leaving the White House. I hope Obama’s presidency will provide an opportunity to once again engage in meaningful dialogue with North Korea .”

Sam Kim, 28

SÃo Paulo, Brazil

“In my 28 years in this country, I would never have imagined the image of a non-white [U.S.] president on live Brazilian television. In a country where racial inequality is so overwhelming, there is nothing better than to see [this] person commanding the most powerful country in the world.”

Andrew Jo, 27

Kasama, Zambia

“Seeing the enthusiasm of Zambians has been amazing: the way they followed and applauded any [U.S.] election coverage, congratulated me, and believed that change had come, even to this far corner of the world. What I am so proud of is the uniting ideal that President Obama realizes is necessary, that this ideal is channeled, not only across the U.S., but all over the world.”

Brenda Paik Sunoo, 61

Hanoi, Vietnam

“After living as an American expat for six years, it felt great to be rid of shame and political ridicule. Overnight, I received so many ‘congratulations’ from Vietnamese friends and expats from all over the world. I would like to see Obama further inspire social service and social responsibility among our youth.”

-Compiled by staff

Illustrations by Noah Dempewolf

“A Sock”

By Kyung Sam Hong

It was a chilly morning, but it made me feel good. My wife and I took a walk along the shore. Below us were shells, clams and sandpipers busy looking for breakfast.

The tide was coming in rapidly, and a gap in the walkway was getting wider second by second. When I came to the gap, I saw that my wife had already crossed it.

“How did you get across?” I asked.

She said she jumped. I couldn’t believe she jumped that far. When I was younger, I could do that, but now I thought I shouldn’t try.

So I walked around the water and met her on the other side. We matched steps, left foot, right foot …

While we walked together, she told me, “My feet so cold.”

I asked why.

“When I jumped over the gap, one of my feet landed in the water, and one of my socks got wet.”

So I told her, “It’s a cold day. Do you want to have one of my socks?”

She said, “If you do that, it would be a very nice thing.” She never says no when I offer to do nice things.

So I stopped in the middle of the road and I took off one of my socks. I held it out to her, and she grabbed it.

When she put it on, she said, “It’s so warm!”

It was only a small thing, but I felt like I had given her a great treasure.

A happy life is being close to your wife or husband, and giving and receiving the little things. It’s not about getting big things, but about taking care of each other every day. That is what I realized.

“Our cell phones”

By Abraham Park

As unglamorous as they may be — Stephanie has an LG Chocolate with horrible Bluetooth reception and I’ve got a little Samsung Juke — our cell phones have served as a lifeline in our relationship for the past year and a half. Thousands of miles separate us, but we’re able to connect for hours each day. We talk about anything and everything, often starting out with how our days were. One day a week, we address a specific agenda of topics, including prayer requests, the health of our relationship and wedding planning. Our calls consist of laughter, tears and everything in between.

Because Stephanie lives with her sister, she doesn’t like to say “miss” or “love” aloud. So we’ve created a secret language, inspired by instant message abbreviations. “I-M-U” is “I miss you.” She’ll whisper it, so I will, too, even though I live alone. Then we’ll start giggling like little children sharing secrets.

Sometimes, when both of us have a lot to do, we stay on the phone and continue with our daily routines. The mundane rituals of life become new and exciting since we’re able to share those moments together. I can hear when she’s doing the dishes, eating, typing, flipping pages of her book. In the end, it’s her I look forward to meeting again and again, each and every day.

“My Immunity Idol”

By Yul Kwon

I don’t think of myself as a particularly materialistic person. I still live in the same small one-bedroom apartment that I’ve rented for the past five years. I still drive the same old car I’ve driven for the last nine. I still wear the same clothes that my mom bought me in high school … just kidding. I may have the fashion sense of a baboon, but I’m not a complete idiot when it comes to age-appropriate attire. (I’m usually off by a decade at most.)

But there is one material object that means a lot to me, not because it helped me gain a small slice of fame and fortune, but because it helped me win true love.

I met Sophie when a mutual friend set us up the week I won Survivor: Cook Islands. I knew early on that she was someone really special, but the first few months of our relationship were — for lack of a better word — rocky. I’d spent my entire life trying to find my soulmate, yet I happened to find her at the worst possible moment to start a relationship. Not only was I constantly traveling, but winning a reality show doesn’t lend itself to be taken seriously by potential mates, at least among the population of women I could actually see raising my kids someday.

Despite my best efforts to convince her that I was committed to our relationship, Sophie remained skeptical. Things finally got to the point where I felt I had to give her some tangible proof of my commitment. I thought about proposing, but figured that such a sudden and dramatic gesture would only make her think I was even more unstable than I already was. So I decided to give her the only real thing that held any sentimental value to me — the hidden immunity idol I found on Survivor that helped me win the game. It’s basically an ugly compass on a leather necklace, but I decided to keep it with the vague notion of giving it to my kids someday. (You know, if my teenage children ever think their dad is old and uncool, I could bust out the hidden immunity idol and suddenly I’d get invited to all sorts of parties with upperclassmen.)

In all seriousness, I knew that there was a pretty good chance this gesture could backfire, too. Sophie could be insulted that I would try to pass off some cheap trinket as a token of true love. She could dismiss me as some poor nut who can’t let go of his days of reality show glory. But with any luck, she could take it in the spirit in which it would be given — as a sign of my willingness to give her the only thing in my possession that meant anything to me, symbolizing my intention to be with her for the rest of my life.

To her credit — and to my enduring happiness — she didn’t run away or laugh in my face as I’d feared. She finally accepted that I loved her, and that has made all the difference in our relationship. We’re now engaged and planning our wedding.

I, however, have been banned from arranging the honeymoon after making the ill-considered suggestion of camping out in the Cook Islands. Apparently, she doesn’t think raw hermit crabs make for a very romantic meal.

“Bridges”

By Jane Kim

Our relationship started timidly on the Williamsburg Bridge, despite having known him for years. I was actually quite terrified of being a pedestrian on this particular bridge due to all the cyclists speeding by. For some insane reason, I would rather get hit by a car than a bicycle – think of all the things on a bike that can poke and puncture you! Yes, I told you, it’s insane.

Every time a bike sped by, he would very protectively move to the side so that he’d be “in the way.” That was when I realized I had a crush on this boy, this boy who was my friend.

For years after that, bridges provided a vivid backdrop to our relationship. We spent our first New Year’s together in Glasgow, Scotland. Even though a storm had just passed and the winds were still strong, we walked home, crossing a bridge over the River Clyde. This bridge was lit up in all its glory and the lights reflected off the river. It was a tender moment for us. At that point, I realized he was the most amazing man I’d ever known.

Whenever I walk across a bridge, my heart feels like it’s being hugged. I know he feels the same way whenever he crosses a bridge alone.

With any challenge that we might face in our relationship — distance, careers, family issues — we will cross that bridge when we come to it. And like John says, “We will cross it together because you are my monkey.”

“A Cat Mug”

By Sung J. Woo

Growing up, I never had a pet: no dogs, no cats, not even a goldfish. So when I spent my first night at my girlfriend’s place those many years ago, I had to share our bed with a Siamese cat named JoJo, and I sort of feared for my life. What if the cat decided to claw my eyes out when I was asleep? Or if it just went berserk and chewed off the side of my face? I mean, there was a reason why these creatures were called animals.

Needless to say, I survived the first night and many more, though I’m sorry to say, JoJo did not. She ended up dying of cancer just a couple of months after I met her, and I never really got to know her well.

However, I did get to know Johnny Angel, another Siamese cat who came into our lives soon after JoJo. Seeing how much I adored Johnny, my girlfriend got me a mug with a personalized photo of him. I thanked her and promptly put the mug to good use, to hold my pens and pencils, and didn’t give it much thought until one day when Johnny disappeared. Somehow our front door was left ajar, and he’d snuck out. As a declawed cat who’d always stayed indoors, he didn’t stand a chance of making it out there. We put up posters and stuffed neighborhood mailboxes with a picture of him, but as the days went by, it seemed more likely that we’d never see him again.

Every day, I picked up the mug and stared into his face. Johnny was out there somewhere, lost to us. He was my first pet, and now he was gone, just like that. Even though we walked around the neighborhood every evening and called out his name, we were losing hope. Then two weeks later, we received a phone call. It was a lady who’d seen our flyer in her mailbox, and she was fairly certain Johnny was sitting on her back porch.

I will never forget Dawn, my girlfriend then and my wife now, running towards me with Johnny in her arms. He looked gaunt and stunk to high heaven, but I’d never wanted to hug him more.

Johnny is about to turn 15, and he doesn’t seem all that different from when we first got him 13 years ago. He still dashes down the hallway and leaps up to the table when it’s feeding time, his movements a perfect blend of speed and elegance.

Back in 1996, Dawn and I were just starting out in our relationship. We were in love, which also meant jumping ahead, looking beyond the present, sometimes scaring ourselves of the pitfalls that await every couple. Thank goodness for Johnny, who put our overactive minds at ease. He’s the epitome of calmness: He eats, sleeps, and doesn’t worry about a single thing.

By Rebecca U. Cho

In the bustling arena of the Detroit Auto Show, cameras flashed, reporters jotted notes and viewers applauded the vehicle just named the 2009 North American Car of the Year.

But this time, the executive proudly clutching the trophy was not from a Japanese, American or European automaker. He was H.S. Lee of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co.

The winning car, the Hyundai Genesis, took the title on Jan. 11 after becoming the first vehicle from a South Korean automaker to even make it to the finals of the contest. A panel of 50 top automotive journalists from around the world voted on the award, one of the industry’s most prestigious accolades.

It’s a stunning win for Hyundai, Korea’s largest carmaker and the world’s fifth largest, hinting at just how far the company has come since its meek 1986 debut in the U.S. market. The hungry infant that stumbled along in the 1980s and 1990s with cheap, unreliable vehicles has quietly grown up.

“Genesis … really does mark a new beginning for our company,” Lee, vice chairman of the Hyundai Motor Co., told reporters as he accepted the award. “It represents the engineering excellence that our company has tried for and it is a game-changing vehicle which will define our product going forward.”

The company’s first U.S. offering, the Hyundai Excel, with its low reliability ratings and poor product quality earned Hyundai a reputation as the K-mart of automakers — a producer of cars for those who just could not pay for anything better.

The perception made its way into popular culture. In an episode of Friends, Rachel mocks Ross’ decision not to chip into the group’s lottery collection, saying that if they win, they’ll all be taking their helicopters “up to the Cape,” while Ross is left “loading up the Hyundai.” Kanye West’s song “Gold Digger” makes a jab at the automaker with the lyrics: “I know somebody payin’ child support for one of his kids/His baby momma’s car and crib is bigger than his/You will see him on TV any given Sunday, win the Super Bowl and drive off in a Hyundai.” And David Letterman once quipped that if one wanted to play a prank in space, tape a Hyundai logo onto the ship’s main control panel.

“You know it’s bad when late-night comedians are making fun of the car,” says Ed Kim, director of industry analysis at Torrance, Calif.-based AutoPacific.

Hyundai has been fighting hard to break free from its stigma ever since.

The maker hopes that the Genesis, Hyundai’s first foray into the full-size, rear-wheel drive luxury market dominated by Japanese and European brands such as Lexus and BMW, will cast a halo on its brand, leading more car buyers to turn to Hyundai when shopping.

But the fight will be an uphill climb. Auto experts question just how far Hyundai can push into the luxury sector, given the company’s niche is in entry-level, low-priced vehicles.

And as for erasing the stigma on the brand, consumers in the car market have a notoriously long memory, says Paul Koh, the executive director of multicultural marketing for Hyundai Motor America, based in Fountain Valley, Calif.

“Once a customer is burned by a product like a car, it’s very difficult to get them back,” he says.

Koh recently finished a marketing campaign targeting first-generation Korean Americans, one group he hopes to “bring back” to Hyundai. He is bilingual, having immigrated to the U.S. from Korea at age 12, and has been with Hyundai Motor America since its inception.

“I’m the most passionate about this market because they’re my people,” Koh says. “If Koreans don’t buy our products, how can we expect others to buy our products?”

He targeted churches in his outreach in order to reach Korean Americans at large gatherings and get them into the driver’s seat of the Genesis. He first tested the idea at Cerritos Presbyterian Church, offering to donate $25 to the church for each person who test-drove the Genesis in the church parking lot. Koh says he was uncertain about how the idea would be viewed.

“From a church standpoint, not everyone looks at mixing business with church favorably,” he says.

But the program experienced a warm reception. Koh visited 17 churches last year in major cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta, offering test drives. In surveys taken at the sites, 99 percent of participants said their opinions of Hyundai improved after driving the Genesis, Koh says. He plans to continue the program this year.

Hyundai has also been aggressively boosting the Genesis in the mainstream market, running commercials during the Super Bowl the past two years.

AutoPacific’s Kim, who until the beginning of 2008 served as Hyundai Motor America’s manager of advanced product planning, says that Hyundai has pinned great hopes on the Genesis to move the brand up-market.

Hyundai has made a heavy investment in the Genesis, including spending $200 million in product development alone, according to a company spokesman.

Kim says the Hyundai is not expecting its new luxury car to make huge sales, but to drive up the branding of its name. After introducing the Genesis in late June, Hyundai sold more than 6,000 Genesis sedans.

“[The Genesis] is a statement to the public that [Hyundai is] capable of building a world-class car,” Kim says. “If the general public sees Hyundai can make these world-class luxury sedans, the Sonata must be a good car, too.”

Although Hyundai cannot compete in prestige with its older cousins, it hopes to grab the piece of the market that caters to consumers who want all the trappings of luxury without the price tag.

Hyundai touts the Genesis as competing with the Lexus GS and BMW 5-series in product quality, but for the price of a Lexus ES and BMW 3-series. Offered with the V-6 or V-8 engine, the Genesis is priced at about $8,000 lower than its target competitors, starting at $33,000 and ranging upwards to $42,000. With all the trimmings, the Genesis speeds from 0 to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds, propelled by its powerful 4.6-liter V-8 engine.

The carmaker even threw into the mix the Lexicon audio system, making the Genesis the only other car besides the Rolls-Royce Phantom to boast the acoustics of the Lexicon brand.

“It’s going to be hard for people worried about the grille on the car to say no to us because we make so much sense,” says Jim Trainor, the product public relations manager for Hyundai Motor America, the U.S. subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co.

In March, Hyundai will unveil its highly anticipated, lower-priced coupe.

***

Hyundai makes its push into the premium market as the U.S. automotive industry hobbles out of its worst year in vehicle sales since 1992, marked by an 18 percent drop in car and truck sales, according to Autodata. Auto experts predict 2009 will be even worse.

But Hyundai seems to be holding its own in the dismal economy. In 2008, Hyundai’s U.S. sales declined by 14 percent, but the drop was moderate compared to many others. General Motor Company’s domestic sales dove 22.7 percent and Toyota’s 15.4 percent, according to Autodata.

At the same time, the automaker increased its U.S. market share, reaching 3 percent. With that number, Hyundai pushed ahead of Chrysler, Jeep and General Motors in 2008.

Hyundai, the perpetual youngster in the crowded car market, has experienced its share of growing pains.

The parent company, Hyundai Motor Co., was established in 1967. Hyundai Motor America opened in 1985, breaking a record the next year by selling more cars in the U.S. than any other car brand in its first year of business at the time. But soon, the South Korean maker’s inexperience began to show in the Hyundai Excel’s poor reliability. Enthusiasm for the brand simmered and sales plummeted.

“In a way, Hyundai brought this upon itself,” says Kim. “In the 1980s, many assumed Hyundai would be a high quality car because it came from Asia. Those early Hyundais were junk. They were horrible cars that always broke down.”

Hyundai’s product quality slowly and steadily improved. By the late 1990s, Hyundai had established itself in the entry-level, mid-size market with cars like the Sonata. In 1999, the company introduced a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty, in an effort to prove to the public that Hyundai could produce long-lasting, quality cars. Hyundai’s sales climbed at a hot pace, growing by an average of 14 percent annually from 2001 to 2005. Better quality and a wider lineup of cars, including the sporty Tiburon coupe and Santa Fe SUV, powered the climb.

The momentum slowed in 2006 when Hyundai chairman Chung Mong-Koo was convicted of embezzling the U.S. equivalent of $73.8 million from the company.

But Hyundai continues to grow, having more than doubled its North American market share from 1.3 percent in 2000 to 2.8 percent in 2007, according to data from market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

In 2006, J.D. Power and Associates for the first time ranked Hyundai third, behind Porsche and Lexus, in overall product quality. Hyundai came out ahead of Toyota and Honda.

Kyu-min Oh, a senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, believes Hyundai’s brand image has made great strides. But as Hyundai takes serious steps into the premium market, the maker’s strategy of offering lower budget, but high quality cars, can only carry the company so far, Oh says. People who tend to buy luxury cars do not like the low-cost image.

“It’s a very good marketing strategy for the moment, but in the future, you would want to get rid of that image,” Oh says.

Hyundai’s efforts to shake loose from its stigma also echo the experiences of its Japanese counterparts. Toyota and Nissan, both of which appeared in the U.S. scene in the 1950s and 1960s, worked hard to rid themselves of the image that their cars were cheap and unsafe. They also had to confront anti-Japanese sentiment that blamed them for taking automobile industry jobs away from the U.S.

With the introduction of the Genesis, car experts were quick to draw comparisons to Toyota’s foray into the luxury market with the Lexus LS 400 in 1989. Toyota promised this new luxury line would change the face of the automotive landscape, and the Japanese company delivered.

One big difference, however, is that Hyundai has chosen not to start up a new line for its luxury cars, a decision fueled by the massive costs that come with creating one, says Hyundai’s Koh.

“It would cost us an incredible amount of investment — in the billions,” Koh says. “We’ll try it out in the current brand.”

There are signs of growing consumer confidence in Hyundai. In 2000, just 2.4 percent of new U.S. buyers said they would consider the Hyundai when shopping. By 2008, that figure had tripled with 9.2 percent of new buyers saying they would place Hyundai in its consideration set, according to Kim’s figures.

Hyundai’s introduction of the Assurance program this year, which allows a customer who buys or leases a Hyundai to return the car if the buyer loses employment, has increased foot traffic by 75 percent at Hyundai dealerships, according to Trainor.

The hard-charging Hyundai in the past has announced some impressive goals, including sales of 1 million cars and trucks annually in the United States by 2010. The automaker has yet to reach the half-million mark. but Hyundai’s “grand dreams,” tempered with resilience, has brought the company this far.

“Hyundai is very hungry, very aggressive and what’s most impressive about them is they’re extremely fast learners. They make mistakes, but they learn from their mistakes very, very quickly,” Kim says.

Hyundai still has a long road to travel before turning around consumer perceptions of its brand, he says. The next step for Hyundai is to distinguish itself as a leader, rather than a follower.

“It can’t just try to be the low-cost Toyota,” Kim says. “They’re really beginning to understand that. The next step is going to be in understanding what makes Hyundai uniquely Hyundai.”

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