Korean Diaspora and Media in Australia: In Search of Identities.

Korean Diaspora and Media in Australia In Search of Identities Gil-Soo Han UniverSity PreSS of AmericA,® inc. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Copyright © 2012 by University Press of America,® Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 UPA Acquisitions Department (301) 459-3366 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931938 ISBN: 978-0-7618-5455-5 (paperback : alk. paper) eISBN: 978-0-7618-5456-2 Cover artwork by Seong-Suk Han ` ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 For my wife and children as they continue to inspire me in my search for my identities & In memory of my father Contents List of Figures vii Preface ix Notes on Korean Names and Romanisation of Korean xi Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Theoretical Perspectives 7 3 “Beyond the Australian Dream”: A Business Migrant’s Reconstruction of Identities 27 Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church as Depicted in Foolish Jesus 59 Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet: Korean Church Websites in Melbourne 89 4 5 6 7 Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation: An Institutional Effort to Help Individuals Construct Identities 123 Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction: Identities of Young Korean Sojourners as Portrayed in The Melbourne Sky 153 Epilogue 183 References 185 Index 201 v List of Figures 2.1. A four fold classification of identity of “Koreans” in Australia 22 5.1. Conceptualisation of the relationship between the Internet church and the conventional church 94 6.1. The formation of the Deepdene Uniting Church (Multicultural ministry) vii 135 Preface My plan to undertake postgraduate studies in Australia more than two decades ago was a conscious decision. Since then one of my key areas of research interests has been the Korean community in Australia. Even though I have not had a chance to hold a formal membership of the community I certainly belong to the community. Living the life of an immigrant and going through the construction and reconstruction of my identities has been something that occurred by default. Of the long list of issues that are embedded in the lives of millions of immigrants in Australia, how individuals formulate and continue to modify their identities is one of the most fascinating parts of their transnational life. This book is a collection of several chapters exploring only a fraction of Korean-Australian identities in relation to the media. The primary focus of the book is on identities; however, individual chapters can be read as “stand alone” papers, that is, similar to the chapters of an edited volume. The preparation of the manuscript has been possible thanks to a number of people. I am grateful to study participants and my fellow Korean immigrants as they have willingly shared their life experiences with me. Without the insights from the grassroots I would be at a loss. I owe particular intellectual debt to Margaret Archer whose work on identities has guided my thoughts in the volume. Monash University granted me a period to undertake an outside studies programme which I have used to write this book. I am thankful for the interest and encouragement of my colleagues in the School of English, Communications & Performance Studies at Monash University. Samantha Kirk from the University Press of America inspired me with her encouragement in my preparation of the manuscript. Portions of Chapter 3 were presented at the Australian Sociological Association Conference 2010, at Macquarie University, Sydney, and parts ix x Preface of Chapter 4 at The 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Korean Studies at the University of Auckland 24-25 November 2010. An earlier version of Chapter 5 was presented at the Communications Consortium of Monash University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Seoul National University and the Chinese University of Communication, at Monash University in 2008. I also acknowledge helpful input and feedback from a number of people. Moira Stewart read the whole manuscript and Barbara & Lindsay Herbert Chapters 6 and 7, and made valuable suggestions for improvement. I am particularly grateful to Alison Tokita of the Tokyo Institute of Technology for her academic encouragement and support for me preparing the manuscript. She has read every chapter and offered me critical but extremely constructive comments. I have very much appreciated her academic companionship. Yet, any deficiencies remain as my own responsibilities. Finally, I am in a great deal of debt to Seong-Suk, my wife and best friend whose wisdom and support for me works like a compass for a tourist on a journey to an unknown territory. In addition to the usual joy and concern that children bring to parents, Joy and Oscar remain a source of my learning about what it is like to grow up as second generation. During my life at new home away from old home, I have always been reminded of my parents’ persistent support for, and trust in, me. They taught me perseverance and how precious a life with devotion is. They have been an enduring source of encouragement for me. In the midst of my preparing the manuscript, my father was called to his eternal home. His eloquently silent guidance and warmth is fondly remembered. Notes on Korean Names and Romanisation of Korean It is conventional in South Korea to put a person’s family name first and followed by the given name. This is the order I have followed throughout the text in this volume. However, some Koreans have either adopted Western names (e.g., Matthew Kim) or had their names known through publications in the Western way, i.e., given name first and followed by family name. In these cases, I respect their usual ways. There are a few methods of romanising Korean names and places. Much debate and consultation is currently in progress. Until this is complete and a new “official” method is pronounced I have used the revised romanisation of Korean, which is the official Korean language romanisation in South Korea since July 2000. xi Abbreviations ABS — Australian Bureau of Statistics ECOS — English Conversation for Overseas Students ICTs — Information and Communication Technologies IELTS — International English Language Testing System NESB — Non-English Speaking Background OECD — Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development TESOL — Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages UCA — Uniting Church in Australia xiii Chapter One Introduction Humans have pursued movement from one place to another from time immemorial, seeking better material gain, political status or self-realisation. Their moves are inherently related to what they want to be, who they want to be and how they want to live, irrespective of time and space. One may set her goals on these matters, but once she is “there” she only realises that more goals are yet to be achieved and that she is still on the move. She is not the same as before and the socio-political and economic surroundings that she was familiar with have also changed. These changes, that have a significant impact on her processes for accomplishing her goals, seem to take place more rapidly than in the past. As far as she lives, she is on the move and is continuously in search of her identities. The contrivance of her identities continues. According to Hong Hyeon-A, a cover model and reader of a popular magazine, The Melbourne Sky (21 Oct 2008), “Travel is about being in search of the unknown me through meeting others” (cf. O’Reilly 2000; Walton 2000). The development of modes of travel and economic affluence have offered many more people the opportunity to experience diverse cultures and social contexts. These movements generally enrich people’s lives and their processes of forming and rediscovering who they are. Moreover, we do have more opportunities to express how our journeys are going and how our identities are under construction, in the information era. Taylor and June McConnell (1991) aptly describe John S. Dunne’s (1978) concept of “passing over,” which is a fundamental tool for an intense selfsearching, as follows: a way of creating an odyssey, an emptying of self as one crosses into the “wonderland” of the different, the strange, the other, and then completing the 1 2 Chapter One odyssey by returning to the “homeland” of the familiar, the expected, the usual. But one discovers that, as a result of the odyssey, the homeland changes. It is seen through new eyes; the traveller is a new person (p.581). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data in 2006, there were 60,873 Korean ethnics in Australia with at least one Korean parent. This number increased to 78,260 as of June 2008 (Department of Immigration and Citizenship, cited in Colebatch 2010b), and then reaching 95,000 in the mid 2009 (ABS’s annual estimates, cited in Colebatch 2010a). However, each of the Korean societies in major Australian cities estimates that a far greater number of Korean residents, including temporary students and tourists, are residing in each of the major cities than estimated by the ABS. Like most immigrant communities, Korean immigrants have generally settled in major Australian cities, as a result of which concentrated media-related activities have sprouted there. Transnational (or trans-ethnic) practices, which roughly refer to the phenomenon of the intersection of two or more cultures originating from different ethnic or national backgrounds,1 are not a recent phenomenon, but have been observed by all immigrants in history, especially since the coming of the nation state. Under the influence of new technology and communication devices, transnational practices continuously undergo changes (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.8). Some dimensions of immigrant experience, such as inclusion into or exclusion from social institutions, seem to have remained significant for every immigrant throughout the history of people’s geographical movement. However, those experiences have been expressed differently, depending upon the kinds of communications and media available in a particular era. Undoubtedly, new information and resources, and transportation technologies would also directly influence the immigrants and groups to engage in transnational practices (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.8). This book is a sociological exploration of the ways in which Korean-Australian immigrants and sojourners go through continuing change of their identities as portrayed in a range of media such as current affairs and popular magazines, diasporic literature, and church websites. It goes without saying that the media directly contributes to the formation of identities of media consumers. How this is done will be discussed implicitly in chapter 7, but will not be a primary focus of this book. The following chapters are prepared broadly around identities although some chapters and sections are more closely related to the topic, and others are less so. Chapter 2 touches on current and popular perspectives on identities and cultural citizenship, and then presents a realist perspective as an alternative. The chapter is not meant to be exhaustive of the vast literature Introduction 3 on identities and citizenship, but to point out briefly the need to go beyond contemporary and what are broadly known as postmodern approaches and to “stay in touch” closely with the day-to-day experiences of individual agents whose opportunities are to be understood in the contexts of structural enablement and restraint — a realist perspective. What I advocate, without imposition, throughout this chapter and the whole volume, is the contrivance of reflexive identities through internal conversation as developed by Margaret Archer (2003b). That is, reflexivity through an internal conversation is an essential part of the make-up of any individual agent as a social being. Chapter 2 is not designed to serve strictly as an overarching theoretical framework of the book although it is an indirectly underpinning theoretical basis for most chapters, especially with reference to reflexivity and identities. An important premise that chapters 3 and 4 are based on is that current affairs magazines and books are essentially regarded as media (Epstein 2001; Briggs and Burke 2005). The texts presented in a monthly magazine or in a novel are designed to mediate between the writers and their audiences often with reference to people’s lives, socio-cultural and historical events. The original texts for the analyses of these two chapters are available only in Korean. The texts are highly reflexive and analytical and I have decided to re-present some contents through my translations. The actual chapters may be seen as “annotated translation together with my own analysis.” Chapter 3 is an analysis of an autobiography of a Korean business migrant in Sydney. Although a small number of Korean immigrants in Australia who arrived in the 1970s may describe their experience of immigrant life as an “upward mobility,” most skilled and business immigrants who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s would describe theirs as “downward mobility.” Their adjustment to new lifestyles and expectations from their family members has necessarily accompanied changes in their identities. The chapter analyses the tumultuous experience of a business migrant as illustrated in his prize winning autobiography. Books and magazines are important genres of the media and mediate aesthetically the joys and struggles of human life. Diasporic communications and media in Australia make up one of the areas yet to develop further and attract more sociological analysis. Diasporic cultural expression through books and magazines commonly deal with a struggle for survival, identity and assertion of one’s own goals. The biography under analysis depicts a transnational journey of a business migrant yearning for emigration, settling in Australia doing the “menial” jobs that do not require his professional skills. The continuing inner dialogues that he holds during the ongoing changes and disappointments throughout his immigrant life make him come up with new strategies to continue his life most constructively, monitoring 4 Chapter One between individual agent and social structure. In this process, the business migrant constantly modifies his identities which have gone well beyond the identities which he might have left Korea with. Australia as the host country of such immigrants cannot negate the flow-on benefit that such constructive individuals bring to the broader Australian community. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 analyse Korean immigrants’ search for identities around the immigrant church. Chapter 4 is an attempt to understand some dominant personalities in the context of materialistic Korean immigrant churches. The prolific expansion of the Korean ethnic church in Australia and elsewhere results in part from material pursuits by the clergy and church members in the homeland since the 1960s and the church has been a place of comfort, religion, fellowship, conflict and other benefits for Korean immigrants in Australia. For these reasons, the Korean ethnic church has been the most significant organisation for Korean immigrants overseas. Foolish Jesus is a novel written by Mrs Ihm Ae-Rin (2004), spouse of the head minister of a Korean migrant church in Canberra, depicting the tensions between different groups of people who are aggressively seeking their interests. The novel is centred on the journey of a woman and her son — the sojourning life in Australia, after seeing the death of her older son and husband, a school principal. The focus of the novel is a small and less than well established Korean church in Sydney. The protagonist identifies the newly arrived minister with her dead son in terms of their characteristics. To her observation, these two men are both caring and committed to honesty and justice. The female protagonist learns that the arrival of the minister is soon followed by a range of conspiracies pursued by a powerful member, Deacon Yi Seong-Chan who may be described as a person struggling to form his identities. He is the centre of the influential, even cancerous group and attempts to control every entitlement and movement of the minister, including a threat to lower his wage. Deacon Yi and his aides have one important reason behind their actions: recovering their downgraded status since becoming immigrants or reconstructing their identities. Another dark side depicted in the novel is a doomed love story between Angela (daughter of Deacon Yi) and Yeong-Jun (son of the female protagonist) since Angela wants to win Yeong-Jun’s heart and he needs to achieve his migrant dream in the “heavenly land” of Australia. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse cultural texts, and this poses a particular challenge to a sociologist, although there is more in common, for instance, between literary analysis of cultural texts and sociological analysis of interview data. Cultural texts are produced through a significant filtering and fine-tuning process and what is included or excluded is a highly personal decision. Whilst I will attempt to apply interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of the texts the presentation of my analysis will remain largely sociological. Introduction 5 Chapter 5 explores the intersection between religion and media as Korean cultural and religious values and beliefs are expressed through church websites. Despite their initial hesitations, most Christian churches maintain their websites, now integral in the life of churches. This chapter investigates how the under-researched Internet mediates religion and ethnicity in the Korean church in Australia. The websites have a few bulletin boards for different age groups, aiming to share useful information and Christian life stories. Ministers encourage the posting of messages and express gratitude to those who are posting. Further, ministers use the bulletin boards to express thanks to the members for what they do and for their contributions. The websites are in Korean and encourage the church members to value Korean cultures and ethnicities and “Korean Christian” beliefs. The church websites have brought back the once common written culture to the contemporary life of the congregations. For example, upon their returning home, church members reconfirm the discussions they had or the activities they undertook. This is a shift from oral culture to a combination of oral and written culture of fellowship. The Internet mediates fellowship, communication, and Korean ethnicity positively in the life of the Korean immigrant church. However, the extent to which the Internet promotes religiosity is less than clear. Personal reflection in the public sphere is found to be a newly developing phenomenon as is the case with Facebook and Twitter. Chapter 6 is about the ways in which Korean churches in Australia are seeking to integrate their activities in close connection with the EuropeanAustralian churches that have been established since the settlement of Europeans in Australia over the last two hundred years. The multicultural ministries under consideration are a culmination of the Korean churches in Australia with thirty five years’ history. How Korean immigrants’ individual identities are expressed through multicultural or transnational ministries at an institutional level is an important dimension of maturing identities. The movement to establish such cross-cultural churches seems inevitable in the twenty-first century when increasing numbers of Anglo-Celtic churches experience shrinking membership and greater and closer collaboration between different ethnic groups is required more than ever before in this globalising world. Importantly, it is anticipated that cross-cultural ministry will greatly promote transnational or cosmopolitan identities of Korean immigrants in Australia. Chapter 7 analyses young Korean sojourners’ fantasies and aspirations about their “dreamland” of Australia. A significant influx of tertiary education students in the Korean community in Australia has been a notable economic benefit to the Korean community. The Korean community has seen a few newly established weekly magazines catering to this group of young 6 Chapter One and short-term stayers since the magazines provide them with information for share houses, church services, food and groceries. The weekly Melbourne Sky chooses its cover models from its readers and publishes their professionally taken photos with their life stories. The chapter analyses the models’ search of their identities, values, ultimate concerns and life goals with reference to Archer’s (2003) communicative, autonomous, meta- and fractured reflexivity. The represented personnel and readers of the magazines appear to strive towards expressing and realising their ultimate values and concerns on the one hand, and on the other hand seem to live in their own Western fantasy world that they dreamt of during their childhood or their period of dissatisfying “study driven” youth, which tends to fracture their professional aspirations and personal values. NOTES 1. In this respect, “transnational” and “intercultural” practices may be interchangeably used. Chapter Two Theoretical Perspectives Korean ethnicity and identity persist among the Korean immigrants and their descendants in the United States as they share common language, religions, values and numerous cultural characteristics (Min 1995, p.30). Min (1995, p.30) and others note that although Asian-Americans are by no means homogeneous, they share many common values in contrast to dominant American values, e.g., group-oriented rather than individually oriented, “filial piety, respect for authority, self-control and restraint in emotional expression, emphasis on educational achievement, shame as a behavioural influence, middle position virtue, high regard for the elderly, and the centrality of family relationships and responsibilities” (cf. Chung 1991; Hall 1981; Hirayama and Hirayama 1984; Ross-Sheriff 1991). It would be safe to assume that Asian-Australians, including Koreans, would share much in common with these values held by Asian-Americans. This assumption is based upon the similarities that, for example, Korean immigrants in Australia and the United States have displayed in terms of their adjustment processes (Kim 1985; Kim and Hurh 1985, 1988, 1993; Han 1994d, 2000b). Identity is about who I think I am, what I am, what kinds of values I believe in, where I belong and what others think about me. Identity is commonly understood as characteristics that we can “box” or typologically categorise and understand. However, it has been put forward that identities are increasingly becoming “the site of contestation and struggle, and as multiple and fragmented rather than pre-given and natural” (Stevenson 2003, p.26; Calhoun 1994). Solomos (2001) defines and illustrates what the concept of identities entails, incorporating the conventional concepts into the contemporary ones, as follows. 7 

Korean Diaspora and Media in Australia In Search of Identities Gil-Soo Han UniverSity PreSS of AmericA,® inc. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Copyright © 2012 by University Press of America,® Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 UPA Acquisitions Department (301) 459-3366 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931938 ISBN: 978-0-7618-5455-5 (paperback : alk. paper) eISBN: 978-0-7618-5456-2 Cover artwork by Seong-Suk Han ` ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 For my wife and children as they continue to inspire me in my search for my identities & In memory of my father Contents List of Figures vii Preface ix Notes on Korean Names and Romanisation of Korean xi Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Theoretical Perspectives 7 3 “Beyond the Australian Dream”: A Business Migrant’s Reconstruction of Identities 27 Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church as Depicted in Foolish Jesus 59 Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet: Korean Church Websites in Melbourne 89 4 5 6 7 Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation: An Institutional Effort to Help Individuals Construct Identities 123 Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction: Identities of Young Korean Sojourners as Portrayed in The Melbourne Sky 153 Epilogue 183 References 185 Index 201 v List of Figures 2.1. A four fold classification of identity of “Koreans” in Australia 22 5.1. Conceptualisation of the relationship between the Internet church and the conventional church 94 6.1. The formation of the Deepdene Uniting Church (Multicultural ministry) vii 135 Preface My plan to undertake postgraduate studies in Australia more than two decades ago was a conscious decision. Since then one of my key areas of research interests has been the Korean community in Australia. Even though I have not had a chance to hold a formal membership of the community I certainly belong to the community. Living the life of an immigrant and going through the construction and reconstruction of my identities has been something that occurred by default. Of the long list of issues that are embedded in the lives of millions of immigrants in Australia, how individuals formulate and continue to modify their identities is one of the most fascinating parts of their transnational life. This book is a collection of several chapters exploring only a fraction of Korean-Australian identities in relation to the media. The primary focus of the book is on identities; however, individual chapters can be read as “stand alone” papers, that is, similar to the chapters of an edited volume. The preparation of the manuscript has been possible thanks to a number of people. I am grateful to study participants and my fellow Korean immigrants as they have willingly shared their life experiences with me. Without the insights from the grassroots I would be at a loss. I owe particular intellectual debt to Margaret Archer whose work on identities has guided my thoughts in the volume. Monash University granted me a period to undertake an outside studies programme which I have used to write this book. I am thankful for the interest and encouragement of my colleagues in the School of English, Communications & Performance Studies at Monash University. Samantha Kirk from the University Press of America inspired me with her encouragement in my preparation of the manuscript. Portions of Chapter 3 were presented at the Australian Sociological Association Conference 2010, at Macquarie University, Sydney, and parts ix x Preface of Chapter 4 at The 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Korean Studies at the University of Auckland 24-25 November 2010. An earlier version of Chapter 5 was presented at the Communications Consortium of Monash University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Seoul National University and the Chinese University of Communication, at Monash University in 2008. I also acknowledge helpful input and feedback from a number of people. Moira Stewart read the whole manuscript and Barbara & Lindsay Herbert Chapters 6 and 7, and made valuable suggestions for improvement. I am particularly grateful to Alison Tokita of the Tokyo Institute of Technology for her academic encouragement and support for me preparing the manuscript. She has read every chapter and offered me critical but extremely constructive comments. I have very much appreciated her academic companionship. Yet, any deficiencies remain as my own responsibilities. Finally, I am in a great deal of debt to Seong-Suk, my wife and best friend whose wisdom and support for me works like a compass for a tourist on a journey to an unknown territory. In addition to the usual joy and concern that children bring to parents, Joy and Oscar remain a source of my learning about what it is like to grow up as second generation. During my life at new home away from old home, I have always been reminded of my parents’ persistent support for, and trust in, me. They taught me perseverance and how precious a life with devotion is. They have been an enduring source of encouragement for me. In the midst of my preparing the manuscript, my father was called to his eternal home. His eloquently silent guidance and warmth is fondly remembered. Notes on Korean Names and Romanisation of Korean It is conventional in South Korea to put a person’s family name first and followed by the given name. This is the order I have followed throughout the text in this volume. However, some Koreans have either adopted Western names (e.g., Matthew Kim) or had their names known through publications in the Western way, i.e., given name first and followed by family name. In these cases, I respect their usual ways. There are a few methods of romanising Korean names and places. Much debate and consultation is currently in progress. Until this is complete and a new “official” method is pronounced I have used the revised romanisation of Korean, which is the official Korean language romanisation in South Korea since July 2000. xi Abbreviations ABS — Australian Bureau of Statistics ECOS — English Conversation for Overseas Students ICTs — Information and Communication Technologies IELTS — International English Language Testing System NESB — Non-English Speaking Background OECD — Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development TESOL — Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages UCA — Uniting Church in Australia xiii Chapter One Introduction Humans have pursued movement from one place to another from time immemorial, seeking better material gain, political status or self-realisation. Their moves are inherently related to what they want to be, who they want to be and how they want to live, irrespective of time and space. One may set her goals on these matters, but once she is “there” she only realises that more goals are yet to be achieved and that she is still on the move. She is not the same as before and the socio-political and economic surroundings that she was familiar with have also changed. These changes, that have a significant impact on her processes for accomplishing her goals, seem to take place more rapidly than in the past. As far as she lives, she is on the move and is continuously in search of her identities. The contrivance of her identities continues. According to Hong Hyeon-A, a cover model and reader of a popular magazine, The Melbourne Sky (21 Oct 2008), “Travel is about being in search of the unknown me through meeting others” (cf. O’Reilly 2000; Walton 2000). The development of modes of travel and economic affluence have offered many more people the opportunity to experience diverse cultures and social contexts. These movements generally enrich people’s lives and their processes of forming and rediscovering who they are. Moreover, we do have more opportunities to express how our journeys are going and how our identities are under construction, in the information era. Taylor and June McConnell (1991) aptly describe John S. Dunne’s (1978) concept of “passing over,” which is a fundamental tool for an intense selfsearching, as follows: a way of creating an odyssey, an emptying of self as one crosses into the “wonderland” of the different, the strange, the other, and then completing the 1 2 Chapter One odyssey by returning to the “homeland” of the familiar, the expected, the usual. But one discovers that, as a result of the odyssey, the homeland changes. It is seen through new eyes; the traveller is a new person (p.581). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data in 2006, there were 60,873 Korean ethnics in Australia with at least one Korean parent. This number increased to 78,260 as of June 2008 (Department of Immigration and Citizenship, cited in Colebatch 2010b), and then reaching 95,000 in the mid 2009 (ABS’s annual estimates, cited in Colebatch 2010a). However, each of the Korean societies in major Australian cities estimates that a far greater number of Korean residents, including temporary students and tourists, are residing in each of the major cities than estimated by the ABS. Like most immigrant communities, Korean immigrants have generally settled in major Australian cities, as a result of which concentrated media-related activities have sprouted there. Transnational (or trans-ethnic) practices, which roughly refer to the phenomenon of the intersection of two or more cultures originating from different ethnic or national backgrounds,1 are not a recent phenomenon, but have been observed by all immigrants in history, especially since the coming of the nation state. Under the influence of new technology and communication devices, transnational practices continuously undergo changes (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.8). Some dimensions of immigrant experience, such as inclusion into or exclusion from social institutions, seem to have remained significant for every immigrant throughout the history of people’s geographical movement. However, those experiences have been expressed differently, depending upon the kinds of communications and media available in a particular era. Undoubtedly, new information and resources, and transportation technologies would also directly influence the immigrants and groups to engage in transnational practices (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.8). This book is a sociological exploration of the ways in which Korean-Australian immigrants and sojourners go through continuing change of their identities as portrayed in a range of media such as current affairs and popular magazines, diasporic literature, and church websites. It goes without saying that the media directly contributes to the formation of identities of media consumers. How this is done will be discussed implicitly in chapter 7, but will not be a primary focus of this book. The following chapters are prepared broadly around identities although some chapters and sections are more closely related to the topic, and others are less so. Chapter 2 touches on current and popular perspectives on identities and cultural citizenship, and then presents a realist perspective as an alternative. The chapter is not meant to be exhaustive of the vast literature Introduction 3 on identities and citizenship, but to point out briefly the need to go beyond contemporary and what are broadly known as postmodern approaches and to “stay in touch” closely with the day-to-day experiences of individual agents whose opportunities are to be understood in the contexts of structural enablement and restraint — a realist perspective. What I advocate, without imposition, throughout this chapter and the whole volume, is the contrivance of reflexive identities through internal conversation as developed by Margaret Archer (2003b). That is, reflexivity through an internal conversation is an essential part of the make-up of any individual agent as a social being. Chapter 2 is not designed to serve strictly as an overarching theoretical framework of the book although it is an indirectly underpinning theoretical basis for most chapters, especially with reference to reflexivity and identities. An important premise that chapters 3 and 4 are based on is that current affairs magazines and books are essentially regarded as media (Epstein 2001; Briggs and Burke 2005). The texts presented in a monthly magazine or in a novel are designed to mediate between the writers and their audiences often with reference to people’s lives, socio-cultural and historical events. The original texts for the analyses of these two chapters are available only in Korean. The texts are highly reflexive and analytical and I have decided to re-present some contents through my translations. The actual chapters may be seen as “annotated translation together with my own analysis.” Chapter 3 is an analysis of an autobiography of a Korean business migrant in Sydney. Although a small number of Korean immigrants in Australia who arrived in the 1970s may describe their experience of immigrant life as an “upward mobility,” most skilled and business immigrants who arrived in the 1980s and 1990s would describe theirs as “downward mobility.” Their adjustment to new lifestyles and expectations from their family members has necessarily accompanied changes in their identities. The chapter analyses the tumultuous experience of a business migrant as illustrated in his prize winning autobiography. Books and magazines are important genres of the media and mediate aesthetically the joys and struggles of human life. Diasporic communications and media in Australia make up one of the areas yet to develop further and attract more sociological analysis. Diasporic cultural expression through books and magazines commonly deal with a struggle for survival, identity and assertion of one’s own goals. The biography under analysis depicts a transnational journey of a business migrant yearning for emigration, settling in Australia doing the “menial” jobs that do not require his professional skills. The continuing inner dialogues that he holds during the ongoing changes and disappointments throughout his immigrant life make him come up with new strategies to continue his life most constructively, monitoring 4 Chapter One between individual agent and social structure. In this process, the business migrant constantly modifies his identities which have gone well beyond the identities which he might have left Korea with. Australia as the host country of such immigrants cannot negate the flow-on benefit that such constructive individuals bring to the broader Australian community. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 analyse Korean immigrants’ search for identities around the immigrant church. Chapter 4 is an attempt to understand some dominant personalities in the context of materialistic Korean immigrant churches. The prolific expansion of the Korean ethnic church in Australia and elsewhere results in part from material pursuits by the clergy and church members in the homeland since the 1960s and the church has been a place of comfort, religion, fellowship, conflict and other benefits for Korean immigrants in Australia. For these reasons, the Korean ethnic church has been the most significant organisation for Korean immigrants overseas. Foolish Jesus is a novel written by Mrs Ihm Ae-Rin (2004), spouse of the head minister of a Korean migrant church in Canberra, depicting the tensions between different groups of people who are aggressively seeking their interests. The novel is centred on the journey of a woman and her son — the sojourning life in Australia, after seeing the death of her older son and husband, a school principal. The focus of the novel is a small and less than well established Korean church in Sydney. The protagonist identifies the newly arrived minister with her dead son in terms of their characteristics. To her observation, these two men are both caring and committed to honesty and justice. The female protagonist learns that the arrival of the minister is soon followed by a range of conspiracies pursued by a powerful member, Deacon Yi Seong-Chan who may be described as a person struggling to form his identities. He is the centre of the influential, even cancerous group and attempts to control every entitlement and movement of the minister, including a threat to lower his wage. Deacon Yi and his aides have one important reason behind their actions: recovering their downgraded status since becoming immigrants or reconstructing their identities. Another dark side depicted in the novel is a doomed love story between Angela (daughter of Deacon Yi) and Yeong-Jun (son of the female protagonist) since Angela wants to win Yeong-Jun’s heart and he needs to achieve his migrant dream in the “heavenly land” of Australia. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse cultural texts, and this poses a particular challenge to a sociologist, although there is more in common, for instance, between literary analysis of cultural texts and sociological analysis of interview data. Cultural texts are produced through a significant filtering and fine-tuning process and what is included or excluded is a highly personal decision. Whilst I will attempt to apply interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of the texts the presentation of my analysis will remain largely sociological. Introduction 5 Chapter 5 explores the intersection between religion and media as Korean cultural and religious values and beliefs are expressed through church websites. Despite their initial hesitations, most Christian churches maintain their websites, now integral in the life of churches. This chapter investigates how the under-researched Internet mediates religion and ethnicity in the Korean church in Australia. The websites have a few bulletin boards for different age groups, aiming to share useful information and Christian life stories. Ministers encourage the posting of messages and express gratitude to those who are posting. Further, ministers use the bulletin boards to express thanks to the members for what they do and for their contributions. The websites are in Korean and encourage the church members to value Korean cultures and ethnicities and “Korean Christian” beliefs. The church websites have brought back the once common written culture to the contemporary life of the congregations. For example, upon their returning home, church members reconfirm the discussions they had or the activities they undertook. This is a shift from oral culture to a combination of oral and written culture of fellowship. The Internet mediates fellowship, communication, and Korean ethnicity positively in the life of the Korean immigrant church. However, the extent to which the Internet promotes religiosity is less than clear. Personal reflection in the public sphere is found to be a newly developing phenomenon as is the case with Facebook and Twitter. Chapter 6 is about the ways in which Korean churches in Australia are seeking to integrate their activities in close connection with the EuropeanAustralian churches that have been established since the settlement of Europeans in Australia over the last two hundred years. The multicultural ministries under consideration are a culmination of the Korean churches in Australia with thirty five years’ history. How Korean immigrants’ individual identities are expressed through multicultural or transnational ministries at an institutional level is an important dimension of maturing identities. The movement to establish such cross-cultural churches seems inevitable in the twenty-first century when increasing numbers of Anglo-Celtic churches experience shrinking membership and greater and closer collaboration between different ethnic groups is required more than ever before in this globalising world. Importantly, it is anticipated that cross-cultural ministry will greatly promote transnational or cosmopolitan identities of Korean immigrants in Australia. Chapter 7 analyses young Korean sojourners’ fantasies and aspirations about their “dreamland” of Australia. A significant influx of tertiary education students in the Korean community in Australia has been a notable economic benefit to the Korean community. The Korean community has seen a few newly established weekly magazines catering to this group of young 6 Chapter One and short-term stayers since the magazines provide them with information for share houses, church services, food and groceries. The weekly Melbourne Sky chooses its cover models from its readers and publishes their professionally taken photos with their life stories. The chapter analyses the models’ search of their identities, values, ultimate concerns and life goals with reference to Archer’s (2003) communicative, autonomous, meta- and fractured reflexivity. The represented personnel and readers of the magazines appear to strive towards expressing and realising their ultimate values and concerns on the one hand, and on the other hand seem to live in their own Western fantasy world that they dreamt of during their childhood or their period of dissatisfying “study driven” youth, which tends to fracture their professional aspirations and personal values. NOTES 1. In this respect, “transnational” and “intercultural” practices may be interchangeably used. Chapter Two Theoretical Perspectives Korean ethnicity and identity persist among the Korean immigrants and their descendants in the United States as they share common language, religions, values and numerous cultural characteristics (Min 1995, p.30). Min (1995, p.30) and others note that although Asian-Americans are by no means homogeneous, they share many common values in contrast to dominant American values, e.g., group-oriented rather than individually oriented, “filial piety, respect for authority, self-control and restraint in emotional expression, emphasis on educational achievement, shame as a behavioural influence, middle position virtue, high regard for the elderly, and the centrality of family relationships and responsibilities” (cf. Chung 1991; Hall 1981; Hirayama and Hirayama 1984; Ross-Sheriff 1991). It would be safe to assume that Asian-Australians, including Koreans, would share much in common with these values held by Asian-Americans. This assumption is based upon the similarities that, for example, Korean immigrants in Australia and the United States have displayed in terms of their adjustment processes (Kim 1985; Kim and Hurh 1985, 1988, 1993; Han 1994d, 2000b). Identity is about who I think I am, what I am, what kinds of values I believe in, where I belong and what others think about me. Identity is commonly understood as characteristics that we can “box” or typologically categorise and understand. However, it has been put forward that identities are increasingly becoming “the site of contestation and struggle, and as multiple and fragmented rather than pre-given and natural” (Stevenson 2003, p.26; Calhoun 1994). Solomos (2001) defines and illustrates what the concept of identities entails, incorporating the conventional concepts into the contemporary ones, as follows. 7 8 Chapter Two At a basic level after all identity is about belonging, about what we have in common with some people and what differentiates us from other. Identity gives one a sense of personal location, and provides a stable core of one’s individuality; but it is also about one’s social relationships, one’s complex involvement with others, and in the modern world these have become even more complex and confusing (Solomos 2001, p.202). Thus, claims to a particular identity may not be able to avoid the construction of an inside and an outside. The “production of the abject and the marginal” often determines processes of political, cultural and symbolic exclusion (Stevenson 2003, p.26). For example, claiming a Korean-Australian identity certainly raises the question as to who is included and who is excluded by the identity. And there is more than one type of Korean-Australian identity. There are not only many types within one type, but an individual identity is multiple and fragmented; and one’s identity constantly fluctuates between different types (Han 2008). Immigrants or the members of a diasporic community such as Israelis maintain a variety of ways in which they are transnational or allegiant to local politics as their life is exposed to diverse political, economic, cultural and historical contexts (Golbert 2001). It is undoubtedly important to understand how individual migrants or agents go through their ongoing change of identities in the context of the information era or the networked society. In this tradition of endeavour, individual agents seem to be the centre of attention. This new tendency to prioritise the self as of predominant importance has brought about the revitalisation of the relationships between culture or citizenship, that is often known as the cultural turn of citizenship, which we shall return to shortly (Stevenson 2001, p.7). However, what is also important is how individual agents (e.g., marginalised members, migrants) are situated in the context of the broader political economy. This is not to dismiss the importance of cultural dimensions of citizenship, promoting the potential creativity of the self, meaningfulness, quality and aesthetics. Rather, it is a question as to what extent fundamental, and basic political-economic rights of minorities have been adequately addressed before they can even turn their focus to cultural and aesthetic dimensions of their life although these are inherently linked to each other. Nonetheless, it may be important to acknowledge that there is a range of differences even within a particular ethnic community in terms of whether one’s cultural dimension of citizenship has aesthetically advanced or not. This is particularly so when we live in the modern information era whereby Information and Communication Technologies constantly improve and the political and cultural life of diasporic communities continue to evolve. Theoretical Perspectives 9 In the rest of this chapter, I shall briefly present currently popular perspectives on identity and cultural citizenship, which usefully acknowledge the importance of cultural and symbolic inclusion of others. Then I present a realist perspective as an alternative, acknowledging the significance of each individual agent as an influential and reflective being as well the significance of a given social context as enabling and restraining individual formation of identities. CONCEPTS OF IDENTITY AND TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY: CONTEMPORARY AND CRITICAL REALIST APPROACHES Cultural Citizenship and Identity in the Information Era: A Contemporary Perspective Stevenson (2003) argues and seeks to understand how “politics and culture are becoming increasingly interconnected within modern societies” (p.1). His concept of cultural citizenship advocates “the possibility of communication and dialogue within a cultural society.” Stevenson’s underlying premise of the nature of the modern society is that it cannot be defined through a single dominating factor or “a central conflict” (p.10) and that cultural resources or what Pierre Bourdieu (1977) has named “cultural capital” ought to be appropriately distributed to the member citizens. In this vein, Stevenson notes that “what structures are to industrial society, networks are to post-industrial society” (p.10). He goes on to point out that: information rather than labour power has become the key resource within modern society. In this new economy it is the application of knowledge and technology in customized production that best ensures economic success (p.10). Similarly, cultural citizenship is a process of cultural empowerment, that is, “the capacity to participate effectively, creatively and successfully within a national culture” (Turner 2001, p.12). Numerous questions arise concerning these comments. Firstly, “the application of knowledge and technology” tends to prioritise culture, agency and knowledge and downplay labour power, conflict and political struggle that are inherently part of knowledge, technology and networks in post-industrial society. These two broad camps that are often considered to be different dimensions are two sides of a coin and cannot be separated from each other. Secondly, it may be more appropriate to say that there are both relatively new dimensions such as information, knowledge society and networks as well as continuity of older dimensions such as labour and political struggle involving capital and workers. Thirdly, the concept of 10 Chapter Two cultural citizenship has to be relevant to any society and is an ideal we should aim for. However, the extent to which it can be achieved in the context of current political economy is questionable. For example, the majority of the members of the Korean community in Australia today are likely to find the issues of labour and economic needs more pressing than the issues of cultural citizenship. Depending upon whether an immigrant community is still wrestling with basic needs or has matured enough to enjoy what cultural citizenship can offer, the members of the community would seek and demonstrate different orientations towards developing their identities. This is what I shall demonstrate, taking up the Korean community as a case. A central goal of Stevenson (2003, p.18) is to advance his concept of “cultural citizenship.” To him, questions of inclusion and exclusion are situated at the heart of the notion of cultural citizenship. Stevenson goes as far as to argue that “to be excluded from cultural citizenship is to be excluded from full membership of society” (Stevenson 2001, p.3). In particular he is keen to see a widespread participation of citizens in issues that are of “genuinely communal concern,” in the context of educative democracy (Williams 1962, p.19). Cultural inclusion, taking our lead from Marshall and Williams, should be concerned with both having access to certain rights and the opportunity to have your voice heard, in the knowledge that you will be given the ear of the community (Stevenson 2003, p.18). Again Stevenson (2003, p.19) promotes the development of “a communicationsbased society” that produces a cultural citizenship where “the public were capable of learning from one another’s viewpoints” (p.22). Cultural viewpoints of citizenship are not only concerned with “formal” or conventional processes, such as who is given the right to participate in politics through voting and the sustenance of a civil society, but importantly also with whose cultural practices are made prominent, dominant, marginalised or stereotyped (p.23). As Renato Rosaldo (1999, p.260) contends, the central concern of cultural citizenship is about “who needs to be visible, to be heard, and to belong.” What is at stake here is “the demand for cultural respect” (Stevenson 2003, p.23). A communications-based era may be less focused on the need to fight against a dominant class and more focused on “the creation of public spaces that protect the rights of minorities and establish active forms of communication among those who have become separated” (p.25). The communications-based society would also make public places available whereby people can share ideas, perspectives and feelings since this is essentially required for “the development of the self, the creation of social movements and the fostering of a critically informed public more generally” (Stevenson 2001, p.5). Theoretical Perspectives 11 Here a potential concern in constructing public mechanisms to enable democratic or free-flowing conversations is that what we ideally wish for is one thing and what actually occurs is another. That is, a certain group of people may have access to material and cultural resources and opportunities and these opportunities are an integral part of such a communications-based society. Others may have limited opportunities and yet others may have little to do with such practices at all. Thus, even within a migrant community, some members might have well embraced the “cultural” aspects of citizenship in their everyday life and others may have done so in a much more limited manner (Stevenson 2001, p.7). The latter may often be the case with many non-English speaking background immigrant communities. The extent to which there is a degree of continuity or discontinuity between modern society and late capitalist society, with regard to almost every dimension of the society, continues to generate ongoing debates. In his discussion of the significance of McLuhan’s analysis of the electronic media that has led to the globalisation of culture (McLuhan 1964), Turner (2001, p.23) raises the question as to whether the means of communication have been revolutionised to the extent that all past modes of communication and information have become “obsolete and irrelevant.” In fact, Turner sees The Electronic Commonwealth (Abramson, Arterton, and Orren 1988) as a significant work dealing with the connection between democracy and the development of new communication technologies and notes that the work “concludes that we are indeed at another major turning point in global history, one which is analogous to the impact which the Gutenberg press had” (Turner 2001, p.26, my italics). It is indisputable that contemporary society is equipped with extremely advanced and sophisticated information and communication technologies and is distinct from what it was in the last century. We are indeed “at another turning point.” but it may be premature to say either that past modes of communication and information are now obsolete or that the contemporary society has already and fully embraced the “cultural” turn of citizenship. There are clearly several concerns over the electronic “virtual community” (Rheingold 1993) or how cultural citizenship may be uncritically embraced. Turner (2001, p.29) lists three of the criticisms that he finds from current discourses. First, the commodification of information, bringing about abrupt change to a public sphere; second, “a loss or decline of personal liberties” through high-bandwidth ICT-based networks and political surveillance; and third, the current status of a hyper-reality is typified by the trend that “the politics of spectacle and entertainment construct the citizen as a passive, hypnotized subject, resulting in a simulation of political reality.” Similarly, irrespective of notable successes in bringing about harmony between different ethnic groups and exemplary implementations of 12 Chapter Two multiculturalism in many parts of the world, there still exists remarkable tension between different ethnic groups even in a nation of successful multiculturalism. Arguing that race and ethnicity have been placed at the heart of current discourses about multiculturalism and anti-racism, Solomos (2001, p.208) notes that the Civil Rights Movement and other movements in the United States have only made a limited impact on chronic patterns of racial discrimination and have not deterred “the development of new patterns of exclusion and segregation.” Similarly, Solomos is concerned that there is clear evidence that contemporary European societies are on the verge of formalising “new forms of exclusion as a result of increased racial violence and racist mobilizations by the extreme right” (p.209). In this context, it is not only nationalists and racists in Great Britain but also the minority communities and anti-racists that indicate their mythic longing for cultural homogenisation (p.208). Solomos’ concern raises the possibility that those OECD countries hosting a significant number of immigrants and migrant workers face new social, economic and cultural challenges, and as a consequence may introduce new forms of exclusion and segregation. These possibilities seem to be alive and well in the context of Australian society as displayed by the Pauline Hanson phenomenon in the 1990s and the debates around the influx of Muslims and the continuing arrivals of asylum seekers (cf. Riccio 2001, p.594). The central question under examination in this volume is the ways in which Korean immigrants in contemporary Australia maintain, negotiate and tranform their identities. Despite the prevalent assumption that our life and identities may be under the overwhelming influence of information technologies it may be more productive to pause and question to what extent such influence has occurred to different groups of Koreans to Australia in recent decades. This is to suggest that rather than blindly embracing the notion of cultural citizenship, we could examine the complex diversities and characteristics of what Turner (2001, p.26) calls “the major turning point” as displayed by non-homogeneous populations of the Korean community in Australia. Following the illustration of the current debate on cultural citizenship with reference to the information era, I now move on to present a critical realist perspective of identity and transnational identities. Realist Concept of Identity: An Alternative Perspective Similar to culture or society, identity is real, and is not merely an abstract or analytical concept. Identity cannot be perceived to be existing in a socioeconomic vacuum. Individual identities are formed and embodied not only Theoretical Perspectives 13 in their personal lives and bodies, but in their interactions with other humans and their physical and social surroundings (Archer 2000). For the purpose of this book, I have found the following writings most helpful: Margaret Archer’s conceptualisation of the private life of the social agent with reference to personal identity (Archer 2003a), Being Human: The Problem of Agency (2000), and Diana Meyers’ (2003) extensive and critical review of the book. These writings engage in a realist account of reflective consciousness, personal identity and social identity. Some specific dimensions of Archer’s vast project will be selectively drawn on and presented below as they shed light on understanding transnational identities of Korean immigrants in Australia. Prior to proceeding to the discussion of a realist conceptualisation of identity, a brief note is warranted on critical realism, on which Archer’s theorisation of personal identity is based. Critical realism, originally promoted by Roy Bhaskar (1989) is an attempt to overcome the cultural turn as well as the structural reductionism of social theories. Critical realism argues that social reality has ontological depth and consists of domains of the actual, empirical and the real. These different domains facilitate social scientists in delineating the properties and powers that may be in operation at different levels of social reality, including structure and agency (Archer 2003a). Like the natural world, the social world consists of both transitive and intransitive dimensions. Incorporating hermeneutic and interpretive traditions of social theory, Bhaskar acknowledges that individual agents constantly interpret and make sense out of their activities in their given contexts. In this respect, individual members of a society often display rather diverse goals and actions in whatever they do, rather than behaving or reacting monotonously to a social or political opportunity. However, people’s lives necessarily involve intransitive or objective dimensions such as institutions, ethnic conflict, material inequality, violence, the economy and natural surroundings which all contribute to different strata of social reality which cannot be simply reduced to what individual agents think (King 2006, p.374; Castles and Davidson 2000). Bhaskar’s (1989) transformational model of social activity brings together individual agents’ subjective dimensions and societal realities with objective nature. Individual agents are restrained within the given societal structure or objective social reality, but through their meaningful practices and reflexive actions they are actively able to transform the restraining social reality. That is, social structure can restrain as well as enable individual practices. Social structure pre-exists individuals, but individuals exercise their solitude and personal attributes and utilise resources available to them and this process in turn reforms the “inherited” social structure and pass down the reformed structure to the next generation. King (2006, p.374), a critic of critical realism, notes the following succinctly although he then soon disputes the broad project of critical realism: 14 Chapter Two The social sciences, threatened with objectivism, must preserve human agency and meaning. However, since manifest institutional realities must also be recognized, a hermeneutic approach must be wedded to a more structuralist account. This suggestion is a major goal that critical realism attempts to accomplish. Advocating a humanist as well as a materialist social realist view, Archer (2000, p.272) endeavours to show that the reflexive or autonomous self entails an “emergent relational property whose realization comes about through the necessary relations between embodied practice of an individual and the non-discursive environment.” In the process of personal and social interaction with the natural environment, “individuals form a continuous sense of self” (Meyers 2003, p.272). This embodied process between an individual agent and the societal structure occurs essentially through internal conversation (Archer 2003b). Moreover, it is this embodied process that has a significant bearing upon the self identity of a person as well as consequently on her action. From a critical realist viewpoint, the embodied process can be well understood when we can specify “how structural and cultural powers impinge upon agents, and ... how agents use their own personal powers to act so rather than otherwise” (Archer 2003b, p.3). Archer notes that two “models of man” have been dominant in theorising an individual agent: “Modernity’s Man” and “Society’s Being.” “Modernity’s Man” viewpoint argues that individual existence could not be understood without referring to “instrumental rationality, namely the capacity to maximise his preferences through means-ends relationships and so to optimise his utility.” This view ignores that the actions of human agents are at times not a means to achieve anything else, but transcend instrumental goals. “Society’s Being” viewpoint, strongly argued by social constructionists, argues that individual agents are social beings as appropriated and driven to shape by the prevalent discourse in the society. In this school of thought, it is the society that shapes every aspect of identity of individuals (Jamieson 2002, p.511). A clear result is that “All human identities are in some sense ... social identities”1 (Jenkins 1996, p.4). Such individual agents may be deprived of “selfhood, reflexivity, thought, memory, emotionality and belief” (Archer 2003a, pp.17-18). It is Archer’s endeavour to reclaim the human agent as she introduces our “selfhood — a continuous sense of self or reflexive selfconsciousness” to the two defective models of an individual agent and amend them. This is because no society would be in operation without people with a continuous consciousness, which makes up an integral part of selfhood. From the viewpoint of individual agents, “the power of personal identity” is revived as it shapes people’s lives around what they prioritise and devote themselves to (Archer 2003a, p.22). The reflexive self-consciousness is achieved Theoretical Perspectives 15 essentially through an internal conversation within a person. Archer (2003b, p.16) also argues that “internal conversation,” which is possible thanks to human reflexivity, is essentially the process of mediation through which individual agents react or respond to, or change, social conditions. Further, internal conversation is not a mere analytical concept, but “an irreducible personal property, which is real and causally influential” (p.16). Nonetheless, one may ask why people engage in internal dialogue at all. Archer (2003b, p.104) responds to the question as follows: ... because we are trying to talk ourselves out of something, namely being unsure. Because of the way humans are constituted and the way the world is made, their interaction is inescapable. We need to understand our powers and liabilities, to know where we stand, to determine what we want and value, and then to consider our activities in these lights. ... we can modify ourselves reflexively and we can also modify the world as a consequence of our internal deliberations about it. The reflexive deliberation through internal conversation is a highly personal and private psychological activity which leads to personal attitudes and selfknowledge: how they make decisions in their everyday life, what to think and what to say (p.26). The more critical and reflexive the deliberation of a person is, the more dialogical identity and self-knowledge the person may be able to develop. This reflexive process is fallible, depending upon situations and the maturity of individual agents, and this requires ongoing internal conversation, which in turn enables us to renew and revise our commitments and who we are (Archer 2003a, pp.21-22). Following through Margaret Archer’s social realist concept of identity, I am primarily focusing on reclaiming the autonomy of individual agents. However, it is highly beneficial to be aware of Pierre Bourdieu’s simultaneous theorising of identity and social contexts. This brings back the value of the thesis argued by Archer, what she calls “Modernity’s Man.” Individual agents or Korean migrants in Australia may have been brought up in advantaged or disadvantaged social contexts and their particular backgrounds would have led them to cultivate particular kinds of identities until the point of migrating to Australia. Moreover, when those Korean migrants are exposed to new societal conditions, they would have to go through further ongoing processes of “reformulating” their identities, leading them to acquire distinctive sets of personal qualities (Bourdieu 1990, 1998). How diverse groups of Korean immigrants undergo and manage these ongoing processes, as demonstrated in the Korean ethnic media, is what I analyse throughout this book. 16 Chapter Two Recognising the consequences of how individuals translate their selfknowledge into their interactions with other members or social / natural environment, which may lead to reproduce or transform structure, we note that “the private lives of social subjects are indispensable to the very existence and working of society” (Archer 2003b, p.3; also see Jamieson 2002, p.511). What is reiterated here is that “the private lives of social subjects” or reflexive internal conversation necessarily entail a person’s identity which is an ongoing and ever-modifying process. This is to note that identity is not a static quality, but fluid, elastic and dynamic. These qualities are theoretically the characteristics of postmodern identities as argued by postmodern scholars (Nagel 1994; Anzaldúa 1995; Hall 1996; Plaza 2009; Rosaldo 1989). However, those qualities are not necessarily against realist perspectives of identities. A dictionary definition of identity is: “the individual characteristics by which a person or thing is recognized” or “the state of having unique identifying characteristics held by no other person or thing.” Identity is not equivalent to some of the concepts mentioned above, such as personhood, self knowledge, personal quality, attitudes or attributes. Nonetheless, it seems safe to say that identity entails these qualities and is a continuing project of all socially active as well as less than active individual agents. Jamieson (2002, p.511) sums up this as follows: The term “identities” can be used to encompass facets of the self that are only in play in some social contexts and not others. Identities need not be experienced as a constantly defining characteristic of the self, although some identities may be experienced in this way. Sustaining a personal identity entails “prioritizing one’s values and projects and committing oneself to ultimate concerns” (Meyers 2003, p.280; Archer 2000). In other words, who we are is represented by what we care most about. Personal identity is not a “gift of society” to individual agents, but has to be actively achieved by “an active and reflective agent” (Archer 2003a, p.21). Personal identity is a property that emerges from people’s unavoidably necessary relation with natural reality. The kinds of concerns that humans as relational beings cannot escape include at least the following three: “concerns about our physical well-being in the natural order, about our performative achievement in the practical order, and about our self-worth in the social order.” It is how we configure these three concerns, leading to represent precisely our personal identity (Archer 2003b, p.120, emphasis in original). Indeed, identity is continuously under construction for all individuals from the time of their Theoretical Perspectives 17 birth. With reference to the media, Thompson (1995) contends that we use media symbols as resources for constructing our identity. Identities can continue to change and be updated and improved as new media symbols become available. In doing so, we are able to identify with a community made up of people who have the same or similar identity as us. This is also how we get to develop our sense of belonging within our community. This seems to describe aptly the roles of the weekly magazines such as The Melbourne Sky and The Raon as they have been established for the younger generation within the Korean community in Melbourne, especially those who plan to stay in Australia for a relatively short term, e.g., students and working holiday visa holders. Another point worth noting is Archer’s contention that there is a dialectical relationship between personal and social identity and that attaining social identity has to occur prior to attaining personal identity (Archer 2003a, p.23). This is to acknowledge that there pre-exists a broad range of social identities which are shaped under given social conditions in a society. Our social identities are, for example, formed as we are exposed to, and learn about, the roles and responsibilities entailed in different professional positions and we may eventually choose to invest our time and effort in a particular profession with or without trials and errors. Those professional positions with particular social identities pre-exist independently of our choice, but “eventually” individuals need to make up their minds as to what kinds of professional positions entailing particular social identities they will choose. Importantly, Archer (2003a, p.25) notes that our social identity is necessarily “a subset of personal identity.” That is, the social identity is assigned its place within a personal identity in the life of an individual. To sum up the insights of Archer in the context of this book, the close relationships between agency, structure, internal conversation and identity can be illustrated as follows. The internal conversation is the mediating process for agents as they reflexively strategise their actions in the social contexts they face. In this process, it is personal identity, bearing individuals’ ultimate concerns and values, that drives the actions of agents or deliberations about themselves in their given socio-economic circumstances. While the agents are pursuing their own goals and agendas they constantly run into structural constraints and enablements. Again, it is the ongoing internal conversation or interior dialogue that leads to reflexive deliberations as to how the agents mediate between structure and agency (Archer 2003b, p.130). As noted earlier, the central task of this book is explore how the members of the Korean community manoeuvre around their personal aspirations in the given enabling or restraining societal factors in a foreign land, which contributes to who they are, i.e., identities. 18 Chapter Two Following the discussion of a realist concept of identity, I shall now move on to discuss transnational identities. Transnational Identities Transnational identity can be best understood within the context of transnationalism. The concept of transnationalism is generally used to refer to a wide range of practices, activities, and identities (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.9). According to Portes et al. (1999, p.221), transnationalism encompasses the “socio-cultural enterprises oriented towards the reinforcement of a national identity abroad.” It is a relatively recent term that has appeared more explicitly in recent years with more frequent jet travel and the advent of new Information and Communication Technologies. A group of cultural anthropologists, Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, and Christina Szanton Blanc pioneered theorising migration from a transnational perspective in the early 1990s. From the new perspective, immigrants were considered not to be “uprooted” or to have completely removed themselves from their “old home” countries but as closely maintaining networks and relations with their homelands (Glick Schiller , Basch, and Szanton Blanc 1995, p.48). This way of newly theorising the life of contemporary immigrants is useful and I shall utilise these insights in discussing how maintenance of such networks affects the formulation of transnational identities within the Korean community in Australia. However, as Vertovec (2001, p.576) critically notes, the notion of transnationalism may be over-used by the scholars of migrant studies today. With regard to how migrants display transnationalism, Wong and Satzewich (2006, pp.3-4) point out that it is expressed (1) as a mode of adaptation and (2) as social space. Transnationalism may be observed by the extent to which an immigrant is able to adapt to economic, political and socio-cultural aspects of her newly adopted homeland, in addition to her institutionalisation. Yet, the process of adaptation is not quite the same as assimilation or integration (Portes 1999). Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.4) contend in the context of Canada that transnationalism may be regarded as an extended form of multiculturalism beyond national borders and thus as entailing “a cross-border spatial dimension.” Vertovec (2001) has suggested that multiculturalism is practised with publicly recognising communal and cultural rights within a national border and that transnationalism extends such recognition outside of the national border. The principles of these observations seem to apply broadly to the Australian context. Secondly, Wong and Satzewich (2006, pp.4-5) note that theorising “transnationalism as social space” partly results from the contributions of geographers who have particularly recognised “the importance of socially Theoretical Perspectives 19 constructed notions of time and space.” According to Pries (2001, p.23), transnational social spaces make up “pluri-local frames of reference which structure everyday practices, social positions, biographical employment projects and human identities, and simultaneously exist above and beyond the social contests of national societies.” However, Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.5) contend that Faist’s (2000) description of transnationalism as social space is simpler than that of Pries and refers to three basic forms: “transnational kinship groups, transnational circuits, and transnational communities.” Importantly, Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.5) recognise that the notion of transnational social space is closely linked to immigration and ethnic adaptation. Importantly, it is clear from a critical realist viewpoint that the notion of transnational space as put forward by Pries (2001) and Faist (2000) consists of both transitive and intransitive dimensions contributing to the formation of transnational identity. That is, although the distinction between them is not always clear in this particular instance, “ideas and symbols within a migration system” (Faist 2000, p.2), for example, make up transitive dimension; and immigration policies, immigrant employment market or “transnational communities” as broader social conditions make up intransitive dimension in the process of immigrants’ forming transnational identities. Further, unlike what Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.5) seem to suggest, “the notions of time and space” are not mere social constructs or analytical concepts, but real factors that are in operation as continuing to form and reform transnational identities of immigrants. Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.9) specify that “the term social space has recently emerged to include not only geographical contexts, but also social-structural and institutional contexts.” Finally, it is worth commenting on the concepts of diaspora and transnational communities. Connor (1986, p.16) defined “diaspora” as “that segment of a people living outside the homeland.” Diasporic communities tend to display their close relationships and “yearning” to their homeland, through social, economic, political and cultural exchanges (Van Hear 1998, p.6). Characteristics of diasporic communities may be relatively static or less dynamic in comparison with those of transnational communities which may proactively respond to their adapted homeland as well as their “old” homeland, and beyond in the context of globalised world. Thus, “the concepts of transnationalism and transnational communities are broader and more inclusive than those of diasporas and diasporic communities” and “not all transnational communities are diasporas,” as noted by Wong and Satzewich (2006, pp.5-6). This rightly suggests, for example, that there is a diverse range of transnational identities as well as diasporic identities within the KoreanAustralian community. Some Korean immigrants display a rather limited degree of transnationalism, i.e., living, or “locked up,” in another version of the 20 Chapter Two Korean peninsula established within Australia. From the viewpoints of Wong and Satzewich (2006), those Korean immigrants clearly display characteristics of diasporic communities. Others display identities that have passed beyond Korean nationalism, adapted to some Australian identities as well as transnational or “universal identities.” The distinction between diasporas and transnational communities is useful. However, it is unclear as to how such a distinction would be analytically helpful in understanding the diversity of Korean-Australian transnational identities, especially when considering that most, if not all, contemporary immigrants live in transnational communities (Vertovec 2001, p.574). Reflecting on the perspectives presented by Wong and Satzewich (2006), it is apparent that there is a continuum as well as a transition from diasporic Korean community to transnational Korean community in Australia. However, it is in an early stage of transition. Thus, the Korean community still strongly displays characteristics of diasporic communities rather than those of transnational communities despite the fact that the Korean community is not homogeneous in this respect at all. This appears to be so as far as the current context of the Korean-Australian community is concerned. The situation might change over time. ELASTIC CONCEPT OF KOREAN-AUSTRALIAN ETHNIC IDENTITIES Australia as a major country that receives permanent settlers from other nations has gone through its policy changes towards ethnic populations, i.e., from assimilation (1952-66) to integration (1966-80) and more recently to multiculturalism. Perhaps one of the notable strengths of multiculturalism is to acknowledge that ethnic identity or acculturation is not a static, but a fluid process. Although the scholars of immigration research have dealt with diverse topics the issues of identity and acculturation seem to be a couple of cornerstones of their research topics (Cortes, Rogler, and Malgady 1994). According to Cortes et al. (1994), acculturation refers to the process whereby migrants and their descendants acquire the values, behavioural norms, and attitudes of the host society. Iman (2008, p.3) identifies two predominant formulations in the literature of acculturation: the uni-dimensional model and the bi-dimensional model. The key difference between these two approaches depends upon how they treat the culture of birth or upbringing, and the dominant or mainstream culture. Uni-dimensional models assume that acculturating immigrants relinquish the norms, values and attitudes of their culture of origin while simultaneously adopting those of the host society (Gans 1979). In contrast, theories of bi-dimensional models argue that the Theoretical Perspectives 21 acculturation process can be better understood when heritage and current dominant cultural identities are considered to be relatively independent of each other (Ramirez 1984). It seems that theoretical developments in understanding ethnic identity has progressed from earlier approaches that tended to focus on ethnic identities as fixed and hierarchically organised, to more recent perspectives that appreciate the “shifting, multiple and often hybrid” nature of acculturation processes (Salway 2008, p.1129; Gardner 2002). There is also an open acknowledgement of the significance of historical and contextual factors on identity formations and ethnic relations (Bhavnani and Phoenix 1994; Hall 1992; Mac An Ghaill and Haywood 2005; Salway 2008, p.1129; Rudmin 2009). In this respect, each migrant community is highly heterogeneous and consists of members in different stages of developing their personal and transnational identities, possessing distinct personal and social qualities and backgrounds (Riccio 2001, p.589; Guarnizo and Smith 1998). Berry and Kim (1998) and others have developed a four-fold classification — Assimilation, Separation, Integration and Marginalisation, describing the level of migrants’ acculturation. More specifically on Koreans in Australia, Myong-Duk Yang (2008) suggests four types of Korean identity: “Koreans in Australia” [separation from the mainstream Australian society]; “Australian Full Stop” [assimilation]; “AustrAlien” [marginalisation]; and “KoreanAustralians” [integration and multiculturalism]. Ethnic identities are not necessarily the same as personal or social identities or transnational identities. However, just as social identity is a sub-set of personal identity, social, ethnic and transnational identities may be regarded as sub-sets of personal identity and contribute to the formation of personal identity. As noted, identity or ethnicity is not static, but a fluid and continuing process, shifting between the four different types of ethnicity (cf. Plaza 2009, p.41). According to Stuart Hall (1996, p.4), “identities are never unified and, in late modern times, increasingly fragmented and fractured; never singular but multiply constructed across different, often intersecting and antagonistic, discourses, practices and positions.” Identities are subject to a process of constant change and transformation. Once an individual or group identity is formed, it constantly goes through processes of modification, “‘Less’ Australian” reformation, and transformation, thus Korean identities are perpetually circulating around the four quadrants (cf. Colic-Peisker 2008, p.21). It is also entirely possible that there are many types within each of the four kinds. Reflecting on my personal experiences, my own ethnic identity or “how I want my identity to be” has fluctuated over the last two decades and still does today. In fact, there are some particular dimensions of Korean and Australian societies and respectively related identities with which I wish to associate more 22 Chapter Two Figure 2.1. A four fold classification of identity of “Koreans” in Australia. Sources: Inspired by Berry (1988), Iman (2008) and Yang (2008). closely; and other dimensions much less so. This process is recognised by Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.11), arguing that “Transnational and diasporic subjects experience dual or multiple identities characterized by hybridity” (cf. Tölölyan 1996; Krygier 1997). Thus, monopatriotism cannot be expected from the members of a diasporic community (Appadurai 1996) and the concurrent existence of multiple identities is common (Boyarin and Boyarin 1993; Golbert 2001, p.729). Again in the words of Wong and Satzewich (2006, p.11), “transnational identity formation shows that identity is not singular but plural and always evolving.” A social constructionist position also acknowledges that an individual has only one self but has many identities within her and that some aspects of those many identities are “more primary or core than others” in terms of their relative importance (Jamieson 2002). For example, my perception of Korea was radically modified during my first few years in Australia. I had to reformulate my ideas about Korea and what my identity should be like as a Korean in an Australian university. I thought that I was clearly able to see the problems of Korean society and this led me to develop overly critical views of Korean society in my early years. This was a process of denying “my own old Korean identity” and associating closely with my new Australian identity which had just started to form. It was as though there was very little to blame about Australian society (Han 2008). As time has passed I notice Theoretical Perspectives 23 that I have continued to dissociate myself from, or “actively recovered,” my “old” Koreanness as well as my “past” identities from time to time. Selective dimensions of Australian society have continued to influence the formation of my identities. This is well illustrated by the words of Stuart Hall (1996, p.4): “identities are about questions of using the resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming rather than being.” I reiterate that, as observed in other ethnic communities (e.g., Iman 2008), a well-integrated migrant in Australia may have a strong sense of belonging to the broader Australian society, but also a strong sense of belonging in her own ethnic community as well as her old home country. A “Korean” advocating “Australian Full Stop” at a particular point in time may simultaneously maintain the characteristics of “Koreans in Australia.” Moreover, a Korean who strongly displays the characteristics of “Korean-Australian” today may shift to “Koreans in Australia” tomorrow or in the near future; and it is possible that he shifts back and forth between multiple characteristics. In a similar vein, Iman (2008, p.10) also aptly contends the complexity and “uneven” acculturating processes of different domains or behaviour, attitudes and social life: “one may seek economic assimilation (at work), linguistic integration (by way of bilingualism), and marital separation (by endogamy).” In his empirical study of Iranian immigrants in Australia, Iman (2008, p.22) suggests that “educated individuals may not only develop high integration and assimilation tendencies, but also a high tendency of marginalization.” Applying these possibilities to organisations, I argue that ethnic organisations such as Korean churches would naturally attract people with diverse types of identities. However, the general characteristics of a specific Korean church may be determined by the “dominant” types of ethnic identities of its members, especially of its leaders. If the church polity and the decision making leaders tend to be marginalised “Koreans in Australia” in a Korean church, the pervasive human interactions may generally represent Korean cultural “heritage.” On the other hand, if a Korean church comprises second generation Koreans whose identities are closer to “Australian” than “Korean,” the church activities would reflect this. Despite the advancement of the ways in which we understand ethnic identities, past studies show that identity formation remains “deeply rooted in the organization of society” (Ville, Guerin-Pace, and Rogers 2005, p.237; Salway 2008, p.1129). That is, formation of minority self-identities is strongly influenced by the ways in which “mainstream society” treats specific minority populations in terms of the predominant beliefs about minority populations, perceptions of them and cultures of dealing with general or specific minority populations (Jenkins 1994; Modood 1998; Karlsen 2004; Salway 2008, p.1130). These broader contextual influences tend to limit how 24 Chapter Two individual members of each specific minority will collectively form their ethnic identities, and then consequently impact on their acculturation process and inter- and intra-ethnic relations. Thus, feelings or actual experiences of exclusion from mainstream society or racially discriminatory experiences can reinforce the members of ethnic minorities to rely on “their own people” (Salway 2008, p.1143). However, despite these contextually restraining factors, individual members of a specific community would differ in the formation and expression of their ethnic identities. CONCLUDING REMARKS It would be worth concluding the chapter with the insights from Andrew Smith (2005) noting that transnational identity is an “issue fundamental to human sociability.” He elegantly poses: how and why it becomes possible to think of oneself as a part of something more extensive than oneself; how and why “I” relates to “we.” An obvious related question is how and why it becomes difficult for immigrants to overcome the boundaries of identities which they either developed from their birth or have become familiar with over a long span of time. Transnationalism may be referred to as “a sense of belonging and attachment that extends beyond” a national boundary (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.1). Once an immigrant puts herself in the context of a diasporic community, she is exposed to a number of factors that will constantly influence the formation of her kind of transnationalism. As discussed earlier, intransitive dimensions of social reality that individual migrants necessarily have to engage with include new social institutions, ethnic tensions, racial discrimination, reluctance to recognise overseas qualifications, multiculturalism, historical factors, the need to become proficient in a new language, and the need to adjust to new social and natural surroundings. Vertovec (2001) calls these intransitive dimensions “identity-conditioning factors” and lists the following: ‘histories and stereotypes of local belonging and exclusion, geographies of cultural differences and class/ethnic segregation, racialised socio-economic hierarchies, degree and type of collective mobilisation, access to and nature of resources, and perceptions and regulations surrounding rights and duties’ (p.578). In turn, this engagement shapes their transnational identities to a significant degree. These intransitive realities have a “blanket impact” on new immigrants, and there is little room for negotiation, for the intransitive realities are stringent Theoretical Perspectives 25 in the sense that they do not change over a short span of time. However, individual agents come with their own emergent properties and make sense out of the intransitive dimensions differently. Their reactions to the intransitive realities are vastly different. These differences which individual agents come with in the first place and also the variety of responses, lead to producing diversity and complexity of immigrants’ lives, coping strategies and transnational identities. To sum up, identities are generated within, and formulated through, an ongoing internal and external dialectic interaction taking place within given social worlds (Vertovec 2001, p.577; Jenkins 1996). It is worth exploring how individuals and organisations in an ethnic community constantly go through the formulation and reformulation of their transnational identities in the rapidly globalising world whereby people’s transnational life is facilitated by cheaper and more sophisticated modes of communication and transportation (Vertovec 2001, pp.574-5). The following chapters explore these with reference to the portrayal of Korean identities in the Korean language media as well as in the Korean immigrant church. Finally, I wish to reiterate that this chapter is not to be read as an overarching theoretical framework for the following empirical chapters, although it has a certain theoretical bearing on most chapters to a certain extent. A much broader and encompassing framework for understanding identities in diasporic communities is a task for another project. NOTES 1. Stuart Hall’s concept of identity seems to pay predominant emphasis on the ways in which it is formed ‘through the relation to the Other’ (Hall 1996, p.4). Chapter Three “Beyond the Australian Dream”: A Business Migrant’s Reconstruction of Identities BACKGROUND OF BUSINESS MIGRANTS The United States has always been the most popular destination of potential Korean emigrants since the enactment of the 1962 Korean government emigration policy, attracting about seventy five per cent of all Korean emigrants (KDI 1979, p.41; Kim 1981). However, Australia has also gained popularity, with a flow of nurses and computer technicians having begun from the early 1980s. Potential business migrants were relatively well-off in Korea and the reasons for their emigration were not only economic but also non-economic, such as quality of life and better living and working environments. Following the ever-increasing trade revenue of the late 1980s, the Korean government encouraged overseas investment. Apart from their adventurous wishes to conduct business overseas, small entrepreneurs also became dissatisfied with the continually deteriorating environment, air pollution, traffic jams, the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots leading to more crime, and other social problems, which have adversely affected the quality of life in Korea. Better quality of education for children, especially in terms of their future prospect of professional life in the globalising world, has also been a significant reason to emigrate to Australia, saving the children from the so-called “university entrance exam hell” (see Sullivan and Gunasekaran 1989; Han 1996b, 2000b, 2003, 2007a). The major inflow of Korean business migrants to Australia started in 1987. Of the many reasons for Koreans to emigrate, Jonathan WilloughbyThomas (cited in Song 1995, p.429), the immigration officer of the Australian High Commission in Seoul in the mid 90s, pointed out that 27 28 Chapter Three the majority of applicants for emigration were generally tired of their life in Seoul and they wanted to live in a society with the least degree of stress. Some applicants for business migration mentioned to the officer that there were too many obstacles for business activity in Korean society (Han 1996b). “Beyond the Australian Dream” is a prize winning autobiography of Mr Kim Sang-Soon, published in Shin Dong-A, a monthly magazine of current affairs and issues in Korean language published in Korea in 2000. It is broadly about Kim’s immigrant life experience rather than about his formation of transnational identities. However, the autobiography that is analysed and discussed in this chapter not only illustrates the kinds of issues that many young and older migrants including its author go through in a new environment with special reference to the transformation or fluctuation of their identities, but also the author Kim’s highly insightful observation of the processes. Undoubtedly, Kim’s observation of the experiences of his own and other Korean immigrants in Australia in the contexts of Korea and Australia is a culmination of his painstaking reflexivity and internal conversations. Kim’s memory would have been selective in this cultural text, and he would have edited out some aspects in order to create an appealing narrative and get published. These points pose a challenge for a sociological analysis. This chapter consists of annotated translation of selected parts of the autobiography and my own analysis, which covers a vast range of contents, then followed by an overall analysis presented in the discussion and concluding remarks. As noted already, an important premise of the current and following chapters is that current affairs magazines, novels and books are essentially treated as part of the media. The life of Korean immigrants has been depicted and mediated through these print media. Moreover, although the actual publication of the prominent magazine occurs in Seoul, Korea, the contents of the autobiography are about the life of a Korean business migrant in Australia. Otherwise, there would be little reason to include an analysis of the autobiography in this book.1 As indicated in the previous chapter on theoretical considerations, the formation and re-formation of ethnic identity, then leading to the formation of transnational or “universal identity” is tightly linked to the life experiences of immigrants, that is, the processes of adjustment to a new life in a foreign land or more broadly the migrants’ acculturation processes. It is in this respect that the present chapter analyses the ongoing processes of migrant life as affecting the formation and re-formation of his transnational identities. “Beyond the Australian Dream” 29 YEARNING FOR A DREAM LIFE IN THE WEST AND LEAVING THE HOMELAND Mr Kim Sang-Soon, the author of the prize winning autobiography, “Beyond the Australian Dream”2 is a Korean business migrant who arrived in Australia with his family in January 1990. Mr Kim graduated as a maritime engineer from the Korean Maritime University in 1974 and his first voyage was to Newcastle, Australia. The ship was held up in the port for three months due to a maritime union workers’ strike. It was during that period that he learnt a little about Australia as follows: Australia abandoned its White Australia policy in 1973; enjoying a very high GDP3; it maintained a relatively good social welfare, looking after a person’s life from the cradle to the grave; a vast land with a small population (Australia with half the population of South Korea, but the land was eighty times of South Korea); and a land of abundant natural resources whereby nature and animals were looked after as much as humans. This set of information is insufficient for a potential migrant to Australia, but sufficient enough to provide an educated Korean professional with an assumption about the quality of life of the Australian population. Mr Kim recalls that Australia was a heaven on earth in the 1970s4 compared to the socially and politically unstable South Korean society, and that to walk in downtown Seoul was often to be obstructed by confrontations between demonstrating students and armed police. Democracy was something special to be dreamt of for all Koreans. He was often dismayed by his own ambivalence and timidity, being unsure as to which of the parties (i.e., either students or armed police) he should be in support of. Overall, he was utterly unhappy about his life in Korea. I was employed as an engineer for an export transport company for eight years, fighting for my life at sea. Then, I was able to pay off my own apartment. But I suffered from relative deprivation when finding out a public servant friend of mine managed to own a much more valuable apartment than mine. This clearly taught me that one’s diligence does not promise one’s future wealth, causing a kind of “Korean bitterness.”5 … My children once blamed me for asking them to live frugally when I was simply not able to provide a high quality motor vehicle or pay for expensive extracurricular learning activities. I deliberately blamed the lack of my own ability rather than social structural defects of the Korean society in my conversations to my children (p.476). Frustration and dissatisfaction with their lives in the affluent Korean society seemed to have been felt broadly, especially among those well-educated professionals employed by industry, since the late 1980s. The level of relative deprivation might have been even higher among those who travelled to the 30 Chapter Three West for the purpose of business or personal reasons. Further, Mr Kim was often troubled by unnecessary hurdles and formalities which he had to undergo on an everyday basis in Korea whose people went through a tight control by the government over a few decades. Thus, he labelled himself as one of those who could not continue to love their own motherland. His frequent travel to the cities of developed countries since his graduation from the Korean Maritime University in the early 1970s led him to decide that he and his family would eventually emigrate overseas. That is, he assumes in retrospect that his plan to emigrate grew since his frequent viewing of Western movies since his middle school days. His consumption of a range of media including films must have contributed to this process. Mr Kim certainly cultivated his fantasy or more accurately his dream of living a quality life in the West from his time as a teenager. He was set to pursue a more meaningful and comfortable life than the one in Korea, and also provide his children with better living conditions. By April 1998, he had already been awaiting an approval for family reunion emigration to the United States for eight years and was exhausted of patience. The sheer popularity of the United States as a destination of potential Korean migrants would have been a contributing factor to the delay. As soon as he came across an advertisement for business migration to Australia he started to pursue it immediately. Applying for emigration and preparing documents took him eighteen months. Mr Kim then resigned from his job, despite his knowledge that he would be promoted to a departmental director in a few months. He disposed of his apartment and a valuable block of land despite the assured hike in their values in a few years. His complete disposal of his real estate was a clear indication of his determination to uproot his life in Korea and “re-root” a new one in Australia. In this respect he is distinct from many other Korean business migrants or the so called satellite (or astronaut) migrants who split their political and economic commitments between the two nations (cf. Ong 1999; Waters 2002). As Mr Kim was preparing the required documents for remitting a large sum of money to an Australian bank he experienced a completely unexpected and unexplained delay of approval by a public servant in the Korean tax office. One of his friends who had also applied for emigration blamed Mr Kim’s uncompromising and “naïve” integrity, and told him: “Your choice to emigrate is the right one for you. How can you possibly live here with such naïvety? A bribe of $50 would have obviously prevented such delay of the approval.” Kim found himself hopeless to have assumed that he could have his job done in the Korean taxation office, simply paying the required stamp duty. This supposedly normal thinking and behaviour from his viewpoint seemed to have grown to be abnormal in the Korean society undergoing a rapid change; and corruption has settled as part of everyday activity (cf. “Beyond the Australian Dream” 31 Chang 1999). Although Kim desired deliberately to feel hesitant as to whether or not leaving the motherland was the right thing to do, this incident made him put aside all such ambivalence, and he looked forward to leaving for his new homeland-to-be. It seems as though he found a clearer rationale than ever before to leave the homeland, feeling that his homeland is giving him up at the cost of $50. Nonetheless, he does not seem able to put aside the feeling of emotional abandonment, which may accompany the loss of his identities (Kursat-Ahlers 1994; Leavey 2004; Dunn and Ip 2008 ). Finally, I am going. I am leaving the motherland that gave me birth, heading to my newly chosen land. I remitted to Australia all the money I had and held the receipt in my hand. I could not fall asleep the last night in the homeland. Although I was leaving for the country long sought-after, I was worried about how to support my son who had just entered his teens. What means would I have in Australia to support my family and my son’s journey to adulthood? I was weighing up between the two lives, one in Korea and another in Australia, divided by Pacific Ocean, throughout the whole night (Kim 2000). Kim must have been full of anxiety as to what resources would be available for his family in Australia and how to make sense out of his new life in the West, which he has dreamt of for years. Despite all the information available about the destinations of potential migrants, I have learned that Korean immigrants in Australia had decided to leave Korea and head to Australia without necessarily having given enough thought that such an adventure deserves. A consequence is a high degree of resentment especially in the initial period (Han 1996b, 2000b; Han and Davies 2000). The trends may be that in the past, for example early twentieth century Korean migration to sugarcane farming in Hawai’i was an act of economic desperation, requiring much consideration. The migrants knew that such a move could mean uprooting from the homeland and starting all over in a foreign land. On the other hand, an analysis of Korean students and working holiday visa holders in Australia shows that their decision to be temporary residents seems to require little consideration as long as they have resources (Han and Jung 2009b). ARRIVING IN THE NEW HOME COUNTRY AND FALLING INTO THE REALITY OF IMMIGRANT LIFE Struggling at a Deep End In late January 1990, Mr Kim and his family arrived in Sydney. Moving from the northern to the southern hemisphere, Kim constantly experienced a lot of 32 Chapter Three confusion caused by exotic culture and different socio-historical contexts. He has to flick down electric switch to turn on the lights; the house is better exposed to the north, in order to receive the sunshine; when hot he has to close windows to block out the gusty wind; banks are busy encouraging the customers to borrow their money rather than to save and deposit money into the banks; and most of all, it was most confusing to drive his car on the left hand side of the road. Driving through a roundabout, which is completely new to Koreans, has caused a few near accidents. Kim’s new life in Sydney started with renting a house, registering his two children at local schools and purchasing a second-hand car. Kim discovered quickly that the rent he had to pay was burdensome and was “somewhat” wasteful. This is what many new Korean migrants often complain about. A real estate office suggested that Kim buy a house worth AU$400,000-500,000. However, he was determined to give priority to purchasing a house in an area with “good” schools and less vulnerable to theft, but at the same time to spend no more than AU$300,000 for his house. Kim went along to an auction in the central business district of Sydney where sixty potential customers were present and three houses were up for sale. It was at the time of economic downturn and the first two houses failed to reach the agreed prices. The third house was of interest to Kim and within his allocated budget. The first suggested price was $250,000 and gradually went up to $275,000. Kim then suggested $280,000, still within his comfort zone. When someone suggested $281,000 Kim was in torment and confusion as to whether or not he should lose the opportunity because of one thousand dollars. In those few moments, Kim noticed that a person was constantly looking at him and when their eyes met the person quickly turned away his eyes. Kim realised that the person must be manipulating the price which went well beyond $300,000. As Kim gave up and was leaving the auction market he was approached quickly and told that the last bidder could not go on to sign the contract (p.480). Kim: How ridiculous to pull my leg like that? Real Estate Personnel: I don’t want to see all the three houses failing today. My real estate office has been hit hardest in 20 years’ time and I find it difficult to run even my office. Why don’t you take it up with your offered price? (p.480) This is how he bought his house within two months of his arrival. His frugal and systematic approach seemed to have certainly paid off. In recent years, as reported in the Australian media, those new affluent migrants and especially potential migrants yet to arrive have been blamed for a huge price increase in the housing market in Sydney and Melbourne in particular (Gardner 2010; cf. Ley and Tutchener 2001). It is open to further investigation whether some “Beyond the Australian Dream” 33 real estate agents manipulate the price of a house especially when there are affluent migrants outbidding local buyers with an unexpectedly high price to ensure their purchase, as reported in the media (Potts 2010; Williams 2010; Dobbin and Willingham 2010). However, Duffy, Fitz Gerald and Kearney (2005) suggest that discouraging potential migrants from entering the housing market may rather have a detrimental impact on the growth of the housing economy. These contextual changes, posing both constraints and enablements, have an important bearing on the life opportunities of immigrants. Purchasing a home remains an important part of the Australian dream and is a goal for migrants to achieve as soon as possible. Once the migrants, especially those with relatively little capital, have purchased their home, their diligent effort to pay off the mortgage continues, but leaves them with little quality of life, sometimes leading to ill health (Han and Chesters 2001a, b; Lindert et al. 2009). Their diligence cannot be questioned, but the monotonous life they lead begs the question as to whether that is what they looked for. Having worked as a chief engineer providing theoretical knowledge as well as practical for sixteen years, Kim expects not to have any difficulty finding an employment in his specialty. He responds to several recruitment advertisements, but none yielded any success. Having arrived in Australia, Mr Kim might not have given serious thought to what his employment chances were like and how he will make his own livelihood. He learned that Australia is full of primary and tertiary industries, but lacks secondary industries where Kim could contribute best. Kim decided to take up anything offered to him including menial work. However, such willingness did not come to fruition. A sandwich bar required one month of such work experience and he was denied a chance to work for a supermarket, refilling the shelves with products. Australian employers often required recommendation letters from previous employers. The letter he brought from his employer in Korea was of little use. Although Kim was employed for menial work at night or as a porter to carry heavy materials, his physical health could not sustain those manual jobs for any more than three days. When he was denied a job watering golf links his fantasy about, and dream of a quality life in, Australia seemed to fade away. The moment was one of the most disheartening moments in his entire life. He questioned himself: “Is this what I wanted out of the long-awaited migration? What is the great life I want to pursue after enduring all these discouragements? What dream am I trying to catch?” He was questioning the fundamentals of his identity as a Korean. Nonetheless, he did not want to give up simply because the new social environment did not welcome him. Instead he wished to use the discouragement as a stimulus to move forward. These have been the trials and tribulations many Korean migrants in Australia have gone through and many more still do. Many have 34 Chapter Three stumbled over their adversities and consequently attracted ill health, failing to achieve their dreams. Others have been resilient in face of their adversities and have achieved many of their dreams in this foreign land of opportunity, Australia (Han and Chesters 2001a, b). These trials and tribulations have been particularly difficult for most professionals since they generally have difficulty getting their qualifications and experiences recognised in Australia, which frustrates them (Han 1999b). Earning His Livelihood by Any Means Kim has found that his basic living cost in Australia is high. Medical cost and the children’s education are “covered” by the welfare state, but he still has to pay for electricity, phone, water and gas. Even though his wife was frugal in her grocery shopping the family’s monthly living expenses came to often more than $2,500. Further, his income derived from interest out of the capital he had brought with him decreased when the official interest rate was halved from fifteen to seven and a half per cent. Kim then had to start using his capital in the bank which started to go down, just as a traveller in the desert starts seeing her supply of food6 and water gradually go down. These are the common concerns that new migrants go through in their initial adjustment period. One day, Kim was leaving a supermarket after buying some groceries “on special,” preoccupied with the ideas of saving his living costs, when he ran into a young man collecting the supermarket trolleys. The young man (Seok-Un) takes off his hat and shows his respect to Kim as if he knew of him. And he asks Kim: “Are you the recent arrival from Eeeri, Jeolla Bukdo Province in Korea?” Seok-Un has heard of Kim’s arrival in the small Korean community. Seok-Un is also from Kim’s hometown. Having finished his university studies in Korea, Seok-Un is now studying English in Sydney and is earning an income to support his studies. Their meeting adjourns after these brief words of greeting (p.481). In the small Korean community, these close and “intimate” informal networks people develop can lead not only to long-lasting and satisfying relations, but also to emotional scars among the Korean-Australians, even in the Korean migrant churches. They are meeting again after two weeks. Seok-Un suggests that Kim invest $35,000 in a cleaning business and sign a contract. Seok-Un reckons that he can manage the work himself and generate an income of $700 per week. Kim knows that the cleaning business does not require particular skills or a large sum of capital or English language ability.7 He is perhaps reluctantly conceding that his inadequate English language ability may prevent him from seeking a professional job commensurate with his educational and professional experience. Korean students often find cleaning a way to support their “Beyond the Australian Dream” 35 study costs. However, Kim is hesitant to sign the contract since he has been advised that cleaning contracts often involve frauds and the supermarket or building manager is often arrogant about the quality of cleaning. Nonetheless, Kim’s scepticism is watered down by Seok-Un’s persuasion, saying that he is accustomed to the cleaning business and that he is not a naïve beginner, who may run into problems. Kim is assured that many Koreans have been successful in their immigrant life through the cleaning business. Kim concluded that his investment would be secure and his tasks would simply be to meet the building manager occasionally for a cup of coffee and ensure the quality of the cleaning work completed, to earn $700 per week. His eventual decision to sign the contract is further encouraged by his anxiety to engage in any economic activity as he is in his early forties. Moreover, Kim is concerned with the continued drain on his bank balance (p.482) since he was not able to find adequate work to support the material needs of his family. Mr Kim’s hope to get directly involved in actual cleaning only occasionally might have been an incentive for him to sign the contract, but this cleaning work must have fundamentally changed his perceptions and dreams about life in Australia. On the other hand, this is a real step forward for him in adjusting to a new life, compromising his aspirations and consequently leading to the need to reconstruct his new identity. The Cleaning Business Inside Out Kim is about to purchase a cleaning contract to clean the building of a finance company located in the central business district of Sydney, from a self-made immigrant from Hong Kong. After Kim has handed over the contract deposit of ten per cent to the man, Kim is now introduced to the building manager. Kim then requests the Hong Kong man to make sure that the cleaning contract be “fully” handed over. But Kim is shocked and feels belittled by the following comments. You have no idea about the world of the cleaning business. The contract normally lasts for two years and it is due to be renewed in eight months, i.e., May next year. If you want the change of owner of the contract it takes two months and costs over $1,000. If you want, it can be done. If you want to run a cleaning business in your way you can’t purchase the cleaning rights. This is what this world is like (p.482). Kim is shocked to hear about these unexpected “anomalies.” Having spent many years as a professional, Kim is uncomfortable with this “unprofessional” conduct, yet finding himself drifting into this new world. As Kim wants the deposit returned the Hong Kong man is turning to be unkind and 36 Chapter Three “rough.” Kim wonders whether he should forget about the deposit, but ended up paying the rest, i.e., the required $30,000 in cash. All the documents that Kim receives include a completely “unlawful” receipt in Korean language and the cleaning contract document under the name of the Hong Kong person. Kim’s ownership of the contract commences immediately and a month later he is shocked again by the payment from the building manager which was less 20 per cent tax. After paying for the cleaning materials, Kim is left with $600. Kim once assumed that his willingness to work hard would resolve most of what is involved in the cleaning business. However, he quickly learns that securing labour is the greatest challenge. Here, he turns to those vulnerable Korean students or short-term stayers with few rights or entitlements as workers. Their common complaints of exploitation include: wages are lower than the minimum wages; and not getting paid on time. It is easy enough to recruit Korean students or have drifters agree to work for Kim, but they rarely last for four weeks and some quit with an unreasonably short notice, frequently and generally on Fridays when the salary is paid. Although it is menial work it takes a week to get a beginner into the cleaning routine. When the workers do not turn up on the following Monday Kim is put under a grave anxiety and stress, but has to complete the task all by himself, normally taking on three men’s labour. Kim mistakenly assumes that his friendly relations with his workers will improve their attitudes. On Friday nights after work, Kim buys them drinks and plays Korean card games with them. This is all in vain (p.483). One obvious mistake he makes here is to identify the contemporary young people with his own younger days in terms of loyalty. It is Kim’s fatal mistake to disregard the gulf between the life experiences of the young people and those of his own. For example, the young people today have grown up in the time of economic affluence and they seem to have a lot more options in what they do both in the short and long term. After all, those young people have not come to Australia to support Kim’s cleaning business, but simply to use this opportunistic period to meet their short-term needs. Kim again wonders about “who he is” and questions why he does what he does now. This seems to be a serious moment of self-doubt, questioning his identities since he realises his presence in the transnational context. When working as a maritime engineer, I always had my own bedroom cleaned by a cleaning boy. As a middle manager of a multinational company, I never had to empty the dustbin in my own bedroom. Now I clean and shine the dirty materials without knowing those who dirty them. I often fear that the standard of my cleaning work may be under question. I am a migrant living in a wealthy country. Far from leading a leisurely life, do I need to clean toilet bowls for the rest of my life? My present working life clearly contrasts with the way people admired me for my professional skills in the past (p.483). “Beyond the Australian Dream” 37 Kim is perplexed about the contrast between his past and present working lives. He is going through reflexive moments about his own identity and is deeply worried about his future prospect. Yet, a difficulty that Kim faces is that his future prospect appears to be totally uncertain, not allowing him to plan. It has been three to four months since the start of his cleaning work and Kim has even developed good networks within the cleaning industry, which has been useful. One day, Kim is holding a dinner party for a dozen Korean families living in the same suburb. As the party matures Kim receives a phone call from a worker saying that Seok-Un and another worker have not turned up. Kim and his wife drive to the building to clean and arrive there at 10 o’clock in the night, by which time the cleaning is supposed to be completed. Under the influence of alcohol, Kim’s legs are shaking. He feels the weight of the vacuum cleaner heavier than other days and the building floor more “wide open” than ever before. Toilets were dirty beyond description. It is about 12am when Seok-Un rings Kim from the Villawood Detention Centre and demands a bail bond of $10,000. Kim feels betrayed that Seok-Un has not mentioned that he has over-stayed his visa and Kim refuses to pay the bond. The employer-employee relationship simply cannot be sustained if either party does not fulfil mutual obligations. This seems so regardless of the fact that they are both Koreans. It is often a matter of regret that fellow Koreans cannot be easily trusted. However, it may also be true that Korean students make easy prey for exploitation by Korean businessmen, but using them may be a high price to pay. Kim finishes the cleaning work at 6 o’clock in the morning. Kim is reminded of the suffering and frustration that he experienced due to the possibility of the ship sinking in the middle of a storm in his profession as a maritime engineer in the past. Kim could not believe that similar fears also exist on the land and pities his immigrant life: “I recall how my friends and colleagues admired me for going to Australia as a business migrant. What would they say if they saw my life here now?” (pp.483-6). As Kim has just dealt with a difficult moment, he must be thinking through the vicissitudes of his personal and social identities, selfhood and pride. This is indeed a moment of reflexive internal conversation in the transnational context. Kim has no alternative but to modify his personal identities, i.e., who he is and what makes him up. Two weeks after the incident, Kim receives a letter of regret from the building manager and this letter starts winding down his cleaning business adventure. The letter is about terminating the contract rather than renewing it at the end of May, which means the possible loss of the contract premium of $35,000. Among the reasons not to renew the contract were: keeping open the computer room longer than required, which requires a 38 Chapter Three tight security beyond the specified time; the low standard of cleaning; the cleaning team consists of three rather than four persons unlike the stipulation in the contract, yet completing the work before specified time. Kim has no option but to withdraw from the cleaning contract after eight months work, losing a further $10,000, in addition to the loss of the premium of $35,000 (p.487). Kim is learning about the cold reality and consequences of breaching a contract in Western society. His fantasy about the West fades away. Kim cannot see for a way to rectify his mistakes, but simply accepts this unfortunate consequence. Moreover, a little while later, Kim is ordered to appear in the Office of Immigration Department. The Immigration Officer interrogates Kim who has arrived as a business migrant, but has earned a motor mechanic license on the basis of his past qualifications. Acquiring the license has been reported to the Department and has worried the Immigration Officer who treats Kim as if he were an “unlawful criminal.” Kim was interrogated about his bank balance, whether he rents a home or purchased one and whether he has started his business. Kim feels that he is under the government’s watch and his identity has been shattered. For a while, he trembles due to the anger and helpless situation whenever he is reminded of the encounter. Kim is suddenly struck by the best possible escape out of this frustration: i.e., continuing to pursue his earlier plan to migrate to the United States (Tokita 2010). Once he has made up his mind, he is fast losing his enthusiasm towards his immigrant life in Australia. Kim contacts the American Embassy and is informed that his old documents prepared for his migration to the United States can be reviewed within the Embassy in Australia. He is pressing on with his application and his house is put up for sale. He also collects lots of information as to how he will carry out his business in the United States upon his arrival there. As noted, many potential migrants do not give enough consideration to planning their migration when they are preoccupied by dissatisfaction with their current life. This tendency may cause another migration, as some established migrants seem to look for better opportunities, e.g., Koreans in New Zealand moving to Australia; Indo-Fijians moving to Australia.8 With regard to the government’s control over Kim’s business activities, it should be noted that the whole scheme of business migration in its early stage in the 90s was flawed. It seems there was tension between how individuals would make use of available opportunities in the given policy frameworks and what Australia would like to achieve through these schemes (Han 1996b; Han, Chesters, and Ballis 2009; Schak 1999). When Kim’s emigration documents for the application are nearly ready for submission, one day Kim is visited by one of his acquaintances. Kim is told as follows (pp.488-9). “Beyond the Australian Dream” 39 Listen to me, my unwise friend. Packing up for emigration once in a lifetime is enough. Having spent some years in Central and South America I should have gone to the United States, but have detoured a long way to come to Australia. Can you imagine all the trouble I had to bear myself? Every time you pack up it costs you $50,000, which can sustain your family for two years. Once you are dissatisfied with your life in the United States, will you pack again to migrate to the Moon? (p.489) This advice is persuasive enough for Kim to rethink another “great” move. Kim realises that it is not his wish to depart Australia, his dream country desired so much. In wishing to migrate to the United States, Kim was aware that his desire for the United States was negligible in comparison to that he had felt for Australia. Kim could not justify the long procedure of settling in another country, dragging the rest of the family along with him. Despite his frustration with his immigrant life in Australia, Kim is confident that he loves his home, neighbours and the Australian natural surroundings. Kim is indeed accustomed to his “existence” in Australia. His fantasy about Australia is broken, yet Kim loves Australia (p.489). Undoubtedly, Kim has gone through the processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation (Papastergiadis 2000; Axford 2001; Dianteill 2002). However, Kim’s challenges and problems remain as before. He remains anxious not only to earn an income, but also to lead his everyday life more constructively. Kim almost signs a contract to invest $100,000 to run a food shop specialising in seasonings and cheese, but gives up as he does not think that his health could endure the long working hours from 6 o’clock in the morning until 7 o’clock in the night. The broker involved in selling the shop introduces Kim to a general store attached to the Caltex oil refining company. Kim signs the contract, investing a premium of $80,000, in the prospect of earning $600 per week. One attraction is the relatively low monthly rent charge of $250 (p.491). Kim now embarks on a new enterprise more cautiously than before. EMBRACING NEW NATION AND NEW CULTURE: TRIALS AND ERRORS “From Engineer to A Shopkeeper [Jangsaggun]”9: A Continuing Transformation of Identities Kim is now “happy” to settle with his new identity as shopkeeper and is accustomed to this new way of supporting his family. Kim makes an effort to be a good shopkeeper as he was once required to pay a lot of attention to detail, working with complex electric circuits. As there are three other similar stores 40 Chapter Three close to his own shop Kim could not ignore competition with them. For example, Kim would make notes on the names of his customers and their characteristics, e.g., “Jenny is tall, has short blonde hair, and loves almond chocolate.” Despite long working hours, Kim is enthusiastic about his routine and he leads a lively life, without being conscious of the cramped work space (p.491). As he does not wish to repeat the precedent of “a bad contract agreement” with a premium experienced in the cleaning business, Kim has had a lawyer arrange a three-year contract for “the Caltex shop.” Alas, Kim’s fortune is only shortlasting. Just as he wants to renew the contract at the end of three years, the whole building in which his shop is located is sold to a new owner. This means the loss of the premium of $80,000. Kim sues the negligent lawyer, but soon abandons the lawsuit, knowing that the final compensation may be less than his legal cost (p.492). The lawyer may have diligently dealt with the procedure, but Kim has to cope with the unexpected consequence. Lacking any networks for practical benefit, Kim may not even have had the opportunity to share or relieve psychologically the adversities he has gone through. Kim has now been misappropriated of the total of $115,000 in four years. He is frustrated on one hand, feeling that “Had I done nothing but concentrated on golf and fishing, my bank balance would have been healthier,” which proves correct the common saying that “you can rather benefit from doing nothing.” It is often the fear that keeps many Korean business migrants keeping to those leisure activities rather than productive business enterprises. Those who have lost a large sum of their capital as a result of business investment often lose their self-confidence (Han 1996b; Han and Chesters 2001b). On the other hand, Kim consoles himself that he has learned a lot about starting and running a business. Nevertheless, it hurts him to think that the tuition cost has been too hefty. Yet, he thinks there is only one way forward, to consistently cultivate his own immigrant life, and build upon his past sweet and bitter experiences. Kim’s personal identities seem to continue to firm up and mature. Indeed, his identities continue to become resilient and this is what he chooses rather than despair. Kim seems to be willing to derive lessons from his “mistakes” and proceed with living a “responsible” life. In this process, his internal conversation as to how he should overcome disappointment and adversity must have been a process of struggle (Archer 2000, 2003b). Kim’s actions against personal and structural adversities come with qualities of character and are exemplary. However, similar qualities have been displayed by numerous other immigrants (Han 2000b). I started from the bottom of the ladder, e.g., cleaning. I have run a shop and learned a lot. When I had to vacuum the floor and clean toilets until mid-night for a week my nose bled badly. I have regarded all these adversities as a process “Beyond the Australian Dream” 41 of training my mind and body. ... My life was often threatened by sea storms. I have the spirit of “can do.” Australian society is egalitarian. I once imagined all of my family members jumping off the Harbour Bridge, but never once did I imagine the family returning to Korea (p.493). Kim is yet to acknowledge how unequal and problematic Australian society is, just like the Korean society which he “abandoned” for those very same reasons. However, he admits that he is still on a journey of discovering Australia whereby he wishes to accomplish his personal goals. As Kim is about to vacate the general store, he is visited by John on a Friday for his usual collection of his order of chocolate. This is one of the “tasks” that John has done for the last 25 years. Kim is anxious to stabilise his income and seeks John’s knowledge on what kind of shop might be least affected by economic downturns. John’s answer was: “Definitely, the Circular Quay Newsagency.” It appears that Kim is by now accustomed to the kinds of business opportunities that he may be able to take up and he is quite strategic. Kim sends John to the newsagency to find out if the owner has any intention to sell. The surprised owner is willing to sell and tries hard to almost cheat Kim for the highest possible premium. Kim steps back and approaches the purchase cautiously, taking over two years, ending up paying $70,000 less than the originally requested premium. He has done all the “homework” he thinks is required, such as finding out whether the shop is to be demolished in the near future. Another business contract is finally signed and Kim takes over the newsagency in February 1995. He quickly learns that the profit margin is not as high as expected. He also learns, and is pleasantly surprised, that he does not need to bribe the police who patrol the whole region in which his shop is located — refreshingly different from what may have been the case in Korea (p.495). It seems that every time Kim is reminded of contrasts between Australian and Korean societies he is compelled to exercise his reflexivity and reconstruct his identities, perhaps moving in the direction of his own transnational identities. Shoplifters and robbers cause a number of headaches. Kim sees some well-dressed couples coming to the shop, trying on different hats and leaving the shop with the hats on each without paying for them. A gang would come in and one of them asks the shopkeeper numerous questions as a tactic to preoccupy her. In the meantime, a couple of its members take away the cash register. Kim also learns that his employees steal money, phone cards and bus tickets, but he cannot pinpoint who the culprits might be. The way it is done is, when a friend of an employee comes to purchase items in the shop, for the friend to be given some valuable items together with cash (p.496). There are many annoying or odd customers: “the one who buys a newspaper for 70 42 Chapter Three cents, but gives a $50 note; those who read through all the new magazines and leave the shop without buying anything; those who put many items in disarray; those who buy an item and ask detailed questions on its place of production and its usage” (p.497). This is certainly a new world to which Kim has been introduced in a foreign land. Racial Discrimination: Is It Still Prevalent? It is problematic that Kim has to cope with racially motivated discriminatory behaviour on a day-to-day basis (Han 2002). There are three “Korean” shops within the Circular Quay Shopping Centre and they are frequent targets for robbery. The other two shops have been robbed once each. A young Anglo-Celtic guy would come and look through the magazines on display and would throw them around the shop. Every time he comes in I would ask him, “Can I help you?” He does not seem to have any feeling of guilt, but instead abuses me and swears loudly to me “to return to your country.” I am rather happy I don’t understand the guy’s abusive words in detail (p.503). The so-called Pauline Hanson phenomenon is remembered as a damaging incident by Kim. It all started with Hanson’s Parliamentary speech, in September 1996, against Asian immigrants and Aborigines. Hanson and her supporters blamed Asian immigrants for the rising unemployment rate and the government’s increasing expenditure on welfare. Hanson also warned that Australia may be “swamped” by Asian migrants. The then-Prime Minister John Howard did little to remove anti-Asian sentiment in the name of the freedom of expression as displayed by Pauline Hanson. Kim points out that the social climate was almost indicative of the revival of the White Australia policy and recalls that verbal abuse and spitting at Asians increased three times due to such a social climate (p.503) (Adams 2007; Lyons 2008). Hanson contends that Australia should not accept any immigrants until a zero unemployment rate is achieved. Once it is achieved, she is happy to see Australia fill up the number of those who left Australia permanently. Asians make up about 900,000 or only about 5% of the whole Australian population. Asians must be a blight to her eyes. Jobless Asian migrants push up the welfare costs of the nation and it is a shame that the newly arrived Asian immigrants snatch the jobs that would otherwise have gone to “Australians.” The Hansonites could not “forgive” or accept the Asian migrants receiving money from overseas and purchasing homes and motor vehicles in Australia. The Hansonites may not be able to enjoy such wealth themselves in the near future, having to pay off a large mortgage by the time of their retirement (pp.503-4). “Beyond the Australian Dream” 43 Despite the great achievements of Australian multiculturalism, one notices that a good proportion of Australians still seem to display discriminatory tendencies against migrants, especially those from non-English speaking backgrounds (Calcutt, Woodward, and Skrbis 2009; Forrest and Dunn 2007). Discrimination is practised at both personal and institutional levels (Han 1999a, 2002). It is deeply embedded in the social structure. It is not the social structure per se that directly confronts Kim in his everyday life, but the various features of the structure as manifested in tasks which he tries to carry out (Archer 2003b; Voigt-Graf 2005; Haig 1980). Kim hears of an incident where a young “Australian” man was running away after spitting on the signboard of a Korean cafeteria. The Korean owner caught and took him to the police. Instead, the Australian sued the Korean man and argued that he is actually the victim. The Korean man with his poor English could not explain the situation in detail and ended up being interrogated by the police (p.504). The language barrier seems to generate an endless litany of misfortunes and unfortunately the problem often lasts for the lifetime of many first generation migrants. Can Kim still regard Australia as an egalitarian society or the dream country he once imagined? A good number of Asian newspapers and Australian critics raised serious concerns over the Hanson phenomenon, on the grounds that it might lead to serious economic loss to Australia. Then the major political parties from both the government and opposition looked for ways to prevent Pauline Hanson from being re-elected. The government also expressed deep concerns over the expression of anti-Asian sentiments since these could adversely affect Australian trade, tourism and education industry. Australian political leaders found Australia to be in an awkward position and looked for the ways to deal with the unfortunate and “ugly” situation. In this context, there is an odd and “self-serving” press conference hosted by Mr Kwon Byeong-Hyeon, the Korean ambassador to Australia, on 22 October 1996. Pauline Hanson’s speech against Asia and Asian migrants won’t hurt the image of Australia in the Asian region. Further, this saga that has been lingering since the start of the Hanson speech could not have any drastic influence on the Korea-Australia relationship. After all, this issue of racial discrimination is an internal matter for Australia (p.504). It was an awkward press conference since it was designed to make up for the uneasy feeling on the part of the Korean government, resulting from a significant trade imbalance in favour of Korea. Thanks to Ambassador Kwon’s note, the Australian government does not need to send an apology to the Korean government. Kim finds it almost suffocating to observe the ways 44 Chapter Three in which the Korean government conducts itself when there are economically and politically sensitive problems and tensions between Korea and other countries. Here, it seems that the formation and maintenance of transnational identities of individuals are not only a personal matter, but are significantly influenced and shaped by the broader political and economic solution of the past and present of their home countries, and consequent pride or shame (Wong and Satzewich 2006, p.9; Carstens 2003; Colic-Peisker 2008). Kim wonders where all the supposedly patriotic Korean elites are, and why they make no protective or defensive comments for the sake of the nation, even though they always project their love for the people and nation of Korea, and why they remain spectators from a distance. Kim also recalls the arrogant behaviour of advanced nations such as the United States and Japan in the 70s and 80s. Despite the large amount of profit through trade imbalances with Korea, the American and Japanese governments regularly picked on Korean export items and complained about their quality. Kim assesses that this was their open, official and unfair way to abuse their politically and economically weaker trading partner on the one hand, and to offer American and Japanese lawyers great opportunities to earn unexpectedly large incomes. It was also a way to punish a newly industrialised and hardworking nation. Nonetheless, Korea as a nation and her elites were mostly highly receptive to the punishment and remained silent about such abuse. Kim is seriously yearning for the emergence of a notable patriot who might stand up to those abusive nations, for example, saying, “if Korean people’s emotion and pride are hurt, they can easily change their taste for American beef, and look for beef from another country. A good policy maker should understand the characteristics of Korean people before they unite to protest against American trading tactics” (p.505). As Kim observes the Pauline Hanson phenomenon, the discriminatory acts of some “Anglo-Celtic Australians,” and the Korean embassy’s handling of diplomatic relations between Australia and Korea, he is constructing his strong position on those matters. This essentially contributes to his reformulation of a transnational identity. Kim reminds his readers that the fundamental principles on which Western countries have been founded are far from freedom, equality and benevolence; rather, the philosophy of their everyday life is unmistakably, “No barking, No eating.” If such a principle is their golden rule, then Western culture is always centred on conquering others and gaining eventual benefits for themselves. Kim contends that if proud Korea with its long history and refinement pretends that Korean people are not affected by Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech in the Australian Parliament, it goes without saying that Australia would detect no diplomatic problems with the speech, never being able to read between the lines of the Korean response. Korean emphasis on, and “Beyond the Australian Dream” 45 description of, the close and unique bilateral relationship, deriving from Australia’s bloodshed during the Korean War (1950-53), would be no more than an extra-ordinary case of one-way love (p.505). CONSTRUCTING NEW AND TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES Standing In Between Cultures: “You Will Get Old and Become a Weary Parent Yourself” Australia has been one of the most popular travel destinations for Koreans since the 90s when the living standards of Koreans significantly improved. Kim’s reflexive consideration over his own identities continues as he observes the interactions between Korean tourists and their guides. I’ve already told you that tourist places always charge you hefty. ... Don’t make an individual move, but stay with the group. You can easily get lost! ... You’ll be given shopping time later! ... We haven’t got time, don’t be distracted, but keep following me (p.505). These are the abrupt comments that tour guides “spit out” at group tour members, when fiddling with “Australian” paraphernalia in Kim’s newsagency. Kim often hears such comments because the group tour buses heading to the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge always stop at his shop. When the tourists get off the bus the tour guide introduces her clients to the Australian newsagency and also asks them if they wish to purchase stamps or phone cards. Kim notes that about 200,000 Koreans travel to Australia every year at the time of his writing. However, the proliferation of tour companies within the Korean community creates severe competition as well as a decline in the quality of the service, which raises the need for self-reflection amongst those operating tour companies. Rumours about related episodes arising from competition are spread around one after the other. Kim makes the following observation. The reason he does has nothing to do with whether or not he is annoyed by the less than healthy practices of the tour companies or whether he wishes to see a change of the attitude by some tour guides (p.506). It is simply that Kim’s identity has gone beyond what may be typically Korean, but it is not yet quite “Australian.” Perhaps it is transnational and stand inbetween cultures. Kim is able to observe the situation from the dominant Korean as well as Australian viewpoints, but he has possibly developed his own perspective on the situation. The perspective may be more universal than either Korean or Australian. 46 Chapter Three Every Monday, there are about 1,500 customers visiting Kim’s newsagency to purchase their Lotto tickets in the hope they become millionaires someday. That is, about 100 customers go through the shop per hour. Kim is totally exhausted when closing the shop at 8 o’clock in the evening and takes a ride in the subway. One Monday evening in June, Kim is about to leave for home. Tony who runs a cafeteria within a short distance from the newsagency rushes to Kim and says, “This older Asian man has come to my shop and sincerely begs for something. Can you help him please?” As soon as the older man sees Kim he holds Kim’s hands and repeatedly says, “I’m okay, now I’m okay,”10 already with tears of relief in his eyes, before he has to make sure that Kim is actually Korean. Kim questions the older man to find out what has happened. He learns that the older man has just had his seventieth birthday and his children have organised a birthday celebratory tour to Australia instead of holding a party for him. The following is what has happened. The older man has been continually amazed by all the places that he has visited. The tour group that includes the older man has quickly looked around the Opera House and has been busily returning to the tour bus. It is about 600 metres between the Opera House and the bus stop. On the way back to the bus stop, there are three or four spots where there are interesting street performances. The older man is slow in his walking and struggles to make his way through the crowds standing around the performances. The older man gets separated from his group and then has just spent three hours looking for the group. According to the older man, he has moved back and forth between the bus stop and the Opera House thirty or forty times in the hope that the members of his tour group have been looking for him and he would be found by them. As the dusk gathers and there are hardly any people around the street, the older man has become extremely uncomfortable and disoriented. He ends up walking into Tony’s cafeteria and begs for help in Korean language, with tears in his eyes and all his explanations supported with body language. Kim has no idea how to help this person, but still asks the older man if he knows the name of the tour company, the name of his hotel or any clue that may be of help (p.506). The older man brings out of his pockets a small soy source container from the plane and a little information booklet of Sydney tour. Then a small shopping docket comes out of his pocket. Apparently, he did some shopping in a Korean shop in the morning (p.507). Kim cancels the burglar alarm in his shop that he has just set, unlocks the shop door and rings the phone number printed on the shopping docket in order to find out which tour companies have gone through the shop that morning. Kim introduces himself to each shop owner and explains what the phone call is about. However, he is told that no tour companies have gone through their shops that morning, thus no names of tour companies can be “Beyond the Australian Dream” 47 revealed to Kim. Kim’s mentioning the details of the docket to the shop owner makes no difference. It seems that lack of trust within the Korean community is as serious as Korean immigrants commonly point out. It must be that Kim’s phone call is taken to be collecting some business information, i.e., a business spy activity. Kim decides to hand over the receiver to the older man, who now explains the situation in a tearful voice. Kim is now given the names of the three tour companies that have gone through in the morning. Now Kim’s task is to find out the name of the hotel where the older man’s fellow tour companions are lodging. Kim recalls that he may have rung nearly every one of his acquaintances in Sydney and has been able to identify the tour company and the name of the hotel. Kim finally gets to talk to the older man’s tour guide who does not even know that the older man is missing and asks a rather unexpected question: “What on earth did the grandpa want to purchase in your shop?”11 The way in which the question was asked about a senior was clearly rude to any native Korean speakers and the selection of words in the question seems inappropriate. The tour guide and his tour clients have had their dinner and the guide is about to take some of them to a Korean karaoke theatre. The guide almost commands that Kim should wait until he comes around and picks up the older man. The guide then hangs up the phone without Kim’s consent (p.507). This behaviour is again unacceptable to Kim. Kim is surprised and angered by the tour guide, but has no option but wait. The older man expresses his deep gratitude, but seems worried about the possibility that Kim may desert the older man prior to the tour guide turning up. The tour guide arrives at the newsagency after well over an hour has passed. He must have settled his clients in the karaoke theatre and sat them around a drinking table. The tour guide walks into the newsagency and stands in front of the older man, while completely ignoring the presence of Kim. The guide looks as young as the older man’s grandchild and pours out his blunt and rough warning: “Look, grandpa, if you make an individual move around like this I shall put you on the next plane back to Korea!” (p.507)12 Kim may be disappointed to see the ways in which the self-esteem of the older man is belittled or rather “crushed” on his supposedly wonderful trip to beautiful Australia. Kim may also wonder about the behaviour of the young man. Apparently, it is not just the behaviour of non-Koreans in this foreign land that constantly surprises Kim, but also his own fellow Koreans who may have gone through a continuing transformation of their identities throughout the last few decades of the rapidly changing Korean society and their newly adopted country. Kim’s search for, and exploration of, his own identities, continues and perhaps benefits from these experiences. While Kim may continue to modify his identities on the one hand, it may be also true that there are certain values that he finds difficult to replace, e.g., respect for 48 Chapter Three older persons.13 However, whether those values are specifically Korean or transnational is open to debate. Dealing with a Different Generation: Korean Overseas Students, their Concerns and Concerns about them While Kim had been an employed engineer for sixteen years in Korea, he often dreamt of being a respectable employer. Now employing four employees in the newsagency, he does not dream of it any more. His workers are commonly late by five or ten minutes for work, but their finishing time is punctually observed, starting to look at the watch every thirty seconds in the last five minutes of work. The worker who happens to be at work and sees piles of papers and magazines would not bother to shift them until their starting time. Nonetheless, Kim does not hesitate to celebrate his workers’ birthdays with presents and bunches of flowers. Yet, his employees once out of the shop do not even say hello to Kim (p.499). The leader of a local Small Business Association advises Kim: In the current context of poor promotion prospects for employees, the only weapon that an employer can use is the threat of sacking. You may cut the working hours of your casual workers and you may allocate them to work late at night, which may induce their own voluntary resignation. Threatening to sack them can make them alert. If this doesn’t work you may replace them with new employees. It’s a big mistake to assume that one of your workers regards her work as a life time job and accordingly committed to your business. They’ll leave for better pay and working conditions any time they wish (p.499). Kim is perhaps selective in his list of what to do and what not to do. As Kim still wishes to be “recognised” by his workers outside the shop he may not have fully embraced the “Australian” culture. Or perhaps he wishes to maintain friendly relations with his acquaintances since it is a universal value to do so. However, the inherent conflict of interest between labour and capital is in operation in Kim’s small business (Eakin 1997; Edwards 1979). Moreover, when the labour-capital relations are formed between Koreans in a foreign land the relations bring in complexities. Kim is advised of ruthless ways to protect his business, but he may be unsure as to how he could best maintain the labour-capital relationship. If Kim were to run a business dealing with non-Koreans, he may have been better able to keep his workers under tight control. However, although both employer and employees are “Korean” they have gone through modifications of their personal and social identities, and behave accordingly. Indeed, they maintain their own transnational identities,14 and Korean identities are not homogeneous. “Beyond the Australian Dream” 49 Kim spent his university days in Korea in the 1970s when a relatively small number of determined students went overseas to pursue further studies. He recalls his presence in a live broadcasting session in Korea where he was deeply impressed by a female Korean overseas student in Australia, working hard to earn her study tuition in order to lighten her father’s financial burden (p.507). The story has set his perception of the standard of Korean students in Australia and eventually made him determined to employ a Korean student as soon as there is a vacancy in his newsagency. With an upcoming vacancy Kim actually puts a three-line advertisement in a Korean magazine, looking for a worker. Fifteen students ring Kim and look for further information about the advertised job, but he is quickly disappointed in the quality of the applicants. According to Kim’s observation, many local youngsters who are looking for jobs have completed Year 10 and have frequently changed their jobs, but they are extremely serious about their applications and attitudes towards the interviews. The Federal Department of Employment provides them with the required support for preparing a curriculum vitae, referees’ reports and the application letter. The local youngsters also provide recommendation letters from previous employers, and a detailed record of all the training that they have undertaken, which may have lasted as short as a few hours or several months. The application letter is often filled with self-praising notes. These documents are more than enough to convince the potential employer (p.508). Different expectations of each other between labour and capital do cause a disjuncture between them. Kim has also been required to prepare numerous documents during his business adventures in the socio-cultural context of Australia, in addition to his earlier professional life. Kim’s expectations of his potential employees would have much in common with other employers in Australia. However, those Korean students are not only unfamiliar with what may be required, but have come to Australia for different reasons. The students are prepared to use any means to achieve their goals. Kim completes interviewing fifteen Korean students, and notices that none of them produces any supporting documents for their applications. Kim assumes that none of them has thought about the necessity to convince Kim that he should feel comfortable employing them for a job in a newsagency which deals with several thousands of dollars in cash in a day. One of the students has attended her interview wearing short pants and thongs, as if she came for a walk; another is accompanied by her boyfriend. They are also barely able to have a basic English conversation to be able to handle effectively the long queue of customers. Nonetheless, Kim employs a student who is experienced in using a cash register. The student lasts for three days since she does not display the determination and physical stamina to be able to handle the work from early in the morning (p.508). Has Kim got what 50 Chapter Three he expected from his investment? Or, are those students simply not mature enough to participate in such economic activity? Should Kim even think of employing Korean students? These may be a few questions that come across Kim’s mind. Most overseas students worry about their financial needs and become lonely due to isolation, which sometimes leads them to suffer from a range of psychological disturbances. The students are in a foreign land and are free to develop “pleasure-focused” intimate relations quite easily. They realise that their English language ability does not improve as quickly as they wished and that they have plenty of time which can be easily misused. Kim observes that even those students with a clear set of principles are vulnerable to temptation to deviate from appropriate paths. Those students who have been brought up over-protected by parents or those who have grown up with no parental discipline often lead a dissolute life in Australia. From Kim’s viewpoint, the behaviour of some Korean students raises serious concerns about the Korean community. A female student has spent virtually all of her time in a casino for two years and squandered a lot more than $100,000 (p.508). A male student has lost the tuition fee his parents gave him in a casino game. Losing his tuition money, he was determined to win back the lost money and has dared to borrow $5,000 from a loan shark. His debt snowballs to $8,000 in a matter of a few days. Such loan sharks are often closely linked to a gang of racketeers and this makes it difficult for the debtor to get away. There are many other worrying students: girls who are barmaids in karaoke theatres; students wholly focusing on earning their entertainment money and neglecting their studies; those who get into tangled sexual relations. Kim wonders how he would be able to reassure the parents of these straying students. He feels he cannot afford to be indifferent about them since he has his own children who are in a similar age group and have potential to fall into a trap like them (p.509). Kim hopes that his own children would share his concerns over these matters, which would “positively” influence the formation of their identities. Kim cannot but mention the episode of a Korean girl, which he has heard of from a regular customer. A fourteen-year-old Korean girl (born in 1981 according to the autobiography) arrives in Sydney and enters Year 8. She pays no attention to her studies, but uses a forged identity card to enter adult dancing clubs. One day, she brings her boyfriend to the flat where she is boarding and sleeps in. She is caught by her landlady and guardian. The Australian landlady rings the girl’s parents in Korea to report her concern, and the parents say that they would pay the rent as much as asked and request that the landlady warn the girl to prevent her from falling pregnant. Contrary to the parents’ hope, the girl falls pregnant and gives birth to a child. Whatever regrets Kim may have regarding what is often called the Korean disease “Beyond the Australian Dream” 51 (Hanguk byeong),15 he cannot help but feel a dreadful heartache over the incident. What is worse is that when Kim shares this episode and his concern in a private meeting he is simply regarded as a time-lagged, middle-aged man who has no idea about the X generation. Instead, Kim is reminded that many Korean overseas students share their residence in the name of saving the cost, or perhaps as a way to overcome their lonely life far away from their home country, not only due to a loose sexual morality. Differences in opinions between the young lovers or geographical movement of one of them easily break them up, leaving no regret or ill feeling toward each other as if they never had any intimate relationship at all. Kim is even more surprised that if any of the lovers suffers emotionally from the separation it is almost always the boys, not the girls, which makes Kim feel completely outdated in his thinking (p.509). These two different generations are both transnational in their own terms, but they have different trajectories in terms of how they have come to this point of interaction (Riccio 2001). It is not only a generational gap between Kim and Korean students, but also his own generation’s indifference towards those “distracted” students in a transnational context that is disturbing. Kim certainly seems caught up between cultures and may be less than willing to transnationalise his understandings of some particular matters as illustrated above.16 However, the extent to which he may modify his values and views on these matters in the future is unknown. A Continuing Challenge of Immigrant Life Kim recalls a Korean newspaper article published a few years earlier, reporting an information session on Emigration to New Zealand. The most commonly quoted reason for emigration was “to be able to enjoy the quality of life as humans.” Kim assumes that an accurate picture of their motivation may have to do with getting tired of Korean society (Song 1995). He goes on to wonder about the extent to which those emigrants to New Zealand have been able to translate their initial immigrant dreams into reality or the extent to which they may have found it a mere fantasy trying to realise their dreams (p.509). These are in fact commonly asked questions especially among first generation Korean migrants in Australia and elsewhere. However, it is worth noting that accomplishing their dreams as they planned is not the only kind of achievement. As the migrants get to understand the given socio-economic and cultural contexts better, they often adjust their goals and aspirations and continue to adapt to the local contextual feasibility. This continuing modification occurs through internal conversation, effectively adjusting the interactions between agency and structure (Archer 2003b). This may be part of embracing and reconstructing transnational identities. 52 Chapter Three Towards the end of the autobiography, Kim recounts his immigrant life in Australia up to the time of writing and also reaffirms his determination as to how he intends to lead his future life, through the illustration of a number of episodes. Having his business contract premium “appropriated” prior to his involvement in running the newsagency, Kim applied for an assistant electrician position that pays $9 an hour, but his application was rejected despite his many years’ experience as an electrical engineer. Kim tore up all the copies of his curriculum vitae and his mind was full of bitterness. Thereafter, Kim soon came to hear stories of some Korean-Chinese people who sell their homes in China and borrow more money to hand over to a gang of fraudulent immigration. They come to Australia as tourists, but soon overstay their visas to make money by any means possible. They come with no word of English or skills, but women work as kitchen hands and men often take up risky jobs to earn a good income. They not only cover their financial needs in Australia, but also remit some money back to their hometown. Kim admires their determination and also feels ashamed of his lack of determination and of complaining that his ability is not recognised in Australia. Their biggest wish and related comment is: “If I had permanent residency, I would easily become a millionaire!” (p.510) Rather than disregarding the stories of those unfortunate individuals, thinking how unlawful were the actions they may have taken, Kim is willing to take on board any useful insights. Running the newsagency involves long working hours from dawn to late at night. He is up at four thirty in the morning and works fourteen hours a day. That is what he has done for the last six years. He is suddenly reminded of his early start during his university days for four years and his national service for three years, which occurred more than thirty years ago. He thinks that those days must have been a pre-requisite for his tough immigrant life in Australia. Some scholars argue that the diligence of Korean men trained through national service has contributed to the level of personal income afterwards and the miraculous economic development of Korea (Graham 1991; Teachman and Tedrow 2007; Pettman 2003). Kim has set aside Saturdays for his physical training, which also helps him maintain good health and be ready to cover any absence of his employees. His wake-up time on Saturdays is also four thirty in the morning as other days and he jogs twenty kilometres. He also finds the run the best preparation for the coming busy week without costing anything (pp.510-1). Kim can rarely find cars as old as his own in the Korean community. The colour of the roof tiles of his house has tarnished and this attracts the quotation leaflets to his letter box from the painters. Kim does not own a fishing rod or a golf club, but feels unashamed. He is rather happy and satisfied with his own life. Kim’s acquaintances tell him that he is now well settled and recommend “Beyond the Australian Dream” 53 that he rebuild his home and get a new car. However, Kim is indifferent to these matters. Kim thinks the previous owner of the newsagency displays a good example to emulate. He (Joe) has run the newsagency for twenty six years. He is now sixty two years old, but still runs a shop selling cool drinks. Despite his well-established finance he is still diligent and lives frugally. Joe’s twenty-year-old ute offers no temptation to car stealers. Kim cannot work out how old his jumper is since its sleeves have badly worn out. Kim often regards him as a maintenance free robot, rather than a human. Kim often wonders what Joe’s central motto is in his life, and ends up asking him a question: “What sort of fun do you have in your life? Don’t you have a hobby or take a rest at all?” The answer is as follows: Of course, work is my fun and pleasure. Don’t you know that idleness is the parent of all evil? Diligent work and a tired body look for no evil (p.511). As Archer (2003b) notes, a central dimension of a person’s identity is about what kinds of ultimate values she is most devoted to. Then, whatever Kim does and how he leads his immigrant life would represent not only his values but his identities. Kim’s migrant life in Australia has been a series of ongoing trials and tribulations. He was prepared to do any labouring job to support his livelihood, which often goes against his earlier “Korean” identity. Kim appears to have been able to go beyond his previous identities and form his own transcultural or transnational identities in his own terms. Yet, he is happy and satisfied, and importantly unashamed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS Shin Dong-A that published this autobiography is a popular current affairs monthly magazine and is read by Korean diasporas world-wide. Thus this transcultural and transnational border-crossing story creates new kinds of fantasies of experiencing and living in an “exotic” and affluent Western world. Or it may create a picture of the harsh reality of immigrant life for Koreans in Australia or in the West. Despite the fatigue resulting from immigrant life, many readers may choose to regard the story as adventurous and worthwhile experiencing themselves, which continues to drive more people to pursue the adventure. Cunningham (2002, p.272) contends that “much diasporic cultural expression is a struggle for survival, identity and assertion” as is well demonstrated in Kim’s autobiography. Cunningham’s view aptly describes the personal short-term and long-term individual diasporic experiences and processes although the nature of their struggles differs from one immigrant 54 Chapter Three to another. Australia is known as a dream destination for potential Korean emigrants to the West. Kim’s autobiographic account vividly describes how a successful professional in Korea develops the dream of a new life in a new land and how he experiences the cold reality of migrant life before eventually settling with his newly established transnational identities and comes to appreciate his new self and the surroundings of his new life. This journey is very similar to what many Korean migrants especially as nonEnglish speaking background people have experienced (Han 1994b, c, d, 1996a, b, 2000b; Lee 2005). As found through another study (Han 2000b), the consumption of ethnic media or the media from one’s past homeland is often a way to overcome or put aside the cold reality of immigrant life or to console their nostalgia. Marx may not have hesitated to note this as an opiate of migrants in the information era. The media consumption includes going to karaoke, and watching videos, accessing Korean media without any language barrier (Han 1994d, 2000b). This may be a way to retreat to their comfort zone. Also this is how Koreans constantly move between two different cultures and identities, and form their own types of transcultural as well as transnational identities (see Lee 2006). This close connection with Korean cultures would lock up some Koreans in their time capsule whereas other Koreans, who are often exposed to other cultures, embrace them and form much more “enriched” transnational identities. Mr Kim’s struggle as expressed throughout his autobiography is about his effort to overcome Korean nationalism and his narrowly focused “Korean identities.” His new identities embrace the new contexts of Australian life and, as the title of the autobiography suggests, go well beyond his former “Korean identities.” The experiences of Mr Kim and other Koreans seem to be similar to those of other Asian-Australians. The dilemmas that most non-English speaking background migrants go through have been depicted in Yu’s (2002) novel touching upon the issues of hybrid diasporic experience, identity politics and cross-cultural identities with reference to a mainland Chinese migrant in Australia: “the NESB migrant who has been educated to the highest level in the English language and Australian literature only to find himself barred from academic work in his area because of his “foreignness” and accented English” (Ommundsen 1998: pp.214-5). There have been a good number of return migrants back to Korea mainly due to the Korean economy becoming increasingly relatively affluent since the mid-1990s when Koreans started to reap the benefit of Korean economic development (Joins - Joongang Daily News 2010). Kim notes that return migration is not an option for him. His reason is that the “unfit immigrants” in the context of Australia will not be able to lead a constructive life in the Korean society where the networks around alumni, birth place and “Beyond the Australian Dream” 55 blood links have settled as a caste system in its own right. It might be true that people in general or migrants in particular experience change of their identities in the current era of fast transportation. The long-term migrants go beyond their national identities and form transnational identities (cf. Fujita 2005). It seems to be an art in itself to be able to incorporate skilfully their new “foreign” cultures and identities into their “earlier” ones or vice versa, helping the migrants themselves to lead a satisfying and constructive life in a foreign socio-economic and cultural space. Korean overseas students or short-term stayers in the Korean community are often potential employees of Mr Kim’s cleaning business or newsagency. Those young students and Kim’s generation have lived through different historical, socio-economic and cultural contexts. There is a gulf of difference between them with regard to how they approach their life or meet their financial needs. Those students’ financial needs are long-term based, but their commitment to the employers is always short-term based since such jobs do not offer them much in terms of future prospects. Yet, for Mr Kim, the business requires a large sum of capital and he needs a steady flow of income. This apparently creates a gulf of different expectations from the two broadly different generations. As a result, there are created tensions between these different parties: one group of sojourners still in search of their needs and identities and the other group who have more or less established their transnational identities. Although these two different generations seem to have different life goals, there is also much in common in terms of their material or aesthetic needs, their efforts to overcome frustrations in their personal lives and the social environment of Korean society. Both established migrants and sojourners are continually searching for their identities and are on their journey of constructing and reconstructing their transnational identities in the context of the globalising world (Mizukami 2007; Han 2000b, 2008). Interestingly and importantly, it is worth noting that the Korean overseas students who applied to be employees of Kim’s businesses are much like Mr Kim’s children’s generation. Some of the Korean youth will turn out to be long-term stayers as migrants. Thus, those young people are integral members of the Korean community or social organisations such as Korean churches, at present as well as in the future. The older generation of Korean migrants in Sydney has launched the process of nurturing the needs of younger generation in terms of their integration into the broader Australian society, the construction of Korean-Australian identity and representing the needs of the Korean community to the Australian society: for example, through English ministry or symposiums specifically for the younger generation. Perhaps the Korean language media may be able to take much more active roles in this process. 56 Chapter Three Other ethnic communities in Australia have long produced their own ethnic cultural products such as novels, fiction and films, depicting their migrant lives either in English or with English subtitles, and have been introduced to the broader Australian media (Cunningham and Sinclair 2001). Don’o Kim (1974, 1984b, 1968), a Korean-Australian novelist, has made a superb contribution through his novels. There has also displayed a high degree of professionalism in some segments of the media industry, e.g., Yang-Joong Joo, Executive Producer, Korean Program at Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia. However, the Korean community is yet to reach a mature stage and this may be partly due to its relatively short migrant history in Australia, but it is also due to a lack of concerted effort to achieve such goals on the part of the leaders of the Korean community.17 Such efforts would lead to tremendous benefits for the harmony, meaningful interactions and understanding within the Korean community and constructive contribution to the cohesion of the broader Australian society. These efforts not only fulfil aesthetic understanding of the life of diverse migrants of different generations in Australia but also beyond. NOTES 1. These points have also been reflected in the title of the book. 2. The Korean title of the autobiography is: “Oseutreillian deurimeul neomeoseo” (오스트레일리안 드림을 넘어서). 3. One Australian dollar was valued about one and half American dollars at that time. 4. Jeon (1985) called Australia “20 segiui jisang nakwon (A Heaven on Earth in the 20th Century).” 5. This may refer to a consequence of what is sometimes called “Hanguk byeong” (Korean disease), caused by the gap between the haves and have-nots, displacement due to rapid urbanisation and rapid social change of the Korean society. 6. According to the author’s expression, his capital was going down just as one keeps on consuming the dried persimmons chained through a long stick. 7. According to Korean migrants in Sydney, the cleaning business was often run by Greek and Italian migrants prior to the Korean migrants. 8. See http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:6qzofEgbu-kJ:www.teara.govt.nz/ en/koreans/1+Koreans+in+New+Zealand+migrating+to+Australia&cd=5&hl=en&ct= clnk&gl=au&client=firefox-a. “Twice migration” is often mentioned in the literature, and some research papers are available with reference to the Jewish, Indo-Fijians, and Sikhs in Britain (see Voigt-Graf 2004; Kim 2003; Gold 2002; Aurora 1987). 9. The word literally refers to a businessman and looks down upon him with negative connotation, the culture of which originated from Chosun dynasty whereby knowledge or the learned was given the supreme respect. “Beyond the Australian Dream” 57 10. What he said in Korean is as follows: “Na Ije Saratne Saratseo (나 이제 살았 네 살았어).” 11. “Geu Haraeojiga Dangsin Sangjeome Mwol Guiphareo Gansseumnigga? (그 할아버지가 당신 상점에 뭘 구입하러 갔습니까?)” 12. “Harabeoji Ireon Sikeuro Gaein Haengdong Hamyeon Naeil Gwiguk Sikyeo Beorimnida” (할아버지 이런 식으로 개인 행동하면 내일 귀국시켜 버립니다.)’ 13. For the related experiences of children growing up in multicultural context see Joerchel (2006); Sonderegger and Barrett (2004). 14. On the issue of broader inter- and intra-ethnic conflicts see Kim (2007a); Cheung and Otudeko (1981). 15. This refers to many unexpected and undesirable social problems that have accompanied the rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, high education fever and markedly improved living standards. 16. Although there may be differences as to what kinds of behaviours are more or less acceptable, for example, in Australia or Korea, it would be completely erroneous to say that some Korean students become “Westernised” in Australia and they turn out to be morally corrupt. That is, one cannot say that one culture is superior to another. 17. There is a growing and significant group of Koreans endeavouring to express and depict the experiences of life for Koreans in Australia in the modes of novels, poems, miscellaneous writings, and performances, mostly in Korean language. Chapter Four Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church as Depicted in Foolish Jesus Frequent air travel has contracted the earth and turned the world into a global village. The continuing development of information and communications technologies brings people together in a highly effective manner, leading them to largely overcome the tyranny of distance. Those Korean migrants in Australia who are eager to be informed of the news, incidents and even national security of their “homeland” are in close touch with every detail through the new ICTs. Perhaps what is called “long distance nationalism” (Schiller and Fouron 2001; Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004) is clearly in operation despite their settlement in Australia for many years. What happens to others in their expression of Koreanness when Korean migrants make a home away from their homeland? Undoubtedly, Korean migrants in North America, Australia and New Zealand have most commonly maintained their Korean ethnicity around the Korean immigrant church. The church has been an institution to help the newly arrived not only to establish networks within the Korean community, but also to enable those transmigrants to develop their links to the broader networks in Australia, cultivating their transnational identities (cf. Riccio 2001, p.595; Min 2010).1 Thus, the Korean immigrant church is potentially a transnational space through which its members are closely exposed to “the cosmopolitan orientation and imagination” (Golbert 2001, p.724).2 A number of social, cultural and historical factors such as Korean society being the most Confucian-based, rapid industrialisation and Westernisation have given birth to an over-supply of theological graduates, then consequently bringing about the exponential growth of the Korean church since the 1960s (Han 1997b).3 Many of those graduates have established congregations in the homeland, and many have emigrated overseas and founded Korean ethnic congregations in overseas Korean communities such 59 60 Chapter Four as the one in Sydney, described in the novel, Babo Yesu (Foolish Jesus), the focus of this chapter. The inflow of theological graduates has enabled the supply side of religious, ethnic and social services through the church. Similar to what has happened to Korean Christianity, this availability of many of the pastors-to-be is a key factor characterising the Korean immigrant church in Australia to pursue church-individualism and materialism (Han 1997b; Han, Han, and Kim 2009). In addition to “brought-along cultural identities,”4 and economic and cultural dimensions of the Korean ethnic church and the dynamics within the Korean community, there are many other contextual and structural factors that influence the intra-ethnic interactions within the Korean community including the Korean church. According to the ABS census in 2006, there were over 60,873 Korean ethnic populations in Australia. However, due to a large influx of Korean students and working holiday visa holders, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 Koreans in the Sydney metropolitan area. Many Koreans tend to regard themselves as one relatively homogeneous group, i.e., those who were born in Korea and migrated to Australia at different stages of their lives. Yet, it seems to be such a common mistake among Koreans to assume that they are all “more or less the same or similar” in terms of their identities. Whilst they certainly share many aspects of Korean culture, and mutual expectations, they tend to overestimate some cultural dimensions rather than acknowledging some others which are less common amongst the Korean population. The homogeneity of people in Korea might have been taken for granted much more commonly prior to the industrialisation of Korea since the 1960s. However, it has recently been debated whether or not Koreans make up a homogeneous population in terms of their personhood, characteristics and identities (Han 2007b; Kim 2007; Kim 2006a; Myers 2010). There is a vast range of Koreanness not only in Korea but also in the Korean diasporic communities. In fact, it is possible that the lack of recognition of diverse cultures and identities among the Korean population tends to cause conflicts and tensions in their intra-ethnic interactions. Babo Yesu (Foolish Jesus) (Ihm 2004), is a rich literary depiction of the marginalised life of Korean migrants and some of the tensions and conflicts resulting from their interactions within the Korean community. In the context of the novel, “Foolish Jesus” is a metaphor used in opposition to those smart, cunning and selfish people, representative of many individuals of contemporary populations, particularly those migrants who might be trying their best to fulfil their personal goals and lead satisfying migrant lives in the not necessarily favourable societal context of the host country. When these are accompanied with a lack of reflexivity, or under-developed reflexivity and/or recognition of their different identities in their human Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 61 interactions, their difficulties facing immigrant life in a foreign country may not be easily overcome. This complex situation may produce many a “clever Jesus” within the Korean community in Sydney. The back cover of the novel notes: “There is an increasing number of ‘clever Jesus,’ but the church is increasingly losing its influence over the society.” This chapter is a sociological analysis of select dimensions of the life of Korean immigrants in Australia as depicted in the novel. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS: STRUCTURE, AGENCY AND INTERNAL CONVERSATION Postmodern approaches have been dominant in understanding immigrant life and ethnic identities in recent decades. For example, Asian cultural identity has been recognised as the central defining factor of Asian ethnic identities in the West (e.g., Burlet and Reid 1998; cf. Eade 1996). There is greater recognition of what leads to the satisfaction in individual lives and this recognition helps the individuals fulfil and realise meaningful pursuits. These points are extremely valid, as they return due recognition and agency to the individual as opposed to the “taken-for-granted” power and influence which have, sometimes bluntly, been attributed to structuralism over individual actions. After all, Korean immigrants in Australia have chosen to depart Korea and have made up their own minds to make Australia their permanent home. Those individuals have been able to prove they are “fit” to meet the requirements of migrating to Australia. The Australian Department of Immigration has also accepted those individuals generally on the basis of individual qualifications and potential contributions they would be able to make rather than the national and historical contexts of their countries of origin. Upon the grant of a permanent visa, it is again individual efforts for every facet of their life and continued decision-making in search of a meaningful and satisfying life in a foreign land. Similar principles can be applied to understanding the interactions among Korean migrants in a range of institutions within the Korean community and beyond. There are only individuals who are constantly forming human relations since individual interests and needs have to be met. Personal “tastes” and needs to consume music, dress and cuisine will lead Korean migrants to join alumni associations, business groups or religious organisations. When personal or non-religious needs are demonstrated sufficiently to form a significant interest of the members of a religious organisation, a result might be a change of its intrinsic functions thus becoming more like social organisations or “club” rather than religious organisation. Even in this process 62 Chapter Four of an ethnic church going through functional change, what is at stake from a postmodern approach is the ways in which the human interactions within the church can satisfy individual needs, both expressive and instrumental. Another way to understand the same phenomenon is with a realist explanation. That is, whether we are concerned about the very first choice of going overseas, filing the application for migration, or meeting the requirements of the future home country, people’s planning or their actual move cannot take place in a social vacuum. It is not that every potential migrant would wish only to move to Australia, but to many other countries that are recruiting migrants, and only a portion of applicants eventually become immigrants. At the societal level, there are many complex contextual factors which make a country tend to “push” some of its members out of it and there are also other factors which make another country tend to “pull” potential migrants to it. With regard to the formation of ethnic identities, over-emphasis on cultural ethnicity as the defining factor can obscure or underestimate “the structural positioning of Asian communities” (Ramji 2004, p.3; Eade 1996). Individual actors live in a social world that exhibits different properties and pressures from the one they came from — which enable as well as restrain their actions. The realist perspective I am referring to is essentially a product of the ongoing debate on the interplay of structure and agency. A realist advocates that structure and agency make up two distinctively different and “irreducible properties and powers,” and that “human reflexive deliberations play a crucial role in mediating between them” (Archer 2003b, p.14). Reflexivity refers to “the regular exercise of the mental ability, shared by all normal people, to consider themselves in relation to their social contexts and vice versa” (Archer 2007, p.4). A realist also accepts the ontological difference between agency and structure. The point about “human reflexive deliberations” is not to prioritise agency over structure, but to acknowledge the centrality of human reflexivity in the process of mediation between agency and structure. What Archer (2003b, p.16) calls “the internal conversation” refers to the process of mediation through which individual agents respond to, or act against, social contexts — fallibly and corrigibly, but, importantly, intentionally and differently. The process of dialogical reflexivity is essentially manifested through internal conversation. While Archer’s “internal conversation” is essentially about the mediation between individual agents and social structures, it is an important individual quality in our everyday life and is closely related to “reflective capabilities,” especially reflexivity within actions rather than reflexivity about actions (Czyzewski 1994, p.166). Tim May rightly points out that without exercising this capacity, actors within the life world not only refuse to reflect upon Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 63 their actions, but also to change or modify the social conditions and human relations which impinge upon these actions (May 2004, p.175). May (2004, p.186) also quotes Bourdieu where he notes that “reflexivity is not a tool to undermine science, but one that provides for a more realistic science through its contribution to a realpolitik of scholastic reasoning in the service of epistemic gain.” How internal conversation is deployed in the interactions among the deprived Korean migrants in a small-sized Korean ethnic church is a worthwhile task to be pursued in this chapter. What is presented in the rest of the chapter is an annotated translation of select parts of the novel, accompanied by my analysis. I have organised the chapter thematically, grouping the contents of the novel together with relevant themes, accompanied by my analysis. I have also made an effort to maintain the unfolding of the novel chronologically. HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL VICTIMS: THE JOURNEY OF A MIDDLE-AGED FEMALE PROTAGONIST AND HER SON The central story of the novel starts with the journey of a woman in her late 50s and her son who is in his mid-20s. They have lived as sojourners in Australia for the last two years as the story begins to unfold, after the woman lost her older son and husband — a former school principal. The whole novel is about her observation of human interactions in a small and less than wellestablished Korean ethnic church in Sydney. Its membership is about forty to fifty. This is the church that she attended as a condition of employment being offered to her (p.25). It was the 1970s when a notable number of Koreans, who previously spent their time in Southeast Asia including on the battlefield of the Vietnam War, started arriving in Australia. Completing their contract work, many of them were on their way back to Korea and overstayed their visa in Australia (Han 2003; Hoju Hanin 50 Nyeon-sa Pyeonchan Wiwonhoe [Editorial Committee of 50 Years History of Koreans in Australia] 2008). The first Korean church in Australia was established in Melbourne in 1973; and another was begun in Sydney in 1974. The church has always been the most significant institution in the life of Korean migrants in Australia since the first major inflow of Koreans to Australia in the 1970s. Koreans would go to the church to seek information about government services and employment opportunities. In fact, it has been the church that has often actively provided the support services required by the newly arrived for their settlement. Those who have settled for long enough are also well served by the Korean immigrant church, spiritually, socially, economically and culturally (Han 1994d). An easily accessible form of employment for newcomers with no 64 Chapter Four easily transferable skills has been home cleaning or shop/office cleaning. The protagonist (Pak Mi-Hyeon) has paired up with Mr Yi Il-Yeong, a deacon from the same church they attend, for their work of home cleaning. The job usually requires a female and a male for an effective division of labour which also satisfies customers (p.9). Kim Eun-Yi, the wife of Mr Yi, spends her time at home, taking care of their young children. It is almost a convention in the Korean church that any church member who has been attending a church for six months or longer will be called Jipsa (deacon). As deacons demonstrate their devotion and leadership they may be ordained. The next level to achieve, often considered to be a promotion, is generally Jangro (elder) for a male and Kwonsa for a female. These titles often represent not only a person’s level of religious devotion and maturity, but also an authority to gain respect from the members of the congregation. This is especially so in the Korean immigrant churches. For example, a group of “powerful” elders may abuse their roles hiring and firing the clergy inappropriately. Hurh and Kim (1990) note that this is a phenomenon of status inconsistency with marginalised Koreans who could not maintain their professional status commensurate with their qualifications and their work life prior to their emigration (cf. Jun and Armstrong 1997). Korean immigrants’ desire to compensate for their marginalisation or lost status is a common cause of tension and argument within Korean diasporic churches as will be discussed later. The protagonist and her son have been renting a residence which was a garage-turned-into-accommodation. The residence has all facilities placed in one space: living-room, bedroom, kitchen and toilet. The protagonist has been pushing herself hard at work and is aware that the state of her health is rapidly deteriorating, suffering from stretched muscles, high blood pressure and diabetes. However, she cannot afford to take a rest. Her diligence at work is typical of most Korean immigrants and the consequences are often detrimental. The tragedy is that many continue their hardworking lifestyle until their health is almost “irreparable” (Han and Chesters 2001a, b). When the protagonist has spent about three years in Australia she and many members of her church go to Sydney Airport to welcome the fourth minister of the six-year-old church. She has been weary for several months, suffering from bad health. As soon as she sees the new pastor at the Airport the protagonist fainted. The novel then takes the readers back to her past history in Korea to explain why the sight of the pastor was a shock to her. Yeong-Min is the late older son of the protagonist. He was born several years after her marriage and he was much loved and enjoyed ample attention from parents and grandparents. He grew to be generous to others, caring, highly altruistic, obedient to parents, and studied at an elite university. The Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 65 protagonist is informed of her son’s youth activities through his diaries that she accessed following his death. His story is as follows. Yeong-Min meets a Christian girlfriend and he is attracted to the church as a result of the relationship and later to Christianity. Many volumes of his diaries finish with the following notes: Great “foolish Jesus” and crucifixion. Couldn’t he avoid it? The road of torment, ridicule, suffering, am I able to overcome these? What would happen to my father and mother? What about my brother, Yeong-Jun? The foolish Jesus was crucified and I am foolish Yeong-Min that follows the foolish Jesus (p.57). It was about ten days after the final entry of the diaries that police investigator Kang and his colleagues rushed into her house to undertake a house search. Kang shouted to the protagonist: “Your husband is a school principal. How come you’ve educated your son to turn out the way he is? Do you want your husband’s early retirement?” (p.57). These questions from the intelligence agency were a direct threat to the whole family. The protagonist was told that Yeong-Min was the leader of the group pursuing an investigation into the deaths of those anti-government Christian leaders who were taken to the Korean Central Intelligence Agency under President Park’s dictatorship and died for unknown reasons. Several days after the house search, Yeong-Min returns home and looks completely worn out. Yeong-Min was home for a short while and seemed preoccupied with thoughts on numerous matters. He then was conscripted for the National Service a few months before his upcoming university graduation, despite the fact that he had passed the National Examination of Justice and was supposed to serve the army as a judicial officer. It is commonly known that under the authoritarian Korean governments, this has been how young men who raised dissident voices against the government were quickly conscripted or escorted away in the middle of the night for compulsory military service. The protagonist was later informed that her son reluctantly signed up to serve as a private soldier because of official pressure and he did not want to impact negatively on his father’s public servant role. Yeong-Min dies five months after the completion of his initial training in the army, according to the relevant army authority that informed his father, in relation to an accident involving guns. But the father assumes that Yeong-Min was beaten to death as could be assumed by several bloody bruises on the body (p.127). The protagonist could not believe the news of her son’s death and could not dare to accompany her husband travelling to the army camp to collect and cremate the son’s body. The father brought home a handful of the ashes and scattered them. The protagonist noticed that the husband’s hair turned 66 Chapter Four completely gray in a matter of days after the incident. Then followed the collapse of the husband in the bathroom due to high blood pressure and he passed away. The protagonist was completely and absolutely at a loss since she was brought up in a highly protected and strict, but a well-to-do family background. She experienced few sufferings in her life till then. Following the loss of her son and husband, the protagonist occasionally prepared dinner table for four persons, unwilling to admit or believe the non-existence of the husband and older son. She then went under a severe depression with no desire to live for a while, but one day she was made suddenly realise that Yeong-Jun, a middle school student at that time, was an important reason for her to go on living. It was in the 1980s — a politically tumultuous time following the assassination of President Park Chung-Hee in October 1979 (p.65). Following Park’s death, the Chun Doo-Hwan regime placed Korean society under martial law. Dissident voices continued to be raised and the Kwangju Uprising in May 1980 was a horrific clash between the civilians in Kwangju, university students and special military forces. The incident cost two thousand lives of civilians and soldiers. All universities in Korea were forced to remain closed for many months in that year. The protagonist’s horrendous memories about her older son refuse to go away, but are deeply set in her everyday life. The new pastor resembles her son so closely that she is persistently reminded of her older son, YeongMin. The pastor’s facial resemblance to Yeong-Min also struck Yeong-Jun. Yeong-Min was an idol or Superman to him, but Yeong-Min’s death was the start of the demise of their happy family, so Yeong-Jun is resentful of his brother whose altruistic concerns for his peers led him to his “accidental” death. What? Jesus? He believed in Jesus? Who is Jesus? How come he was so willing to commit his promising future to that foolish Jesus? What are the consequences of the commitment? Nothing at all! (p.76) To Yeong-Jun, Jesus is the culprit who has completely shattered and reduced his happy family to almost nothing. He feels bitter against Jesus, but his cleaning job is conditional on his attending church. The cleaning work requires no particular professional skills and is not a job which demands respect. Nonetheless, there is a clear hierarchical relationship between the employer and employee. This relationship seems to legitimise the employer requesting the employee to attend a particular church and make him remain as a member of the church as long as he is under that particular employer. The need to stay with the church is like an unstipulated obligation. When some Korean students arrive at Sydney Airport and are offered a ride to Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 67 temporary accommodation attached to a church it is implicit that the students would attend the particular church, as has happened to many Korean students (Han 1994d). As soon as Yeong-Jun is financially secure he would like to quit going to church. The protagonist’s health is rapidly deteriorating every day and she is moaning from her pain at night. Yeong-Jun wishes to save his mother from her cleaning work, but they are not able to sustain their life with Yeong-Jun’s income alone. When he has saved a few thousand dollars there are always unexpected expenses such as medical bills and motor vehicle repairs. Yeong-Jun feels that his life is as precarious as a little child constructing a sandcastle on a beach facing a high wave (p.79). The novel fills in the background of the protagonist’s journey to Australia. She and her son were barely able to meet their economic needs out of her husband’s superannuation and support from relatives until Yeong-Jun finished high school. She was totally ill-prepared to lead an independent life and Yeong-Jun brought forward his time to serve in the army. Upon his completion of military service, he came home one day with the following news about Australia. One of my army alumni tells me there will be an amnesty for illegal migrants in Australia. This is the last chance and many people are travelling to Australia. In Australia, permanent residency will pay your university fees and hospital fees. Australia is supposed to be the last heaven on earth. ... There are even allowances for single mothers and widows (p.82). This is how the protagonist and Yeong-Jun obtained tourist visas through travel agents. As discussed in an earlier chapter, many Koreans seem to be less than well-informed or prepared for such a “life changing” decision as emigrating overseas. Such a decision perhaps deserves much more serious consideration over a period if potential migrants are to avoid a long-lasting and “unexpected” disappointment (Han 1996b, 2000b; Han and Davies 2000). Those who have overstayed their visas live under difficult conditions and they are desperate for mercy from the Australian government. This desperation in itself creates unfounded hopes and dreams such as amnesty for over-stayers. Further, welfare benefits such as medical and educational allowances are beyond the reach of temporary residents. The emigration plan of the protagonist and Yeong-Jun has not only been a way to escape from their financially impoverished life (cf. Storbeck 1963), but also has been an attempt to escape from the heartaches resulting from the lingering memories of the death of her husband and the older son. Presumably, the protagonist as school principal’s wife used to be highly respected. She is now an “ordinary” woman and a poor widow. Her “demoted” social status would have also 68 Chapter Four played a significant role in agreeing to Yeong-Jun’s “quick fix” solution to their mounting problems. The combination of all these adversities leads to departing for a hope and fantasy (Mar 2005; Vaught, Perkins, and Sheble 1980). The protagonist feels grief to leave behind her relatives on the one hand, but had no regret that she was leaving “the problematic homeland to her.”5 It seems that this relief on leaving the Korean peninsula is shared by many potential Korean migrants including the author of the biography, “Beyond the Australian Dream” (Kim 2000). Within a short span of time after their arrival, the protagonist and Yeong-Jun quickly realise that over-stayers have little to benefit from in “the heavenly land.”6 The protagonist who had no work permit or any kind of work experience had no option but to take up an opportunity from fellow Koreans, i.e., cleaning work for a minimum wage.7 She thinks it is not a matter of whether she likes the work or not, but a struggle to survive. Yeong-Jun collects shopping trolleys for a supermarket during the day and is employed by Deacon Yi Seong-Chan to clean a bakery during the night. While she is working she has no room to think about her dead husband and older son. As the protagonist and her son return home and have dinner they are exhausted and have no further energy for anything else, but fall asleep and try to recover their strength for the following day’s work. They have renewed their tourist visas once, but did not bother to do it again. They now call themselves illegal migrants. This is typical of how temporary residents become undocumented migrants (Han 2003). Although they had been attending the church for the last two years they had little appreciation for any church activities or sermons. Their constant effort to make ends meet leave them little room for church activities. Instead, they are full of resentment towards Jesus since he, they feel, is the culprit who has shattered their happy home. The only reason they continuously put up with boring Sunday services is because attending the church is a condition for them to hold onto their jobs. However, the arrival of the new pastor Mun Seong-Won has changed the protagonist’s attitudes towards the church. Initially she was fully absorbed by his physical resemblance to her dead son and was attentive to his sermons. Not long after his arrival, Pastor Mun has announced his timetable to pay home-visits to all the members of the congregation. The first home to visit was the protagonist’s. Deacon Noh (a founding member of the church together with her husband Deacon Yi Seong-Chan) grumbles and asks other congregational members publicly: “Isn’t he supposed to visit senior members first of all?” (p.102) A few others agreed that the pastor should prioritise the visit to Deacon Yi family, “the owners of the church” (cf. Oh 2000). Despite continuing controversies over the ownership of the church buildings, many Korean church leaders in Korea or in Korean communities overseas, Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 69 including head minister or senior elders, often claim either ownership of the church or the way it operates. In the case of the church under observation in the novel, Deacon Yi’s family comprise its “chief executive officers,” deliberating and making decisions about major activities and future directions of the congregation. Pastor Mun intervenes: As far as I am aware, Deacon Pak’s family is in the most difficult situation. That is the reason I intend to pay a visit to her before anyone else. I trust this is what Jesus would have done had he been here today. Thus I seek your kind understanding (p.102). It is a dilemma for a newly arrived pastor to lead the congregation according to his own conviction. Rev Yi Seung-Hak (2010) calls such an approach “God-centred ministry.” Any misjudgement as to which activities he should prioritise or in fact any of his judgements for this matter tends to create tension between the clergy and the laity who consist of different groups within the congregation (cf. Yi 2010). Pastor Mun as a young and conscientious leader must be determined to translate biblical teaching into his ministry. Mun, in his visit to the protagonist and her son, shares a short message with them that God loves both of them dearly. This is shocking to them since their perception of God was simply about punishing those who make mistakes (p.104). Pastor Mun comes to hear the tragic stories of the protagonist and Yeong-Jun. Mun later helps Pak Mi-Hyeon to make a personal commitment to God. Yeong-Jun becomes receptive to the pastor and feels warmth as if he were filling the emptiness the dead brother has created. Mun’s demonstration of loving care, irrespective of whether it was religious or personal, may be a refreshing experience to this family since they are under severe emotional and physical strain. The Church as a Site of Comfort, Fellowship, Conflict and Egoistic Pursuit The protagonist was brought up in a Buddhist family and her father prohibited her from going to a church, and even barred her from attending a Christmas party at a church during her primary school days. She used to be envious of her friends attending a week-long Bible School during summer vacations and receiving presents on Christmas day. Since then, she has lived with beautiful memories about churches but those memories have become tarnished soon after she joined one in Sydney. Mother (the protagonist): I expected that the church would be special and different from other organisations. The church-goers appear to be gentle and car- 70 Chapter Four ing for each other in our superficial observation. But in reality, they are full of jealousy, hurt and hatred. Son (Yeong-Jun): Yes, once they have a quarrel, they remain as enemies to each other for a long time. Mother: They tell lies so easily in life, but they are so good and fluent with prayers in public. ... Son: There is something special about them on Sundays. ... We want to rest at home on Sundays, but they go to church diligently and offer their own hardearned money. (pp.28-9) After overcoming her perception of the church as “a house of fantasy,” the protagonist decides to go to church as if it were a social club. Whether or not the so-called nominal Christians in Korean immigrant churches take their “substantive religiosity” seriously is a matter for further investigation (Han 1994c). However, a significant proportion of Korean immigrant church-goers, whether new or old church members, take the non-religious dimensions of the church seriously. New church-goers quickly learn that the church serves the role of social clubs as well as church (Han 1994d). Pak is not able to pay much attention to the sermons and brings some offerings reluctantly, but enjoys chatting over the lunch after church. The free lunch saves the members from cooking a meal and is a special attraction to Korean overseas students. Deacon Yi Seong-Chan (father of Deacon Yi Il-Yeong, Pak’s cleaning partner) is pleased with the protagonist’s regular attendance at the church. She is now confident that her job is secured. Within twelve months of her joining the church, the protagonist is called a deacon herself. In Korean culture it is not always common to call a person by first name alone, and a title such as deacon is a way to refer to someone, in the church. Thus, the protagonist would be routinely called Deacon Pak or Deacon Pak Mi-Hyeon in the church. Deacon Yi Seong-Chan is the most influential person in this congregation as is demonstrated in the following conversation between the protagonist and Mrs Yu, that took place soon after they have become friendly: Deacon Yu: This church is more or less owned by Deacon Yi Seong-Chan. His children, his relatives, his club members and the acquaintances from his work make up around 20-30 members of the church. The protagonist: Is that right? Deacon Yu: Without his family and relatives, this church couldn’t be sustained. Other members have no money or power. The protagonist: I see. Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 71 Deacon Yu: Your life would be made “tired” were you to upset him. You had better support what he does in the church. There is nothing to lose by doing that anyway. (p.32) From the viewpoint of some church members like Deacon Yu, it is those with material support for the church who should deliberate on the current and future activities and directions of the church. Yi Seong-Chan is the final authority on what is to be proceeded with in this congregation. Many Korean immigrants are well educated and public recognition is a particularly important part of their life in the Confucian-influenced Korean community. Now they live in a foreign culture and have little interaction with members of the broader Australian society. As noted earlier, many of them have jobs incommensurate with their professional qualifications and experience. The author of the novel notes that many Koreans suffer from status inconsistency and often seek to elevate their status and recognition through their “serving roles” in the church such as deacon or elder (p.38). Also importantly, the church is the avenue whereby Korean migrants can easily satisfy many of their expressive and instrumental needs. They do not have difficulty expressing their views in the Korean language, seeking information on renting, purchasing cars, etc. These are important reasons Koreans attend church irrespective of their religious affiliation prior to coming to Australia. As a consequence, Korean churchgoers may remain in isolation from the broader Australian society (Han 2004). Further, their lack of proactive interactions will strongly influence what kinds of transnational identities they as immigrants can formulate. To be more accurate, they have limited opportunities, and thus be unlikely to move towards “desirable” transnational identities. Deacon Yi Seong-Chan in particular sees the church as the avenue to compensate for the loss of his own personal status in a foreign land. Those church members who publicly praise his contribution to the congregation are rewarded with a basket of fruit or a dinner invitation. This is how Deacon Yi strengthens and grows his personal network within his “own” church. The relationship among the members of the network remains close. Interestingly, Deacon Noh Jeong-Ok, wife of Yi Seong-Chan, is particularly good at appeasing those who are critical of Deacon Yi Seong-Chan, by offering them an expensive present or money, or buying them dinner. These material controls over the members of a congregation are not dissimilar to those of the priests of the temple described in the New Testament (Matthew Ch. 21: 12-17). Those priests primarily focused on their own material benefit by exploiting those who came a long way to worship, many bringing their own sacrificial animals. Those worshippers were easily deceived for the material benefit of the supposedly trustworthy leaders. The increasing influence of Deacon Yi 72 Chapter Four within the church has meant that those ministers who would not agree with Deacon Yi find it difficult to confidently undertake their duties as clergy and eventually resign from the job, so that Deacon Yi becomes the virtual owner or the Chief Executive Officer of the congregation. This is why Deacon Yi has eventually become and also is known as “minister killer” (p.39). Conflict between clergy and laity for a variety of reasons is not new (Hadden 1969; Schneider 1969; Dempsey 1983). However, the ways in which the conflict occurs within the materialistic Korean churches seem to be specific to them, resulting particularly from the over-supply of clergy. Commonly observed consequences include problematic qualities of the clergy due to the quality of their theological training, “church-individualism,” “inheriting and selling” the church (Woo 2005; Han 1997b; Han, Han, and Kim 2009).8 In the case of Pastor Mun, there is no suggestion that he has inadequate theological training. However, the over-supply of theological graduates in Korea allows Deacon Yi to exploit him and even dismiss him, with little hesitation. “Keeping the House in Order”: Disciplining the Newly Arrived Pastor The church depicted in the novel was established about five years ago, but three pastors have already been and gone. The church’s third and most recent pastor could not cope with the church leaders’ treatment of him either. The church has been without a pastor for an unknown period and the membership is down to about twenty. The clergyman is vital for an independent Christian church and the sermon is a critical component of the activities of an independent Protestant congregation (Han Mi Jun 2005; Woo 2005; Nudelman 1971). Without being able to hear regular sermons from clergy, newcomers or existing members of a church are unlikely to sustain their church membership unless they have a clear sense of belonging or ownership of the congregation. However, Deacon Yi Seong-Chan has his own particular views about “contemporary” pastors and how he should deal with them. Deacon Yi Il-Yeong shares much with his father Deacon Yi Seong-Chan, in terms of their perhaps ill-informed views about the three pastors. This is not surprising since the Yis’ extended family members strive to be responsible for every single issue to do with the congregation. The Confucian-based principle of a son respecting his father without much reflection seems in strong operation in this extended family (cf. Chang 1997; Kim 1984a). Yi Il-Yeong once told the protagonist, These days, pastors have got too much pride in themselves. Highly authoritarian! It is very difficult to handle them or make them listen. We might have to employ a young one (p.23). Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 73 As there is no scarcity of Korean theological graduates or pastors-to-be, each congregation has a large pool of potential ministers. This makes it easy for an individual congregational search committee to hire or fire a minister. Following the employment of a minister, there may be a list of demands and requests, often including things which may not be core activities of the clergy. In this process, there is bound to be conflict between the clergy and the laity (Woo 2005). The roles of the minister and his wife in the Korean migrant church are expected to be different from those of the church in Korea. They are known respectively as Meoseum (a farmhand) and Sikmo (a kitchen maid) in the Korean immigrant church (p.37). The ministers of smaller churches welcome new migrants at the airport and facilitate their settling process including finding a rental home, helping them move house, find schools for their children, identify shops, and carrying out other chores, which takes at least a couple of weeks. Those newcomers join Sunday services of the minister’s church, but some stay with him, while others soon look around at other churches. These extra services that pastors have to provide for their church members are again related to the over-supply of theological graduates from a diverse range of quality in Korea — about 6,000-7,000 per year whereas only 1,500 graduates are from government recognised theological colleges (Pak 2006). It is rumoured that there are several hundred Korean ministers in Sydney looking to plant a church in addition to over two hundred of them already ministering to churches. There is a saying that if you call “Minister (Moksanim)” in a busy Sydney restaurant, you will have several responses. It is often unclear as to where they have been trained or ordained, taking a few months to a few years. Yet, they are all known to be Christian ministers. It appears that the author of the novel, as wife of a Korean immigrant church, is well informed about the complex problems resulting from the over-supply of ministers and the poor training of many of them. As the author notes, it is not unusual for it to be difficult to identify an “appropriate” pastor despite there being a large number of them. Deacon Yi Seong-Chan has set himself a goal to invite the best educated and capable minister to “his” church. This is a challenge not only to revive the congregation, but to vindicate his name which has been defamed lately, the reason for which is not indicated in the novel. Deacon Yi cries out in the daily dawn prayer, “May God send a new servant of God to the congregation!” Yi’s seemingly earnest prayer has touched many people and they think that Yi is a God-fearing person. Finally, the prayer has been answered to and a pastor has been selected. Yi has the pastor’s academic record reproduced and finds that he had an excellent record throughout his university and postgraduate studies. He is known to be a great speaker and a highly promising pastor (p.42). His only weakness is his lack 74 Chapter Four of experience due to his youth. The members of the congregation are pleased with Deacon Yi’s tireless effort: We are absolutely thrilled to welcome such a capable pastor to this small church. ... Without Deacon Yi’s effort, we simply could not have invited such a capable pastor to our congregation (pp.42-3). All the members of the church are looking forward to the new pastor’s arrival, following the announcement of the appointment. Deacon Noh (wife of Deacon Yi) used to praise the incoming pastor for a while, but has suddenly stopped talking about him because she and Deacon Yi could not afford to divert the members’ attention from themselves. Deacon Noh wants to make sure that the church is under control of her family members, not the incoming minister. Then she comes up with an effective strategy. Deacon Noh has gossiped about the pastor to her close friends in the church. Now the members of the congregation promote a completely different impression of the pastor with many comments such as the following:  The incoming pastor is an orphan, isn’t he?  He is quite a brainy person, but his background is quite poor. That is why he could not find a post in a large church, but currently serves a small church in the country.  As he wishes to study further in Australia, the congregation will sponsor his studies, won’t it?  Is that right?  Oh, that is why he came here. (p.43) The Protestant churches in Korea have been instrumental in fulfilling personal and materialistic pursuits of many church leaders in the past few decades. Growth-oriented policy and church expansionism have been a couple of their notable characteristics. The ministers serving smaller churches may be looked down upon in terms of their personal and religious abilities. The perception of the clergy and the laity may differ on this matter. Consequently, many church-goers from small or medium-sized churches continue to join large congregations and mega churches whereas many churches have closed down every year in Korea since the mid-1980s (Sisa Jeoneol 2006; Kim 2004). These tendencies are mirrored in the church life of Korean immigrants overseas as they are in close touch with the Korean media through magazines, newspapers and the Internet. Thanks to Deacon Noh, the young and promising pastor is now perceived a poor orphan who has nowhere to go but the small congregation that he is about to serve. Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 75 The new pastor has arrived and has already served the congregation for twelve months and its membership has notably increased. He is known to be a good speaker whose convincing sermons have brought new members to the church. Those Korean church-goers who are seeking more friendly treatment from the church or better social club-like interactions or eloquent sermons are attracted to the invitation to change their membership. They are especially so if they could not develop a sense of belonging in their current congregation. As the pastor becomes well accepted and liked by an increasing number of the congregational members, Deacon Noh becomes disgruntled and openly expresses her dissatisfaction with the pastor to other members of the church: He is young, but disrespectful to senior members; he is not obedient enough. Prayer does not resolve all the issues; he doesn’t even clean the church; he doesn’t even wash up after lunch (pp.108-9). Pastors are generally expected to undertake “higher” duties on Sundays such as delivering sermons, providing members with spiritual consolation, chairing small group meetings, advising the leaders, etc. Naturally, pastors should be exempt from those mundane tasks that can be easily undertaken by other members. Preoccupied with her own personal pursuit, Deacon Noh is a little reflexive, but inconsiderate of the needs of others. She does not seem interested in considering the ways in which the church can have a positive influence on the lives of immigrants and how the clergy and influential members like her husband and herself can work together to achieve such goals. Deacon Noh’s aides seem adversely influenced by her thoughts and actions. They do not hesitate to complain as follows: It is just unbelievable that the pastor puts himself above anyone else and he doesn’t realise who is feeding him; What’s his job about? Why didn’t he join us mowing the grass last Saturday? He should’ve prepared the sermon beforehand and joined us. Why should seniors mow the grass when younger people are around? Don’t even mention him. He never calls me to ask how I am. That makes me feel like sharing nothing with him at all. He must be looking down on us, don’t you think? What does he think we are? Hello Deacon Noh! Why should we keep quiet rather than retaliating? (p.109) It seems obvious that Deacons Yi and Noh and their aides are developing a deep sense of resentment against the pastor. Putting Pastor Mun and young people on one side, Deacon Yi and aides on the other, is divisive and in effect creates animosities within the congregation. No physical violence has erupted yet, but the tension between the two camps is high. Although hierarchy is to have no place in the church (Galatians 3: 28), Deacon Yi and his aides are 76 Chapter Four looking for status and respect (cf. Kim 1985). This church organisation fails to distinguish itself from other social clubs in terms of interaction between the members. Despite the majority of the members aligning themselves with Deacon Yi, there are a small number who have been dissatisfied with Deacon Yi’s inappropriate dominance and “dictatorship.” However, every member has noticed that since the arrival of Rev Mun the church is growing and has stabilised in many ways, and Deacon Noh’s wishes and opinions are increasingly losing popularity and are less than persuasive than before. She becomes increasingly irritated over time (p.110). I am reminded that the confronting attitudes of Deacons Noh and Yi and their son resemble those that Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas observed in their relations with Jesus Christ as he was about to be betrayed and arrested (John 18). Annas and Caiaphas are willing to rob the church of its requisite or intrinsic organisational characteristic — being the light and salt of the world — by deserting Jesus and aggressively pursuing their personal power and interests (see Han, Han, and Kim 2009). Annas and Caiaphas bought their high priesthood just as Deacons Noh and Yi, their son, and their aides have bought their power and influence in the immigrant church. Moreover, it was at the tumultuous time when Jesus was about to be arrested that his disciples were arguing over who might be the one with more power in the mistakenly assumed event that Jesus would overthrow the Roman Empire (Luke Ch. 22: 24-27). This is a serious interest of Deacon Noh and her aides, here and now. The two families of Deacons Yi Seong-Chan and Yi Il-Yeong (i.e., father and son) try to exert their influence over other members by hosting parties for them and methodically depriving them of any possibility of reflective deliberation, discrimination and dedication, and consequently of a process of internal conversation (Archer 2003b, p.139). On one particular day, the protagonist, Deacon Pak, is asked to join the party earlier than other guests and help with food preparation. She is told that the party provides fellowship amongst all the deacons in the church. It is a generous and well served feast. However, as a recent believer, Pak is surprised to see that this party for deacons serves the guests with beer, wine and later soju.9 A good number of them have become drunk and a couple of them are smoking. Some Korean church-goers drink or smoke, but they rarely do it at a party for church members’ fellowship. The party goes on till very late at night and the women are driving their husbands home. Deacon Pak is puzzled about the absence of Pastor Mun and, on her way home, drops into his place to find out whether he has been too ill to join the party. Mun has not been invited to the party and his face contains “a shadow of concern.” Thereafter, Deacon Pak and Yeong-Jun have noticed in recent weeks that Pastor Mun is not the same as before and looks deeply worried (p.117). Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 77 In the meantime, Deacon Noh grows increasingly explicitly irritable and this has an impact on her daughter-in-law, Deacon Kim Eun-Yi, whom the protagonist used to consider as being kind and fair-minded. Advised by her mother-in-law, Kim has now “kindly” informed the protagonist that Noh is unhappy with Pak and that she needs to pay an apologetic visit to Noh. Pak somehow agrees to do so and visits Noh’s home. As Pak walks in the corridor of Noh’s house she hears Deacon Yu Yeong-Hae saying: Look! She [Pak] was a school principal’s wife? That shouldn’t make her that proud now, should it? Is she still a principal’s wife? No! Now, she is a mere cleaner. But she doesn’t know how to pay respect to me. (p.121) The protagonist notices that two women are visiting Noh and holding a “gossip” session against herself. Finding out who is walking in, those women decide to leave immediately, covering up their embarassment. It is not only a large number of Korean male immigrants who suffer from status inconsistency and desperately yearn for some kind of recognition but also their wives, whose level of education and professional experiences prior to coming to Australia are often commensurate with their husbands. A culture of jealousy and suspicion seems more prevalent and is deeply acculturated in the group of women in the congregation rather than one of respect and encouragement. Welcoming Pak, Noh’s disciplinary comments are as follows: I tell you straight forwardly. Recently I hear that you are too enthusiastic about church affairs. When the pastor makes mistakes we have to correct him. It is ignorant people out of fashion that act as a “yes-man” irrespective of whether the pastor’s deeds are right or wrong. Pastor Mun is five years younger than my younger son, but he is never obedient to seniors and causes lots of concerns in the church. I feel you and your son are so close to my family and I suggest that you don’t pay as much attention as you do now. Also as you aren’t well, why do you attend dawn prayer and overnight prayer meetings? Please rest at home for a while. (p.123) The protagonist is shocked to hear these comments and now understands what has been bothering the pastor, whom she regards as her “new son.” Deacon Noh is completely focused on her family’s vested interests within the congregation. In her interaction with the pastor, what comes first to her mind is correcting and disciplining rather than respecting and encouraging. Within the Confucian convention, a person’s age is much more critical than her professional merit. Pastor Mun’s young age seems to be all that is required to justify Deacon Noh’s expectations of Pastor Mun in terms of his thoughts and deeds (cf. Kim 1985). Pak Mi-Hyeon senses that “her newly-adopted” 78 Chapter Four precious son is about to be horribly mistreated or hurt, and she is reminded of Deacon Noh’s recent comment: How come the pastor has objected the installation of Deacon Yi Seong-Chan as an elder of the congregation? He is so ungrateful for what we’ve done to him. He must have no plan to live in Australia in the future. (p.125) A Korean immigrant church invites a pastor from Korea under the church’s sponsorship, initially for a few years. The church has a significant influence on the renewal of the pastor’s contract and consequently his granting of permanent residency. This makes some churches abuse their rights and responsibilities. Pak discovers that Pastor Mun has now over-stayed his visa since Deacon Yi has constantly put off renewing Mun’s work visa. Pak runs to the manse and advises Mun: “Please go and apologise to Yi. Their influence is too great and your resistance is absolutely in vain. Pastor, please act wisely” (p.126). But he is uncompromising and reluctant to bend his Christian principles, saying that Deacon Yi’s life falls far too short of an exemplary Christian life and Yi’s effort to shape the contents of the sermons is not acceptable. Pak is again reminded of her own dead son, Yeong-Min. Yet, she finds herself shouting to Pastor Mun: “Are you the only righteous person? Please apologise and stay with your ministerial role. Please, please for my sake.” Pak meant “for your mother’s sake.” Mun decides to listen to Pak, his “mother” and apologises to Deacon Yi. Mun simply could not ignore his mother’s invocatory request. He may not have come across such motherly care in his life as he grew up as an orphan. Deacon Yi and Pastor Mun have now temporarily resolved the uncomfortable feeling between them after a congregational hearing and humiliating disciplinary comments in front of the deacons of the church. However, Deacon Yi seems to have planned the reconciliation to be short-lived. Deacon Yi’s aides may have understood his deep dissatisfaction with the pastor due to his “disrespectful attitude” (p.129). The aides have agreed not to make any tithes and offerings in the hope that this may impact on the church’s budget and eventually impel the pastor to resign. Nonetheless, the congregation continues to function well due to a small number of “faithful” members and Pastor Mun’s extraordinary effort. Deacon Kim Eun-Yi has been known as a quiet and caring person. When she had difficulties coping with her parents-in-law she used to come to the protagonist to pour out her frustrations. In the context of Confucian-based family relations even in modern Korea, irrespective of whether or not a married couple live in the same house as the woman’s parents-in-law, it is often the dissident voice of the daughter-in-law that tends to be marginalised. This is a systematic suppression of reflexivity of the oppressed, thus preventing Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 79 the particular agent from possible benefit of her internal conversation. This prevention is no different from constantly cutting off the shoots of a plant. Deacon Kim could not withstand the pressure of her husband and parents-inlaw and has now become a different person, giving up her interaction with Pak and actively promoting the installation of her father-in-law as elder of the church. Kim has convinced a good number of congregational members that Deacon Yi deserves to be an elder and that Pastor Mun, a mere sojourner, should leave the church for the sake of long-term stayers who have settled in Australia well before Pastor Mun (p.143). Their earlier arrival hardly offers them any legitimacy to demonstrate unkindness to Mun, but this is an idea that has persisted between immigrants who have arrived in Australia at different times. This tendency continues at the level of both individual immigrants and ethnic communities. Pastor Mun eventually receives a chilling note from Deacon Yi Il-Yeong: “Leave this place within a week. Otherwise, the manse will be set on fire and you will be killed without anyone noticing it” (p.174). Pastor Mun tells the protagonist: The situation in this church is worse than in a group of non-church-goers. Until this problem is amended I am not able to leave this place. I now sense why God has sent me here. However, my heart is aching, really aching (p.175). One of the features of transnational identities is to be able to reflect on personhood and then be able to embrace people from different cultures and history. Such a transition would necessarily involve ongoing internal conversations, addressing agential adjustment, discrimination, deliberation and dedication in the given structural context. However, the stubbornly persisting non-reflexivity of Deacons Yi and Noh and their aides is obstructive of any such move. More importantly, they create a context whereby other congregational members are forcibly restrained from continuing to develop their own transnational identities. Consequently, the church as an institution is not able to provide the church members with institutional support to adapt to the broader socio-cultural context. Archer (2003b, p.139) contends that not everyone achieves a stable and mature personal identity, but those who do entertain social projects that are “designed” to result in the common good. They display the power of an emergent relational property and their commitment includes “the designation and design of specific projects in society, their strategic pursuit through self-monitoring and a commitment to the successful establishment of practices which express a particular overriding concern.” Far from personal monitoring, Deacon Yi and his aides do not seem to display a commitment to promoting and establishing desirable 80 Chapter Four and harmonious relations or a set of “respectable principles” within the congregation. Agents are certainly fallible, but Deacons Yi and Noh continue to “misjudge both the ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ of pursuing a given course of action” (Archer 2003b, p.141). That is, these agents’ courses of action through their own fallible reflexive deliberations to determine their individual projects in the context of their objective circumstances may result in the need to revise or redefine their projects (Archer 2003b, p.141). A Doomed Love Story between a “Have” and a “Have-Not” Angela was a young child when her parents, Deacons Yi Seong-Chan and Noh Jeong-Ok (the “owners” of the congregation), emigrated to Australia.10 The protagonist and Yeong-Jun consider Angela to be socially inept and immature in that, for example, her permanent residency is her most crucial asset that enables her to look down upon those without permanent residency and treat them inappropriately. This kind of attitude is somewhat similar to her mother, Deacon Noh. Such condescension refers to a quality displayed by those who are not in the process of achieving a stable and mature personal identity since they are hardly engaged in “constructive” internal conversation as members of a society. They are unlikely to achieve desirable transnational identities. Angela is described as a person with pride for no particular reason except for being a permanent resident in Australia — the most valuable asset she has. Indeed, holding permanent residency was a justifiable reason for one Korean immigrant to exploit another, especially when a significant number of Koreans arrived in Australia under tourist visas in the 1980s and early 1990s. Those Koreans were often poorly paid. However, Angela is strongly attracted to Yeong-Jun and she becomes a kind lady of refined manners in front of Yeong-Jun. Their first encounter in the novel starts with Angela’s kindness in picking Yeong-Jun up when he had to have his car towed away for a repair. This is a vivid depiction of the unfolding of a loving relation between a have and a have-not. It is Angela’s birthday and she is begging him to have dinner with her at the top of the Sydney Tower. Love is blossoming between them like that between any other people in love as the following conversation demonstrates. Angela: Can you please come with me? Yeong-Jun: As it is your birthday, I may agree to go with you. But what should I do as I couldn’t even get a present ready for you? Angela: You are the best present for me! A living present! (p.100) Following dinner, they are sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by beautiful night scenery. Angela proposes: Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 81 My dear oppa [darling], I love you. I’d like to marry you. I’m not expecting your response right now. I’m sure you need time to think about it. Please give me a call and I shall eagerly wait for it. I’ll give you all you need and I wish to provide you with all you want (p.135). Yeong-Jun knows that Angela’s “all you need” refers to money and permanent residency and that Angela is tempting him with permanent residency. Apparently, Angela is convinced that her parents’ money and her own permanent residency set her apart from Yeong-Jun. Yeong-Jun also realises that permanent residency will allow him to go to university and pay his mother’s hospital bills. Yeong-Jun asks his mother what she thinks of the idea of marrying Angela. Mother realises immediately that Yeong-Jun wishes to take care of his old mother who is in a vulnerable condition. With tears in her eyes, she answers with another question: “How can you marry a woman you don’t even love, and plan to spend the rest of your life with her?” (p.138) Pak had lived a happy and satisfying life until the death of her husband and older son. She is better able to appreciate than Yeong-Jun how important it is for him to marry a girl that he loves. However, Yeong-Jun is desperate about his own future and how his mother may be taken care of in her old age. Contrary to his mother’s advice, Yeong-Jun agrees to Angela’s proposal in a car park where they met when she was contacted by Yeong-Jun. They take a walk on a beach to share this happy moment. Their immediate common interests were the issues of their church, and Pastor Mun was of special concern for both of them, but for different reasons. Naturally, Angela has been strongly influenced by her parents. In terms of tensions between the clergy and the laity in the congregation, Angela is simply one of the aides offering unconditional support for Deacons Yi and Noh. Angela is not aware of Yeong-Jun’s “caring” concern over Pastor Mun and she is happy to respond to Yeong-Jun’s curiosity over church affairs around the pastor. Angela says: Who has appointed Pastor Mun to our church? How dare he be disrespectful to my father? Oppa [darling], you should act together with my family from now onwards. ... I tell you a secret plan. In the upcoming general meeting, there’ll be a no-confidence motion in Pastor Mun. You will support the motion, won’t you? ... His key problem is his disrespect to senior members. He seems keen to support the over-stayers. He doesn’t come and pay respect to “us.”11 There must be some mutual supportive feelings between illegal migrants [such as Pastor Mun, Yeong-Jun and her mother]. (p.148) Just as Deacons Yi and Noh have tried to exert their dominant position to Pastor Mun, Angela is exerting her “dominant power without substance” 82 Chapter Four over her prospective life partner. Angela’s looking down on the over-stayers is a way to indirectly express her disrespect towards Yeong-Jun. It may be more accurate to say that she wants to remind him of her “superiority with no substance” to him. Yeong-Jun’s agreement to marry Angela quickly leads her to think that he is no different from other young and desperate over-stayers who have displayed a strong interest in Angela. For Angela, at this moment Yeong-Jun’s elegance and mystic attraction diminishes greatly. Yeong-Jun is no longer beyond her reach. Angela cares little about the church and is simply interested in marrying Yeong-Jun, which makes her blindly insensitive in what she says about the over-stayers in the church. This causes a great degree of tension between the two young people. Angela infuriates Yeong-Jun with her insensitive comments. What is the pastor supposed to do? He sucks up the salary and makes so many typos in the church’s weekly bulletin. Something is terribly wrong with his attitude. Yes, he is a pastor, but who is he? He is no more than an illegal migrant at present (p.158). Angela’s question shows complete disrespect to Yeong-Jun and destroys his identity. Yeong-Jun could not handle Angela’s words and slaps her in the face. Angela cries and Yeong-Jun does not know what to do when Deacon Noh (Angela’s mother) and her son (Deacon Yi) walk home and catch the scene. Deacon Noh is extremely angered and tells her son: “Kick him out of the country right away!” (p.159) Here, these permanent residents are expressing their superiority at its peak towards “unlawful” sojourners. The Korean community is by no means homogeneous and its members may have achieved a diverse spectrum of transnational identities (Riccio 2001). The differences distinctly set one group from another. Yeong-Jun has not seriously considered until that moment what is meant by the saying that it takes only forty cents to report an illegal migrant to the Immigration Department. Immigration officers soon take Yeong-Jun away. His mother returns home from the landlord’s place to find Yeong-Jun’s rice bowl turned over on the floor. Apparently Yeong-Jun was having dinner when the immigration police came and “arrested” him. Yeong-Jun must have been taken away in haste and could not even finish his dinner. While Yeong-Jun spends several days at the Villawood Detention Centre, he experiences a new meeting in his life and confesses to his mother: I did not want to be a Jesus maniac for a long time. ... But last night, I have now surrendered my life to Jesus. ... I didn’t like Jesus as a failure and always wanted to run away from him. I thought Jesus was foolish, but I now know that he is really great. He is strong enough to hold me (p.166). Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 83 Yeong-Jun feels he can now understand his dead brother much better. This must be one of the critical moments in the novel that the author as a Christian wanted to stress. Whether he goes on to develop his devotion to Christian values or not, I imagine that those days in the detention centre offered some significant moments of reflexive thinking or constant internal conversations, which would have led him to think through all those events that occurred to him over the last few years. Yeong-Jun may now be able to put behind him all the hardships he experienced in Australia before he moves to a new life back in Korea. The reader wonders to what extent Yeong-Jun will turn out to practise the power of his emergent properties resulting from his mature personal identities, but the novel does not address this question. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS The significance of a reflexive approach toward our everyday actions has been argued for a while (Giddens 1991; Archer 2000). Giddens’ questions, “What to do?; How to act?; Who to be?”, would be questions that the characters in the novel come across on a daily basis, as they deal with complex survival mechanisms in a foreign land in the West. According to Thompson (1995, p.210), “The self is a symbolic project that the individual actively constructs” and we use media symbols (brands, logos, music, etc.) as resources for constructing our identity. How the characters in the novel have been influenced by media is not the focus of the novel, nor of this chapter. The focus is to analyse the depiction of the conflicts between the members including the clergy in a materialistic Korean church in Sydney, as described through the medium of the novel, resulting from lack of desirable reflexivity (i.e., under-developed or displaced or fractured reflexivity in the words of Margaret Archer (2000, 2003b)) of those who pursue their own personal agendas through an immigrant church.12 Transnational social fields and localities facing the characters in the novel (whether in Korea or Australia) provide them with a special context or opportunity in which to modify or newly construct their identities (Riccio 2001, p.589; Goldring 1998). How individual agents will approach the opportunity remains an important task for all immigrants. As the novel Foolish Jesus (Babo Yesu) describes, Korean society went through a tumultuous period when there was little facilitation of the flow of information, i.e., little facilitation of reflexive approach or internal conversation or “internal communication,” thus possibly and consequently leading to making uncritical or non-reflexive decisions by individuals, which in turn contributes to the formation of particular circumstances. 84 Chapter Four The protagonist’s unexpected suffering and her tumultuous life started with the loss of her husband and first son during the dictatorial regimes of military governments following the assassination of President Park Chung-Hee. That was a time of top-down communication, i.e., the government constantly handed down orders to the very people it is supposed to consult and serve. Those who were bold enough to raise dissident voices were constantly exposed to serious and life-threatening danger. The power of politicaleconomic pressure was indeed overwhelming in every facet of individuals’ lives. There was little room for any individuals to take reflective actions. Nonetheless, there was a stream of students and civilians who literally put their lives on the line and persistently pursued the reform of oppressive governance. History reveals that many dissidents and families were ruined unnoticed. The Kwangju Uprising killed over two thousand civilians and the full effects of the incident have not been made completely known until this day (Yea 2002; Wickham 2000; Lee 1997). The protagonist’s family members’ suffering caused during the political unrest is just one example of what happened to numerous families. The sufferings did end in Korea, but spilt beyond the national boundary. It is surprising that people are prepared to settle overseas with little preparation and barely enough essential information. Often they have to undertake “dirty, difficult and dangerous” work and are often exploited by the members of their own ethnic community (Han 1999a, b, 2000a). Abusive management of workers or exploitation of labour seems to take place commonly enough within intra-ethnic networks or employment market (e.g., Salway 2008, p.1139; Han and Jung 2009a). The cost to health and dignity can be tremendous and in fact is damaging the life of many Korean immigrants (Han 2000a; Han and Chesters 2001a, b). How successfully they can undertake the project of constructing self identities, personal identities and transnational identities in the long run, as they have been seriously wounded, may be a matter that requires attention at least from the Korean community in Australia. Every ethnic community creates and sustains numerous organisations which facilitate intra- and inter-ethnic communications and interactions. The members of the Korean community also have many ways to express their ethnic identities as well as transnational identities. For them the church has been the most significant place to speak Korean language, share Korean foods, exchange with fellow Koreans their past and current information about the home country (Min 2010). The church is also a place for comfort and fellowship when a person’s immigrant life is harsh, exploring their adaptation process and transnational identities. Some indeed find a new meaning for their life through their newly discovered faith. Yet, the church Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 85 is also the place where conflicts and tensions are most commonly observed (Han 1994d). It is sometimes used as a place to have their marginalised status compensated through their leadership roles, consequently inflicting their established influences on fellow Koreans. Perhaps there needs to be much more concerted effort for reflexive approaches to the ways in which they deal with other fellow immigrants. This will work as an initial step towards developing the most desirable transnational identities. It has been argued that a significant number of theological graduates have not been well trained in Korea due to the low quality of teachers and poor resources in many theological seminaries, and consequently the quality of clergy has become a serious concern (Kukmin Ilbo 1994; Kim 1998). This is a complex problem to address since it is not only a matter of Christian organisations, but their inherently close relationships with other sectors in the broader society. The social and professional roles of well trained and responsible pastors are often poorly understood and under-valued, and hence graduates have little credibility. Some of the Korean migrants whose lives have been adversely affected by the “harsh reality” of their life in a foreign land seem to behave “ruthlessly” or with little consideration towards others. That is, harsh structural dimensions are “roughly” translated into their actions without much filtering process or “internal conversation.” Those who are vulnerable such as “temporary” pastors or sojourners seeking permanent residency can have their basic rights removed and are easily abused. The author of the novel as spouse of a Korean pastor has provided a gruesome description of what Pastor Mun has gone through as an immigrant pastor, culminating in a death warning from one of his own church members. This seems to be a case whereby worldly ideological practices have been reproduced in an organisation which is expected to be intrinsically different from other organisations. There might be a gulf of differences between Angela and Yeong-Jun in terms of how they perceive themselves and others, i.e., ethnic as well as transnational identities of themselves and others. After all, they were brought up in different cultures. However, these cultural differences alone cannot legitimise the irreconcilable differences in how they treat each other. Nor should the harsh immigrant life or structural conditioning of immigrants at the bottom of the ladder be singled out for blame. What is more at stake may be some people’s willingness to blatantly exploit the misfortunes of their own neighbours without much “internal conversation” — the process of reflexivity. It may be no surprise that Angela is a result of her parents’ socialisation according to their worldview which may not necessarily be under the influence of an emergent relational property. I wondered what would have happened if the two young people had ended up marrying each other. 86 Chapter Four Reading the novel I have asked a question of myself: “Who am I?” Am I Yeong-Min, a “foolish Jesus” or Deacon Yi, a “clever Jesus” who is an influential and dominant figure? Or at least am I able to observe what goes around my life or what kind of communicator I am when people’s diverse and vested interests dominate the characteristics of human interactions? There seem to be a plenty of Deacon Yi Seong-Chans and Deacon Noh Jeong-Oks around the organisations to which we belong. However, who is the protagonist or Pastor Mun who works for the sake of the common good and harmonious relations? If I identify myself with Pastor Mun, who is my Pak Mi-Hyeon, the mother figure or the comforter? Many members of the Korean migrant community overseas may not find it easy to respond to these questions. In fact, as mentioned earlier, it would be safe to argue that the kinds of human relations observed in the novel do not constitute an isolated case, but are prevalent throughout time and space beyond cultural and geographical boundaries, in which case the promotion of transnational identities may turn out to be a difficult project. Under the influence of globalisation and neoliberalism, people are increasingly less than encouraged to carry out “the internal conversation” to an appropriate degree. People’s decisions may not be adequately reflexive enough. Here I am reminded of a comment from a reflexive study participant of Margaret Archer’s (2003b, p.270) research on internal conversation: “I think a lot of people have chronic problems because they’re not trying to be reflexive about them in terms of a solution. But I’m saying, put the brake on it.” According to Giddens (1991, cited in Stevenson 2003), people are all increasingly involved in reflexive production of their identities. In other words, “we are all responsible for monitoring our own autobiographies” (p.14). Perhaps what is found through the analysis of the novel, Foolish Jesus, is that the monitoring of one’s own autobiography does not simply lead in one direction, but in many possible directions. As Stevenson (2003, p.14) notes, “the more we seek to shape our biographies, the more aware we become of the risks that are involved.” That is, when the members of the Korean immigrant churches are involved in monitoring, improving and reproducing their biographies, they consequently tend to either meet a range of pitfalls or become even more constructively reflexive as a result. One of the points Korean migrants (indeed people in general) overlook might be that as Foucault notes pertinently, they are preoccupied with the question, “who am I?” rather than “how ought I to live?” (Foucault 1997, cited in Stevenson 2003, p.28). In the contemporary information era, “the right to be different” (Rosaldo 1994, p.402) may be a fundamentally important dimension to value while enjoying membership of a political and democratic community. However, Stevenson (2003, p.29) points out that Foucauldian ethics tend to Reflexivity and Identities in the Materialistic Korean Church 87 be overly individualistic: Foucault’s preoccupation with the self and selftransformation leads to neglecting our responsibility towards others and in Foucault’s advocating the self, questions of solidarity are replaced with the “modern cult of the self” (Smart 1998, p.89, cited in Stevenson 2003, p.29). The life of Korean immigrants is lived as an individual project in the era of individualisation (Beck 1992, cited in Stevenson 2003, p.30), downplaying the importance of their membership of a political and democratic community, and paying little attention to the issues of constructing personal, social and transnational identities. The final note I would make is about the depiction of the clergyman, Pastor Mun. The author, as the spouse of a former minister of a Korean church in Australia, has pointed out the problems that have resulted from the problematic quality and lack of commitment of those clergymen who have been poorly trained. However, the readers of the novel might downplay the degree to which problems directly result from the mistakes of the clergy themselves because of the idealised portrayal of the character, Pastor Mun. Whilst they should not primarily be given the burden of addressing the many tasks and issues within Korean immigrant churches, they should be prepared for “how they ought to lead the flock” and work much more closely together with them, cultivating ways to construct the most desirable personal and transnational identities within the broader Australian society as well as the global village. NOTES 1. Pyong Gap Min notes that there are inseparable links between religion and immigrant life for Asian and many other immigrant groups in the United States (Min 2002, p.5; Krivisto 1993; Warner 1998). 2. I am here referring to positive aspects of cosmopolitan values that go beyond national allegiances as well as their particularities (Nussbaum 1996; Appiah 2005). 3. See Baker (2008) and Grayson (2002) for a broad discussion and critique of Korean religions including Christianity. 4. This is a phrase used by Williams (2008) in the title of her paper. 5. “Jigeut jigeut han hangukddang (지긋지긋한 한국땅)” (p.84). 6. Cf. Jeon (1985) 7. Cf. Han (2000a) 8. Church-individualism (Gaegyohoe Juui) is an approach or policy whereby an individual congregation sets its own goals and undertakes its own missions, and invests human and material resources in order to maintain and expand the individual congregation as an organisation. 9. Soju is a popular Korean drink with strength of 25% alcohol. 88 Chapter Four 10. Such people are called 1.5 generation in the Korean community. 11. This refers to the dominant group around Deacon Yi and his aides. 12. Another matter of interest would be the impact of the novel on Korean immigrants around the world since the kinds of conflicts described in the novel are not unique to this particular church in the novel, but their variations are observed in many other Korean immigrant churches. Chapter Five Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet: Korean Church Websites in Melbourne In spite of initial ambivalence towards building official websites, Christian churches have embraced them and the Internet and websites have become integral to the life of churches (Dawson and Cowan 2004). Migrant churches are no exception. Throughout history, the arrival of a new medium, such as print media, radio and television, has influenced and transformed the ways in which Christianity is mediated to its followers. Mass production of the Bible changed one of the central roles undertaken by priests: reading the Bible to their parish members. Radio and television also has offered Christianity new ways to communicate with its members or to evangelise those who are seeking the good news, within national borders and beyond. It is also true that the arrival of new media has been positively associated with the continuing secularisation of Christianity. Whether or not the Internet reinforces the trend of secularisation among the members of the churches is a pertinent question for many reasons, as secularisation is defined as “the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols” (Berger and Luckman 1967, p.107). That is, whether the Internet facilitates communication and fellowship among congregation members, strengthening religiosity or social bonds, has become a worthwhile topic of research in Internet-reliant contemporary society. If the Internet does affect the life of the church, how and in what way does it do so? Moreover, when the Internet is used by a migrant church, how does the Internet promote ethnicity, personal and transnational identities of the church members? Such impact on ethnicity may also influence and characterise the kinds of activities performed within a migrant church. This chapter investigates the ways in which the Internet mediates religion and ethnicity in the case of the Korean church in Australia, especially selected congregations in Melbourne. 89 90 Chapter Five This chapter is what I may call a “virtual ethnographic and anthropological” study undertaken over two years — April 2008 to August 2010. I have visited the electronic Korean communities of Korean churches in Melbourne on the Internet and I have attempted to understand what Korean immigrants are using their church websites for. As I have “wandered around the websites” and observed their interactions across the websites, I have remained as an outsider, rather than moving between being an insider and an outsider to their electronic world or being an active member (or blogger as they call it) posting or responding to messages. Most of the church websites are open to the public, but there are a few which strictly limit the visits of non-members, so I have not been able to include those sites for analysis.1 Nor have I pursued obtaining membership of any of the websites. In addition to the analysis of the websites, the chapter is supplemented by interviews that I undertook with three informants.2 This chapter starts with a brief examination of related concepts and theories such as religion-online/online-religion, the secularisation thesis and religion and the Internet in migrant communities. Then I move on to give an account of common features of the websites of Korean churches in Melbourne, how their offline activities are reflected in the websites, how religiosity and personal as well as transnational identities have been promoted through the websites, and what the added values of interacting through the Internet might be. These findings have been accompanied with my descriptive analysis and comments. LITERATURE REVIEW There are a few different bodies of literature related to this study: concepts of religion-online and online-religion; the secularisation thesis with reference to religion and the Internet/media; the Internet church as a new entity; and religion and the Internet in migrant communities. I shall examine the relevance of past publications to this study, and build on some of the useful concepts for the purpose of the chapter. Concepts of Religion-Online and Online-Religion, and the OnlineChurch Helland (2000) has developed the concepts of religion-online and onlinereligion. Religion-online refers to the medium that provides “information and/or services related to various religious groups and traditions” (Dawson and Cowan 2004, p.7; Helland 2000). Religious interactions at the sites are Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 91 somewhat tightly controlled by authority and typically adopt “top-down approaches.” The ways in which the Internet is used as a medium in religiononline resemble “a traditional form of one-to-many communication” (Helland 2000, p.220). The websites may also include information on worship services, how to locate the church, and may provide information in order to cater for fellowship among the church-goers. Many websites constructed by congregations and various religious institutions fall under this category such as the sites of the Vatican (www.vatican.va), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.lds.org), and new religious movements such as Planetary Activation Organization (www.paoWeb.org). These are typically least interactive. On the other hand, the concept of online-religion refers to the medium whereby individuals freely use the Internet and exchange religious ideas and beliefs; they contribute personal convictions on their religious faith and receive feedback from others, leading to the formation of “virtual communitas” (Helland 2000, p.214). Online-religion typically accommodates “bottom-up approaches.” These concepts are useful as they indicate that the Internet is used for religious as well as non-religious purposes in many different ways by individual members, and by religious organisations and authorities. However, as Dawson and Cowan (2004, p.7) note, the distinction between “religiononline” and “online-religion” is not always clear-cut. For example, many church websites fall between extreme ends and increasingly offer visitors not only information on worship service times and the location of the church building, but also services such as devotional pages, and healing service online. Therefore, the distinction between these two concepts is not productive and their usefulness is also limited for the purpose of the present study. Even though individual participants in online-religion closely interact with other participants, the contents with which they deal are not always significantly religious. Similarly, nor is some of the information distributed through a church website (i.e., religion-online) about religiosity per se. Confusion results from, for example, not conceptually distinguishing religion from the (Christian) church in operational terms. The concept of religion in general use is much broader than the concept of church. However, analytically speaking, not all the activities of the church are religious in nature. The church is a multi-dimensional institution whereby religiosity,3 education, ethnicity, friendship, politics, business, etc are catered for and mediated (Han 1994d). The central and conventional goal of the church is to promote people’s pursuit of religiosity and this study adopts a substantive definition of religion, i.e., “belief in divine beings” (Furseth and Repstad 2006, p.17) or religiosity in the present study refers to fundamental elements of a religion, i.e., “spiritual and super-natural sanctity” (Hosseini 2008, 92 Chapter Five p.62). The church is also necessarily a social organisation and inevitably brings in and embraces non-religious as well as religious matters. A brief visit to any church website may provide access to sermons, humanitarian support, fellowship, the sharing of life experiences, the advocating of socially desirable principles, and a few different types of advertisements including purely commercial ones. This affirms that the church is a multi-dimensional institution and this characteristic is well reflected in the contents of the church websites. In this respect, I propose to use a generic concept, the “Internet church,” that includes the church websites that disseminate information, allow interactions and reflect the events, activities, and services available through traditional churches. The Internet church would also include a small number of those who have abandoned face-to-face meetings and undertake worship services and collecting tithes over the net. Thus, my concept of Internet church is inclusive of religion-online and online-religion. Secularisation Thesis The secularisation thesis argues that the world is increasingly becoming secularised and that this trend is an obstacle to religious pursuits and lifestyles that a religious person may wish to maintain (Swatos Jr and Christiano 2000; Buddenbaum and Stout 1996). This has been reflected in the finding that adult video or online game players are “less likely to participate in religious services and to like hymns and gospel music” (Bainbridge 2007, pp.8-9). According to Bainbridge (2007, p.8), this is notable because some of those games tend to be in line with highly secular orientations or oppose orthodox supernatural concepts. Despite recent debate over the value of the secularisation thesis (Swatos Jr and Christiano 2000) and the consequent tendency to discard it, I think that it is premature to abandon it completely. The comparison of religiosity between different eras is a complex undertaking, but still may indicate the extent to which people’s religiosity “moves back and forth” between the spiritual and the secular. Individuals in different eras manifest their religiosity and secularity differently. For example, a person’s use of the Internet as a way of her linking to God or fellow believers cannot simply be called a “secularised faith.” Moreover, there is no particular benefit in blurring the distinction between religiosity and spirituality and in adopting consequential promotion of a functional definition of religion for the task of analytical understanding of religion and religious behaviour. It is in this sense that I apply the secularisation thesis in exploring the significance of the Internet on the life of church among Korean church-goers in Melbourne. All kinds of mass media are generally understood as contributing to this continuing process of secularisation. As a consequence, the more traditional Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 93 religious values a person maintains, the less the person uses mass media in general (Armfield and Holbert 2003, p.130). Armfield and Holbert (2003, p.136) argue that one reason secularization theorists can expect a negative relationship between individual-level religiosity and Internet use is that the Internet largely embodies a more secular worldview. Thus, this form of mediated communication does not, by and large, serve a personal identity function for those who are religious. There is only “one Internet” and it is the same Internet that can be used for the sake of either religiosity and spiritual relationship between fellow believers or secular pursuits that may contradict religious values. Religious institutions such as Christian churches have now fully embraced the “constructive features” of the Internet for their own benefit, and indeed many religious institutions had embraced the medium as early as 2000. For example, members of the Korean churches in Korea and overseas are in close contact with their fellow church-goers, and actively contribute to their church websites. Most Christian churches in Korea have professionally built their congregational websites and those websites significantly represent the values of their organisations as well as many institutional activities. How do we interpret this phenomenon? Does this substantiate the secularisation thesis? Research in religion and the media indicates that new communication technologies often pave the way to expressing non-religious forms of spirituality (Clark 2003). The spirituality here does not necessarily refer to religion, but broadly refers to a search for meaning, justice and morality, within any given cultural context, all of which are broadly advocated by religion. Internet Church as a New Entity: Towards a Realist Perspective There is a notion that what I broadly see as the Internet church is a new development and is, irrespective of whether it allows “bottom-up” interactions or “top-down” dissemination of information through websites, distinctively different from conventional church activities where interaction generally occurs face-to-face. The advocates of the Internet as a new entity argue that status, class, race and gender signifiers disappear over the Internet. For example, Kane (1994, p.204) notes that “unless you choose to disclose it, no one knows whether you are male, tall, short, a redhead or blond, black, white, Asian, Latino, in a wheelchair or not.” Indeed, the Internet is a unique new public sphere where individuals are able to interact with others in the comfort of their chosen space and time. It appears as though conventional barriers on the basis of class and distance have been overcome. 94 Chapter Five However, the Internet church is essentially in continuity with our “face-toface based everyday life” and is not a “virtual” religion existing “out there” in space. Helland (2000, p.206) aptly notes that “[t]he Internet is not a device that functions outside of the parameters of the social world built by humanity; it is a mirror that reflects the enterprise of world building.” People’s activities online are quite similar to, and reflect, what they do offline and are predominantly based on offline activities despite the fact that online activities may be carried out in new and innovative ways (Dawson and Cowan 2004, p.1). Offline activities are based upon the existence of real human interactions and often result from face-to-face relations. Importantly, the Internet church should be treated as a complementary activity rather than a completely new development. Dawson and Cowan (2004, p.12) contend that “The Internet is not a reality separate from ‘the real world,’ but an electronic extension of it.” Similarly, the Internet church is part of, and reflects, the conventional church (cf. Fuchs 2008). The Internet church functions as a public space which supplements the traditional roles and activities of the church, utilising contemporary information and communication technologies (ICTs) (Campbell 2003). Some Christian churches have completely abandoned traditional structures for their congregations and have established “online churches.” This may constitute a new phenomenon, but it is still based on the conventional model of the church. However, it is unlikely that this will be a common trend in the near future (Helland 2000, p.221). The Pew Charitable Trusts Internet Project (Larsen 2001) and Southern Baptist Convention (n.d., cited in Sturgill 2004, p.167) have identified a few Figure 5.1. Conceptualisation of the relationship between the Internet church and the conventional church. Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 95 key purposes of church and synagogue websites: to attract visitors to come to the church; to promote the presence of the church; to support the activities of the church; to extend ministry opportunities beyond the boundary of the local church community; to improve communication among members, some of whom may be away; and to save mailing costs. Again this illustrates the church website as an extension of conventional church activities (Morton 1999, pp.243-4). Religion and the Internet in Migrant Communities Sturgill (2004), following up key relevant studies of church websites, contends that the two central functions of sites are to support churches as institutions that require engagement in marketing and branding just as secular businesses do, and to support churches as mediated organisations, engaging in providing site visitors with information for conversion or functioning as a substitute for the interactions that might occur when visiting a church. Interestingly, Sturgill’s (2004) identification of the main roles of the websites explicitly recognises and captures the co-existence of a religious dimension of the church and non-religious and/or institutional dimensions of the church. Both dimensions make up integral parts of the church as a social institution. There is close dialogue between what the church websites do and what religion is and does. Han (1994d) has identified four key dimensions of the Korean church in Australia as a way of exploring the factors that led to the growth of Korean churches in Australia, especially during the non-Internet era, that is, the ethnic, religious, political and economic dimensions of the church. The church is necessarily a social organisation and undertakes religious as well as non-religious roles. Since the study (Han 1994d) was undertaken, the church in Korea has continued to manifest its vibrancy, and some concerns such as an excessive tendency to pursue quantitative growth have commonly been observed although the overall growth rate of Christianity in the Korean community has slightly declined (Han, Han, and Kim 2009). The Korean church has also demonstrated qualitative growth through activities such as much increased proactive contribution to social justice and to a limited extent, the needy members of society. The Korean church also sends out the second largest numbers, after the U.S., of missionaries overseas, contributing to the life of those less well off in the areas of education, welfare, science and religiosity (Korea World Missions Association 2009). Similarly, Korean churches in overseas Korean communities have continued to grow, still maintaining close links with Korean churches in the homeland, including through the continuing supply of theological graduates to work 96 Chapter Five in the Korean-Australian community. Consequently, “Korean” theology is still prevalent in the Korean immigrant community and Korean values are unequivocally promoted there. The characteristics of “Korean” theology for example include prosperity theology or materialism. Korean theology is generally fundamentalist, but often also incorporates elements of indigenous shamanism. The major factor that has been added to the Korean church in Australia since the seminal study of the Korean immigrant church (Han 1994d) is the strong presence of the Internet. The significance of the Internet in the life of the Korean church needs to be updated and understood as it is an unknown territory in terms of its influence on religiosity and on the church as an organisation. Critiques of the Literature Many studies on the relationship between religion and the Internet have focused on new religious movements which often use the Internet and new ICTs to recruit new members in what is known as the Neopagan movement (Mayer 2000). Other examples include the emergence of Goddess spirituality such as the House of Netjet which is an attempt to revive ancient Egyptian religion. At best, research has, for example, explored the online missionaries project — The Ibiza pilot project — part of 24-7’s ten-week long summer outreach (Campbell 2004, p.101). Missionary and outreach work is certainly part of what the church is engaged in. However, the church covers a much broader range of both directly religious matters and other matters that are not strictly religious, as measured by the substantive definition of religion. Much attention has been paid to understanding and analysing what the Internet does and means to members of Judeo-Christian based congregations with special reference to youth (e.g., Bedell 2000; Sturgill 2004). However, little attention has been given to the adult usage of the Internet especially in different ethnic and cultural minorities, including immigrant churches (Campbell 2006, p.17). I argue that an important dimension of the life of immigrants and their activities including the proliferation of websites in the Korean immigrant churches in Australia is about the ongoing processes of constructing and reconstructing personal and/ or transnational identities. This chapter will explore and understand the use of websites in the Korean churches as they may be used to promote religiosity, members’ fellowship and even “long distance nationalism” (Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004). Also importantly, there has been a large body of research on religion and ethnicity undertaken before the Internet era. However, the extent to which there is continuity between the research findings then and the situations in the current era of the Internet has not been well researched. The central question of this study is: How are the activities within Korean congregations Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 97 including religion and ethnicity/ identity mediated through the Internet which is a transnational space? FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION According to the 2006 ABS Census, there were 60,873 Koreans with partor full-Korean ancestry in Australia. There were 231 Korean congregations listed in a number of sources including websites and Korean ethnic magazines, in major Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and other towns in Queensland, and Perth (Keuriseuchyan Ribyu July 2008). In greater Melbourne, there are 18,166 Koreans (2006 ABS Census); and 37 Korean Protestant churches and 17 (46 per cent) of them maintain their websites as of 1 June 2010. This rate of web presence seems remarkably low when considering Korean people’s tendency to pay a great deal of attention to the Internet and communications, utilising new ICT devices. This tendency is particularly so in the homeland where the Internet penetration rate is one of the highest in the world. A reason some Korean immigrant churches have not constructed websites is that many of them are relatively small in congregational size and they do not have the resources or individual talent/ interest to devote to creating websites. Moreover, even when considering that the functions of the church websites include attracting visitors to the church and encouraging communications between congregational members (Sturgill 2004), those churches with a relatively smaller number of members may find it rather burdensome to construct and maintain their websites. Rev Byun Chang-Bae was a minister at the Korean Church of Melbourne4 and maintained a close interest in its church website. He has been ministering to the newly established Korean Uniting Church in Western Melbourne since July 2009. The Werribee congregation now has about fifty adults worshipping on a Sunday. Rev Byun (4/8/2010) has learned about the limitations of the church website and he currently uses his church website mainly to inform potential church-goers of the existence of the congregation and to keep its members informed of key activities within the congregation. The websites of the smaller churches struggle to have more bloggers involved in posting their messages,5 which is a way to keep the sites “live” and operational. Importantly, the Korean community in Melbourne is small with a limited number of potential church-goers. Yet there seems to be a clear realisation of the importance of the church website. For example, Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha (6/8/2010) of the Korean Church of Melbourne finds that many newcomers to the church located the church through its website and that the construction of a church website conveys much about the characteristics of the church 98 Chapter Five including the actual building. The small number of the churches maintaining websites have displayed diverse approaches to their design. Some church websites are hardly used whereas those of bigger congregations contain a large number of postings. Because of this range of diversity, it is problematic to undertake a systematic analysis of the websites, but I have decided to pursue a somewhat “discursive analysis” as presented below. The above mentioned non-construction of church websites is, broadly speaking, a matter of the digital divide, which contrasts with the common belief that access to the Internet is ubiquitous. Better established and large churches maintain “independent” websites of their own. Those churches use the services provided by Korean companies since they offer much more competitive prices ($30 per month) than Australian services. The church ministers find that maintenance requires much more effort than is assumed and it is mostly done voluntarily by interested congregational members, which makes the quality of the website not always highly professional.6 Less established and smaller churches maintain brief or “nominal” websites linked to major Korean commercial domain hosts such as Naver or Daum or Cyworld, which may cost a church less than $100 per year. These are easy for each congregation to maintain7 but somewhat limited in terms of the design and flexibility which those individual congregations would like to maintain.8 Nonetheless, they appear to be more than satisfactory in terms of what they want to achieve through the websites. The uploading of messages on these Korean-based websites is noticeably slow since there is no direct Internet connection between Australia and Korea at present, but occurs through U.S. agencies. It is easy enough for people with Korean names to obtain membership to those Korean services as a Korean name is required to use the websites. They are “unfriendly” to foreign names seeking to gain membership.9 Another notable downside may be that all such congregational websites carry a variety of advertisements. For example, Melbourne Yesarang Presbyterian Church rents their site through a well-developed commercial company from Korea — Naver. Its homepage contains a simple and easy-to-resolve puzzle game. Once the puzzle is played, then the web surfer is automatically led to a major commercial online game website – (7souls.hangame.com/main.php). Depending upon the time of visiting a website supported by such commercial companies, the web surfer is led to a “fantasy project’ such as the following. The media company Naver and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) have set up a project to encourage one million Koreans around the world to register their photos in a Korean national flag. The large flag of 30 metres by 20 metres containing a million photos was to be displayed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The people who registered their photos were given a chance to win a range of prizes including tickets to cheer the Korean soccer Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 99 team in South Africa. The aimed campaign was to carry the spirit of the large number of supporters wearing Red Shirts who cheered Korean teams in past World Cups. In brief, such a campaign involves a significant degree of Korean nationalism. Also, prior to the registration of one’s photo one is required to obtain membership with the media company Naver, which then indirectly encourages the person to visit the comprehensive services provided by Naver as well as expose her to a large pool of advertisements. Few households in the Korean community in Australia would be without access to the Internet. Despite the fact that they are well wired, many Korean church-goers in Australia may not feel the need to participate in the Internet church if they consider their participation in the conventional church to be sufficient and satisfying. Nonetheless, church-goers may actively utilise the Internet for other purposes such as staying in touch with their friends and relatives living in other parts of the world. Consequently, if most members of a church or those in leadership roles in particular do not feel an urgent need to create their own Internet church, the church is unlikely to construct a church website that enables intra-church interactions through the Internet. It is also possible that the construction of a church website induces church members’ online participation. Users of the Church Websites and Beyond There appears to be a close-to-even distribution between male and female participation in the Internet church although the Internet is, in general, more frequently accessed by men than women. Rev Lee Jong-Eok10 of Hanbit Uniting Church observes that female church members have more time to use the church website while male members are more tied to their busy immigrant life. Female participation in this study may be partially attributed to a large number of “goose mothers” who have come to Australia for the sake of their children’s education in an English medium, leaving their husbands in Korea for employment, and they are better able to afford time for the Internet in comparison with other permanent settlers. It is also possible that there are few reasons for female members of the churches to be discouraged to interact with other church members through the websites especially when the generation of digital natives have all been encouraged to be familiar with the use of the ICTs from their childhood. The most frequent users of the church websites are those in their 30s and 40s together with a small number of those in their 50s and 60s. According to Rev Byun, a close observer of church website users within the Korean Church of Melbourne, these church website users generally visit the church website once a week. A good number of the older users are holding leadership roles 100 Chapter Five within their churches. Those leaders commonly use discussion lists for their “serious” communication rather than church websites or bulletin boards. Those church members in their 20s most frequently use Facebook and the teenagers often use what Koreans call “café,” that is, the ones like Cyworld. The Sunday school teachers also utilise Facebook to communicate amongst themselves. These younger church-goers do not connect often enough to the church website, and they consider the church website is “a playing field for the older people” in a slightly derogatory sense. The young people who are fluent in their English tend to prefer Facebook, whereas recently arrived young Koreans are familiar with the Korean Cyworld and continue to use the medium. Rev Byun Chang-Bae notes that the church website is not sophisticated enough to accommodate the kinds of functions contained within Facebook or Cyworld. The communication needs of these young people seem to be well understood by church leaders, but how those needs can be met within the church remains a task to think through.11 Rev Byun observes that church websites in Korea tend to be highly interactive and this creates a sense of “strongly communicating community.” However, the Korean churches in Melbourne use their websites mainly to upload some content like ministers’ sermons and church activities. Unless the Korean church websites can accumulate quality information their use by any age group may remain relatively stagnant. Although there are many talented church-goers in terms of their skills and knowledge within each congregation they have little interest in creating worthwhile content for the church websites. No congregations have shown an interest about that either. Homepages The homepage of most churches consists of diverse designs and content folders, but generally includes the church logo and a few photos of young people and the choir, and displays weekly meeting schedules. The main folders on the homepage include: a general introduction to the congregation, worship and praise, education, mission and service, fellowship, and bulletin board. The rest of the page contains: “together with the senior minister” comprising weekly sermons, columns and feedback for and general discussion with the minister, upcoming events, church location and map, and the weekly bulletin. The first tab generally introduces the congregation, the ministers, the congregational structure and vision, a brief history of the appointment of congregational leaders, worship and praise, education (infants, primary school students, high school students, university students, mature adults, and English Christian Fellowship), mission and service, fellowship, and a bulletin board for information sharing. Individual church homepages often contain their catch phrase for Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 101 the current year. I have noticed that better established churches maintain much more sophisticated homepages and websites, but also overhaul the organisation of their webpages occasionally. As mentioned earlier, smaller churches “rent” much more affordable and modest websites from commercial domain hosts, in which case commercial advertisements make up and intrude on part of the church websites (cafe396.daum.net/_c21_/home?grpid=hZhN or cafe.naver. com/melsarang.cafe).12 However, whether a church website is owned by a congregation or “under rent” is not necessarily linked to the level of interactions or usages of the websites. It may not be an exaggeration to say that actual wellbeing, whether financial, religious and educational, of an individual church is clearly reproduced in its church website. A brief glance at the homepages of church websites confirms many of theoretical propositions discussed earlier. As Dawson and Cowan (2004) contend, there is a blurred distinction between “religion-online” and “onlinereligion” in terms of the contents of the Korean churches’ websites. That is, there is not only “top-down” information and many notices for the members of the congregation, but also many “bottom-up” announcements and information to be shared between the members of the congregation. Further, the homepages of some church websites have photos of fellowship and recreation rather than those of worship or “religiosity” in particular, which may be a way to project the congregation as a friendly, welcoming and even somewhat “secular” organisation. Bulletin Boards The bulletin board is the most interactive part of the church websites under study, attracting participation of the largest number of congregational members. All the congregations with websites have a few bulletin boards targeted at different age groups just as there are different activities for several different age groups. However, they all belong to one congregation and there is an effort to bring them together under the same Christian principles. For example, the Korean Church of Melbourne notes three common aims of all its eight bulletin boards: to share useful information, Christian life stories, and the hope of the kingdom of God (see www.melhans.com/subMenu_bulletin. php). As there is a wide range of age groups within such a large congregation in particular, there are bulletin boards for kindergarteners, primary school students, high school students, university students, mature adults, and accompanying weekly church bulletins, and photo collections of congregational events. The message posters, or bloggers as they are called, seem to cross the boundaries occasionally between different bulletin boards, depending upon the topics, for example, a child reporting her father’s well-being to the 102 Chapter Five mature members of the congregation. However, with regard to the frequency of the postings, bulletin boards for primary school students are rarely used by themselves, but occasionally by their parents or Sunday school teachers. High school and university students are the most frequent bloggers. Yet, as mentioned, more popular modes of communication for these young people are Facebook or Cyworld, with the Internet links provided in their bulletin boards for their easy access.13 Congregational news contains ministers’ whereabouts, prayer topics, free guitar lessons, letters from missionaries, congregational news, seminar notices, notices for dawn prayer services, news about the imprisoned Korean missionaries in Afghanistan, the sharing of new hymns, moving stories, testimonies, photos of the members, and video clips. The photo gallery of the new members seems to be an active way to “inject” into them a sense of belonging.14 The bulletin board also offers information for current and potential Korean overseas students and new migrants, death notices, and information about special programs such as Fathers’ School (an intensive school to train fathers bringing up their children, held for a few consecutive evenings). The website also promotes fellowship by informing the congregation about its hospitalised fellow members, birthdays, even first birthdays, excursions, expressions of gratitude, prayer requests, and the sharing of testimonies. There are some moving exchanges of caring concerns between church members or between church members and recent visitors to the church who have now returned to Korea.15 There are specific Korean churches that are known to be more accommodating to young people and students who are staying in Australia for a limited period, which has happened since the late 90s when Australia became a popular destination for Korean students and working holiday visa holders. Those churches’ websites tend to have many postings of greeting between the past members now living in Korea and the current church-goers. Many of those postings are “social and friendly” exchanges of fellowship and greetings, but they also contain an expression of “deep” religiosity. For example, the following is a posting by a blogger whose wife and three children have settled in Melbourne for the sake of children’s education. The man has spent for twelve days’ holidays with his family in Melbourne and has posted a greeting note as follows after returning to Korea. Greetings to you all. ... I had a visit to the Woomul Church as my wife led me to it during my recent visit to my family in Melbourne. I was uncomfortable in the foreign environment, but the pastor and others warmly welcomed me. I soon felt that I am a member of the church family. The Christmas play was impressive. ... I have somehow become a goose father. The reason that I have travelled such Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 103 a long distance with no fatigue, but full of enthusiasm, was simply because of my wish to see my family. I have again learned the importance of family. My breathing nearly stopped when I met my family and was so happy. I am really grateful to the pastor and other members of the church helping my family to get well settled in Melbourne. ... My recent trip was sweeter than my honeymoon. ... I noticed that many are busy and their life is not always financially affluent. But they are able to smile and happiness is ingrained in their face. I hope that such happiness will continue throughout your life.16 The Korean immigrant churches’ websites offer their past and current members a transnational space in the sense that Koreans in different parts of the world form networks and remain connected and that some of the postings are occasionally about the ways in which they have been able to transcend the “Korean ways” of thinking that they have been brought up with (cf. Bhabha 1990). However, strictly speaking, the Korean immigrant church websites in Melbourne generally do not indicate that transnational identities or promotion towards them have been portrayed in any serious manner. This may be due to a number of reasons such as the nature of church websites which are provided by religious institutions, the particular developmental stage of the Korean community in Australia, and also that of the church websites and their usage. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that the Korean church websites using Korean language have a vitally instrumental role in helping the newcomers to “transcend” their Korean identity and then “roll them into” Australian identities and beyond.17 A large number of reflective poems and miscellaneous essays have been spooned from elsewhere to the bulletin board for consumption by other church members, often without proper acknowledgement of who originally wrote them or where they come from. The postings originate from other church websites as well as from secular websites run by professional and amateur writers’ groups, reproducing the work of others, as found also by Cowan (2005) in his study of Neopaganism on the Internet. The subjects of the postings include the relationships between mature children and their aging parents with regards to filial piety, friendship, timeless proverbs for all age groups, fellowship with God, and respectable relationships between husbands and wives, and prayers for children. As many Korean migrants have left their aging parents back in South Korea, how they express their filial piety is often a serious and emotional concern. This physical distance splits their commitment between their new life in Australia and what they have left in Korea, which creates an issue of transnational allegiances. Other postings are about recruiting missionaries, allowing church members and travellers overseas to stay in touch, and information on economical ways to make international calls.18 For example, honeymoon travellers to Korea happily log 104 Chapter Five in to the bulletin board and inform their church friends in Melbourne of the current news about Korea and preparation of Korean traditional foods19 to use over the winter, which may induce nostalgia about the homeland in their diasporic friends.20 Here is an example of a spooned posting: Father Pepe suffers from Parkinson’s disease and has recently returned to his home country, the Philippines, after teaching at the Seogang University for years. He has written to his past students as follows: “If you don’t give up loving, there will be a miracle. ... The so-called over-night success has generally taken about fifteen years to achieve. The amount of money you have has got nothing to do with your personal quality. ... The reason that life is great and beautiful is due to the accumulation of the continuing effort for small tasks in every corner of individual lives. ... We all want to get to the top of the mountain, but the happy and satisfying time is when we are in the process of climbing the mountain.” ... Also Father Pepe questions: “Why do we all get to learn about the truth only when we have nearly completed living our own life?” Written by Rev In-Hwan Park.21 Common themes of the bulletin board, mostly used by high school students, often discuss sports (e.g., World Cup) — strongly supporting Korean teams and expressing a strong sense of “long distance nationalism” (Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004) as follows: The Korean team has really done their best, sweating so much. I really can’t agree with the second goal as the kicker was completely off-side. I want to call for the match to be repeated and I feel like beating up the referee. ... But I shall hope for the best outcome in four years’ time. I do convey my gratitude to the Korean team for their wonderful effort. Thank you again for a memorable match. Cheers, the Korean team!22 Another posting on the World Cup notes that a group of young church-goers together with their young children gathered in a member’s home to watch and cheered for the Korean soccer team. A few responses to the original posting note the church-goers’ feeling that the winning of the particular match was mainly due to their support for the Korean team and that a newly-born child also supported the team. Another response says, “It was such a refreshing experience watching the World Cup and supporting the Korean team while we are residents in a foreign land.”23 The occasion must have been a cathartic and emotional experience as they are far from the homeland and are living in a foreign land, constantly running into many types of trials and tribulations in their immigrant life, and missing many friends and activities that they used to enjoy and take for granted in Korea.24 Frequent interests of those young people include discussing sports and watching movies and their language is much more playful than that used Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 105 by older members on the bulletin boards. This is perhaps not only due to their youth but to their being digital natives rather than digital immigrants. There are occasional postings from parents in Korea since their children are studying in, or about to leave for, Melbourne, inquiring about the children’s transport to the church and their general welfare (Woomul Church Bulletin Board, 27/3/2009).25 Ministers encourage the posting of messages and express gratitude to the ones who are posting messages.26 For example, one Korean church in Melbourne had a total of 495 messages in its open bulletin board between January 2005 and April 2008. The head-minister posted 100 of them or 20 per cent of the total. Ministers use the bulletin boards to express thanks to the church members for what they do and for their service in the life of the church. This is one of the most popular usages and may be one of the key reasons the websites can remain active. In my anecdotal interactions with several Korean church-goers in Melbourne, I have learned that they are proud of their well-maintained and well-supported websites. This is also vividly expressed throughout the websites.27 Melbourne Saesoon Church website also has a website through which the church-goers register and exchange recommendations of books they have read.28 Questions about studying in Australia There are a good number of people posting inquiries about studying in Australia through the church websites, sometimes posting questions that require expert knowledge to respond to. Webmasters or respondents with enough knowledge about Australian education do their best or “pretend” to answer the questions, but not always satisfactorily.29 I have also noted that a unique feature of the Korean websites in comparison with secular news sites published for Koreans in general is that the church websites can be accessed by non-members but contain “clean” language, always avoiding abuse. Abusive language is not uncommon on the websites of many Korean and Chinese newspapers and also of some South East Asian countries, but I have not been able to specifically ascertain the extent to which this happens in websites other than those of Koreans. This has not been researched much with the exception of Gottlieb (2006). Expression of Religiosity Only a relatively small proportion of the postings seem to be specifically about the religious dimension of the church. That is, what religion is or what the religious dimension of the church is about, e.g., evangelistic information 106 Chapter Five or conversion (Sturgill 2004) or belief in divine beings. This indicates that not all dimensions of church activities are directly concerned with religion. In fact, the majority of the postings promote, or are concerned with, nonreligious dimensions of the church. Nonetheless, the website’s impact on the religious dimension should not be downplayed and it is expressed through the websites as will be seen below. Moreover, unlike church-goers in Korea, nearly all the Korean immigrant church-goers attend church only once a week and the church website tends to be a catalyst to draw the church members psychologically into the church community.30 Direct or indirect mission work Like the Korean Church of Melbourne which lists its activities and involvement on its website, some Korean churches are directly involved in financing and sending out international missionaries to North Korea, China, and supporting disadvantaged youth, foreign workers and North Korean defectors in South Korea.31 They are also linked to the State Assembly of the relevant denomination in contributing to the Mission and Service Fund which supports the tasks of mission and helping the needy. These activities are “social justice and service oriented” in terms of what they wish to achieve. However, what drives these activities seems to be strongly based upon the principles advocated through Christianity: they are often designed to share the benefits of the Kingdom of God. According to its website, the Korean Church of Melbourne, also works closely with missionary work for indigenous people in Western Australia, KoreanAustralian Kids Club (adoptees from Korea), and Wycliffe Australia — Good News in Anyone’s Language (a Bible translation society). The Church even regularly invites Australian veterans from the Korean War for special worship services once a year and exposes them to the gospel.32 Some of these activities are more directly related to religiosity and others more indirectly. It is worth noting that these activities result in little tangible or institutional benefits, but rather are ways to express their religiosity and commitment. Although some of these activities can be meaningfully undertaken by other social organisations, Christian churches seem to rightly prioritise their involvement in them due to the intrinsic values that Christianity honours. With regard to the direct promotion of religiosity, some spaces are used to specifically encourage church-goers to cultivate their religiosity. For example, the senior pastor of Melbourne Saesoon Church has run a competition for the best prayer, attempting to replicate Psalm 136.33 The same pastor has shared his personal notes from reading the Bible numerous times over the past few years.34 Other pastors share interesting and educational messages for a wide range of age groups.35 Other postings include the advice on main- Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 107 taining close relationships with God or how some Korean sojourners have come to terms with their own faith during their stay in Melbourne, attending a Korean church.36 The Internet and church websites also enable international recruitment of committed missionaries. For example, Namseoul Jungang Gyohoe (Southern Seoul Central Church) posted an advertisement to recruit missionaries to work for 12 months, traveling between Kenya, Australia and Korea.37 This kind of inexpensive “wide casting” would not have been possible prior to the Internet era. Access to sermons online Those who have missed Sunday services can access sermons through the church websites. It is unlikely that any church-goers are prepared to miss the conventional service due to the availability of sermons online. Sermons are a particularly significant part of Sunday services and those members who missed a service often make a gentle request that the recent sermon be uploaded soon (Woomul Church 24/11/2008).38 Making sermons available through the web indirectly puts pressure on ministers to maintain a high standard in their sermons. It may also facilitate new arrivals’ process of “virtually” choosing a church to attend rather than physically attending and assessing individual churches. The Internet in this arena positively mediates both traditional religious values and Korean ethnic identities in the life of the Korean migrant church. That is, just as is the case with the activities in the church building, Korean church-goers express their Koreanness as well as seek their religious needs through the church websites. From a minister’s viewpoint, Rev Byun thinks that the sermons uploaded on the website are the only specifically religious content and the sermons are not frequently accessed (e.g., 30 to 40 clicks in a week in case of the Korean Church of Melbourne) and that the church website may contribute little to enhancing individual religiosity. Other examples of supporting or expressing religiosity The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly admitted that it is possible to ordain homosexual persons in its decision of “clarification” at the 2003 Assembly. This admission has caused serious concern for the Korean Church of Melbourne in its history as the oldest Korean church in Australia. Many members left the congregation after a long struggle and the bitter debate continued for sometime. The congregation has maintained UCA membership, but agreed upon a statement that was clearly different from the Assembly’s official standing. This is undoubtedly part of the core identity of what Korean Christianity is about and the statement was posted on the bulletin board (22/11/2006). This posting is not only a reminder to its members that the 108 Chapter Five particular church takes a different position on the particular matter, but is a way to proclaim their position to the broader Christian community and the world, which is enabled by the website, but not possible otherwise (cf. Horsfall 2000). Irrespective of which position is more or less accommodating, the majority of Korean immigrant churches seem to take a similar stance on this sensitive matter as do churches in Korea. Friendships among members of a congregation have much in common with those formed outside. However, the analysis of the church websites reveals that one distinct aspect of church-goers’ expression of their fellowship is their prayers for each other. They often request prayers especially when they travel overseas and also when they go through difficult times. Such expression of care for each other seems to continue even after some church members have completed their studies in Australia and returned to Korea.39 Rev Lee JongEok40 contends that an effective sharing through the website is much like a virtual fellowship in its own right. Sometimes, the bulletin boards are used simply to report the church-goers’ own everyday life and importantly to reflect on their life in the light of their religious principles. It is used much like a public diary similar to what they may achieve through social media such as MySpace, Facebook or Twitter. The following is written by a woman named Jung-Il who came to Australia with her husband. They appear to be short-term residents and the husband is studying in an institution in the morning and they work in a restaurant after lunch. Their second child has just arrived and Jung-Il’s mother is visiting the family, helping her with housework and bringing up the children. The posting is titled “everyday routine.”41 Time is passing too fast these days. Despite my mother’s help, I’m totally tied up with work and see the day disappear fast, taking care of the baby, working at the restaurant, supporting the reconstruction of the church website, and preparing a night snack for Sang-Hyun [husband]. ... He and I can only see each other when he comes home after 11 o’clock in the night. He doesn’t complain about hard work and this is pleasing to me. I’m grateful to him. My mother works hard at home and I’m grateful to her. She’s a pleasure for us. Next week, she needs to apply for the extension of her tourist visa for another nine months. Please pray for the best outcome. My family have not been regularly attending the church or cell group meetings. We’re often not able to translate our good wishes into action. ... However, we do love you all. I wish I could have more fellowship with those young people who plan to return to Korea soon. I’ll pray for you as often as I remember (jung51il, 15/6/2006).42 The expression of gratitude to God and to fellow church members is a prevalent theme of the church websites, not only by the active church lead- Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 109 ers but also by those who are less active or older members. For example, an older member expresses her thanks to God and fellow members at the time of the birth of her grandson. She is the mother of Jung-Il who posted the above cited posting. Thank you our Lord God. Tomorrow is my daughter’s wedding anniversary. In addition to an abundant love extended to my family members, the arrival of Isaac has been another gift of grace. I praise God as he makes us happy and always offers us blessings. God has faithfully led my family members till this moment. I dedicate a bunch of flowers to God, my daughter and son in law as well as to the members of the congregation. I’m grateful to all of you. May God bless you all. I also hope that you could show your mercy to those who are not as fortunate as you (From Isaac’s grandma, 1/7/2006).43 There are numerous postings which are meditating, “thinking aloud” and even self-criticising, for example, for not doing their best for their studies or not being diligent enough for church activities.44 Sometimes it is a hybrid form of personal and public prayers or a simple reminder for everyone to remember the love of God. For example, I trust that everyone is well. Lately, my soul thirsts for the living God. When I am in the midst of busy schedules and can’t think of God, he reminds me that he loves me dearly. When I go through adversities he even further elevates me. How grateful to God I am! Let us all cheer up. This note is simply to encourage you all. Wishing you the best day! (Hyeon Woo-Yeong).45 It appears that a most significant benefit of writing the diary in the public forum is that it offers the writers/bloggers a moment of reflection or it may work as a moment of religious meditation for those church-goers. Writing such notes may initiate “internal conversation” (Archer 2003b). I wonder if this culture of “reflection in the public sphere” is a prevalent phenomenon among the digital natives in particular and in the information era in general. In fact, such a culture has settled even among many digital immigrants as well, irrespective of their class and status. Such “conscious” exposure of personal reflection to the public was rare prior to the Internet era. Perhaps individuals facing new ICTs in the new socio-cultural context are inventing new ways of effective and “fashionable” communication. Technological determinists may argue that the phenomenon is simply a consequence of technological development. Undoubtedly, how individuals undertake personal reflexivity and how social media affect human relations are worthwhile topics for investigation. Also worth noting is that the contents of the postings on the church websites tended to be highly religious and the language used for the postings 110 Chapter Five seemed to be more formal around the mid 2000s. However, as time goes by, the bloggers seem to have become more familiar with posting their notes and are more willing to share the contents about not specifically religious matters as well as specifically religious matters. In some cases, the bloggers who are church-goers spoon the contents from elsewhere, e.g., commenting on physical characteristics of those who are likely to cheat their partners,46 and a wedding interview with a top entertainment personality.47 Again, these characteristics of the postings are largely determined by the composition of the members of each congregation such as age groups and the number of short-term stayers. Special Feature: “Australia-Korea Mission Centre” The Centre first named “Melbourne Mission Centre for Korean Overseas Students” was established on 2 October 1998 under the joint support of Burke Presbytery and Seoul Presbytery. It was renamed the Australia-Korea Mission Centre, hosted by the Korean Hanbit Uniting Church, on 24 October 2000 and its two key roles are to celebrate the sending of Australian missionaries to Korea especially from Melbourne; and to help Korean overseas students settle in Melbourne and counsel and guide new Korean migrants. Inquiries come from potential students in Korea before their arrival in Melbourne and also from the parents of the students who are already in Australia.48 An interesting feature of the Mission Centre website is not only the publicising of its missions, but also an online booking system for accommodation for new arrivals. Bookings can be made well before one’s departure for Melbourne. The well-trusted website run by the church is particularly transnational as it mediates students’ travel from the stage of planning in Korea, supports their initial settlement in Melbourne and then their sojourning life. In the 1980s when Korean immigrant churches grew rapidly, some of them often willingly went to the airport and offered any new Korean arrivals transportation to their church dormitories, which encouraged the arrivals to join the church, which in turn contributed to the quantitative growth of the Korean church in Australia (Han 1994). With the increasing popularity of Australia as a destination for Korean youth to study or to spend a period under the working holiday visa scheme since the late 90s, there is a greater influx of Koreans to Melbourne. Perhaps for this reason there are other Korean churches also offering the services of airport pick-up and temporary accommodation, e.g., Crossway Church, Joyful Church, Mokja [Shepherd] Church, Woomul [Well] Church, Yangmuri [Flock of Sheep] Church, and the Melbourne Full Gospel Church.49 There is anecdotal evidence through talking to several church-goers in Melbourne that Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 111 many churches actually rent one or two houses and provide those newcomers with accommodation and essential information until they are better settled. As noted above, many of them stay with their “supportive” church during their stay in Melbourne and this in turn becomes a way to increase the membership of the Korean churches in Melbourne. In fact, Welcome to Sydney website (cafe.daum.net/WTS) is extremely popular with 6,112 members as of 28 September 2009 and is inundated with virtual visits and with inquiries. The website consists of much useful information about a range of matters that potential travellers, sojourners and settlers are concerned about and the homepage of the website lists two Korean churches in Australia: Sydney Saesoon Church and its sister church, Melbourne Saesoon Church. This is one way that potential members of these churches can establish a link even before their arrival in Australia. Rev Byun (4/8/2010) argues that the Korean church websites are most meaningful to this group of people looking for practical support for their settlement. Guides to Australian life The newly arrived Korean immigrants often get support for their basic needs in settlement such as opening bank accounts, shopping and service connection to electricity. The church websites occasionally contain an information section for the newly settled as well as for potential emigrants to Australia.50 It covers brief information on the use of transport in Australia, studying in Australian institutions, travelling, how to balance studying and part-time jobs for the best outcome of staying in Australia, regulations on motorcar driving, Australian currency, telephone services including mobile phone use, the use of health services and joining private health funds. Melbourne Korean Full Gospel Church calls this particular section, “How can we help you?”51 Promotion of Korean Ethnic Identities Nearly all Korean ministers in Melbourne are the first generation and deliver special sermons on the occasions of nationally significant and celebratory dates such as March First Independence Declaration Day, Independence Day, and National Foundation Day. Significant values for these celebratory days are expressed in the websites. For example, a particular posting (Hanbit, 2003) expresses a usual and moving reference to the importance of Korea’s independence in the past and present, thus reinforcing the spirit of independence among church members. Maintaining ethnicity is also observed throughout the websites of each congregation through the use of Korean language. It is also clear that the websites encourage the church members to 112 Chapter Five promote Korean values. This is again a practice of long-distance nationalism (Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004). For example, how political and economic development in South Korea as well as in the Korean peninsula will continue to move forward is of serious interest to some who are expressing Korean values as well as their personal concerns. Sadly, their postings are often spooned from other websites and blogs. This lack of “intellectual contribution” by Korean immigrants is possibly related to the developmental stage of the community that it is still currently going through. Other popular themes for exchange include fellowship through picnics, sports; discussion of the American attack against Iraq; celebrating the births of children (the members of this particular group are usually 30-40 years old); and sharing ideas for bringing up children. When it comes to the social dimensions of church life, the congregations with a good number of younger people have a huge variety of topics including Australian politics, short-term missionary trips, a cherry picking trip, learning to play musical instruments, dinner parties, youth camps, healthy human relations, a movie day, a reading club, fifty pieces of advice for Christian youth, etc. They indeed openly invite their members to share any topics.52 They are also willing to adopt the evolving communication technologies as part of the life of their congregation. For example, the Melbourne City Church has joined Twitter in the hope that the church will closely “breathe” with the public.53 Those younger members are not only playful in their use of language, but also in their contents as follows. Introducing my new friend — My old friend is gone with my old memory. My new friend is twenty years old and is still quite strong enough. This friend has run a long distance. Born in Toyota Manufacturing Company in Japan [meaning that this car was built in the company]. This friend [car] will go to church with me and will help me with many tasks. Please pray for her so that she can run well, doesn’t fall sick and nor runs into any accident (yodaks73).54 Irrespective of how this may sound to the older members of the congregation, the purchasing of a motorcar is certainly an important matter for this presumably young person. He has also taken the opportunity to utilise the communication channel of the church website and to share his news. He has also requested that his fellow church members may be able to pray for his safety. Prior to the coming of the Internet site, this person may have shared the news with a few friends in his face-to-face conversations. Now he is able to share the news with several more persons. It is possible that older generations or digital immigrants would like to be formal in their use of language and in terms of the contents that they post. However, the frequent posters/ bloggers, who seem to be generally younger generations, perceive the bulletin boards of Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 113 the church websites to be not only publicising the activities of the church, but also informally sharing everyday life between the members of the church.55 Economic Dimension of the Websites and Common Concerns Web pages are professionally supported and maintained by commercial domain hosts with vested financial interests in the promotion of the Internet (Helland 2000, p.212), e.g., Daum, Cyworld or Café.56 These are some of the most successful Internet domain hosts from Korea. The bigger churches are well resourced with adequate budget and talents within their own churches, maintaining a group of technically equipped people called, for example, the Media Mission Team (e.g., www.melhans.com). Jesus TV Christian Internet Broadcasting is an expanded Internet version of the Keuriseuchyan Ribyu [Christian Review] which has reported the news of the Korean community and Korean churches in Australia since 1990. The magazine is commercially viable with a good range of advertisements. The Christian Internet Broadcasting website contains a small list of seventeen Korean churches with links to their homepages as of June 2008; the monthly magazine Keuriseuchyan Ribyu lists most of the Korean churches in Australia (July 2008). The list, free of charge, carries the names of the churches, phone numbers and the names of ministers; and the paid subscribers’ list also carries the addresses of the churches, their worship service schedules, and websites. A further fifty-five churches are listed with their websites (p.97). The Minister of a Korean church on the Gold Coast (a popular tourist city in the state of Queensland) advertised on the bulletin board of the Korean Hanbit Uniting Church (in Melbourne): “If you are going to visit the areas around the Gold Coast, please let us know through the email address given below or the phone number. We will guide you through the region” (www. hanbit-church.net/hanbit/jang.html). Garage sales prior to one’s return to Korea and car sales are also common items. Intrusion into church websites by gaming or adult industries appears to be a common concern. Such uninvited postings seem to turn up on the bulletin boards from time to time as they allow free postings by strangers. Unless the webmasters are vigilant there could be an overwhelming number of such uninvited commercial postings. In one case (www.standrewschurch.org.au), a church website had absolutely minimum information such as worship service time and the church’s denominational belonging in 2008. The website was full of “weeds” and looked completely abandoned. The websites sometimes put up a notice to keep away any uninvited postings by insiders or outsiders: 114 Chapter Five This bulletin-board is designed to share useful information and testimonies for Christian life. Commercial advertisements, cultic theology or accusatory comments will be removed by the webmaster. May this bulletin-board be the venue to share the Lord’s grace and your cooperation will be appreciated. <Webmaster>57 Nonetheless, some postings escape the webmaster’s vigilance and stay “safe” rather than getting removed, e.g., advertising “quality Korean-made” shoes and clothes.58 Korean church ministers also share some problems with regard to maintaining the website. Firstly, they are unable to secure volunteers who can dedicate their time and effort adequately in maintaining the website. Secondly, as noted, a website without membership attracts too many commercial advertisements. However, membership requires a slightly cumbersome process to log in and this ends up discouraging even church members’ access. Thirdly, when a congregation is “sailing smoothly” the website can add positive impetus, but in times of difficulties and conflicts, inconsiderate messages on the website can drive the situation from bad to worse. Replication of Actual Meetings in the Virtual Website As discussed in the theoretical section of this chapter, the church website is largely replicating the events, activities and meetings occurring in actual church venues. The website has a unique dimension that is distinct from traditional meetings, but largely overlaps or complements conventional church activities. In this respect, church websites have brought back the written culture to the life of congregations in particular. For example, church-goers have a range of activities going on through actual meetings in the congregation. Once they return home and find time, they reconfirm the discussions they had or the activities they are currently undertaking. The minister might have paid a visit to a hospitalised member. Once the minister departs the hospital the patient’s family member leaves a note of thanks to the minister and also informs the congregation of how the patient is recovering. This is a shift from oral culture to a combination of oral and written cultures in fellowship. The Internet certainly connects and reconnects church members and the Internet fellowship may encourage the members to return to the spirituality of life (Wertheim 1999). Here is an example of replicating an actual meeting into the website: I’m supposed to be part of the cell group in the city. However, as I live in Box Hill I’ve been attending the group in Box Hill and I’ve been enjoying the dinners as well. Rather than attending the Sunday service only once a week, I’ve found attending the cell group on Fridays and sharing life stories really enriches Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 115 my life. Fellowship with Christian friends is really encouraging to my life. People are generally tired on Fridays, but they treasure the precious time of fellowship with church members. The pastor is like our father and his wife like our mother. I hope that more can benefit from the cell groups, eating together, praying and studying the Bible. ... God will bless those who show their dedication through time and money. ... I love you all, bless you.59 Just as the church is a multi-dimensional institution, this excerpt displays the diverse activities of the church, including specifically religious activities as well as those that are only indirectly religious. Summarising the complete meetings or activities in a few pages of the website is not necessarily an easy effort to undertake. Such an act does however show how earnestly a person posts the summary and participants of the relevant activities express their religiosity and commitment.60 Importantly, such an effort would have happened only in private in the past, but now it can take place in a public sphere. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS Church websites are primarily devoted to fellowship and communication among the existing members of individual congregations, i.e., promoting “social bonds” (Bainbridge 2000, p.63). In actual fact, the function of keeping members of a congregation informed of its activities has been well catered for through weekly bulletins, telephone calls and emails, even without emails and the Internet. When physical meeting for religious needs is rendered necessary and possible the majority of Korean churches in Australia do not necessarily see a need to construct a strong website and seek only supplementary functions to support their activities.61 This view may hold for several years to come, as O’Leary (1996, p.804) contends, “What the online ritual lacks, in and of itself, is precisely the quality of physical presence that enables ritual actors to become so deeply embedded in the belief system …” This observation is in line with essentialist perspective arguing that media and television are not compatible with religion because they are concerned with people’s desires, consumerism and materialistic wishes, whereas religion is concerned with people’s real needs such as “spiritual and supernatural sanctity” (Hosseini 2008, p.62). Just as Postman (1985) noted about television and religion, the Internet may open our hearts to the functions of religion and consequently facilitate closer communication among the members of a congregation, but whether the Internet communication encourages users to engage profoundly in thinking through abstract ideas such as spiritual pursuit or related issues is less than likely. Indeed, Barna Research Group (2001) notes that “Christian Internet users already spend more time 116 Chapter Five surfing the Net than they do communicating with God through prayer” (www.barna.org). Similarly, according to Larsen (2001), the most common activities of religious surfers online are supplementary to conventional religious involvement. This trend of why the Internet is less than frequently used for religious purposes is not a negative reflection of the Internet, but simply to acknowledge that religiosity is but one of many dimensions dealt with through the life of the church. Whilst this is my interpretation and analysis, how the users of the Internet or congregational members perceive the function of the Internet is to be further explored. It must be acknowledged that despite the supposed incompatibility between the Internet and religion argued by media essentialists, the significance of the Internet in the Korean church in Australia, including the interface between the Internet and religion, is an undeniable reality that deserves further research. This is so despite the argument that the church website is supplementary and is useful just as the church weekly news is, but not essential (Byun 4/8/2010). This is part of the reason why overall interest in the use of the church website is not as strong as in its earlier days in case of the Korean Church of Melbourne. Frequent exchange of information through bulletin boards seems to be an expression of Korean identity engendered by the almost Internet-obsessed Korean culture. Although a relatively small proportion of Korean churches have constructed websites, the ones that have attracted a significant amount of traffic. What I am suggesting here is that the significance of the Internet in the Korean ethnic church in Australia is not to be sought from the religiosity of Koreans, but from the dynamics created between migrant life, Korean ethnicity intertwined with Christianity, and their links to their friends and relatives in Korea and other parts of the world — making the Internet a transnational space for them. As mentioned earlier, whilst some message contributors deal directly with religious concerns and interests, the majority of the postings deal with a search for a meaningful life such as may be pursued not only by church-goers but also by the members of any “moral” or spiritual club and society. Thus, the Korean church websites have become venues for social interactions that emerge from new ICTs since a good number of church-goers and ministers continue to exchange useful information, with pastoral care, to form a “close family” in cyberspace (cf. Rheingold 2000; Campbell 2004). Indeed, the exchange of information is mostly about fellowship and communication among the members, and they are concerned with non-religious dimensions more often than the religious dimension of the church as a multi-dimensional institution. Douglas Cowan (2005) in his study of Neopaganism on the Internet has been able to find only a few websites that supported the key component of Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 117 Neopaganism: uniquely online ritual. Instead, the sites attempt to recreate online the offline rituals. Although the study deals with a new religious movement on the Internet rather than one of the traditional Christian churches, Cowan’s finding may indicate that it is inherently difficult to deal with religiosity over the net. This appears to correspond with Jon Katz’s Wired Magazine report on a survey of Americans related to ICTs: While there are thousands of Web sites devoted to spirituality and religion, I’ve seen little in the on-line world to make me believe that Digital Citizens readily embrace institutions like organized religion and incorporate prayer into their daily lives … younger Americans … have a deep spiritual — as opposed to religious — bent (Katz 1997, p.274). Another example: I was not able to find evidence of widespread use of the Internet to form new religious communities or to support new spiritual practices. … Here I want to emphasize that I could not find a focused public use of the Internet for religious purposes (Bedell 2000, pp.195, 197). In this respect, the secularisation thesis seems to hold as the use of new media is increasingly becoming significant and ubiquitous including in religious organisations. In line with Clark’s (2003) advocation of the secularisation thesis, Korean churches’ websites help further strengthen the non-religious dimensions of the church which have always been strong in comparison to its religious dimension. The church websites seem to promote non-religious dimensions of the church more than they promote religiosity. If the websites are of limited influence in promoting religiosity, what does this say about the value of the websites and the future of the Internet church? It is highly likely that the Internet church has further potential to increase its significance and contribute to people’s religiosity in the future. The usefulness of church websites has been well proved in the areas of communication and fellowship in particular, which strongly promote a participatory democracy within the congregational structure (cf. Fuchs 2008, p.7). The Internet has been effective and useful because it offers ordinary members of the church a participatory role to play in communicating with other members (Bainbridge 2000, p.65). In this respect, the websites have been invaluable to the members of Korean churches in Australia and their potential is yet to be fully realised. It may be safe to assume that the Internet and new ICTs have brought about new and supplementary functions to the conventional church structure and that they may open up many completely new possibilities to the life of the church just as American “religious surfers” anticipate (Bedell 2000; Larsen 2001). 118 Chapter Five The method of “surfing the net” as a research tool has serious limitations. Few church members are likely to explicitly demonstrate their worldly wishes or activities on the web in writing. Thus, people are cautious about what they write on the church website and this makes it not fully utilised, whereas the users of Facebook and Cyworld feel secure as their words stay within the circle of their “friends.”62 Deeper factors may be revealed through in-depth interviews with church-goers. To date, I have not seen a posting that challenges the authority of the local congregations. It is unknown whether or not there are any such postings at all or whether they are censored by the webmasters prior to publications. Similar to the British Born Chinese and Dim Sum websites, which facilitate “the networking, trust-building and collective ethos” (Bourdieu 1986; Parker and Song 2006, p.198), the Korean church websites are valuable social capital within the Korean diasporic community. There is much potential for Korean immigrants to use the sites to cultivate new social networks and at times to contribute to public debates within the Korean community and beyond. I have noticed that the Korean church websites, like any other public websites, constantly evolve over a period. The relatively large churches tend to attract a large number of postings. The Internet space they use is filled up in a few years and this makes it necessary to overhaul the website and re-construct their websites. In this process, old websites are deserted in “cyberspace,” sometimes containing personal or sensitive information.63 Complete erasing of the sites may be difficult, but an adequate handling may be necessary. The continuing evolution of the church websites has brought about the phenomenon of “personal reflection in the public sphere.” This operation is similar to the way Facebook or Twitter works, exposing one’s personal life to the public. How this new phenomenon of communication will spread out to the broader population is to be further observed. In considering how church website could be better utilised for the benefit of the life of the church, it is important, as Rev Byun has noted, for each congregation to clarify what their specific needs are and then to pursue those needs accordingly, which may lead to improving the quality of the contents of the website. Further, most users of the website generally expect to find helpful stories and information rather than contributing themselves. A change in such attitudes may revitalise church websites. Communication through a website is relatively new and the words and messages uploaded can unintentionally hurt others, so message posters require caution and good ethical standards. Rev Byun is confident that such issues may be better resolved in time. If the church website could embrace the functions of social media and email lists, it might be much more widely utilised. This study reveals that there is a broad range of communication tools within each congregation and the ways in Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 119 which those different tools are used for diverse purposes form an important topic for future research. I wish to make a final note on the issue of transnational identities within the Korean church websites as it is a theme of the book. My overall observation of the Korean church websites is that tendency to promote transnational identities is weaker than expected. That is, despite their potential, the church websites remain within the limits of promoting “Korean” ethnicity and Korean national identities. There could be a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the broad tendency to “stick” to Korean national identities may be one of the ways of pursuing the broad spectrum of transnational identities. Nonetheless, there is a long way to go before the bloggers can appreciate the need to pursue transnational identities. Secondly, the Korean immigrant church is less than well-established and it is yet to pay attention to the kind of cultural citizenship as suggested by Stevenson (2003). It is possible that the life of Korean immigrants in general may be tightly engaged in meeting their basic or economic needs.64 Only a small proportion of the Korean immigrant population are 1.5 or second generation Koreans who may be much better able to expend their time and effort. They are also the digital natives, those who are well accustomed to ICTs. A significant increase in the proportion of the second generation may bring about a change in the extent to which cultural citizenship is demonstrated on the church websites. Thirdly, reading a large number of the contents of postings, I have noticed that a significant proportion of the message posters are sojourners. According to Rev Byun, unlike established residents, this is an attempt by those sojourners to express their need to form social networks. They are staying in Australia for a short time for specific goals. They are not necessarily working to establish their economic viability. Consequently, they may be better able to afford time and effort for the expressive needs in their life. Others have stayed in Australia for twelve months or longer and then have returned to Korea. Those past members of the Korean immigrant churches have memorable experiences or “fantasy memories” about their past, about attending church in particular and their life in Australia in general. They are not easily able to put aside these good memories. Importantly, the Internet offers them a haven to resort to and express the adversities as well as the satisfactions resulting from their sojourning life in a foreign land as well as their busy and stressful life back in Korea. NOTES 1. e.g., http://cafe.daum.net/MKJC; Melbeon Jungang Gyohoi, 2010; http://cafe. naver.com/melbournesomang. Melbon Somang Gyohoi, 2010. 120 Chapter Five 2. They include Rev Byun Chang-Bae, former minister to the Korean Church of Melbourne and presently of the Korean Uniting Church in Western Melbourne; Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha, a minister to the Korean Church of Melbourne; and Rev Lee JongEok, a minister to the Hanbit Korean Uniting Church. 3. Religiosity is not something fixed, but necessarily variable, depending upon context and changes over time, because religion is a social institution (Swatos Jr and Christiano 2000, p.162). 4. This was the first Korean church in Australia. 5. http://club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/51690979, Melbon Hanin Chimrye Gyohoi, 2010. 6. Interviews (Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha 6/8/2010 and Rev Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 7. Interview (Rev Byun Chang-Bae 4/8/2010). 8. Interview (Rev Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 9. Interview (Rev Byun Chang-Bae 4/8/2010). 10. Interview (Rev Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 11. Interviews (Rev Byun Chang-Bae 4/8/2010 and Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha 6/8/2010). 12. Another example is http://club.cyworld.com/club/main/club_main/asp?club_ id=51739972, Melbeon Citi Gyohoi, 2010 . 13. Interviews (Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha 6/8/2010 and Rev Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 14. http://www.mfgctv.com/mfgc/board.php?board=mfgcnewfamily, Melbon Sunbogeum Gyohoi, 2010; http://www.1yang.org/framework/1yang/board/?db_ name=family, Yangmuri Gyohoi, 2010. 15. http://www.well-church.com/board1/10205, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010; http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/36, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 16. http://www.well-church.com/board1/10205. Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 17. Interview (Rev Byun Chanag-Bae 4/8/2010). 18. www.well-church.com/board1/14952, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 19. e.g., pickled cabbages. 20. “Yeogineun gimjangcheol imnida”: http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/743, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 21. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/742, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 22. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/61, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 23. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/52, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 24. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/48, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 25. www.well-church.com/board1/13173, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 26. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/7, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 27. http:/www.melsaesoon.com/gallery/zboard/view.php?id=relation&page=13 &sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc &no=120, Melbeon SaeSoon Gyohoi, 2010. 28. http://www.melsaesoon.com/gallery/zboard/zboard.php?id=L ibrary&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_ arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=10, Melbeon SaeSoon Gyohoi, 2010. 29. www.well-church.com/board1/12116, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. Mediation of Religion and Ethnicity through the Internet 121 30. Interviews (Rev Byun Chang-Bae 4/8/2010, Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha 6/8/2010, and Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 31. www.melhans.com/page_mission_overseas.php, Melbon Hanin Gyohoi, 2010. 32. http://www.melhans.com/page_mission_oz.php, Melbon Hanin Gyohoi, 2010 - Some of these veterans develop a close rapport with the church and even request that their memorial services be held in that church (Rev Byun). 33. http://www.melsaesoon.com/gallery/zboard/view.php?id=rel ation&page=15&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_ arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=90, Melbeon SaeSoon Gyohoi, 2010. 34. http://www.melsaesoon.com/homep/hp2/jqtime.htm, , Melbeon SaeSoon Gyohoi, 2010. 35. http://www.mfgctv.com/mfgc/board.php?board=mfgcessay, Melbon Sunbogeum Gyohoi, 2010; http://www.1yang.org/framework/1yang/board/?db_ name=column, Yangmuri Gyohoi, 2010. 36. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/746, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 37. www.well-church.com/board1/16417, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 38. www.well-church.com/?mid=board1&page=2&document_srl=7645, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 39. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/298, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 40. Interview (10/8/2010). 41. Maeilui saenghwal. 42. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/54, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 43. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/72, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 44. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/36, ; http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/54, Melbeon Yesarang Janro Gyohoi, 2010. 45. http://hanmaum.isfreeweb.com/3573, Melbon Hanmaeum Jangro Gyohoi 46. http://club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/51690979, Melbon Hanin Chimrye Gyohoi, 2010. 47. http://club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/51690979, Melbon Hanin Chimrye Gyohoi, 2010. 48. http://www.mfgctv.com/mfgc/board.php?board=mfgchelp&command=body &no=3, Melbon Sunbogeum Gyohoi, 2010. 49. http://www.well-church.com/centerinfo, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 50. http://www.holyhouse.org/mokja/, Melbeon Mokja Gyohoi, 2010. 51. http://www.mfgctv.com/mfgc/board.php?board=mfgchelp, Melbon Sunbogeum Gyohoi, 2010. 52. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang.cafe, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010; http://club.cyworld.com/ClubV1/Home.cy/51739972,Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 53. http://twitter.com/melcitychurch, Melbeon Citi Gyohoi, 2010. 54. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/54, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 55. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/21, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 56. http://www.yespage.com.au/church/churchlist.html, yespages.com, 2010. 122 Chapter Five 57. http://www.melhans.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=bulletin_free&wr_ id=400&page=5, Melbon Hanin Gyohoi, 2010. 58. http://www.well-church.com/board1/10518, Melbon Woomul Gyohoi, 2010. 59. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang/80, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 60. http://cafe.naver.com/melsarang.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleRead. nhn%3Farticleid=55, Melbeon Yesarang Jangro Gyohoi, 2010. 61. Rev Byun also notes this point (4/8/2010). 62. Interviews (Rev Byun Chang-Bae 4/8/2010 and Rev Hwang Jeong-Ha 6/8/2010). 63. Interview (Rev Lee Jong-Eok 10/8/2010). 64. According to the 2006 ABS Census (Department of Immigration and Citizenship n.d.), “the median individual weekly income for the South Korea-born in Australia aged 15 years and over was $238, compared with $431 for all overseas-born and $488 for all Australia-born.” Chapter Six Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation: An Institutional Effort to Help Individuals Construct Identities The Korean immigrant church in Australia, New Zealand and North America has been a critical institution to facilitate the processes of Korean immigrants’ transition into their new life as well as adjusting to the requirements of a foreign country. The transitional or transnational role of the immigrant church is highly beneficial and it is indeed fortuitous for Korean immigrants to be transnational especially during their initial period of immigrant life in the diasporic community. On the one hand, the new immigrants have just arrived in their newly adopted home country full of enthusiasm and hope, after leaving behind all the reasons which engendered their desire to emigrate overseas.1 Nonetheless, the positive and negative memories of their life in Korea are long-lasting and their Korean identities are not likely to fade soon. Although it may be selective, their Korean identities and past memories tend to be revitalised throughout their immigrant life. It is possible that all their memories may turn out to be memorable and even a source of pride in their later life. On the other hand, the Korean immigrant churches are physically located in Australia and the members of those churches are living their immigrant life within the broad Australian socio-economic and cultural context. Therefore, the characteristics of the life of those members are inherently “Australian” to a significant degree. The newly arrived immigrants surrounded by those established members of the church find their own transitional process hugely supported by those already established immigrants (Han 1994b, c, a, 1997a; Min 2000, 2010). However, many Korean immigrants find themselves captured in that “time capsule” or “transitional capsule” rather than moving well beyond the transitional period. This makes the role of the Korean church problematic since it appears to rather impede the dialogical relationship between Korean 123 124 Chapter Six immigrant church members and the broader Australian community (Han 2004). This supposedly less than productive nature of the functions of the Korean immigrant church has in part given birth to the need for Korean immigrant churches to pursue cross-cultural ministries.2 Cross-cultural ministry has been desired at least for the last couple of decades within the Korean-Australian community as reported in the past (Han 1994d), as well as within the broader Australian Christianity, including the Uniting Church in Australia. For example, the UCA’s 1985 Assembly adopted and declared the important Statement: “We are a multicultural church — We are a church whose membership comprises people of many races and cultures and languages” (cited in Richmond 2004, p.454). In 2001, the UCA as a denomination had “117 ethno-specific congregations, 23 ethnic fellowship groups and two faith communities” (Watson 2009, p.322). However, “crosscultural ministry” at a congregational level has not been pursued as actively as anticipated3 although some Korean churches in Sydney4 and Melbourne have successfully established English ministries within Korean churches and are equipped to accommodate anybody who speaks English. Instead, Korean congregations within the mainline “Australian” denominations such as the Uniting Church in Australia have developed, for example, “Alternative Regulations” specifically applicable to the Korean member congregations, and “the Korean Commission” in the New South Wales Synod in July 2004, which allows the Korean congregations to carry out some flexibility with regard to their cultural practices brought with them from Korea (Yang 2004; Richmond 2004, p.458; cf. Yoo 1999).5 The afore-mentioned English ministries have potential to appeal to non-Korean immigrants and do attract a small number of them, especially potential life partners of Korean descendants. However, their central goals are to cater to the needs of 1.5 and second generation Koreans. An increasing interest in multicultural ministry seems to have coincided with the broad trend of church decline due to secularisation or conflicts within individual churches (Becker 1998, p.460) or the limited and finite supply of ethnic immigrants from the viewpoints of immigrant churches. That is, Anglo-Celtic Christian communities in Australia have significantly declined in the last few decades and many have either sold off their church buildings to commercial enterprises and/or merged with migrant churches such as Korean immigrant congregations. These mergers have revitalised some Anglo-Australian churches. Simultaneously, the merger was also a way to revitalise some Korean immigrant churches since there is no endless supply of Korean immigrants to Australia. Further, the pursuit of crosscultural ministry by some Korean immigrant churches has in part been desired by the arrival of an increasing number of young people from Korea Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 125 who may be more open to the multicultural ministry in comparison to older populations (Marti 2005) since the increasing popularity of Australia as a destination for potential emigrants as well as the availability of working holiday visas between Australia and Korea. Construction and modification of individual identities is of course a task of an individual agent. However, how individual agents form an ethnic group with particular characteristics, under the influence of a social institution such as the immigrant church and interactions with the members of other ethnic groups, is of particular interest since such interactions can have a significant influence in the formation and modification of identities of those individual agents. That is, there are mutual influences between the formation of individual identities and group identities when there are ethnically diverse individual church-goers within a cross-cultural church. Thus, in this chapter I explore the ways in which Korean immigrants in Australia have been constructing their group identities, through the observation of two crosscultural churches which have a significant number and proportion of Korean immigrants including sojourners. It is also a sociological sketch of the level of maturity of cross-cultural ministries with reference to the two Korean immigrant churches in Melbourne. LITERATURE REVIEW Dhingra (2004) makes an insightful analysis of three congregations of English ministries, in Dallas, Texas, whereby Korean-American members make up the majority but no particular privilege is given to Korean culture, but diverse cultural heritages are valued and promoted. Unlike English ministries of Korean ethnic churches in Melbourne and Sydney, the ones in Dallas are established as multicultural ministries. Those congregations in Dallas have invoked multiculturalism as practised in the broader ethnic policy in the nation and encouraged various ethnic groups to maintain their own cultures. Dhingra (2004, p.376) notes that multiculturalism pays attention to cultural differences within a congregation and then advocates the maintenance of diverse cultures on the one hand, but that the colour blindness rhetoric tends to ignore diverse cultural heritages. Consequently, multiculturalism and colour blindness rhetoric within the multicultural ministries described by Dhingra (2004, p.376) downplay “systemic inequalities in political and economic power between groups” that may be prevalent not only in the broader society but also within the very congregations. Despite Dhingra’s apt and agreeable critiques of those multicultural ministries, I am inclined to argue that any movements to initiate dialogical relationships between different ethnic 126 Chapter Six groups working together are necessary and highly recommended.6 Indeed, such movement should be an essential part of what the twenty first century Christianity ought to engage in (Garces-Foley 2007).7 Rev Helen Richmond, former National Director, Assembly Multicultural Ministry of the Uniting Church in Australia puts this in theological terms: “from a faith perspective we believe that God has brought people to this land and calls us to ‘live justly, love mercy and to walk humbly’ with one another and with God” (Richmond 2004, p.451). The processes of these initiatives for dialogical relationships between different ethnic groups will inevitably reveal the limits of their efforts, but this is to be expected just as multiculturalism as a government policy continues to experience its limitations. It has been utterly problematic and disappointing to observe that even the use of the word multiculturalism was somewhat discouraged especially under the reign of the Howard government (1997-2007). However, I am not convinced that there has been a more progressive policy than multiculturalism. Therefore it is still fruitful to value the principles of multiculturalism and examine the ways in which multicultural ministry has been established within the “Korean-Australian”8 congregations. Otherwise, how can we start making sense out of “the many faces of Christ” (Williams 1996, p.273)? Further legitimate reasons to promote cross-cultural ministry, if undertaken appropriately, are observed through the literature. Similar to the above mentioned Korean congregations in Dallas, “City Baptist” and Good Shepherd Lutheran churches in Oak Park, Illinois, have engaged in “culture work” in the words of Becker (1998). The village of Oak Park has developed to be a much more ethnically tolerant and progressive community since the 1970s, approving free flowing interactions between African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglo-Americans. Although both congregations differ from each other in terms of their theology and doctrine, they interpreted “race” in similar terms and similar strategies in their ways to adapt to racial integration. Interesting consequences have been observed: (1) “their strong local orientation” as a result of embracing racial integration within the local community; and (2) becoming more “church-like” than “sect-like” on a church-sect continuum (Becker 1998, p.452; cf. Stark and Bainbridge 1985). The congregations have become closely engaged in the local community rather than having their own separate identities or taking a critical position towards the local community (cf. Wuthnow 1994). Other intrinsic values of adopting a multicultural ministry include the opportunity to “institutionalize members’ deeply held values” such as “closeness, fellowship, support, and caring” (Becker 1998, p.452; Becker et al. 1993; Roof 1993; Warner 1988). The churches in Oak Park, Illinois have adopted various strategies to “resurrect” the declining membership, and the results seem to be overwhelmingly positive in many Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 127 ways. In the City Baptist, a couple or more African-Americans take some representative roles such as Bible reading or an opening or benedictory prayers in front of the congregation every week. Although some of its members are deeply engaged in social justice or social action, the multicultural ministry is seen as a means to achieve some core missions, according to most of the members including the head minister, such as worship, edification, and evangelism. The need to focus on those core missions is evoked through the sermons. Instead of focusing on ethnic differences, the congregation’s focal point is “lifting up Jesus Christ” as a way to bind all the members together (Becker 1998, pp.457-9). In the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, “tolerance and diversity” is deeply and successfully institutionalised within the life of the congregation. Those secular values as epitomising social justice are “interpreted as requiring the building of a racially and culturally inclusive Community in Christ” (Becker 1998, p.462). The Culture Bridging research project was undertaken in Northern New Mexico for eleven years as an attempt to overcome communication barriers between various cultures including those of Native Americans. Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary published a series of three monographs under the titles of Family Ministry through Cross-Cultural Education (1980, 1986, 1990). Taylor and June McConnell, the authors of the monographs point to the five crucial factors that may lead to successful cross-cultural ministries: (1) “attitudes of respect, humility, and love”; (2) appropriate design of ministry specific for individual cultures and of “the essence of the Christian gospel”; (3) cross-cultural friendship accompanied by cross-cultural understanding; (4) “cooperative leadership of lay and clergy”; and (5) long-term effort (McConnell and McConnell 1991, pp.5945). These factors appear to be indisputable and are almost universally applicable principles that may be useful for any congregation that wishes to pursue a gainful multicultural ministry. This chapter explores the ways in which these important principles apply to the selected two cross-cultural ministries whereby Korean ethnic church-goers make up a majority and take a significant role in the life of the congregations. Related issues to explore in the chapter include (1) how individual church members have been able to embrace different ethnic groups other than Korean and (2) how these changes of attitudes have influenced the inter-ethnic relations at the institutional/organisational level. Specific research questions I wish to explore in the chapter are as follows: (1) What initiated each of the two churches to pursue cross-cultural ministries?; (2) What are the key factors that have made the cross-cultural ministry possible?; (3) How do they handle and negotiate leadership roles between different ethnic groups with reference to design of ministry?; 128 Chapter Six (4) What are their long-term objectives?; (5) What are the planned future directions of cross-cultural ministry? METHODS I have conducted interviews with Rev Kang Sung-Moon and associate minister, Pastor Lee Loo-Da of Bentleigh & Korean Baptist Church. I undertook participant observation of worship services of the church’s Korean congregation as well as that of a combined service (“Korean” and non-“Korean”), on separate days. With regard to my analysis of Deepdene Uniting Church, I have carried out interviews with Rev Jacob Yang, four individual interviews and one interview with an “Australian” couple. Those four individuals consist of one “Korean” male, one “Korean” female, and two “Australian” female members. I was a participant observer of worship services of the congregation twice. The study has obtained a formal approval from Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (CF10/1511—2010000812). FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION I have selected two Korean immigrant churches which are known to have been most actively pursuing the cross-cultural ministry in the Korean community in the metropolitan Melbourne. My fieldwork reveals that those two have progressed with their polity of cross-cultural ministry in different contexts and are in different stages of development. These made my intention to provide comparative perspectives on the two churches inappropriate. Therefore, the above mentioned research questions regarding the two different churches under examination will be answered in varying degrees. In the following sections, I provide the description and analysis of the two crosscultural churches as follows: a brief analysis of the Bentleigh church followed by a much more detailed analysis of the Deepdene church. The Bentleigh & Korean Baptist Church A brief history of the start of the church Rev Kang Sung-Moon planted the Melbourne Korean Baptist Church in Elsternwick on 16 December 1990. In its first thirteen years, the Church relocated four times, the last place being the Bentleigh Baptist Church. It was December 2004 when the Melbourne Korean Baptist Church came to rent and share the premises of the Bentleigh Baptist Church under the Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 129 recommendation of the National Council of the Baptist Church in Australia. Making observations of the Melbourne Korean Baptist Church for six months, the members of the Bentleigh Baptist Church first suggested a unification of the two congregations, which was accomplished and was the first such arrangement under the approval of the National Council of the Baptist Church in Australia.9 This kind of development “by chance” appears to be common, e.g., Light of the World Church in Minneapolis10 (GarcesFoley 2007, p.219). The unified church is named the Bentleigh & Korean Baptist Church in Melbourne (Oh 2006). The unified church still operates as two different congregations within one church building although they interact closely with each other, e.g., holding a combined church service occasionally. Both English and Korean speaking congregations are the equal hosts of the church, sharing leadership roles between the two congregations, and are working towards a complete merger and a much broader crosscultural ministry. It seems that each of the two congregations maintains individual characteristics in terms of their worship styles, choice of music as a way to respect differences inevitably resulting from different cultures and generations. Nonetheless, the two different congregations are committed to gradually “accomplishing” a cross-cultural congregation. That is, following unification, each party will continue to work for closer engagement with the “other” or for the interaction among the members within the unified church (Garces-Foley 2007, p.212). Rev Kang Sung-Moon of the church and Pastor Lee Loo-Da, associate minister at the time of interview, firstly note that cross-cultural ministry is historically inevitable, reflecting multiculturalism in the broader community and that “Australian” churches are shrinking and are looking for ways to revitalise their activities (Currie 1968; Wilson 1966; Black 1988). Working closely with ethnic churches is one way to bring about required revitalisation. Secondly, in addition to Korean Christianity’s sending missionaries overseas, it is a responsibility, argues Kang, that Korean immigrants conduct their life as missionaries through their engagement in the cross-cultural ministry. The English congregation usually attracts about 35 persons each Sunday and has 14-17 ethnic groups represented. English and Korean speaking congregations hold a combined service once in two to three months or on important feasts of the Christian calendar. I observed an occasionally held joint service of English and Korean speaking congregations, held on 19 September 2010, as they were celebrating the Korean Full Moon festival11 with specially prepared Korean foods. The service started with singing hymns for twenty minutes, led by four young people on the front stage, accompanied by a piano, flute, violin and guitar. The attendants sang either in English or Korean as the words were projected on the overhead screen. The service con- 130 Chapter Six tinued with a welcome message, an opening prayer, prayers of intercession, scripture readings, either in English or Korean, followed immediately by translation. A sermon was delivered by an invited pastor and Korean translation was on the overhead screen. Following the service, a Korean luncheon was served. Central philosophy of cross-cultural ministry On the basis of his observation for seventeen years, Rev Kang Sung-Moon contends that Korean immigrants tend to limit their interactions to other Koreans and a cross-cultural ministry is one way to overcome such limitations and is also a desirable way to engage in the broader society. This also paves the way for future generations to cultivate their life much more progressively than first generations. Rev Kang contends that Australian society, including the church, previously expected immigrants’ assimilation into the Australian society, but this did not work. Instead, Kang argues that his church members, despite their different ethnic backgrounds, can still maintain harmony between them. Cross-cultural ministry at the Bentleigh & Korean Baptist Church is based on “diversity in unity” which Kang sees from Genesis 1: 26-28, which describes three beings in one God working together in creating man. People created by God are all different. Lee points out that Galatians 3: 2812 displays a practice of cross-cultural ministry, whereby people from different socio-economic, ethnic backgrounds and men and women all formed one group in the Christian church. The formation of those diverse groups injects integrity into the church, contends Lee. According to Lee, a cross-cultural ministry is about looking for common denominators among different ethnic groups rather than creating something new. As GarcesFoley (2007, p.214) notes, Lee attempts to erase worldly divisions resulting from ethnicity and culture, and to bring people together on the grounds that they are born again and now identify as brothers and sisters within Christ. Other scholars call this approach “colour-blind perspective” especially among white Americans (Emerson and Smith 2000; Christerson, Edwards, and Emerson 2005). Pastor Lee compares the current development stage of cross-cultural ministry of the Bentleigh church with surfing in the sea as follows: I am holding a surf board in the sea. This doesn’t mean that I can ride a wave straight away. I need to hold on to the board and wait for a worthwhile wave discerningly. Once I’ve found one I need to be able to chase it and grab it. Only then I can start riding the wave. Once on the riding, I just need to maintain balance and I will eventually be able to reach the beach. Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 131 Lee thinks that at present, the Bentleigh church is holding a surf board in the middle of the sea and learning to discern which wave is worthwhile. Once the two congregations within the Bentleigh church have found a worthwhile wave they will put their whole energy together to ride the wave. The members’ motives to engage in a multi-cultural congregation The Korean speaking congregation usually attracts about 100 people mostly in their 20s and 30s, and another 20 members who are middle aged and married with their children. Thus, the congregation is known to be one of the most vibrant churches in the Korean community, which is an important reason to continue to attract overseas and resident students from a Korean ethnic background. Kang and Lee note that Bentleigh & Korean Baptist Church is in the process of actively achieving a cross-cultural ministry through the following activities. The Korean speaking congregation celebrates Mother’s Day, expressing thanks to “Australian” parents. “Korean” members occasionally take older “Australian” parents for a special tour as an expression of filial piety (Oh 2006). Whitley College and the Baptist Union of Victoria have established “a specially tailored training programme called TransFormation, leading to ordination for pastors of NESB” (Langmead and Yang 2006, p.127) or to pursue further theological studies at the Whitley College. Teaching occurs every Saturday and takes three years to complete. The Bentleigh church regularly provides the students with meals as a way of encouraging the students. Secondly, the Bentleigh church hosted a two-day Multicultural Youth Conference twice in conjunction with the multicultural ministry within the Baptist Union of Victoria. The collaboration for such an occasion was rare for its kind in Australia. The conference gave birth to the Multicultural Youth Soccer Club in 2008. In 2010, it is called the Baptist Union of Victoria Club in which “Australian” churches have participated as well.13 Kang and Lee mention that many churches have participated and the soccer competition has brought diverse ethnic groups together. In the past, Australian Baptist churches considered such sports activities insignificant, but have learned that sports can actually contribute to harmonious relationships between different congregations. Thirdly, the whole collection of offerings on Wednesdays at the Bentleigh church is used for refugees. The church has actually sponsored several families out of Sudan to Australia in recent years. Key achievements so far Pastor Lee says that the formation of the Bentleigh church to undertake the role of a bridge between diverse ethnic communities centred on their faith and this 132 Chapter Six effort indicates an infinite potential to produce future leaders for cross-cultural ministry. Secondly, the cross-cultural ministry provides second and future generations from diverse backgrounds with space to interact widely amongst themselves. According to Rev Kang, the members of his Korean speaking congregation may not be as enthusiastic as church leaders about multicultural ministry. Lee acknowledges that Rev Kang’s leadership role has been most crucial in driving a cross-cultural ministry by the church. However, the church’s proactive engagement in the broader society, e.g., bringing in refugee families and helping them settle in Australia, has a profound influence on the ways in which the church members perceive the broader needs of the cross-cultural ministry. Rev Kang adds that a prevalent view on immigrant churches within the Baptist Union has been that they are the subjects of support. However, the Bentleigh church’s proactive cross-cultural engagement beyond the local church has formed a new image of the immigrant church. That is, the immigrant churches can also lead support activities to benefit other congregations, the Baptist Union of Victoria and the broader community. For example, the Bentleigh church took a critical role in establishing the Intercultural Praising Night for the last several years. It occurs twice a year and it has attracted 200300 people on each occasion. It is one of the rare occasions that attract such a large number of people in the Baptist Union of Victoria. Key difficulties and challenges Pastor Lee rightly points out that the language barrier is a problem for crosscultural ministry, but should not be detrimental. According to Lee, what is worse than the language barrier is the Koreans’ passive and reticent attitudes towards human interactions rather than their taking up positive and outgoing approaches. This partly results from the constant criticisms of their English language abilities that Koreans have been brought up with. This is a useful insight that Korean immigrants in general could bear in mind in their interactions with others. Just as there are theological differences within any Australian church, so there are within a cross-cultural church. Some Korean members have little respect for female ministers (cf. Min 2008). Some older “Australian” members may be less than open-minded towards new ideas. Who is or is not allowed to participate in Holy Communion in a local church generates ongoing debates. Willingness to understand each other and embrace differences is an important part of making the cross-cultural ministry work (cf. Langmead and Yang 2006, p.126). No matter how hard an effort is made, thinks Rev Kang, it might take a little while until smooth communication is possible within the cross-cultural church. Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 133 Future directions that the congregation wishes to pursue Rev Kang is determined to work towards accomplishing a cross-cultural ministry, but is satisfied with his role of a bridge between now and the future. He appears to be indifferent to the church’s quantitative growth, but is more interested in nurturing the needs of individual members within the Bentleigh church. Kang’s approach seems to make him “slow down” his pace to accomplish a cross-cultural ministry and continue to negotiate with the English speaking congregation within the Bentleigh congregation in a harmonious way. According to Kang, even though Australia is a cross-cultural society and cross-cultural ministry is inevitable, Australian ministers are not acutely aware of it (cf. Kim 2006b). Kang is currently in discussion with the Baptist Union of Victoria that there needs to be a set of education programmes about crosscultural ministry especially for the clergy. His leadership role and contribution in the area of cross-cultural ministry especially in the Baptist Union of Victoria seems notable. Kang says that he may not necessarily lead the movement, but is committed to be a catalyst by all means. In the Bentleigh church, English and Korean speaking congregations not only contribute to a common budget, but also maintain their individual “Korean budget.” I have initially thought that having one budget between English and Korean speaking congregations as a unified church is important. However, Rev Kang explains that there are cultural differences between the congregations in terms of how they dispose of their budget. For example, the Korean congregation would like to be able to meet their financial needs when an important and unexpected need arises for the congregation or they need a relatively quick approval from the congregation. It seems to be an aspect of Korean culture that when a need is clearly justified they want to be able to spend a certain budgeted amount of money quickly. There are many obstacles to overcome especially when Rev Kang has little guide from exemplary cases. He thinks that the Bentleigh church is in the “toddler stage” of its development of cross-cultural ministry. He hopes to see many more diverse ethnic groups come and worship in the cross-cultural church. The Deepdene Uniting Church A brief history of the start of the church South Hawthorn Uniting Church had been declining over a period and the number of regular members worshipping on a Sunday (9.30 to 10.30am) plateaued down to twenty in the early 1990s, with its building asset of over $2 million. The congregation requested that the Presbytery look for an ethnic church to merge with the South Hawthorn church, which was in vain, 134 Chapter Six and instead planned to close down the congregation. It is important to note that the South Hawthorn church had a history of caring for immigrants and overseas students. For example, the church had been running ECOS (English Conversation for Overseas Students) for more than two decades. At the same time, Rev Jacob Yang was ministering to a Korean Presbyterian Church, which was “renting” a venue from an Anglo-Australian Presbyterian church. However, the Korean church had to vacate the Presbyterian premises and was looking for a place to worship. After a few unsuccessful attempts to rent a place, the Korean church approached the South Hawthorn church and requested to rent the premise from 10.30am to 3pm on Sundays, which suited the South Hawthorn congregation. Within three to five months, some Korean members would turn up a little earlier than 10.30am and would attend the latter part of the “Australian” service and join their morning tea. Some “Australian” members stayed back and attended the Korean service. This was due to the enjoyment of meeting “different” people. Strong fellowship grew among the increasing number of people from both parties. However, about a month before the planned final service of the congregation, the members of the South Hawthorn church decided to continue to worship with the Korean congregation in both English and Korean even if it was not part of the Uniting Church. This was their plan for the following year. They had been asked by the Presbytery to decide which congregation they would attend in the future, but once they showed their determination to stay away with the Koreans the Presbytery suggested that the South Hawthorn church invite the members of the Korean church to join in the South Hawthorn church. This had been the outcome that the South Hawthorn members had wanted all along. In the meantime, Rev Yang had taken steps to be officially a minister to the UCA, which he did not reveal since he did not want that to influence the members of the South Hawthorn congregation in terms of their decision to merge with the Korean congregation. On the day of the advertised closure, about eighty Koreans joined the service and became members of the Uniting Church and the merger soon took place, which, according to Barbara Herbert,14 made “the church live again rather than going through a funeral.” This congregation continued as the South Hawthorn Uniting Church, worshipping in both Korean and English. The two groups separated only for the sermon but held a combined service for communion once a monthThe present Deepdene Uniting Church was formed by the amalgamation of the South Hawthorn Uniting Church and the former Deepdene Uniting Church on 23 November 200815 which came to be formed as a result of an earlier merger between the Paton Memorial Uniting and St. Paul’s Uniting Churches.16 “The predominantly Korean congregation from South Hawthorn, led by their minister Rev Jacob Yang, wished to become part of an integrated cross-cultural worshipping Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 135 community, in which Korean and English speaking people were more equally represented. The vote in favour of amalgamation in both congregations was unanimous.”17 The church’s consolidated activities occur at the site of the formerly Frank Paton Memorial Church at 758 Burke Road, Balwyn,18 which also offered a better suite of buildings for the larger merged congregation than those at South Hawthorn. The current Deepdene UC has been settling well. However, until it is better settled those who “shifted across” from the merged South Hawthorn church are constantly reminded of their “good days” at South Hawthorn. There were about 100 “Korean” as well as about 20 “Australian” adults there. Another merger with the Deepdene UC was daunting to some Korean members, which has led to nearly half the “Koreans” and a few “Australian” members not joining the present merged congregation. It was disappointing to both merging congregations. This occurred despite nearly all the “Korean” members in the South Hawthorn church voting for the proposed merger to go ahead. This in itself posed cultural differences: “Korean” members did not seek the opportunity to debate potential problems which may arise after the merger. Nonetheless, the congregation with all senior members now has a full range of people of different age groups and the satisfaction out of the merger and the enthusiasm for future prospects remain high today.19 The change of demographic composition and increase in the membership was an exciting change especially for those “Australian” members who have seen their own congregations ever decreasing throughout their lives. I made a participant observation on 15 August 2010. Both ministers, Revs Yang and Creed, stood on the front stage and led the worship service. Rev Figure 6.1. The formation of the Deepdene Uniting Church (Multicultural ministry). 136 Chapter Six Creed spoke first in English and then Rev Yang translated what was said in Korean. Like other Sundays, about 100-120 people (“Koreans” make up 50 per cent) were attending the service in the “main” auditorium which may be able to hold up to 300 people. Hymns were projected in English and Korean and the members were singing in either English or Korean. Children’s time was run by an “Australian” lady who spoke to a dozen “Korean” children up to primary school age. A hymn was presented by the choir consisting of six “Australians” (three female and three male) and three “Koreans,” one “Australian” female conductor and one “Australian” male organist, singing verses alternatively in Korean and English.20 Then the offering was collected by two “Australian” and two “Korean” members. After the offering, “Korean” members (about thirty adults and twenty children) moved to another auditorium (the church hall) which is big enough to be able to hold about one hundred people. Despite their merger one thing both parties agreed is that sermons should be listened to in their “own” language. The “Korean” group started with some contemporary hymns, led by a guitarist and two singers at the front. August 15 is the Independence Day and Koreans sang their national anthem. Then Yang delivered a sermon in Korean. Before the start of the sermon three “Australian” leaders who joined in the Korean group left for a biblical discussion for several Korean youth who are more comfortable using English as their medium but who prefer discussion rather than a sermon in English. In earlier times this group would have been called “The Bible Class.” These young people do not seem to fit in either of “Australian” or “Korean” group in terms of the contents of the sermons. Central philosophy of cross-cultural ministry Rev Yang’s theological underpinning for his cross-cultural ministry comes from Ephesians 2: 12-18.21 According to Yang, the verses refer to the merger between Jews and foreigners. Jesus’ crucifixion removed the barriers between Jews and foreigners and brought them together and created new people, i.e., Christians. This is how the church in Ephesus was a multicultural church like many early churches in the context of the first century Greco-Roman culture. Rev Yang argues that today, irrespective of our ethnic backgrounds, we are new people under the eyes of God and that it is the cross-cultural context that made the apostle Paul discuss the goals of the Christian church. Deepdene church’s cross-cultural ministry is a process of rediscovering the features of the church in Ephesus although the current and broad context is multiculturalism in Australia. Rev Yang also thinks that it is inevitable that the churches’ organisational interactions have to reflect the multiculturalism that has been established in the broader Australian society over the last few decades.22 The Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 137 key principles applied in promoting the cross-cultural ministry in Deepdene particularly in its early stage of progressing with the cross-cultural ministry, are similar to those applied in the Bentleigh church mentioned earlier (DeYoung et al. 2003; Emerson and Smith 2000; Christerson, Edwards, and Emerson 2005). The members’ and institutional motives to engage in a multicultural congregation Firstly, both “Australian” and “Korean” members of the two churches merging desired to merge and the union to pursue something new — this is what they had been looking for. For Deepdene members, it did not have to be a multicultural ministry and for both churches the ethnic group did not have to be “Korean.” Both churches merging agreed that their merger would better enable them to reach out to the older people in the region and a multicultural ministry would have an invaluable and intrinsic value within and outside the congregation. Importantly, the “Australian” members were concerned about a possible disjuncture of training future Christian leaders and the merger with a “younger” congregation was considered a measure to resolve the concern. Moreover, although there has been a sense of strong desire to “rescue” the shrinking Australian church, there is also a clear recognition that especially under the context of multiculturalism in Australia any mono-cultural congregation is highly limiting and that multiculturalism ought to be much more than simply sharing ethnic cuisine (Hage 2000, 2002), but getting to understand and embrace each other’s cultures at much deeper levels. Secondly, the idea of a potential merger with an immigrant church has not grown out of an overnight thought, but through prior exposure to diverse cultures and immigrants over a long period. The interviewees generally had affiliations with people in/from different cultures through their parents or themselves or have been engaged in interacting with overseas students or NESB immigrants. For example, Lindsay Herbert’s mother was State and National President of “Save the Children Fund” for the poverty stricken Koreans after the Korean War. Barbara and Lindsay Herbert had a Chinese student boarding in their house as their children were going through their high school. The Chinese girl became more or less a family member. Since then a good number of overseas students have been through their home. ECOS has been held from 6pm to 9pm every Friday night and there are generally a dozen “Australians” and about fifteen students. This also has been an important way to reach out to overseas students for the members of the then South Hawthorn Uniting Church and now the Deepdene church. One of the frequently asked questions from the students is “why are they offering the students such a labour intensive effort?” Mr Herbert’s answer to the students is: “In God we believe, it is 138 Chapter Six a good thing to do. ... It is consistent with the Christian belief that we have.” Mrs Herbert also notes that the Australian contributors have got a lot out of ECOS and made many good friends. Another important factor I have been told of is the members’ willingness to practise the principles that they have been learning throughout their life. For example, there was a woman who gave up her professional life to undertake a theological degree to become a minister. After studying for a year she had to defer her studies for a lengthy period due to her fighting cancer. She eventually completed her studies, but could not find a placement to serve, due to her medical report that her health could endure for twelve months but could not be sure beyond. It was the South Hawthorn Uniting Church, prior to the merger with the Korean congregation, which was willing to take her on and this meant she could be ordained. She lasted only for a few months and the church took care of her dying and death. This seems to be an epitome of the South Hawthorn church demonstrating the principles that they have embodied through their life. It is this kind of attitude of the predominant proportion of the members of the South Hawthorn church that has paved the way for them to be able to handle the merger with the Korean congregation: “feeling it right to help the immigrants as they are settling in a new place.” With regard to the embodied principles that the “Australian” members in particular wish to carry out, I have learned that many Australian churches continue to shrink but refuse to merge with other growing churches and that the members of those Australian churches are often too closely attached to their church buildings and do not wish to go through any major physical changes out of a merger. As a result, they will continue to guard their buildings “until the last person turns off the lights.” The Australian congregations that have successfully been involved in the mergers as described in Figure 6.1 had a common corporate identity, i.e., acknowledging the continuing shrinking and seeking innovative change. Mrs Joan Cooper puts it as follows: “We’re the pilgrim people and we’re on the move.” According to Mrs Herbert, “Australian” members of the church are highly “inspired by the faith that the Korean members display and it puts Australian members’ faith to shame. And our churches in Australia. It is just a wonderful experience to be part of their worship and music.” Mr Herbert (Co-Chairperson of the Church Council of the Deepdene church) argues that Each individual ethnic group in Australia including Aborigines may be culturally limited, but Australia is currently experimenting and discovering what Australia can do as a whole by utilising under-utilised resources, accepting others and making room for another person. This is essentially what Australia has successfully been dealing with immigrants for the last many decades. Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 139 Mrs Cooper (Co-Chairperson of the Church Council of the Deepdene church) contends that she grew up in multicultural Britain and she as a migrant from Britain understands well what the immigrants go through and “what it is like to be cut off from the family.” Cooper trained as a teacher in Britain, but was required to take up an Australian diploma for which immigrants were at the bottom of the priority list. In addition, NESB migrants have a language barrier. She argues that the church should be as tolerant as the society and be naturally supportive of their settlement process, which makes her diligently engage in the multicultural ministry. Just as Garces-Foley (2007, p.222) notes, “boundary crossers” at Deepdene have often brought skills required in negotiating the ambiguity and any difficulties that arise in the multicultural setting, which often cultivates skills necessary to make multicultural exchanges highly positive. Predominant proportions of the members of the former Deepdene UC were well educated and have been professionals throughout their life. In part because of this, they were not necessarily concerned about potential difficulties that might arise as a consequence of the merger. If any difficulties were to arise they were willing to deal with them for solutions. To apply Margaret Archer’s (2003b) modes of reflexivity, they seem to be “autonomous reflexives.” That is, they are well educated and professionally well equipped. However, my data is unable to confirm whether an “Australian” congregation with lesser education would be willing enough to merge with an immigrant church and pursue a cross-cultural ministry. My data analysis shows that it is not necessarily the length of stay of Korean immigrants that will encourage them to advocate a multicultural ministry. Rather, it depends upon how individuals have started developing their social networks since their arrival in Australia. This also indicates a clear lack of publicity and awareness of multicultural ministry. It would be fair to say that the merger that formed the present Deepdene church has reluctantly “shed” those who had relatively less commitment to a cross-cultural ministry and the congregation is left with those with more commitment. Thirdly, visionary leadership and commitment is an essential part of the start and success of a cross-cultural ministry so far. Rev Yang had long thought about negative consequences of church individualism in Korea (see Noh 1986; Han, Han, and Kim 2009) while he was working as a cleric for nine years, which raised many theological concerns and eventually brought him to Australia to observe Australian churches. After attending an AngloCeltic Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Yang ended up establishing a Korean immigrant church and came to have his own understanding of Korean immigrant churches. His observation was that Korean immigrants tended to form enclaves and that this prevented the immigrants and especially future 140 Chapter Six generations from having the challenges they require and need. Yang started proactively planning a cross-cultural congregation to embrace any ethnic background. When his newly planted church started using the premise of the South Hawthorn Uniting Church, there was a natural affinity between the church and what Rev Yang dreamt of, leading eventually to a merger. Fourthly, similar to the leaders’ visions for cross-cultural ministry, both “Australian” and “Korean” members have a commitment to “living together in harmony” in the broader Australian society as well as translating this commitment into the life of the church to start with. “Korean” members particularly advocate the need to interact closely with the broader Australian community, but disapprove the superiority of a particular culture. As noted earlier a large proportion of “Korean” members left Rev Yang in the processes of the merger. Thus the ones who are remaining with the Deepdene church have a high degree of allegiance to cross-cultural ministry. The “Korean” members are clearly aware of the convenience of generally interacting with other “Koreans,” but almost think that it is their fate to act and live together with “Australians” once they have committed their allegiance to Australia. They argue that Australia is “our country” and their active approach towards “living together” will pave a way for the next generations to become an integral part of Australia:23 “In this process, it is the church that should work as a catalyst for immigrants to join in the broader Australian society.”24 “Korean” members generally think that individual attempts to live in harmony with other “Australians” are important, but it is also important for an institution like the church to closely interact with other “Australian” institutions.25 These processes may inevitably and subtly involve young Korean descendants to actively Australianise and reject Korean language and cultural heritage (Garces-Foley 2007, p.214; DeYoung et al. 2003, p.139). Nonetheless, Australianisation may not necessarily have to accompany deKoreanisation or rejection of Korean language and cultural heritage. Key achievements so far Some of the main achievements, according to the interviewees, are as follows. Firstly, unlike some other churches that may have attempted to pursue cross-cultural ministry or maintain close relationships, the Deepdene Uniting Church has merged and formed one congregation. Importantly, there is only one budget for the congregation and this is what both parties agreed when discussing a possible merger. Rev Yang contends that forming one congregation is like living together26 under the same roof. Current appointments of “Korean” and “Australian” ministers are not “ethnic appointments” for each group, but for the whole congregation. Further, there is a deliberate effort to Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 141 create an environment whereby neither ethnic group dominates over any of the congregational activities. That is, the potentially “thorny” issues of money and power, which are often critically important to any social organisation, have been more or less resolved. Secondly, “getting to know each other” as people from different backgrounds is rightly recognised as an important achievement of the crosscultural congregation, without which many would have continued their life without such encounters.27 Most “Australian” members are used to dealing with and embracing NESB immigrants. Others are genuinely surprised by their own discriminatory attitudes towards immigrants despite their wish to belong to a cross-cultural congregation and they are willing to change their approaches, which makes the relations among the congregational members continue to evolve positively. Such changes would not have occurred had there been no opportunities for diverse ethnic groups to interact with each other in this congregation: e.g., monthly meetings of senior “Australian” and “Korean” members with the help of an interpreter; one grandma for one Korean family scheme whereby every Korean family is matched with one “Australian” grandma or great auntie (the Halmonie Scheme). Eight to twenty “Australian” members join the Korean lunch after the Sunday worship service. These efforts have broken down barriers in many ways and would have direct impact upon the continuing modification of individual identities, e.g., gradually overcoming discriminatory attitudes against “others”; “Koreans” gradually embracing equal relations between different generations. The members of the congregation now feel that they have significantly grown together. The moment of splitting the congregation at the time of sermons into English and Korean speaking groups, has for some become a sad moment. For the “Koreans,” many prefer to separate at this point as it gives them an opportunity to sing the Korean hymns they love, with great enthusiasm. The theology of these hymns is somewhat “fundamentalist” for some of the original Deepdene members. Jacob Yang is working hard to find and translate into English Korean hymns with theology acceptable to all. This is one of the unresolved issues of the church at the moment and those “Australian” members who join with the Korean members in the hall (because they are Sunday school teachers) particularly enjoy the Korean singing at this time. At present the contents of the sermons in English and Korean are not the same. The congregation is working towards not having to split into two groups, and hopefully to the congregation learning more Korean hymns. There appear to be close human relationships being formed within the congregation. “Australian” members generally see Korean members as their own children and grand children. The quilting group of “Australians” sews a patched quilt for every new-born Korean infant. There are regular 142 Chapter Six celebrations of birthdays of all the members of the congregation. Everyone tries to remember the names of the congregational members. “Australian” members have set up a few English classes to teach “Korean” members English. These social interactions certainly help this multilingual and multicultural congregation to achieve unity within the congregation (GarcesFoley 2007, p.213). The Deepdene church has been a positive case that a cross-cultural congregation is possible and the synod is aware of this “success story.” This has led a few “Australian” congregations to consider merging with Korean congregations, and at present Yang is assisting St John’s UC Essendon towards this aim. Key influential factors that have made the cross-cultural ministry successful There are a few intrinsic qualities that have been influential in the successful making of the cross-cultural congregation. Firstly, willingness to make it work and perseverance from both parties, and resolving the issues together have sustained the congregation. There appears to be little in common between “Australian” and “Korean” members within the congregation with regard to their language, culture, age, theology. Most “Australian” members are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, and many are starting to lose their hearing capacity. They have difficulty conversing to most “Koreans” with their strong accents, but they willingly persevere, said the “Australian” interviewees. Nearly all Korean adults make a consistent effort to learn English as they are also determined to improve their communication with the “Australian” members. There have been no immediate resolutions on this major difficulty, but the determination of both parties to stay as one congregation clearly outweighs any inconveniences they are experiencing. It is ironical that this inconvenience seems to work as a catalyst for both parties to stay together. Any potential problem becomes compounded when it gets intertwined with cultural differences and inefficient communication between the groups. For example, the South Hawthorn church prior to its merger with the Deepdene Uniting Church made a commitment to employ a Korean youth worker before drawing up a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the upcoming merger between the South Hawthorn and Deepdene churches. Completing the merger, the commitment to employ the youth worker needed to be honoured especially from the viewpoints of “Koreans.” However, this commitment appeared to be “illegal” to some “Australian” members of the newly formed Deepdene church since it was beyond the MOU and seemed to downplay the need for outreaching to the older people in the region as stipulated in the MOU. There was a clear tension between the Western culture of honouring the principles Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 143 and contracts and the Korean culture of being willing to improvise as required in a changing context. The effort to resolve this particular case lasted for nearly twelve months of 2009. At the end, there was a congregational vote, which was considered to be “legal” without breaching the integrity of the MOU, revealing 120 members supporting and five “Australians” against the employment of the youth worker. Three of those five subsequently left the congregation. It is worth noting that although the case has been a thorny matter the majority of the “Australian” members have been committed to making the merger work and have always constructively approached any inter-ethnic interactions. Further, many “Korean” members would often reserve their views rather than disagree with the older “Australian” members in the church whereas the latter are willing to debate prior to making decisions. “Australian” members have noticed that some “Koreans” would rather walk out of the debate than try to put forward their arguments. In addition to these cultural clashes, the problem is exacerbated by the language barrier. Consequently, decision making is delayed and misunderstanding increases. Despite these complex difficulties, both parties seem extraordinarily willing to exercise a high degree of tolerance to each other. Mr Kim Jong-Min, a “Korean” member, contends that in order to sustain the highly understanding relationships, “Koreans” should fulfil their duties and responsibilities before seeking their rights. Secondly, much of the success so far is attributed to Rev Jacob Yang’s leadership and vision for the cross-cultural ministry and patience. I have learned that Rev Yang pursues a bottom up approach and perseverance rather than a top down approach in haste. Yang has been frustrated with the congregational effort trying to “make it work” just as “Australian” members would have. However, he argues that prioritising his own positions is of little help, but listening to “Australians” in particular and a patient approach have been helpful for the sake of the organisation. According to Joan Cooper, “Jacob’s dream to have all of us together all the time has been particularly important.” He is also known to speak from his heart and this is what many members admire him about. Further, his family members are deeply involved in the tasks such as playing the piano, violin and cello, and dealing with the overhead projector through the computer. Mrs Yang works tirelessly in the kitchen every Sunday. Yang’s personal attributes and his family effort seem to inject “the need for a spirit of family” into the congregation. Thirdly, a high degree of understanding between the different cultural groups has been paramount. Through a few mergers, “Australians” have come to better understand the difficulties that the migrants go through with their employment and language barrier. Prior to the merger between the South Hawthorn church and the Korean church, some members of the 144 Chapter Six Korean church were concerned that the young children might run around and make noise in the church. However, this caused no concern to the older “Australian” members, the latter rather responding with the question: “Why should the children be a problem?” After the merger, one day, a “Korean” boy kicked a soccer ball in the worship hall and broke a window. A dominant “Australian” view was: “Aren’t we lucky to have a young child who can kick a soccer ball through the window?” Undoubtedly, there is an issue with people’s safety, but their deliberate attempt to understand and to make the merger work is astonishing. At South Hawthorn a few “Australian” members redesigned some doors around the church premises, replacing the bottom glass parts of the doors with wood for the sake of children’s safety. In fact, there is strong consensus from both “Australian” and “Korean” members that children are the future of the church. Naturally, a significant focus is given to meeting the needs of the children. There are also many explanations to “Korean” members during Council meetings, no matter how cumbersome the effort may be. At times, there seemed to have been attempts from each of the two groups to dominate in the process of settling the merger. However, both parties continue to take lessons and are highly restrained in trying not to take any dominant places, but to be considerate to others as much as possible. A high level of understanding and encouragement seems to give confidence to each other and create mutual enthusiasm. This suggests the possibility of Stephen Warner’s vision for “a society with a multitude of particular communities but also with multitude bridges between them” (Warner 1997, p.225). To bring this to a reality, Warner suggests that ‘we need to go beyond the alternatives of “assimilation” (which denies the reality of difference) and “multiculturalism” (which denies the reality of inclusion) to what Virgilio Elizondo has called mestizaje.’28 According to Elizondo (1983: 27), “It is the traditionally dominant group that will have to have the greater humility to face itself openly and admit that it has much to receive, much to learn, from the groups that it has previously considered inferior.” Whilst this move needs to continue, it will bear fruit only when there continues to be a reply in kind from the ethnic community (cf. Lee 1996). Fourthly, study participants have pointed out that their faith has been an important reason that they have patiently been engaged in the cross-cultural ministry and that this is what distinguishes their church from other secular organisations. My question on “what makes their church different from other churches” was responded to by putting a question back to me: “If we as a church can’t nurture the immigrants who will?”29 They think that it is simply “a Christian imperative to engage in the cross-cultural ministry in the context of our congregation and the broader community today.” Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 145 Key difficulties and challenges The present Deepdene UC is an outcome of multiple mergers. A predominant proportion of the members of the merged South Hawthorn UC agreed with the plan to merge with the former Deepdene church. However, about forty “Korean” and several “Australian” members did not shift across to the merged Deepdene church. Similarly, some of the members of the former Deepdene church agreed with the merger plan, but consequently left for another church. This indicates that, as the study participants observed, there are many challenges to attend to. Rev Yang acknowledges that it is not simply a romantic relationship that “Australian” and “Korean” members easily manage their day-to-day needs of the congregation, but that there are many tasks to overcome to make the relationship workable. Due to the language barrier and cultural differences, misunderstanding each other occurs sometimes and Koreans are not well represented in decision making bodies like the Church Council and Worship Committee. “Koreans” have difficulty coming to the Council meeting during weeknights. The meeting sometimes occurs on Sunday afternoon to enable more “Koreans” to attend it, but they do not express enough of their opinions since they miss some details of the contents under discussion. Moreover, “Australians” are used to discussing prior to making a collective decision whereas “Koreans” tend to leave significant decision making with their leaders. There is an ongoing effort to help the “Korean” members to participate actively in the process, e.g., as mentioned earlier, briefing the meeting agendas to “Korean” members and finding out what their wishes are prior to the meeting, and interpretations during the meeting. Another related suggestion is for “Korean” representatives to figure out what the “Korean” members desire regarding the meeting agendas, so that they can adequately represent “Korean” perspectives. Although this is a convoluted process this is considered to safeguard democratic decision making. The following perspective seems rather prevalent among the “Australian” members. Despite all these differences, “Australians” must keep loving “Koreans” to allow them as much time as they need. It is a terrible thing for an Aussie person to say to “Koreans”: “You are now in Australia, you must speak English and you must learn it.” “Koreans” all know that English is the dominant language, thus those comments don’t help and are not encouraging, but criticism. Support and understanding are much more helpful. A list of problems we have within the church is our biggest asset (L. Herbert). The above-mentioned last sentence seems out of the experience that a financially well established church, but with little outreaching to the community or few issues to resolve, has little future to look forward to. Some 146 Chapter Six “Australian” members routinely help out “Koreans” preparing official letters and responses or filling out complex government application forms. Giving emphasis on understanding the difficulties that immigrants go through and helping them out is identified as one of the important tasks for the future. “Korean” members mostly live far from the church and have difficulty contributing to the tasks such as preparing the church ready for service, turning on or off the lights and heaters. “Australian” members have come to accept the limitations of “Korean” members rather than be overly concerned about them. If the combined part of the Sunday services is to survive, it is important for “Korean” members to be on time and also share all the preparations before the start of the service. Addressing this concern will remove unnecessarily potential concerns and disappointments from “Australian” members, questioning the extent to which “Koreans” value the time to worship together. Cultural differences in the church community cause difficulties as follows. Yang observes that Koreans in general do not easily approach older people who are often the subjects of respect. On the other hand, older Australians see their aging as part of growing weak and can feel that “Koreans” do not easily approach the older Australian members because they are somewhat looked down upon. This can cause misunderstandings between these culturally different groups. If this misunderstanding occurs once in a while between individuals the problem may not be serious enough. However, when this happens between two culturally different groups the extent of the problem can be exacerbated. “Korean” members in their interactions with “Australians” tend to reserve their concerns to themselves as much as possible, whereas “Australian” members often freely share their “minor” concerns with “Koreans.” “Koreans” then take it wrongly and question why “Australian” members are unnecessarily picky, rather than embracing the “Australian” culture of expression, discussion and debate. “Australians” can agree to disagree among themselves, but “Australians” do not feel comfortable doing this with “Koreans.”30 It is a challenge to keep the “cultures” of different generations together, i.e., the cultures of the youth and aged; modern and old theologies; modern and old music; and “Australian” and “Korean” cultures. Current arrangement of the buildings is not supportive of free movement of older members to interact with younger members. The congregation is working on the renovation of the building to address this matter. Different theologies have been embodied and acculturated differently in different contexts by “Australian” and “Korean” members. However, the congregation continues nurturing diverse ethnic cultures of “Koreans” as well as any other, e.g., by providing the needs of those under inter-ethnic marriage. Yet, an objective of the cross-cultural ministry is to provide a bridge between “Australian” and “foreign” cultures or Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 147 help them merge constructively, rather than merely helping “foreign” cultures to proliferate in Australia. It is like going on a journey. Koreans come on a journey to Australia, bringing a lot of Korean cultural luggage. As they adapt to Australian lifestyle, it is inevitable that they slowly discover which luggage they need and which they don’t need. They can gradually decide what they want to leave behind. An appropriate luggage in Korea may not be useful in Australia. That is a personal decision. “Australians” should not interfere in that decision (L. Herbert). “Australian” members in particular point out that it is important to maintain a certain proportion of “Australians” within the congregation and comprise many more ethnic groups in the long run, i.e., “embracing all the different nations in the world, which may lead to getting rid of the concepts of mainstream and marginals.”31 This will help the congregation balance between ethnic groups in order to facilitate the congregation to reach out effectively to the broader community. Also it is considered important to diversify the ethnic backgrounds of the congregation to other groups rather than allowing “Koreans” to remain increasingly a more dominant group. One suggested way to overcome this may be that the congregation could consider merging with another church in order to be able to enjoy the economy of scale for the purpose of effective outreach. Just as the literature shows that multicultural ministry tends to reach out to the broader community (Becker 1998), the Deepdene Uniting Church also wishes to go beyond Sunday worship service and into the lives of people with problems, which, Lindsay Herbert argues, are the areas of mission. Unless the congregation can increase its “Australian” or other ethnic populations, the congregation is in the risk of becoming an NESB or Korean immigrant church — part of the process of “de-Europeanisation” of Christianity (Warner 2004). As soon as the proportion of “Australians” decreases, they start bearing the difficulties making the multicultural church work (Christerson and Emerson 2003; Garces-Foley 2007, p.222). At the time of writing, the congregation is eagerly awaiting a new minister to work with Rev Yang from February 2011. He is a Samoan immigrant and trained in Australia. His arrival is expected to inject much energy into the cross-cultural congregation. Support from denomination, synod and presbytery has been vital in the process of the merger. The synod has been able to amend some regulations as to how the capital from selling previous church buildings can be used. However, whilst the UCA has visionary policy towards cross-cultural ministry it needs to further develop the ways in which the cross-cultural ministry can be supported in each congregation, taking into consideration the characteristics and given context of each congregation. 148 Chapter Six In brief, the cross-cultural ministry at the Deepdene church is “work in progress” spiritually and socially.32 Both “Australian” and “Korean” parties admit that the cross-cultural ministry is unlikely to be complete in their own generation. Although the church faces numerous issues to resolve, they are convinced that they are in the right direction for changes and improvements. Undoubtedly, the clergy and leaders of the congregation need to provide the congregation continuously with future directions and ideas to sustain the cross-cultural ministry especially in the contexts of the congregation and external situations. What is the future vision and future prospect? Joan Cooper calls herself an optimistic realist in terms of the future of the cross-cultural ministry, adding that if the trial goes as well as it currently does it has a bright future, but this is not a trial with a predictable outcome even under every best effort and one may need to be prepared for a less than bright prospect. The members of the congregation hope that “we can rediscover the excitement that comes from other people discovering that what the church offers is worthwhile and helps with life in every way.” The members of the Deepdene church are not unaware of the cold reality that there are many Korean immigrant churches competing against each other hoping to recruit more members to their own congregations. However, most members of the Deepdene church think that the cross-cultural ministry is unavoidable and its future prospect is highly positive. It is extremely impressive that Rev Yang has a dream and has been pioneering in this new territory of cross-cultural ministry. He has been seeking new ideas from numerous sources, but generally in vain. It is futuristic as well as essential to think through the ways in which the Assembly of the UCA can provide effective support at the levels of congregation and presbytery.33 Many insights have already been obtained from the “experiment” so far. However, how the “experiment” can come to further fruition beyond the Deepdene church needs to be debated much more broadly within the Assembly. Eventual benefits are well beyond the Assembly, leading to benefit the church and the broader community. CONCLUDING REMARKS All these efforts to develop socially inclusive institutions are critical as part of building a religiously strong and embracing organisation, but also of remaining as a cooperative organisation in the broader development of multiculturalism. Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 149 However, Becker (1998, p.466) notes that “local organizations, committed to reflecting their local communities, are generally no more integrated than those communities themselves.” As Massey and Denton (1993) noted, the broader socio-economic and cultural context of multiculturalism is a structure upon which other forms of inclusive organisations can be established and prosper. As noted earlier, it is the prior development of multiculturalism in the broader society on which cross-cultural ministry has modelled. This suggests that there needs to be a continuing dialectic development between cross-cultural ministry within religious organisations and multiculturalism in the broader society. Here the desired goal is, on one hand, to establish Christian churches whereby political and social divisions have no place to endure, where boundaries are blurred and where people get to respect one another irrespective of ethnicity; and on the other to continue to tackle “structural inequality and group-based interests” (Becker 1998, p.470). The two congregations that have been under examination have made a worthwhile start on the cross-cultural ministry, but could run the risk of settling with an assimilationist model or a pluralist model, which promotes diversity but “fails to integrate members in any meaningful way into a genuine community” (Garces-Foley 2007, p.217). DeYoung et al. (2003, p.171) suggest that the ideal multicultural church is one that reflects dimensions of the represented cultures, as well as a newly formed unique culture that transcends worldly divisions (race, language and ethnicity), which Virgilio Elizondo (1978) calls mestizaje. Initiatives for a cross-cultural ministry in a local church may occur around a limited proportion of the members, but its maintenance and further development require further effort from the members of the congregation and the supportive context from the broader society. Whilst a cross-cultural ministry seems unavoidable in the current context it is crucial to be aware of the kinds of issues and tensions possibly arising from forming a multicultural congregation and making it successful. More cases of cross-cultural churches and their depth of development in the Australian context may result in further studies and more insights on how institutional effort contributes to the formation of individual identities. An important reason for my having prepared this chapter has been to examine the extent to which an institutional effort is made within the Korean community whereby Korean immigrants are encouraged to develop inclusive, cosmopolitan and transnational identities. As shown in this chapter, the two “Korean” congregations have made an impressive start with varying degrees of achievement. The responses and cooperation from the “Australian” communities have also been remarkable.34 Similar to the individual agents living through their journeys in their contexts, individual congregations as institutional agents also continuously 150 Chapter Six go through reflective moments in the historical and socio-economic contexts. I would argue that, again similar to the modes of reflexivity as discussed in this book, the church as an organisation seems to display a range of modes of its reflexivity. The church displaying communicative reflexivity (Archer 2003a, 2007) may be settled with its needs within the congregation rather than reaching out to the community. The church displaying autonomous reflexivity may focus on programmes within or outside the congregation and/ or in actively participating in social services and justice matters. The church displaying meta-reflexivity would have a sense of calling and of faithfully undertaking how it could carry out the principles of its core beliefs and how it could marry its beliefs and actions as closely as possible. This may demand a complex set of social scientific measures. However, I contend that several qualitative interviews with church-goers have abundantly revealed that an extraordinarily good will to “live together” exists between the older immigrants and the new immigrants. Indeed, Australia is a fertile ground to cultivate the spirit of tolerance and diversity, thus facilitating the formation of inclusive, cosmopolitan and transnational identities. NOTES 1. Some of these have been mentioned in earlier chapters. 2. Richmond and Yang (2006a) note that “multicultural” acknowledges the presence of many cultures and “cross-cultural” begs active interaction and that there may be a multicultural church without being cross-cultural. This chapter uses multicultural ministry and cross-cultural ministry interchangeably. 3. There are some exceptional cases, see Richmond and Yang (2006b). 4. There are half a dozen Korean churches that have established English ministries in the metropolitan Sydney. 5. For broader studies in relation to multiculturalism and Christianity, see Watson (2009), Carey (1996), Miley (2002), McGillon (2003), Bouma (2006a, b). 6. See Glock (1993) for the responses of American churches to broader societal changes on the issues of anti-Semitism, race relations, the status of women, and human sexuality in twentieth century (cf. Wood 1990). 7. Although in a different context, Bob Roberts (cited in Galli 2007, p.42), who promotes the idea of the church’s engaging in the world, says: a local church must be a global church — thus “glocal.” 8. This term is used simply to indicate that Korean ethnic members are involved in the multicultural ministry rather than to indicate that Korean ethnic groups enjoy a particular “ownership” as is the case in the Korean immigrant churches. 9. Pastor Lee compares the arrangement with China, maintaining two systems of mainland China and Hong Kong within one nation. 10. This is a pseudonym. Imagining and Moving towards a Cross-Cultural Congregation 151 11. This is often understood to be a Korean Thanksgiving day. 12. “There is no longer Jew or Greek. There is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 28). 13. In the 2010 games, the Sudanese team won the cup and the Burmese team had second position. 14. Formerly a member of the South Hawthorn Uniting Church, now a member of the Deepdene Uniting Church. 15. http://deepdene.unitingchurch.org.au/page46/page46.html, Deepdene Uniting Church, 2010. 16. http://deepdene.unitingchurch.org.au/page8/page8.html, Deepdene Uniting Church, 2010; Prior to the merger with the South Hawthorn Uniting Church, the Deepdene Uniting Church made an unsuccessful attempt to merge with St David’s and Camberwell Uniting Churches, prior to which a merger attempt with St Aidan’s UC was also unsuccessful. 17. http://deepdene.unitingchurch.org.au/page1/page1.html, Deepdene Uniting Church, 2010; The page also notes the following: “The Frank Paton Memorial Church at Deepdene has long had historical links with South Korea. The Rev Frank Paton, a former minister, encouraged the Presbyterian Church to undertake mission activities in Korea. The Rev J. Noble Mackenzie and his wife Mary (nee Kelly) served there as Presbyterian missionaries. Their children were born there. Later their two eldest daughters returned to Busan as medical missionaries. They established the first hospital for women and children. Starting in a dilapidated kindergarten, Dr Helen Mackenzie and Sister Cath Mackenzie saw the Il Sin Hospital develop to become the premier teaching hospital in Korea. It is now mainly staffed by Korean doctors and nurses. When J. Noble Mackenzie retired from missionary service the family came to live in Deepdene. He became the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria and laid the foundation stone of what is now known as the Deepdene Uniting Church. Two of the Mackenzie sisters, Lucy and Sheila still worship at Deepdene. Helen died recently [in 2009] and Cath died several years ago.” See Jeong (2007) for the mission activities of the Australian Presbyterian Church in Korea. 18. http://deepdene.unitingchurch.org.au/page8/page8.html, Deepdene Uniting Church, 2010; The webpage also notes that the South Hawthorn Uniting Church was sold at auction on 27th June 2009. 19. Interview, Sadie Stevens, 26 August 2010. 20. The choir often has all the members taking turns in singing in English and Korean. 21. “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace 152 Chapter Six to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 12-18). 22. Rev Yang notes that Rev Noble MacKenzie, an Australian missionary, made a significant contribution to Korea. Upon his return to Melbourne, Rev MacKenzie served the Victorian Synod of the Presbyterian Church and the Frank Paton Memorial Church. Rev MacKenzie was a key figure paving the way to abolishing the White Australia Policy in the 1940s. Thus there is a good parallel between what Rev MacKenzie advocated and what the cross-cultural ministry attempts to achieve. 23. Interview, Myoung-Suk Maurovic, 22 August 2010. 24. Interview, Kim Jong-Min, 23 August 2010. 25. Interview, Rev Jacob Yang, 24 August 2010. 26. Yang uses the phrase, “gachi saneun geot” (같이 사는것). 27. Interview, Joan Cooper, 25 August 2010. 28. Perhaps similar to this, Langmead and Yang (2006) introduce a metaphor of minestrone soup whereby no culture is lost but expressed in a multicultural congregation or a new flavour is created from the variety of “old flavours,” resulting from the various ingredients, without losing the old individual flavours. 29. Interview, Barbara and Lindsay Herbert, 20 August 2010. 30. Interview, Joan Cooper, 25 August 2010. 31. Interview, Kim Jong-Min, 23 August 2010. 32. Interview, Lindsay Herbert, 20 August 2010. 33. The Assembly of the UCA has published Snapshots of Multicultural Ministry (2006) containing twenty stories of multicultural congregations as a way of addressing the matter. 34. This chapter has no intention to suggest that all the Korean immigrant churches pursue a multicultural congregation in the ways in which the two churches under examination have done. Any such suggestion ignores the importance of embracing tolerance and diversity. Chapter Seven Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction: Identities of Young Korean Sojourners as Portrayed in The Melbourne Sky The Korean community in Australia consists of 60,873 individuals with fullor part- Korean ancestry, according to the 2006 ABS Census. This is a huge increase from the 1986 ABS Census figure of 10,264, in comparison with the population growth of other minority groups. The economic prosperity of Korea since the 1990s has led to a large influx of Korean students, tourists and other short-term stayers in Australia. For example, in 2006, following China (90,287) and India (39,166), Korea supplied the third largest number of students to Australia (31,257) studying at schools, higher education institutes and English language schools (Australian Government 2006). In addition to these influxes of Korean students, the actual Korean populations of major Australian cities are far greater than the figures provided by the ABS Census at any moment in time. The Korean Societies in Sydney and Melbourne estimate that there are about 100,000 Koreans in metropolitan Sydney and more than 20,000 in greater Melbourne. By far, the church remains the most significant Korean ethnic institution in terms of maintaining Korean ethnicity and interaction for economic, cultural and educational purposes (Han 1994d). A range of media such as print media, television and radio also constitute an important institution which keeps the Korean population informed of news and information from Korea, the Korean community and the broader Australian society. Generally speaking, the media in the Korean community not only has a role to play in exerting a positive influence on personal and group identity formation and maintenance, but it also reflects closely the breadth and depth of the socio-economic reality of Korean migrant life. Despite its significance, the media in the life of Korean immigrants in Australia, has not been given the scholarly attention it deserves except for Kwak (1991). 153 154 Chapter Seven This chapter is designed to start filling in this gap and (1) to explore and describe the ways in which Korean ethnicity is depicted through the media consumed by temporary Korean youth in Australia; and (2) to discuss the significance of the media as it affects the formation and maintenance of Korean identities. Cunningham (2002, p.268) notes that “minoritarian public spheres” created and utilised by ethnic minorities are different from typical large scale and dominant public spheres, “but are nonetheless vibrant, globalised but very specific spaces of self- and community-making and identity.” I intend to explore the Korean-Australian media’s depiction of “self- and community-making and identity,” bearing in mind that the Korean-Australian community and its media operates within the given political-economic context of Australia, Korea and the world system. In the light of these, this chapter analyses cover stories of a Korean ethnic weekly magazine in Melbourne, The Melbourne Sky. Korean migrants in Australia often assume the young and short-term stayers (sojourners) maintain their own values and pursue life goals that are significantly different from those of permanent residents. This chapter attempts to explore what these different values and life goals may be as portrayed in the cover stories of the magazine. Postmodernist perspectives have celebrated their prominence in most disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, especially over the last three decades. Individuals and minority groups have been re-invigorated with such concepts as “active audience” and “decentred” individual subjectivities (Ang 1996). It is undoubtedly important to acknowledge that minority communities, for instance in Australia, have a significant degree of control over respective media cultures through their own patterns of production, distribution and consumption of media texts such as ethnic magazines, satellite TV, and DVDs containing materials originating from their home countries (Cunningham and Sinclair 2001, p.6). However, it is also important to examine how the consumption of such media texts takes place in the broader context of the often marginalised life of migrants; how they cope with, and eventually, overcome their dis-located identities. That is, contemporary industrial society has a number of new and unique characteristics that have been brought about by new information and communications technologies, but the fundamental premise under which contemporary society and its media operate still has much more in common with modern society than is often proposed. That is, similar to industrial society or that of modernism, contemporary society can also be discussed using concepts such as dominance, mainstream and peripheries (Cunningham 2002, p.269). This is the broad context in which the subjects of analysis of this chapter are located. Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 155 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MAGAZINE In Melbourne, there is one Korean language ethnic weekly newspaper: Melbeon Ilyo Sinmun (Melbourne Sunday Paper), and three weekly magazines: Melbourne Sky (Melbeon-ui Haneul)1; Melbeon Jeoneol (Melbourne Journal); Raon by Korea 21.2 Melbourne Journal is the longest and best established magazine of the four and its target readership is the “established” Korean migrants in Melbourne. Apart from Melbourne Journal with its several years’ history, the rest are no more than a few years old. The Melbourne Sky published its first volume on 24 April 2007. Its readership is targeted at tertiary Korean-Australian students and medium- to long-term stayers with tourist or working holiday visa scheme (age limit to qualify for this scheme is 30)3 or student visas. The cover stories of The Melbourne Sky are the foci of the analysis in this chapter. The Melbourne Sky magazine contains 168 pages including the covers, consisting of a cover story, Australian news in brief (3 pages), 2-3 current affairs and issues from Korea (2 pages), sensational news from around the world (3 pages), brief news items from Korea (2 pages), sports news from Korea (3 pages), news about celebrities from Korea (3 pages), world news items (3 pages). The rest are about: know-how on dating, sexual health, romantic histories, psychology of the sexes, cartoons, a profile of a successful professional person, exemplary success stories, and classified advertisements. The magazine seems to report little, if any, news and information created by their own reporters, but instead reproduces that from media around the world. The editor of The Melbourne Sky lists the names of major media companies from Korea, China, Russia, Brazil and Australia and that they have contractual arrangements between The Melbourne Sky and those companies. The editor also disclaims responsibility for the accuracy of the news, information and the contents of advertisements. Son Jae-Hun, cover model of the fifth issue of The Melbourne Sky describes the magazine as “publishing the contents just right for our generation.” In its early days of the publication of the magazine, a few models were asked to make suggestions as to how overseas students from Korea could improve their English language ability (v.6, 29/5/2007). Such a question partly indicates that Korean overseas students make up the important audience. Kim Min-Ji, cover model of volume seven describes it as follows: The magazine is really open-minded. It handles the kinds of issues that other magazines are reluctant to handle. It puts the magazine in a rather comfortable position. Older generations are not as open-minded as they should be. Younger generations generally wish to discuss things openly.4 156 Chapter Seven Perhaps, those “things” may refer to the ones including dating, sexual health, romantic histories, psychology of the sexes, etc. It seems natural that when a group of young people find the matters of their own interest those issues become conversational topics for them. Park Eun-Hye (v.12, 10/7/2007) contends that this is a feature of the magazine, distinct from other magazines which do not usually generate conversations with her friends. Also important in the context of this chapter is that The Melbourne Sky recruits its cover models from its own readers within the Korean community in Melbourne. This idea seems appealing to a good proportion of those female readers in their twenties. According to Song Yun-Seon (v.14, 24/7/2007), “My mother and my work colleagues were highly encouraging for me to compete for a cover model. They thought that it is such a brilliant idea to use ordinary people like me for the magazine’s cover models and publish their personal life stories.”5 Yang Sena (v.25, 9/10/2007) adds: “There are past models of the magazine whom I personally know and others whom I do not know. However, what is obvious is that there are high chances that I will come across those models in my everyday life. This is what makes me feel so close to all those models.” Many of the published models have competed for the role some weeks before their departing schedule and regarded the opportunity as memorable. Until the contesting moment they remain shy about the idea of being a cover model. DIASPORIC MEDIA AND AUDIENCE “The Ethno-specific Mediated Sphericule” is a concept theorising ethnic media and audience developed by Cunningham (2002, p.270) and it illustrates that there are four central components therein. Some of the components are extracted and elaborated for the purpose of this chapter as follows. Firstly, they are “sphericules” without critical mass, thus remaining as social fragments. Ethnic media connects an ethnic community to a diverse range of diasporic communities within host environments and around the world, and articulates ethno-specific identities of a given community. Cunningham (2002, p.271) notes that no single ethnic community in Australia has been sufficiently well established to be able to fully enjoy the economies of scale in its own right. This indicates that diasporic media in each ethnic community may be limited in terms of their ability to generate their own news and information and take “a fully-fledged role” in the public sphere. This may engender an extreme degree of commercialisation (Cunningham 2002, p.272; Naficy 1993; Kolar-Panov 1997). Secondly, Cunningham (2002, p.273) notes that “ethno-specific public sphericules are not congruent with international taste cultures borne by Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 157 a homogenising global media culture.” Much of the diasporic pursuit of identity is often about remembering past memories, maintaining emotional and/or pragmatic commitment to their past homeland, as well as utilising their links to it for their business opportunities (cf. Plaza 2009). The so called “long-distance nationalism” (Cunningham 2002, p.273; Waldinger and Fitzgerald 2004) can separate an ethnic community from the host country, and cause division among the people within an ethnic community. The latter may precipitate the renewal of the community’s identity and future directions. The consumption of media from the homeland is one of the most common ways of staying in touch with it.6 Thirdly, the diasporic media has far greater significance in each ethnic community than the significance of the mainstream media on the general population. The media make up the recognised significant sources of information and entertainment in the ethnic community, and few other mediators are available. Diasporic media may generally pursue commercial benefits and compete against each other, without enjoying economies of scale in part due to a small ethnic population, that is, in the context of “not fully fledged markets” (Cunningham 2002, p.274). Cunningham (2002, p.275) notes that “this is small business commercialism which deals with the practical specificities of cultural difference at the local level as an absolute precondition of business viability.” Fourthly, due to the marginalisation of the ethnic community in the broader host society and its lack of political representation and other opportunities, diasporic media take the key roles of communication beyond some specifically significant organisations such as the churches and temples in specific ethnic communities. According to Cunningham (2002, pp.275-6), this media-centricity precipitates “new configurations of the informationentertainment,” whereby there is also “a constant blurring of the informationentertainment distinction, giving rise to a positive sense of a “tabloidised” sphericule.” Cunningham’s theorising has notable value in understanding ethnic media and audience and it is worth exploring the applicability of his concepts with reference to a range of diasporic media in many ethnic communities. What is less than explicit is the depiction of the marginalised immigrant life of the uprooted or transnational audience. In fact, it is this political-economic dimension of immigrant life which creates specific needs of a diasporic audience and determines media resources for consumption and how and what kinds of diasporic media texts are produced and distributed. As some critiques of Habermas’s original ideal/historical model of the public sphere have noted, the “general public sphere” ignores women and non-whites (or NESB migrants), especially in the era of globalisation (cf. Couldry and Dreher 2007; Fraser 1992). 158 Chapter Seven The primary focus and interest of the magazine under discussion as well as the other two weekly magazines seems to be advertising. This is closely compatible with Dallas Smythe’s (1977) comment that TV is a “free lunch.” Indeed, the weekly magazines are meant to be the sources of advertising revenue, but some pages are filled with entertaining news, sensational information as well as some other useful components such as yellow pages for the Korean community in Melbourne and classified advertisements — flats for rent, flea markets, cars and essential goods for sale. The competition for advertising rights would be severe among the three weekly magazines and one weekly paper especially when there are only about 20,000 to 25,000 ethnic Koreans in the metropolitan Melbourne. Business viability remains a critical issue for the survival of these magazines (Cunningham 2002). It is worth noting that these magazines provide the newer generation, such as tertiary education students, short-term visitors, working holiday visa holders, with key information to survive in Australia in general. More focus is given to their survival “within the Korean community” and less to the broader Australian society. In this process, this group of people use these magazines as an “intra-community” communication tool through which they begin to form a new kind of identity — Korean-Australian-community identity. This identity may not be closely connected to the mainstream Australian society and culture. This Korean-Australian-community identity is a kind of a “Korean-in-Australia identity” as opposed to Korean-Australian identity. On the other hand, the older generational or settled people use these magazines to stay connected to Korean identities. This section has broadly discussed NESB “minoritarian” media production, distribution and consumption in the context of the Western society, which helps us to see the media in the context. The following section is to illustrate different kinds of reflexivities, developed by Margaret Archer (2003), that people initiate and employ inner conversations as ways of monitoring relations between self and society in pursuing their values, realising their concerns and achieving their goals in life, i.e., the process of searching their identities. THEORISING REFLEXIVITY WITH REFERENCE TO STRUCTURE AND AGENCY Chapter two discussed that the reflexive self-consciousness is achieved through an internal conversation within a person. Archer’s (2003) reflexivity is an attempt to specifically reclaim the importance of an individual agent as she or he constantly establishes a stance towards societal enable- Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 159 ments and constraints. As also discussed, the reflexive self-consciousness is closely related to individual identities. The Korean sojourners in Australia in their twenties are in the process of planning their goals, preparing necessary skills to achieve them, sharpening their ultimate concerns and practising their required principles. Archer notes that there are different modes of reflexivity that individual agents practise throughout their life although individual type is not fixed. Archer’s suggested types are: communicative, autonomous, meta-reflexivity, fractured reflexivity and near non-reflexivity. The central focus of this chapter is to analyse life stories of the cover models of The Melbourne Sky with reference to Archer’s suggested modes of reflexivity. This section briefly summarises the different modes of reflexivity for the purpose of this chapter. Firstly, “communicative reflexivity” is a mode of internal conversation whose deliberation often carries out by turning to similar others. “Communicative reflexives” are not ambitious with their professional aspirations and they are not enthusiastic social competitors. Their satisfactions are “intrinsic and expressive” (p.205). They do not generally make distinctions between the public and the private. Their source of contentment is sought from their small personal world which is somewhat detached from the broader society, but that is where their ultimate concerns lie. Family and friends make up the most significant concerns for them (p.167). For example, “communicative reflexives” may skilfully reduce their work-related career aspirations in order to honour their values on family relations or friendships (p.236). “Communicative reflexives” need to stay in touch continuously with those who can confirm or endorse their “thought and talk” processes (p.235). Archer (p.168) notes that her study participants who fall under this category maintain “considerable occupational continuity.” With regard to class, status, and power, Archer (p.203) contends, “communicative reflexives” seek “comfort rather than affluence, personal respect rather than high esteem and, at most, a limited local influence rather than substantial power or authority.” Secondly, “autonomous reflexives” may originate from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. However, they tend to distance themselves from their own backgrounds and look to “broader social horizons” (see Archer 2003, p.228). Unlike “communicative reflexives,” “autonomous reflexives” think that none of the others can know their own minds better than themselves and to them, “their inner deliberations are self-sufficient” (p.210). Again unlike “communicative reflexives,” “autonomous reflexives” pay significant priority to societal issues and their work. Thus they may be inclined to formulate ‘projects which would burst their contextual bounds’ (p.228), that is, projects that may encounter hostile opposition from their own parents. High standards of “fairness” in inter-personal relations make up one of the few priority con- 160 Chapter Seven cerns that are important to “autonomous reflexives” (p.237). “‘Contextual discontinuity’ spells a break with the traditions of their upbringing, and the thrust of their ultimate concerns usually precludes the adoption of the conventions prevalent in their new milieu. ... To ‘communicative reflexives,’ ‘family and friends’ came first and work was subordinate; for ‘autonomous reflexives’ these two priorities are reversed” (p.243). They are generally strategic in their own lives, that is, they are active agents who will try to control their own life affairs rather than being passive and watching things happen to them (p.251). They are also sure as to what they want in society and through their personal life, and formulate strategies to achieve their wishes. They are also actively coordinating and “activating the causal powers or constraints and enablements” (p.252). Importantly, Archer (2003, p.254) also notes that both “communicative reflexives” and “autonomous reflexives” are active agents, but the former is an agent for stability and the latter an agent for change. “Autonomous reflexives” attempt to promote what they care about most. More than those with any other mode of reflexivity, these are people who both know what they want and also know a good deal about how to go about getting it. They do so strategically, as agents who endorse the life-politics of the possible. Thirdly, “meta reflexivity” is about people’s tendency to be reflexive about their own acts of reflexivity (p.255). “Meta-reflexives” tend to be wanderers and not to be permanently settling because there is one or more things that they find lacking, disagreeable or detrimental about a given context, which tends to impede “the full expression of who they want to be” (p.258). They are “amongst society’s critics, not only in relation to their own pre-occupations but also in terms of distributive injustice. ... there is a deep concern for the underdog, the oppressed, and the globally deprived” (p.258). They are idealists and are constantly bothered about an inherent tension between structure and culture. No available social arrangements are close enough to their ideal prescriptions, leading them to be critical of the society. Their idealist attitudes make them critical of themselves as persons as well as whether or not they are leading ideal lives (p.258). “Meta-reflexives are idealists ever seeking a better fit between who they seek to be and a social environment which permits their expression of it” (p.259). “Autonomous reflexives” and “meta-reflexives” share similarities as they both pursue contextual discontinuity from their original socio-economic backgrounds. However, “autonomous reflexives” see work as their ultimate value and their capacity for work is externally assessed by their level of performative skills, whereas “meta-reflexives” pursue a vocation that requires those who have chosen it to increasingly achieve personal qualities that represent the vocation, in addition to external assess- Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 161 ments of their performative skills. This makes their internal dialogues largely “concerned with themselves” (p.266). According to Archer (2003b, p.270), “meta-reflexives” are: “such close monitors of themselves, rather than monitoring their task-performance like the ‘autonomous reflexives,’ they know that ‘self-work’ needs to be done if they are to approximate to their ideal way of being-in-the-world.” They also assess and take up courses of action to pursue their projects in accordance with their ideals; they evaluate their actions against their personal principles of what is right rather than what is strategically convenient (p.289). A distinctive feature of “meta-reflexives” is that they continue to assess their current situations against their values and concerns, and not vice versa. In this process, they are reluctant to compromise their ultimate concerns, but they rather choose to pay the price and to move on instead of having their ideals modified (p.293). Archer (2003b, p.300) compares the above mentioned three modes of reflexivity as follows: ‘ “communicative reflexives” systematically evaded constraints and enablements, “autonomous reflexives” acted strategically toward them, and “meta-reflexives” behaved subversively by absorbing the structural costs of their actions. Fourthly, “fractured reflexivity.” The above mentioned three modes of reflexivities are qualities that enable individual agents to exert their personal capacities to devise their individual projects and to coordinate relations between self and society in the process of achieving their goals or realising their concerns in reality (p.302). “Fractured reflexives” are unable to manage these tasks since their reflexive abilities are suspended from previously holding an internal conversation between self and society, i.e., agent and society (p.298). “Displaced persons,” according to Archer (2003, p.298), are the ones who have developed their particular type of reflexivity, but they are no more useful enough to enable them to exert their subjective ways to deal with the objective environment. “Impeded persons” are the ones who do not develop the ability to hold an internal conversation to monitor between self and society. Both “displaced” and “impeded” persons are “fractured reflexives” (p.298). It is not that they do not think or hold an internal conversation, but rather it does not provide them with a practical guide as to what to do in practice. They tend to be overly expressive of what they wish their concerns or achievements to be, rather than instrumental to be effective enough (p.299). Archer (2003, p.299) also says that the choice of the word “fractures” is to indicate that they can often be amended. Because of their inability to exert personal powers to objective social conditions, “fractured reflexives” are “passive agents” to whom things happen (p.300). There needs to involve no assumption that “active agents” are necessarily 162 Chapter Seven “better off” or materially successful than “passive agents” (p.300). However, “passive agents” may have little chance to be successful (p.301). “Fractured reflexives” are generally at a loss rather than being focused with regard to their ultimate concerns, or the kinds of actions they should take to achieve their priorities (p.302). Consequently, nearly all the happenings in their lives are beyond their control (p.305). Finally, “near non-reflexivity.” The person with no reflexivity would have no inner dialogues, without which they have no self-knowledge that would trigger “regret,” “frustration,” “dismay” or “nostalgia.” These emotions cannot be felt if they know nothing about themselves (p.334). Without reflexivity, they are not able to monitor relations between self and society. This is obvious as they have no understanding about themselves and lack any possible orientation towards society (p.334). One may be nearly nonreflective if one’s subjectivity has been “arrested before it had reached that stage of development” (p.335). As a subject, “near non-reflexive” is “entirely passive, one who does not mentally intervene to monitor one’s own actions, but simply accepts their repercussions” (p.338). One major difficulty applying these theoretical categories to the cover models of The Melbourne Sky would be that they are in their twenties and they may still be in the formation of their characters and reflexivity in terms of the ways in which they make use of structural enablements and constraints affecting their approaches of making their way into the world. Thus there is limited scope of illustrating and confirming exemplary cases across the age range. Other difficulties may be that the one to one and a half pages of the cover stories are rather carefully scripted around several prompts given by the editor rather than the stories that are shared in a “natural” setting. On the other, it is possible that these carefully prepared scripts may precisely represent the kinds of identities and reflexivities that they are forming and practising. A focal point of Archer’s reflexivity is about the kinds of ultimate concerns that individual agents develop; formulating their projects to realise their concerns; and then undertaking their projects or living through their ultimate values. In this respect, Archer’s different modes of reflexivity are appropriate to examine those transnational sojourners, describing their journeys of “making their way through the world” (Archer 2007).7 METHODS The Melbourne Sky magazine has been in print since 24 April 2007. The cover stories of the issues published between April 2007 and 13 July 2010 Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 163 have been analysed for this study. Its cover stories have also been published in its official website till 16 March 2010, publishing its 160th volume, except the stories published between 23 September 2008 and 5 January 2010. The cover stories have been updated in the website since 13 July 2010. Otherwise, the contents of the website are minimally updated. Of the one hundred and seventy volumes of the magazines there have been sixteen volumes which have published cover stories of “established and well-known” male figures from the Korean community in Melbourne and a few wellknown celebrities from Korea. These have been omitted from analysis. The cover story usually allocates one or half page of photo and one to one and a half pages of personal story although their website versions mostly include five to six photos of the models. The total number of cover stories that I have been able to get hold of was one hundred and forty volumes. Thus, I have analysed one hundred and twenty four cover stories for this study. The analysis of data has been conducted on the basis of the principles of grounded theory method (Corbin and Strauss 1990; Strauss and Corbin 1994). FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Melbourne Sky Cover Story — Women’s Narratives of Their Life Every issue of The Melbourne Sky has a female cover model or a representative reader. This segment, which the editor calls “the story of our friendly neighbour,”8 is a creative way to “stay in touch” with the readership. A cover model notes as follows: It is highly interesting to come across one of us turning up as a cover model. She is one of us living in a foreign environment. The models tell us the kinds of dreams they came to Australia with and how they have adjusted to their life in Melbourne. All these stories are greatly encouraging the readers of the magazine (Yun JY, v.61, 9/6/2008, p.5). The models find it most exhilarating to be selected as a model and to realise that it is a special and memorable event in their life (Park MH, v.63, 16/6/2008, p.5). The female cover models are chosen from sojourners9 rather than permanent residents in part because the latter are often known to each other in the relatively small Korean community in Melbourne and they may not necessarily be proud of appearing as a cover model. However, there were several residents amongst the models. Most models were hesitant about the idea of “cover model” initially, but expressed high satisfaction once selected. 164 Chapter Seven The March 10 edition of 2009 contains one full page advertisement (p.153) and two more partial page advertisements (pp.37, 157) looking for models. The magazine pays those selected a $50 reward. The cover page of The Melbourne Sky portrays the model while pages 4 and 5 carry two more photos and her brief life story. Cover stories of the magazine are written by the models rather than through face-to-face interviews between the model and editor of the magazine. Thus, the stories are succinct life stories as well as readers’ feedback on the quality of the magazine. Nearly all the cover stories mention that the magazine is full of useful information for their everyday life in the Korean community as well as in the Australian community and that they have easy access to Korean, Australian and international news. Those who are not equipped with a personal computer in Melbourne are especially relying upon the magazine. In a slight contrast to what the readers say about the magazine, the publisher of the magazine notes that “The Melbourne Sky is not a magazine for everyday life, but a professional magazine dealing with knowledge information”10 (v.48, 18/3/2008, p.73). A cover model notes as follows: The Melbourne Sky is a shrunk version of the world news. It covers all the stories happening in Korea and all other parts of the world in a weekly period rather than monthly. Arriving in Melbourne, I have greatly benefited from the magazine, being able to rent a flat, purchase a car, utensils, electronic goods. Not sure how I would have managed my life in Melbourne without this magazine (Park ES, v.65, 23/6/2008, p.5). Yang Sena (v.25, 9/10/2007) acknowledges that “a reason that I have little trouble making my life in Melbourne is greatly attributed to the information from The Melbourne Sky, helping me with renting a flat, purchasing things [like furniture and cookery], part time work, meeting friends, tour information, cultural information, etc.” Again, the contents of the cover stories are prepared by the cover models as they are requested to provide their personal information as to what they did prior to coming to Australia, what brought them to Australia, what they think about the city of Melbourne, what their future aspirations are and how they plan to achieve their professional goals, what they think about The Melbourne Sky magazine and their note of thanks to their loved ones. There are diverse and rich life stories in many issues of the magazine and it is most fascinating to see how individuals invest time and effort to achieve their professional goals, strategically and enthusiastically. The following sections are the analyses of those personal life stories. Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 165 Escaping from a Stressful Life in the Name of Learning the Global Language Most cover models note that they are in the stage of preparing for working life. They note that if they wish to enjoy a quality life in Korea they must not hesitate to compete severely with others. Many have chosen to be overseas as a way of learning English effectively, as well as escaping from their stressful life, especially their grim work opportunities in Korea whereby university graduates have just over fifty per cent chance of securing employment commensurate to their qualifications. Their life in Melbourne offers them a time for reflection of their life and comparative perspectives on life between Australia and Korea. Jeon Yeong-A (v.176, 6/7/2010) spent her first semester of her fourth year of her university worrying about her employment opportunity. Six months away from her graduation, she decided to have a break for twelve months overseas. According to Jeon, the reason she wanted a break was not only to study English in Australia but to escape from the competitive context (Tokita 2010). Importantly, she recalls: “I wanted to think through what I want out of my life, in my own terms, and be able to reflect on my life so far. Prior to coming to Australia, I had never experienced anything on my own. Such a lack of autonomous life compelled me to meet the challenge of living alone away from home.” Others have given up their studies or work in Korea and wished to try a different career path or a radically “new” life in the bigger pool where the global language of English is the medium. Many of them are expressive of their plans and achievements, but how their professional goals may be achieved often seems to lack coherence, which will be discussed further later (e.g., Pak, EH, v.12, 10/7/2007). Nearly all the cover models recall Korean society as an extremely busy, fast moving and competitive society. Song Yun-Seon (v.14, 24/7/2007), a student of a university in Melbourne, mentions that “I will try my first job in Korea rather than in Australia. Korean society may be much more active and lively than Australia. If I can survive a job in Korea I can comfortably create a place of my own anywhere in the world.” When they observe the lifestyles of Melburnians, they are contrastingly reminded of how people live in Korea. Kim SH (v.166, 27/4/2010) contends, “People in Korea are always busy. Even when they travel it is not for the sake of relaxation. They have to seek sceneries, food, and have photos taken. At the end of their travel, they are left with their comfort of their mind and body, but many photos in their camera.” Kim AM (v.167, 4/5/2010) who migrated to Australia in 1995 observes: “Korea is fascinating and comfortable to the rich, but extremely hostile to everyday life of the poor. Welfare is not taken seriously enough. ... I am still 166 Chapter Seven proud of my birthplace, Korea.” Kim’s view was applicable in the early 90s, and is still so today especially when compared to Australia. Perception of Melburnians: Relaxed and “Kind to Strangers” Australia is the first overseas country for most of the Korean sojourners to visit. They have chosen to come to Australia with the knowledge that it is an internationally competitive nation in its productivity of most areas including economy, education, tourism and culture. Nonetheless, they quickly develop the impression within a few weeks of their arrival that Australian people are relaxed and “laid back” towards their life. This impression reinforces their prior impression that the workers in the West enjoy much more relaxed lifestyles than those in Korea. This impression becomes an empirical knowledge of their own through positive experiences in their interactions with others. Lee So-Yeong (v.27, 23/10/2010) shares as follows: “The first thing that I have learned in Melbourne is that Melburnians are considerate and generous to others, and smile at others. Even the strangers say ‘hello’ to me when my eyes meet theirs. When I walk around and may look a bit lost, holding my tourist map, people are willing to approach me and offer me help.” This convinces her to think that these are the reasons Melbourne is a good place to live and is popular as a tourist destination. According to Ms Lee, well organised parks, leisurely lifestyle and close family relations in Melbourne contrast to people’s extremely busy life in Korea. For these reasons, the cover models are generally overwhelmed by what the city of Melbourne can offer them physically, educationally and psychologically. They have hardly mentioned the strengths of the Korean society, with the exception of a few students (e.g., Park Jin-Hee, v.32, 27/11/2007).11 Interestingly, Park Jin-Hee had never considered settling in a foreign country prior to coming to Australia. However, after living in Melbourne for several months, she feels like settling in Melbourne. Travelling through “beautiful Australia,” some sojourners reinforce their conviction about their homeland: “Korea is unlike Australia with God-given beautiful nature, but still has a lot of man-made achievements, which I would like to inform the rest of the world about” (Hong HA, v.87, 21/10/2008). The Beautiful City of Melbourne Nearly all the models regard the city of Melbourne rather than greater Melbourne as “Melbourne.” Their perception of Australia as “a small Europe in Australia” partly led some of them to choose Australia (e.g., Hwang EJ, v.67, 30/6/2008), and many models express that Melbourne has got a mixed Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 167 beauty of European, classic and modern building structures and that there is great harmony between the past and present (Park MH, v.79, 26/8/2008). This seems to be an unfettered fantasy towards Europe. Some of them arrive in Australia “with no specific plan, but fantasy” (e.g., Lee JH, v.75, 28/7/2008). Many models have regarded Melbourne as the best city for education in Australia. The models are in awe with the beautiful surroundings of the city, including the city landscape, beaches nearby, beautiful sky day and night. These are significantly contrasting to that in the city of Seoul where one can rarely enjoy a blue sky during the day or the glimpse of stars at night due to air pollution. Lee Yeong-Ju (v.31, 20/11/2007) often exclaims at the beauty of the city of Melbourne. She often walked in the streets of Melbourne, looking up the sky, and fell over several times. She contends that the beautiful sky is a source of energy in her life in Melbourne. The “older and more experienced” people tend to appreciate what Melbourne has and can offer them (e.g., Chung JE, v.22, 18/9/2007). Being able to enjoy golf, horse riding and wine with good price; well established multiculturalism embracing people from other cultures; Australians expressing great interest about Korean culture and tradition; People are able to enjoy a leisurely life; Melbourne is not as crowded as Korean cities. Perhaps, such a close observation is a significant learning since it suggests the possibility that Korean cities continue to develop their living surroundings in their own context. This is not to suggest a need to emulate strengths of the city of Melbourne in any slavish manner. Physical surroundings of the city of Melbourne and its relatively “quiet” environment offer the sojourners not only leisurely lifestyle but invaluable time for solitude. Kang Eun-Yeong (v.30, 13/11/2007) once literally felt as if she was living as a member of a community that has been established within a set of toy Lego construction. Some cover models used to be highly gregarious and almost always acted with their friends prior to leaving Korea. Consequently, they disliked to be alone. However, in Melbourne, they find their solitude invaluable and enjoyable although this is in part what one may get out of living overseas (e.g., Kang Eun-Yeong, v.30, 13/11/2007). This ability to enjoy solitude could be considered a rather quick adjustment to a gesellschaft-like community, i.e., Western society as opposed to Eastern society.12 I am inclined to think that the sojourners’ appreciation of Melbourne may not be simply about the city of Melbourne, but the broader world and consequently a greater realisation of who they are and what they can contribute to humanities. Perhaps, this thought should be open for further debate. 168 Chapter Seven Broadening Their Horizon and World View It seems to be of national interest for any nation to educate its citizens and future leaders to develop a sentiment of nationalism. Such sentiment may even develop as individual choices. However, people do experience a change to a sentiment of nationalism due to life-changing experiences, as the cover models have sensed through their travel. I now realise that I was a frog within a well while living in Korea. I thought that Korean society was all that mattered. Living in Melbourne that contains people from all over the world, I now feel that Korea is such a small place (Kim YuJin, v.23, 25/9/2007). A cousin of Kim Yu-Jin married an Australian man. Kim Yu-Jin thinks that many Australians, whom she met through her cousin’s family, have completely changed her pessimistic attitudes towards life to optimistic ones. She now thinks: “How great it is for me to live in this beautiful world!” If one can develop such a positive approach to her own life and the whole world, it seems certainly worth spending a year away overseas in the middle of her university studies. The potential contribution she could make through her life at least to her significant others, if not the broader community, may be immeasurable. The cover models notice that Melburnians, irrespective of their age or occupation are mostly able to observe “individual freedom and courtesy” as well as “public order” and public responsibility simultaneously, whereas Korean society overly demands “public courtesy” and tends to discard individual needs to express their unique characteristics (Heo JK, v.153, 26/1/2010). Why the models feel such discrepancy between the two different societies is historically and culturally rooted. The generation of those models faces a sharp transition of the Korean society rapidly moving to a socially and economically much more affluent and politically freer society. Thus they may find it challenging to meet the social expectations of the older generation in Korea especially in terms of the ways in which they interact with the older generation in Korea, whereas they may find some affinity between what they wish and the actual practices in Australia. Nonetheless, such empirical observation through their life overseas has a great deal of intrinsic value to those models and possibly to the Korean society where they may eventually settle. Represented Reflexivities The cover models of the magazine are in their twenties and their time and effort is predominantly centred on their future plans, especially their aspira- Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 169 tions for professional career plans. Their short-term to long-term desires include achieving a high score of IELTS and gaining permanent residency for a small number of them, becoming a capable English teacher, a tour planner, a business woman, a professional newsreader, a nurse, a stewardess, a golf pilates, enjoying a range of hobbies, and travelling to every country during their life time. Some are expressive of their plans, able to set their projects and continue to practise their values/concerns. Others have chronic disjuncture between these steps, thus displaying fractured reflexivity. They may express impressive and well organised goals and ways to achieve them, but they are rarely realistic and followed through. Nor are those individual plans contextualised. How these women try to make the best use of their time as sojourners in a foreign country is a specific interest of this chapter since their effort involves the processes of reflecting and rediscovering who they are, uncovering what they want to be and how they want to live, and detailing the strategies as to how they can achieve their personal and professional goals. Also importantly, these individuals as agents are necessarily engaged in mediating their surroundings, that is, the given structure which enables and constrains their steps towards achieving their personal goals. My analysis shows that most cover models display the combination of different modes of reflexivity as can be expected. Notable difficulty in identifying their specific reflexivities derives from the limited number of life stories shared through the publication. As Archer (2003) notes, no reflexivity of a person is immutable, and therefore individuals go through the changes of their own reflexivity. Nonetheless, most people are unlikely to go through changes of their reflexivity regularly in a short span of time unless one’s reflexivity is completely “fractured.” In this respect, it is more of the limited information of individuals that makes it difficult to work out the modes of reflexivity rather than a frequent change of reflexivity of the represented individuals. In the rest of the section, I shall describe common features of each of the four modes of reflexivities as described by Archer (2003) as well as to “bring in” illustrative examples from the cover stories with relevant analyses. Communicative reflexives: working at staying put13 “Communicative reflexives,” in Archer’s conceptualisation, are reluctant to break away from contextual continuity. They are also not social competitors. It is my presumption that those who strongly display “communicative reflexivity” would be unlikely to leave their hometown and pursue an adventure in a foreign land. This would be particularly so when the world was much less globalised and had to rely on a ferry, spending many weeks to get across a continent. Yet, there would always be enough factors that “trigger” those sup- 170 Chapter Seven posedly “communicative reflexives” to break contextual continuity at least temporarily, irrespective of a historical context. For example, the sheer economic affluence of the Korean economy and having an “adventurous” friend would be enough to encourage a “communicative reflexive” to try a life in Australia for several months. Thus, this kind of move is possible for those with “communicative reflexivity” and may not necessarily be interpreted as an “autonomous” decision. Their “communicative reflexivity” is displayed by how they begin to adjust to their sojourning life. They find their initial life extremely boring without friends rather than being adventurous for their life in a new place. It is primarily the network of friends that gradually “settle” their adjustment process (e.g., Kim Ka-Yeong, v.33, 4/12/2007). In case of Kim KY, one important reason that she chose Australia was her assumption with no particular reasons that Australia would warmly embrace her despite her young age and inexperience overseas. Collecting plenty of information about Australia from her acquaintances rather than work-related factors was another reason that led her to Australia in the first place. Kim KY (v.33, 4/12/2007) has a series of professional aspirations. Her mid-term plan is to become a tour planner and she is joyfully overwhelmed by the idea that she will take her own customers to some great tourist destinations that she has recommended. Her further plans include establishing her own tour guide company. She is currently preparing to study tourism in an Australian university. After her graduation, Ms Kim wishes to go to Japan and learn Japanese since her stay there will help her meet a further range of tour customers. Kim seems to display her commitment to “work.” But, I am unsure as to whether readers of her story would be convinced enough to think that she has clearly worked out her “projects.” Kim goes on to say, Most of all, I wish to be a confident woman whatever I do. Further, one important future goal is to reward my parents more than I have received from them. ... The opportunity to interact with diverse ethnic groups in Melbourne was a particular happiness to me. ... Without The Melbourne Sky, my life in Melbourne would have been boring. It seems that Kim’s sojourning is about having a “fashionable” stay like many other tourists rather than seriously paving the way for her career. The ones who display some degree of “communicative reflexivity,” irrespective of their “dominant” reflexivity in any other types, tend to value their interactions with other “Koreans.” For example, “There is a saying that the ones going overseas for their studies should minimise their interactions with other Koreans. This approach is not wrong, but I still feel that Koreans should closely interact with other Koreans and share their emotions and feelings between them” (Hong JH, 4/3/2008). This seems to result from the commonly promoted “we feeling” in the Korean society. However, there may Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 171 be little value in imposing such artificial interactions between the sojourners living in Melbourne for a short- or long-term simply because they originate from Korea. Autonomous reflexives: upward and outward bound Some of the sojourners are displaying strong determinations to have their professional dream come true with detailed “appropriate” plans and actions. Park In-Su (v.15, 31/7/2007), a twenty-two-year-old woman, is a university student in Korea. Park’s medium term career plan is to be CEO of a multinational hotel. She thought that her English language ability is a fundamental requirement and has completed her twelve months study of English in Melbourne. According to Park (v.15, 31/7/2007), Last twelve months was an investment to be able to communicate in English. My planned internship after graduating from the university is to gain a range of experiences from the bottom of the hotel hierarchy, which is preparatory for me to become a CEO. If I don’t undertake such internship when young I may regret about it in the future. I plan to throw my whole self into that training process. I am determined to display the Korean woman’s spirit of perseverance, challenge and diligence. More than anything else, it will be a struggle against myself. Park seems clear as to what it takes to realise her professional goals. She also knows that the biggest obstacle could be herself. She has delved into monitoring the relations between self and society, being prepared to cope with the required process until her goals are accomplished. Ms Park also points out that she is not disinterested in going out with her friends and travelling for the sake of fun and scenery. However, Park is presently more devoted to her professional achievement rather than “having fun.” She also notes her realisation that a surprisingly good proportion of her age groups have detailed career plans for their own. Such observation seems to engender more effort and commitment on her part. An important reason that she contested for the cover model was to publicise her personal dream to be an hotelier, which, she trusts, will continue to hold her dream before her in the present and be a stimulus until she accomplishes it in the future. Many Korean students also seem to pick up a few important lessons that might be invaluable for their life time. For example, Kim Sena (v.26, 16/10/2007), who plans to be an interpreter, shares her experiences as follows: “A lesson that I have taken out of my ten months in Melbourne is that opportunity in my life will not come and wait for me. I am the one to look for it and I have to get my own ‘bowl’ ready to contain the opportunity.” Others develop a stronger sense of what they want to do with their future and what 172 Chapter Seven kinds of professional career they would like to pursue. For example, Lee So-Yeong (v.27, 23/10/2007) knows that she chose to study tourism in the university because she had always loved the concept of studying a subject that she can enjoy. Nonetheless, since entering the university in Korea she has studied the subject largely because that is what she chose and that is what she is supposed to do as a student. Since coming to Australia, Lee So-Yeong has developed a strong sense of how she can utilise her university studies to prepare her future professional career as a tour planner. Mun Seo-Jin (v.29, 6/11/2007) was touched by a best seller travel diary and developed her wish to travel around the world. On the other, she loved physics and maths during her highschool days. She chose to study civil engineering as she wanted to design bridges. After her first year of the university, she travelled to India. Despite her parents’ antagonistic opposition, Mun changed her major from civil engineering to tourism studies. She worked as a tour guide to India, for a Korean tour agency. She may be in her late twenties and has spent about two years travelling to all the continents except Africa, covering 30 different countries. She is just about to complete her Diploma of Tourism at a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) in Melbourne and is currently working as a tour planner for a travel agency in Melbourne. She does not seem to have a strong sense of vocation or calling, but her life time wish is to travel to all the nations in the world before her life is done. Mun would like to be a capable tour planner and gains great pleasure from being able to help others to experience great travel. Mun has already displayed her strong commitment to her values and established her projects. Her life in the last several years has systematically been focused on leading her successful projects. She already lives and practises her life as a committed tour planner. Meta-reflexives: moving on The teaching profession is a common vocation on which many Korean young people put high values under the strong influence of Confucianism (Selth 1988; Han 1997b). In recent decades, it is particularly popular among women since the profession offers them professional longevity in comparison with most other jobs in the context of the Korean job market. It is not surprising that many cover models wish to be teachers/ professors of numerous disciplines. However, few of them persuasively show devotion to the teaching vocation in the way that Archer’s (2003) concept of “metareflexivity” refers to. For example, an IT officer of a Korean company envies those who have fluent English and plans to be an English teacher (Hong JH, v.46, 4/3/2008). However, her story starts with the comment: “I wished to have an experience of living overseas before too late.” Hong also notes: Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 173 “the reason I want to be a teacher is because the job offers relative freedom and I can utilise my own time. It gives me pleasure to teach others ...” Hong learns that a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) qualification is something that can be achieved in a short span of time rather than a few years, and decides to take up the program. In brief, there appears to be little sense of “vocation or devotion” in her wishing to be a teacher, and there is little monitoring between her less than established concerns and her projects to “achieve” the concerns. This person’s reflexivity may not fit in “meta-reflexivity” as described by Archer (2003). Lee Haet-Nim (v.101, 27/1/2009) appreciates what the city of Melbourne can offer its visitors like any other cover models. Ms Lee was majoring in English language in a university in Korea in 2007 and spent six months in Brisbane, studying TESOL, in the same year. However, sometime prior to her arrival in Australia in 2007, Lee read a book, Nurse, Have the Dream of Professional Nursing14 and recalls that the book changed her values forever. Her six months in Brisbane allowed her to see “studying English” from the perspective of teachers rather than students. Importantly in conjunction with her ultimate concerns, Lee developed her goals to go beyond studying/teaching English, but embark on a professional area. In her case, nursing was the one that combines her “brain and heart” to use her words. Lee withdrew from her studies in Korea and returned to TAFE in Geelong in November 2007. Lee completed her Nursing Diploma in twelve months and is about to continue her Nursing Degree in a university in Queensland. She looks forward to working as a Division 2 Nurse during her nursing degree program. Lee had many difficulties with medical terminology and felt as if she were “blacked out” when studying anatomy and pathology. Lee studied harder and more diligently than she did for her university entrance in Korea. She has almost given up her nursing studies a few times because it was difficult. Her network of international peers at the TAFE seemed to have provided her with the opportunities to display “communicative as well as autonomous reflexivities,” i.e., relying upon friendships and being determined to pursue the value of her professional work. She still finds it unbelievable that she is studying to become a nurse. Her friends in Korea are about to graduate from the university, but she has just embarked on her nursing degree. This must have had an adverse impact on her “Korean” pride. Lee has not only chosen “contextual discontinuity,” leaving her previous studies, but also chose to study in Geelong rather than in a metropolitan city. Not many Korean students choose to study in a non-metropolitcan city. However, what sets Lee most distinctly from “communicative and autonomous reflexives” is her values attached to her vocation of nursing. According to Lee, “I know nursing is a difficult profession, but the reward from the work outweighs the difficulties. I simply 174 Chapter Seven cannot begin to express my joy of seeing the patients discharged from the hospital after their recovery.” Lee compares nursing work between Korea and Australia and she could not initially understand why Australian nurses have to feed and shower the patients, rather than leaving such work with their relatives. Lee now agrees that “Australian” nursing is a better care for patients. These learning experiences further persuade Lee that nursing entails the kind of values that she has dreamt of throughout her life. The patients Lee looks after in nursing homes are more than her just “patients” to care for. Ms Lee visits them and takes them for a walk when her off duty. Unlike many other cover models, she continues to develop and sharpen her “meta-values” through her life in this foreign land and all the people she comes across: “My ultimate values in life have continued to be influenced by the great experiences I get from Australia.” Fractured reflexives: “displaced” and “impeded” The young sojourners or those cover models are highly positive about their future opportunities and often make a link between personal and professional goals. That is, they wish to achieve their professional goals in conjunction with fun and leisure. Their approach to realising their “concerns” seems somewhat relaxed. Their enthusiasm for their aspirations is high, however, there are few strategically appropriate pathways. For example, Han Bo-Ra (v.11, 3/7/2007) plans to be a professional marketer of commercial products. She thinks or “decides” that it is essential to travel all around the world and be able to understand the dreams and lifestyles of people in different parts of the world: “Fluent foreign languages are important, but more important for a capable professional marketer is the ability to identify with the feelings of those consumers from extremely diverse cultures.” How ideal or realistic her approach to being a professional marketer seems to be a matter for debate. Her approach may have been conceived under the influence of the penetrating globalising culture and her way may be a useful recipe for success. Yet, Ms Han is rather expressive of her professional dreams, tending to demonstrate “fractured reflexivity.” That is, there seems to be a disjuncture between her “concerns” and “projects” to translate them into reality. My analysis shows that a large number of the cover models exhibit similar modes of reflexivities. Of the cover stories that I have analysed, there appear to be a good number of those who may be less than sure about how they may be able to achieve their professional dreams. It is possible that they have not been able to express their strategies to achieve their dreams and as a consequence I have not been able to make sense out of their stories adequately. For example, Yun Jina15 (v.25, 9/10/2007) graduated with a public health diploma from a Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 175 technical college. At the time of graduation, the Korean economy was going through a recession. Under the circumstances, Yun Jina became a hair dresser to work for her mother who was running a hair dressing shop. She then realised that there are many other hair dressers who were very well trained in Korea and overseas and that she did not have much hope in her hair dressing career. Then, she decided to study hair dressing overseas and prepare herself for a university position to teach hair dressing. At the time of the publication of her cover story, she was undertaking a hair dressing program at the Pivot Point Hair Design College in Melbourne. After completing the program, Yun Jina plans to study management or education. One may wonder how these disciplines will assist her to become an academic to teach hair dressing although those disciplines may not be completely irrelevant to her academic career. An issue at stake is how one prioritises her list of wishes to achieve her professional goals. Some of the Korean students have accumulated a range of work experiences prior to coming to Australia. They had thoughtful reasons for moving from one occupation to another. However, their decisions may not necessarily have been thought through over a period and may be even erratic in some cases. For example, Im Su-Ye16 (v.28, 30/10/2007) opened a shop for women’s clothing in Korea sometime in the past. She must have been diligent in what she was doing. As can be expected she came across a large number of women customers, which “somehow” led her to think “how nice it will be for beautiful women to wear beautiful clothes!” She notes that this led her to learn skin care, massage and hair dressing. Ms Im also recalls her decision that as far as she was confident about herself she would like to try out her life in a big pool like Australia. She told herself that there was nothing to prepare except applying for a visa and purchasing an air ticket. Ms Im has arrived in Australia with no basic English conversation ability and has run into difficulties resulting from the language barrier and cultural differences. In the midst of numerous trials and errors, she is encouraged by her occasional achievements and seems to have managed to be a permanent resident in Australia thanks to her hair dressing qualification. Undoubtedly, Ms Im has made continuing progress with her chosen work, now having established her long-term residency in Australia, which seems to make many of her peers envy her. As Im sees her peers return to Korea, she is emotionally overwhelmed by the departure of close friends, making her cry aloud under the blanket. According to the categories of reflexivities achieved through internal conversation that Archer (2003b) illustrates, Ms Im may partly fall in the category of “communicative reflexivity” which tends to give predominant values to their significant others, in terms of pursuing their ultimate concerns, as opposed to “autonomous reflexivity” or “meta-reflexivity.” Im’s long term 176 Chapter Seven professional dream is to establish a business that combines fashion, skin care and hair dressing. The nature of that unspecified business enterprise and how she will achieve that dream are yet to be thought through. “Impeded communicative reflexivity” has also been observed by a small number of the subjects. Ms Kim Su-Ji17 (v.107, 10/3/2009) majored in fine arts and graduated from a Korean university in January 2008. She saved her wages, working for three months day and night, sleeping about three hours a day. In the first paragraph of her story, she recalls that her attendance at Catholic church was driven by her mother and relatives and that she has loved fine arts from the age of six, but has been unsure throughout university days as to whether fine arts is what she loves to do. In fact, she says that “there was no one day in my life in Korea I felt comfortable.” Yet, she designed no “project” to overcome such dissatisfaction. Ms Lee’s plan to attend World Youth Day 2009 in Sydney in the presence of the Pope Benedict XVI was an opportunity for her to escape the uncertainty of whether or not she should continue to pursue fine arts for her career. Ms Kim thought that her university life was “stained” by the extra-curricular activities she was involved in for making income to support her expensive art school program. There seems to be an unclear order of her priorities, neither significant persons in her life, including relatives, nor work. Although Ms Lee planned her escape, this escape seems designed for little tangible outcome. Eighty youths from Incheon city attended World Youth Day, of whom she was one. Attending the convention, Ms Lee stayed on under a working holiday visa. She soon travelled to Melbourne as she had planned in advance. Whilst Ms Kim expected a lot of “positives” out of the city of Melbourne, she felt lonely and unwelcomed. Her travel was planned, but no “project” was set to help her cope with her life in a foreign place. Her “concerns” of priority are also unclear. A complicating factor here was the breaking up of her four-yearlong relationship with her boyfriend soon after their attending the convention together. Walking along Swanston Street in Melbourne, she was overcome by loneliness and emptiness, and cried aloud for a while. She found it amazing and fascinating that no one paid her any attention at all. Ms Kim suddenly found or decided to find herself completely liberated from such restraints as the need to be conscious of what she should or should not be wearing and any “trivial” surroundings around her which she had to be conscious of in Korea. Ms Kim seems to display little ability to initiate inner dialogues as to how she can coordinate relations between self and different social and cultural contexts. What she realises is simply the great benefit of anonymity and that one can behave “unexpectedly.” That was her last lachrymal episode in Melbourne after which she decided to be “successful,” telling herself, “I will eventually succeed.” How such an “expressive” moment can dramatically Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 177 save her from the depressed situation is unclear. Following her determining moment, she walked into a Korean grocery store and picked up a copy of The Melbourne Sky which provided her with basic information on English language schools, flats for share, part-time jobs. Her life as a back-packer in Melbourne “settled” within a week. I have completely overcome the sadness resulting from breaking up with my boyfriend. I spend quality time with classmates from my English language school. I eat yummy foods and create great memories with my housemates. Working as a salesperson in a shop, I get to know many foreigners. When I have time to spare I pick up my digital camera and visit every corner of Melbourne, riding on trams and trains. … There are so many places worth visiting. The more I see, the more I am deeply immersed into Melbourne. One important lesson I have learned is that I should not be in a hurry. I was always anxious and worried in Korea everyday. I’m convinced that my life can work out perfectly okay even in the midst of leisurely life in Melbourne. … In my journey back to Korea I might find myself free of all the burdens and worries that I brought to Melbourne with me. I’m rediscovering myself and my mind is filled with hope and happiness under the beautiful sky of Melbourne. (v.107, 10/3/2009) Ms Kim’s main mode of overcoming her sadness was through relying on her friends, i.e., “communicative reflexivity” of “thought and talk.” Ms Kim’s important inner dialogue is to keep telling herself that she will be successful and she will be free of all the troubles she brought from Korea, and that if she takes her life easy all will go smoothly. What her ultimate values are is unclear, except hoping that her art work will be pleasing to others, e.g., “It is invaluable for someone to be happy because of me [my art work].” Consequently, there is little exertion of her personal powers in realising her concerns which are again unclear. Yet, she tells herself again that she would like to plan her life and she will find her own middle-age getting closer to achieving her plan and she would be highly satisfied with “the taste of her success” that has grown out of her struggles and adversities till then. Her reflexivity seems to have been largely arrested before it commenced to develop, displaying “impeded communicative reflexivity.” After the break-up with the boyfriend, she was determined not to fall in love again. She has just learned that she is falling in love again, not long after the recent break-up. Since she is unclear about her own “projects” it is likely that she will see things happen to her rather than keep her own life under control. Fractured reflexivity is also displayed by numerous examples. Kim SeulGi18 (v.37, 1/1/2008) had a long-lasting interest in singing and performing, starting with her joining a chorus of a broadcasting company. She is a performing arts student in a Korean university. She was selected and performed 178 Chapter Seven for a big-scale play but became disenchanted about the profit-oriented goal of the production. Kim SG decided to put aside her passion for performance and then suddenly became interested in English as a means for communication, but deliberately ignores English grammar. This triggered a desire to study English in a country where English is the medium. Ms Kim wrote to her friend studying English in Melbourne. Within a few weeks she arrived in Melbourne with no preparation except buying an air ticket. On her day of arrival she went to a pub, “drinking and dancing madly.” At night, she and her friend took ten “[Anglo]-Australian” friends to a karaoke bar. They have been meeting three times a week for the last ten months. She attended English language school only for two months and avoided meeting “Koreans” since she disliked Koreans pointing out the importance of grammar. Ms Kim spent the whole time visiting tourist destinations, parks, and drinking bars. She has been totally satisfied with the fact that she has been “able to communicate with those friends with blonde hair and blue eyes.” She has deliberately avoided seeing “Koreans” and eating kimchi and rice for the first eight months, which, she thinks, led her to put on ten kilograms. She rarely rang her parents in Korea and rarely read Korean language for the same period. Kim’s professional plan is to become a stewardess as it allows her to travel to many places. Another reason is to showcase “Korean kindness” through her hospitality. Once that experience of travel is achieved, she would like to become a singer of Christian songs, which is what her mother wants. For the moment, she thinks that foreign language fluency will internationalise her “work” and plans to learn Chinese, Spanish and Japanese. As she is about to return to Korea, Ms Kim has persuaded a few “Australian” friends to travel to Korea with her. Kim seems to display an unusually high appreciation of her “Australian” friends to the extent that she denies Korean friends and identity. Yet, she conveniently exploits her Koreanness, e.g., being dressed with Korean costumes and posing for the camera. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS The Melbourne Sky is certainly an interesting transnational medium linking the two nations, Korea and Australia. The readers of the magazine find it highly relevant in terms of who they are and what they need. It addresses their “material” needs and developmental needs. Therefore, the value of the magazine to those young Korean sojourners seems remarkable. However, the focus of the analysis for this chapter has been the life stories of the cover models of the magazine, who are representing its audiences, in the context of travelling to Australia and broadening the horizons of their world views. Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 179 The stories represent trials and errors as to how those young sojourners take advantage of their sojourning period or “struggle” to achieve their future professional dreams and to be reflective on their life’s ultimate “concerns.” They have broadly demonstrated their transnational tendencies since they perceive the possibility of engaging in their activities around the global village. The sojourners thought that English language has become an important instrument to be part of the global village, in which they also regard travelling as an essential activity. Thus, individual agents try hard to equip themselves in the competitive and globalised world with their language ability and professional knowledge. This may suggest an important point in the following sense. The literature on transnationalism often seems to focus on active international political, economic and cultural links between nations. Nonetheless, these political and economic links between nations may not be able to sustain or even initiate its start without the engagement of those qualified individual agents. In other words, these individuals are the active carriers and “performers” of transnationalism. Most cover models were not satisfied with their work and life in Korea, escaped from it, and left Korea in search of a much more meaningful life (Cohen and Taylor 1992). That is, their dissatisfaction with Korean life led them to seek their solution in a “global” context rather than within Korea. However, such dissatisfaction and “escaping abroad” was not usually “permissible” in Korean society before the 1990s. Even if a person was dissatisfied with his/her profession s/he would cautiously look for another professional opportunity within Korea rather than internationally. From a viewpoint of the older generation, it is puzzling that many sojourners did not seem to have concrete and pragmatic goals or “projects” they wished to achieve in Australia at their times of arrival although it is often understood that learning English as a foreign language is in itself considered invaluable and that Australia is a popular destination for that purpose. Whilst many cover models strongly displayed the mode of “fractured reflexivity” in conjunction with “communicative and autonomous reflexivities,” as expected there are stark differences between the generation of those analysed sojourners and older “Koreans” in terms of the ways in which they managed their individual “projects,” which are the means to monitor between self and society. It may also be characteristic of the younger generation that, for example, Ms Kim (v.107, 10/3/2009) did not hesitate to reveal publicly her personal affairs such as her break up with her boyfriend. Although she was not able to attract any public attention by crying aloud in the street, she quickly interpreted the experience as merely one of anonymity in a foreign land that she seemed to enjoy greatly, without indication of being aware that she then faced the cold reality of having to survive in a “strange” land. In fact, this 180 Chapter Seven anonymity led to uncommitted short-term ‘intimate’ relations with others — often a cause of alarm in the Korean community. Through her “awakening experience” on Swanston Street, Ms Kim learned of a stark difference between Seoul and Melbourne and seemed to have felt liberated from many kinds of social restraints present in Korea. Ms Kim is now remade with new opportunities and identities. She now has a new life goal – being successful, whatever that may mean. According to Ms Kim, her current life is completely filled with meaningful activities and she lives with hope and happiness. Some of the difficulties and troubles she has had to endure on an everyday basis seem to be “mysteriously put away” and the readers of the story are not able to speculate much further. It is unclear as to whether the younger generation is not well understood or whether such media representation tends to misrepresent or “mystify” their reality. The extent to which Korean diasporic media can make a reflective contribution to the formation of Korean identity should be seriously considered (Thompson 1995). Perhaps the younger generations are truly transnational and are less than well understood. Undoubtedly, their time in Melbourne is relaxing enough for them to be reflective and many are refreshingly able to think through what to do and how to achieve their new goals. Many will even pick up life-long skills and lessons in Melbourne. Yet, it seems fair to point out that the sojourners are on the journey of “escapism” and “utopianism.” It appears that these short-term visitors still desire and to some extent live in a fantasy — where they still are longing for and willing to experience an exotic Western world, dreamt of throughout their childhood, not a real world, although the lengths of their stay and the levels of exposure to the actual and local reality would influence the level of their fantasy life over time. According to Stuart Hall (1996, p.4), identities are often formed as a consequence of the process narrativising the self, and the process of weaving their individual stories is “in the imaginary (as well as symbolic) and therefore, always, partly constructed in fantasy, or at least within a fantasmatic field.” The cover models and the readers of the magazines demonstrate their ambivalent or “split” desires whereby they desire an exotic Australian lifestyle as well as maintaining their close — both physical and “virtual” — contact with the “Korean” society, culture and people by reading community magazines, through which they are informed about Korean community services, DVDs, news and foods. A couple of questions that remain unanswered are why “fractured reflexivity” has been particularly strongly represented, and “meta-reflexivity” with a sense of calling for a profession has been under-represented through “the sample.”19 One may suspect whether or not the cover models adequately represent the young people in their twenties who have come to Australia often Fantasy, Aspirations and Satisfaction 181 to study English and/or under the working holiday scheme. However, the stories do represent how the younger generation goes through trials and errors as they work out who they are today and what they want to be tomorrow. Some of them realise that it is a continuing struggle to be able to successfully handle their own selfhood. Again, the cover models are not an esoteric group of people, but rather much of their reflexivity has been formulated under an influence of the increasingly competitive and demanding Korean society. There may be some differences between Korean and Australian societies in this matter and the discrepancy between them is probably decreasing over time. It may be worth acknowledging the possibility of the applicability of Inglehart’s thesis of “culture shift” from “materialist” to “postmaterialist” values to those Korean youth who have been brought up in the “economic abundance” of Korean society (Inglehart 1990, 1997; Inglehart and Abramson 1995). Yet, the issue of identities or reflexivities applies to everyone irrespective of their socio-economic or cultural backgrounds. NOTES 1. The English title is printed on the cover with far bigger fonts than in Korean. 2. Raon is a Korean word meaning literally “happy together.” Melbourne Story was established in June 2008 and lasted for over twelve months. 3. Seong Gyeong-Jin (v.73, 21/7/2008) says, “this opportunity is given to a person only once in life time.” 4. Similar comments are made by Sin Ji-Ye, cover model of volume 9 (v.9, 19/6/2007), and Lee Jae-Gyeong (v.13, 17/7/2007). 5. Kim Ye-Jin (v.24, 2/10/2007) also expressed the view. Jeon Na-Yeong also says: “The Melbourne Sky uses its readers as its cover models and asks them to share their experiences and thoughts. This creates common interests for the readers, which is unique.” 6. Kim HK (28/4/2009) notes that she was least conscious of her Korean identity in her first four months in an Australian rural community, but her Koreanness was “awake” when she got hold of a copy of The Melbourne Sky in Melbourne for the first time. 7. Whether or not it is appropriate to apply Archer’s reflexivities in analysing the modes of reflexivities in another socio-cultural context is a matter of interest. I think that there are more universalities between the societies of England, Australia and Korea than particularities of each of those societies. 8. This English phrase is included in the front cover of the magazine. 9. Most cover models of The Melbourne Sky have stayed for 12 months, and some for six months and others for a few years. 10. Melbeonui haneuleun jisik jeongbo jeonmun maegeojin ida (멜번의 하늘은 지식정보 매거진이다). 182 Chapter Seven 11. According to Park Jin-Hee (v.32, 27/11/2007), “When coming overseas, I’ve realised some strengths of the Korean society in its own right.” 12. The comparison between Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft (Tönnies 1889/1957) may be more appropriate to that between urban and rural communities. However, I think that the analogy may provide some explanatory difference between Western and Eastern societies to some degree. 13. These headings have been taken from Archer (2003). 14. Ganhosa, Peuroreul Ggumggwora (간호사, 프로를 꿈꿔라). 15. This is a pseudonym, different from published name. 16. This is a pseudonym. 17. This is a pseudonym. 18. This is a pseudonym. 19. Not many people stuck to one or a related profession, but were constantly moving on. It was not because the situation they were in did not allow them to pursue their “concerns.” Mostly, their reasons have not been provided. Also noted in the analysis, which is an issue that goes beyond the scope of this chapter, is that few developed their professional commitment for a long term, let alone meeting their ultimate concerns. An identified factor is that women are not treated equally enough in the Korean employment market and they are expected or are prepared to quit their work when personal or family reasons arise. Accordingly many do not have rigorous plans to achieve their goals. Epilogue The goal I wished to accomplish through this book was to offer a sociological description and analysis of the processes of Korean immigrants’ search for their identities, as portrayed in a few different media texts. The interest results from my increasing awareness of the importance of identities over the years of researching the Korean community in Australia from diverse angles and also from my lived experience as a Korean-Australian immigrant. Just as any other immigrant in human history, my fellow Korean immigrants and I have been in search of identities. The search has been smooth sailing at times and a difficult journey at other times. This question of identity seems to be sitting at the core of ethnic studies, and in this respect, this volume is a culmination of my social scientific understandings of the Korean community in Australia. During the course of preparing the manuscript, I have found myself gradually treading into the academic territories with which I am not necessarily familiar with despite my deep appreciation of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding human relations. Sometimes I had to pull myself back to my “comfort zone,” perhaps not always successfully. At the start of this book project, I had looked for a number of media resources in which Korean immigrants’ identities are portrayed and of which the narratives of their lives can be analysed. The end result is as diverse as presented in this book. Thus there was no particular rationale as to why the chapters have been arranged in the way they are although all the chapters are examining Korean immigrants’ dealing with their “real needs” in their dayto-day lives and how these processes contribute to the formation and modification of their identities. However, one may be able to “inject” a chronological and thematic rationale into the arrangement of the chapters. The “Beyond the Australian Dream” chapter reflects much of the rapidly changing and 183 184 Epilogue indeed tumultuous Korean society in the 70s and 80s, and also illustrates the processes of Korean immigrants’ adjustment to, and enculturation, into the Australian society. Those Korean skilled and business migrants left Korea when it was just about to offer its people the benefit of social, cultural and economic development. The following three chapters depict the significance of the Korean church in the lives of Korean-Australians. The analysis of Foolish Jesus also describes some “dark dimensions” of the undemocratic and economically developing Korean society in the 70s and 80s. The novel is a description of not only individual struggles to adjust to a new place, but also a struggle of the Korean church as a significant institution in the context of the broader Australian society. The chapter on the church websites deals with aesthetic dimensions of Korean immigrants’ life especially in the era of the Internet. By then, the Korean community in Australia was economically much better settled and started to develop much closer connections to the broader Australian society. The chapter on multicultural congregations is very much a description of the contemporary efforts of some Koreans to embrace the society that hosts them, in part thanks to the generosity that the earlier arrivals in general and the dominant Anglo-Celtics in particular, have displayed to the recent arrivals including Korean immigrants. The last chapter on the young sojourners is a vivid reflection of the mature diplomatic relationship between Australia and Korea as well as that of a globalised world. The sojourners’ fantasy and aspirations differ significantly from those of the protagonists in the earlier chapters of this volume. Those young people may not be easily understood by older generations in Korea or the Korean-Australian community. 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