Jacky Lee was born in Incheon, South Korea, in 1957. She recounts her early childhood memories living in Korea with her mother and younger sister, recollecting in vivid detail specific moments spent with family while noting that many of those earliest memories are becoming harder and harder to remember. When Jacky was five years old, she and her younger sister were adopted by an American couple who were stationed in Japan while serving in the Air Force. Though living in Japan presented its own set of challenges-she had to learn a new language, for one-Jacky describes feeling a particular bond with her adoptive mother owing to their skin color, and overall recollects her time in Japan fondly. After the family’s period of service was over, they relocated to California where her parents started a church; it was in America that Jacky felt for the first time a conflict in identity, where she was bullied by the other children at church for her appearance. Resentful that her parents were unwilling to talk about her past in Korea and her biracial heritage, Jacky talks about the confusion and shame that accompanied questions she had for herself. In her thirties, however, while visiting a Korean beauty supply store, a worker recognized her as being Korean; for the first time in her life, she felt able to slowly reclaim bits of her Korean identity. In 2014 she visited Korea with a group of other biracial Koreans, where she rediscovered a love for the land of her birth mother. Jacky went back to Korea in 2017 to nurture this connection, and ever since she’s identified herself as Korean, Black, and proud.
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CREDITS
Interviewer: HJ Lee
Videographers: Kimberly Young Sun @kimberlyyoungsun
Editor: Cedric Stout @cedricstout.official
Production Manager: Kimberly Young Sun
Motion Designer: Aj Valente ajyval.myportfolio.com
Music Composer: Jang Hyeong Yoon
Executive Producer: HJ Lee
KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.
2 май 2024
