Documenting the Truth: Jeju 4.3
The events which unfolded on Jeju between 1947 and 1954 served as a horrific precursor to the Korean War and for years were omitted from the post colonial narrative of modern Korea. Idyllic Jeju, an island known as the Hawaii of Korea and a weekend get-away from caffeine-driven, workaholic Seoul, was once ravaged by a bloody conflict. Mass arrests and civilian killings became commonplace as military police waged violent counterinsurgency campaigns across the island. The killings were indiscriminate in nature and majority of the 14,382 people killed lacked political agendas or ideologies (Jeju Peace Institute). Why did these gruesome atrocities occur and how did they go so long without recognition?
Chasing After Forgetting Who I Am
There is something that draws me to Korea, an unexplainable phenomenon that I am not able to articulate. Perhaps as an only child I find being called 언니 or 누나 oddly comforting. Perhaps I identify more with a small country like Korea that has miraculously endured more than a large country like my own. Perhaps I like the way that Korean words and sentences fit together like an intricate but logical puzzle would. Though most likely it is something else entirely. For as long as I have wondered about the precise source of my interest I have been plagued by four words: “You are so Korean.”
Yut Noli: A Comic Explanation
I don’t consider myself an artist, but I started drawing comics during a language intensive in college as a way escape the frustration of language barriers. Not quite two years later, I have a handful of vignettes I illustrated for family and friends. Most are inspired by the inevitable miscommunications, hilariously awkward situations, and sweet little moments of sublimity that are my daily life in Korea.