by Aruna Lee of New America Media
“Ten years is an epoch, but our hearts remain as black as charcoal,” a teary-eyed Sung-soon Kang said as she recalled the tragic events of 9/11 and the death of her only son. The 70-year-old and her husband, Pil-soon, 73, added that September is a particularly difficult month for them.
Jun-koo Kang had a fever on Sept. 11, 2001, his mother told the Korean-language Korea Daily in New York, which profiled the pair as part of the paper’s reporting on the upcoming 10-year anniversary of 9/11. “But he went to work anyway, because of his strong work ethic. I wish I could have stopped him.”
Instead, the 34-year-old Kang became one of 21 Koreans killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, which claimed upwards of 3,000 lives. His death forms part of a larger narrative of loss and change that has permanently altered the Korean community in New York, with continued challenges lingering amid signs of hope. Continue Reading »
by David “Rek” Lee
Sometime in the last couple of years, food trucks have witnessed a renaissance of sorts.
These “mobile kitchens” went from providing the convenient lunchtime alternative to popping up on foodie hot lists and snagging gold stars on Yelp. Last year, the Food Network elevated them to pop culture status by giving us The Great Food Truck Race.
It’s your typical competition-based reality show (yawn), but on season two we found a reason to watch. New York-based Korilla BBQ, the “mobile Korean grill,” is representing for their people as a competitor.
These baseball cap-wearing high school buddies — founder Eddie Song with Paul Lee and Stephan Park — often begin and finish sentences with “yo.” Call it a New York thing, but don’t call it unprofessionalism.
In the first two episodes airing earlier this month, the team has finished in second and first place, respectively. They utilized teamwork founded on their longtime friendship and executed tactics that would make your Go-Stop-playing-uncle proud. But there’s a third factor that especially keeps the team rooted: Korilla BBQ was a product of the recession.
“I graduated with an econ-math degree and couldn’t find a job anywhere,” said Song.
It’s a helplessness that has taught many recent grads about opportunity. When you see it, you’ve got to seize it.
New Yorkers line up in midtown Manhattan to taste that sweet, sweet meat.
It took more than seven years but Markus Min Ho Kim finally recovered more than $400,000 stolen from him by his foster parents, according to news reports.
Kim, 25, entered the New York state foster care system more than a decade ago after his father was sent to prison for fatally stabbing his mother. He was to receive the insurance money from his mother’s policy when he turned 18, but his foster parents swindled him out of it and moved to Florida, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Radhames and Asia Oropeza, both now serving three-year prison sentences, convinced Kim in 2005 to put the proceeds of his mother’s life insurance policy into two certificates of deposit.
They told him the CDs would protect his money and that he would earn $1,000 a month just from the interest. Kim would later say his foster mother signed the documents, too. He thought she was there to help.
But after a few months, the interest checks stopped coming. Kim called the bank and eventually found out the CDs had been closed.
What federal prosecutors would later say: The Oropezas withdrew large amounts of money from the certificates of deposit and spent it on real estate investment properties. Kim’s name was forged on the documents.
“I was distraught, to say the least, and I needed their advice,” said Kim, at a news conference. “It was probably one of my biggest mistakes. I wanted to trust them more than anything.”
Kim, now working as a stagehand in New York City, emigrated with his biological parents to the United States from South Korea when he was 5 years old. In New York, his father owned a jewelry store; his mother ran a beauty salon. In 2000, Kim’s mother, Ji Sun Kim, was murdered. Kim’s father, Yung Hu Kim, was convicted of the crime and sent to prison in New York, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
In an effort to beautify New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently unveiled a new design for sidewalk sheds – the wood and steel structures built to protect pedestrians walking alongside buildings under construction. There are approximately 6,000 sidewalk sheds in New York City, representing more than one million linear feet.
The competition winner, “Urban Umbrella,” was developed by Young-Hwan Choi, a 28-year-old, first-year architecture student from the University of Pennsylvania. Choi received a a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from Korea University in Seoul, Korea, before moving to the United States in the summer of 2009. For his design, he was awarded a $10,000 prize. Continue Reading »
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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