Celebrating Korean culture in Flushing, a mecca of immigration for Koreans arriving in New York City.

How Many Are There?

The last national census found 62,130 people of Korean descent in Queens. Though this number is nearly half as large as more populous Asian groups found prominently in the borough, like Indian and Chinese Americans, it does not reveal one of the more striking aspects of the relationship between the Korean American community and Queens.

Nearly three in four Koreans living in New York City have a Queens address, according to census figures from 2000. Those figures show that the Big Apple is home to the second-largest number of Koreans in the United States, with only Los Angeles boasting a larger Korean population, and throughout the 90s the Korean community in the city grew by 30 percent.

The overwhelming focus on Queens as the center for recent immigrants in the region, as well as the community of choice for the children of already established Korean Americans, gives the borough great significance for this rapidly growing population. It also assures that the Korean community leaves its distinctive mark, both culturally and economically, on the borough.

Who Are They?

Anyone that hails from the Korean peninsula fits into the category “Korean,” however residents of Queens with Korean ancestry do not represent the peninsula evenly. Almost 100 percent of the Koreans living in Queens, much like the overall Korean population in the United States, hail from Republic of Korea — the half of the divided peninsula more commonly known as South Korea.

This fact is the direct result of the historical ties between the U.S. and the South, where American military forces fighting under a United Nations flag battled the communist-backed North Korean military in the early 1950s. The totalitarian régime that has controlled North Korea since that time restricts freedoms of travel and emigration, along with many other basic rights. As a result, few North Koreans have managed to make it to the United States.

An analysis of census statistics by the Asian American Federation of New York (AAF-NY) revealed other salient features of the Korean-American community. In relation to other large immigrant groups, AAFNY found that Koreans generally have less English ability but a higher degree of formal education among adults. AAF-NY also found that an astounding 80 percent of Koreans living in New York City are immigrants, a statistic that reveals the fast expanding nature of the community and may also explain the relatively low level of English language fluency among adults.

When Did They Get Here?

Owing in small part to the legacy of the Korean War, immigrants from South Korea began relocating to the United States in large numbers after immigration reforms of the 1960s.

“They were affected by the new immigration policy of the Kennedy Administration in 1965. That opened up immigration for Koreans,” explained Kwang S. Kim, president of Korean Community Services of New York, an organization founded in 1973 to assist the exploding population of Korean immigrants in the city.

Reforms undertaken by President Kennedy did away with the old “quota system,” which effectively limited the number of immigrants from Asian nations. When the restrictions were loosened, Koreans responded by moving to the U.S. in increasing numbers, especially from the mid-1970s to the present. From 1976 to 1990, Koreans immigrated to the U.S. at an average annual rate of 32,500. In the 1970s and 80s, Koreans were the third-largest immigrant group.

The number of Korean immigrants peaked in 1987, the year before the Seoul Olympic Games, and has fallen steadily ever since, owing in large part to the economic success of South Korea.

Where Do They Live?

The Korean American community in Queens has traced a familiar trajectory in the borough. The earliest immigrants to Queens, who arrived in a major wave beginning in 1965, settled in the Jackson Heights-Corona-Sunnyside-Elmhurst corridor, which has long been a place where new immigrants first put down roots in the city. Census figures from 2000 continue to highlight a significant Korean American presence in those communities.

But as the decades have passed and Koreans have become one of the major immigrant groups in Queens, the population has moved steadily eastward. The greater Flushing area is now home to the largest number of Korean Americans in Queens, with a dominant Korean retail presence on Union Street that has spread along much of Northern Boulevard.

“People have a tendency to move east along Northern Boulevard, toward Bayside and Little Neck,” said Kwang Kim. Today, after years of gradual economic improvement and community expansion, Korean Americans have moved into the eastern edge of borough, finally emerging in significant numbers as homeowners in the suburban communities of Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.

The church is a focal point for Korean life in Queens.

Where Do They Worship?

By and large, Koreans practice Christianity, owing in large part to the travels of Protestant missionaries through Korea in the 19th century. The Korean American community is represented across a number of different denominations, including Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal, though a majority in Queens identifies as Presbyterian.

A great number of these churches can be found in the same areas of the borough that host significant Korean populations. Flushing alone, for example, has at least forty churches that cater specifically to the Korean community, with many offering Korean language worship.

Where Do They Shop?

With shopping, Korean Americans in Queens mirror their residential migration. The most well established cluster of Korean retailers resides in downtown Flushing. Union Streets, especially on the blocks north of Northern Boulevard, boasts the strongest contingent of Korean shops. The emerging business clout of the Korean American community in the area has taken shape in a newly formed business group within the Korean American Association of Flushing. Overall, Chinese-owned business continue to dominate the center of Flushing, but Korean-owned shops prosper in the periphery of the dynamic Flushing area.

Where Do They Eat?

The eastern stretches of Northern Boulevard, running from Flushing all the way to city limits, feature scores of Korean eateries. Motorists traveling east on Northern may mistake many of the restaurants for interesting fusion cuisine, combining the BBQ traditions of the American South with traditional Korean recipes.

Kum Gang San on Northern Boulevard in Flushing is a massive restaurant and catering hall where traditional Korean cuisine rules the day. For a taste of typical Korean cooking, try the “galbi,” which is BBQ ribs Korean-style.
Signs of the times – These Korean language signs reveal a thriving ethnic business enviornment on Union Street in Flushing.

What Do They Do For A Living?

The vast majority of Korean Americans in Queens are foreign-born, and this fact helps determine the economic horizons of many Koreans in the borough. According to Kwang Kim, the person who picks up a new Korean immigrant from the airport may very well determine that person’s economic future. “That is to say, if they are picked up by a dry cleaner, they are most likely to go into the dry cleaning business,” he explained.

As with other newer immigrant groups, Korean Americans tend to focus on retail businesses, which have flourished in many parts of Northeast Queens. Union Street in Flushing, with its almost completely Korean storefront signage, is a mecca of Korean retail.

Among new immigrants, retail is pretty much preferred,” said Kim. “The second generation, they are educated in the this county and they choose their own professions.”

As professionals, Korean Americans have a proud legacy in the medicine. Before the immigration reforms of 1965, visas for medical students were one of the only ways for Koreans to get into the country, and many selected to stay in the U.S. to practice medicine. Korean immigrants also place a strong emphasis on education, which allows the children of foreign-born Koreans to move upward on the economic ladder.

Korean American businesses have attained significant strength in the wholesale sector in New York City, with a well-established—and widely Korean-owned—wholesale import-export district in midtown Manhattan. These booming businesses will soon relocate to Queens, as a consortium of Korean wholesalers recently won the rights to build a distribution center on the long dormant Flushing Airport site in College Point.

http://www.queenstribune.com/guides/multicultural2004/pages/Koreans.htm

WASHINGTON - Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his privacy lawsuit Friday and will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations in a case that turned into a fight over reporters’ confidential sources.

Lee will receive $895,000 from the government for legal fees and associated taxes in the 6 1/2-year-old lawsuit in which he accused the Energy and Justice departments of violating his privacy rights by leaking information that he was under investigation as a spy for China.

The Associated Press and four other news organizations have agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of the settlement, which ends contempt of court proceedings against five reporters who refused to disclose the sources of their stories about the espionage investigation.

Lee said of the settlement: “We are hopeful that the agreements reached today will send the strong message that government officials and journalists must and should act responsibly in discharging their duties and be sensitive to the privacy interests afforded to every citizen of this country.”

The payment by AP, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and ABC is the only one of its kind in recent memory, and perhaps ever, legal and media experts said.

The companies said they agreed to the sum to forestall jail sentences for their reporters, even larger payments in the form of fines and the prospect of revealing confidential sources. The companies and their reporters were not defendants in the privacy lawsuit.

“We were reluctant to contribute anything to this settlement, but we sought relief in the courts and found none,” the companies said. “Given the rulings of the federal courts in Washington and the absence of a federal shield law, we decided this was the best course to protect our sources and to protect our journalists.”

The statement noted that the accuracy of the reporting itself was not challenged.

The government agencies did not admit that they had violated Lee’s privacy rights.

Betsy Miller, one of Lee’s lawyers, said the payments show “that both the government and the journalists knew that they had significant exposure had this case gone to trial.”

Lee was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but he was never charged with espionage. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months, then released in 2000 after pleading guilty to mishandling computer files. A judge apologized for Lee’s treatment.

Two federal judges held the reporters in contempt for refusing to reveal their sources to Lee. The journalists had argued that he could obtain the information elsewhere.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer signed an order Friday vacating the contempt proceedings against the reporters, H. Josef Hebert of The Associated Press, James Risen of The New York Times, Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, and Pierre Thomas, formerly of CNN and now working for ABC News.

CNN, in a separate statement, said it declined to join in the settlement “because we had a philosophical disagreement over whether it was appropriate to pay money to Wen Ho Lee or anyone else to get out from under a subpoena.”

The reporters had appealed the contempt rulings to the Supreme Court. The justices recently delayed a decision on whether to take up the reporters’ case after being told a settlement was near.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the payment unusual and perhaps unprecedented.

“I’m certainly not happy about this, but I’m not sure I could have dreamed up a better result,” Dalglish said. “On the positive side, it appears that this result will allow these reporters to continue to protect their sources.”

The settlement underscores the need for a federal law that would shield reporters from having to disclose their sources, she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_re_us/wen_ho_lee_lawsuit

Four-year-old girl targeted

(New York - WABC, May 10, 2006) - A popular Deejay from Power 105 was fired Wednesday after a war of words between competing deejays. Caught in the middle: a four-year-old girl.

“Power 105 finds recent remarks broadcast by Troi Torain of the Star and Buc Wild Morning Show to be wholly unacceptable. As of late this afternoon, he is no longer wit Power 105.1 or Clear Channel Radio. We sincerely apologize to those who may have been offended by his remarks,” an official with Clear Channel Radio said in a statement.

Clearly, this feud is getting out of control. Deejay Star, the morning man on hip-hop station Power 105, actually went on the air and threatened sexual assault against a four-year-old girl. That girl is the daughter of a rival deejay on Hot 97.

Earlier Wednesday, Torain was suspended pending an investigation. Local leaders, however, wanted the deejay arrested.

Audio Excerpt, Power 105 audio: “Yes, I disrespect your seed. If you didn’t hear me I said I would like to do an R. Kelly on your seed. On your little baby girl.”

Gia Casey, Mother: “He threatened to molest my ‘little baby girl’ as he calls her. He put an offer out for the whereabouts of their school. I am so concerned for my children.”

Her husband is Hot 97 Deejay Envy, the father of the little girl threatened. And even though the feud is between the two men, Deejay Star went after the innocent child.

Audio Excerpt: “Where does this kid go to school? I got $500 for that information. Somebody e-mail me or give me a call. Just tell me where the kid goes to school.”

John Liu, (D) NYC Council Member: “The guy who put this over the radio is clearly a loser pedophile.”

Today, several New York City councilmembers got together demanding his immediate firing.

Under pressure, the radio station and the corporate parent Clear Channel Communications buckled, telling Eyewitness News, “Power 105 finds the comments alleged to have been broadcasts by Troi Torain (DJ STAR) to be wholly unacceptable. We have removed him from the air pending a full investigation.”

“Does he have to bring a child into the radio station and molest her during the broadcast in order for Clear Channel to say, ‘You know what, maybe they have gone a little bit too far..’ What does it take?” Gia Casey said.

Late Wednesday, a New York City councilman called the suspension a move in the right direction, and went on to call Deejay Star a racist pedophile. But local leaders even go a step further, saying a crime was committed here. They’re contacting the NYPD.

BROADCAST EXCERPTS:

Star: Somebody holla at me and tell me about his whore wife and his kid. 866-678-8270… Somebody get at me about his whore. His whore wife and his kid, this little ugly ass kid, I hear. Where does this kid go to school? I got five hundred bucks for that information. Somebody email me or gimme a call. Just tell me where his kid goes to school. Let’s see who’s really gully on the microphone. Five hundred dollars, in my pocket, right now. I need to know the school, this faggot ass nigga, DJ’s kid goes to school.

Star: I’ve got information on DJ Benji, aka what’s his name again? Envy. I’ve got information on his gook. His baby’s mother.

BucWild: A gook?

Star: Hampton University, uh, cats used to run trains on her. Green BMW I’ll get to all this in a few minutes.

Star: Oh! And, I got the information, the school his kid goes to. [Woman’s voice] Really?

Star: Yeah, I’m savin’ that one. That’s the one I’m gonna pull out if I have to. If I have to. Oh yes, I’ll, I’ll come for your kids. I will come for your kids. I finally got the information on his slant eyed, whore wife. The information on his slant eyed, whore wife. Yes. A cat who actually ran a train on her, contacted me. [chuckle] Allegedly ran a train on her once upon a time. Allegedly. Once upon a time. Ejaculated all over her face,

Star: No, let me just touch on this real quick, But there’s a woman out there right now who pushed out a little lo-mein eater by a DJ down by the sloppy station. I got at this alleged slut whore, heh, and this little half a lo-mein eater… Yes, I disrespected your seed. If you didn’t hear me, I said, I would like
to do an R. Kelly on your seed, on your little baby girl. I would like to tinkle [urinate] on her.

“Call the cops”? Nigga, please, there’s no bodyguards. I carry the 9 [millimeter gun]. Most of the cats that are with me, have felony convictions, they can’t carry. I’m disrespectin’ your seed. I would like to skeet [ejaculate] on the face of your seed. Now that’s, that’s real talk dawg. You have to come holla at me now. Call me, I’ll meet you somewhere, but don’t act like you were waiting in some parking lot with like 50 niggers. Please.

Now, again, to the woman, who carried that little mongrel for 9 months… I’m coming for your seed. Did you hear me? (*squirt, squirt, squirt* noise) I want to do an R. Kelly in the mouth of your seed fam[ily]? You holla at me now, I’m the easiest man in the world to find. *snickers* And my name is The Hater. You holla back now, DJ Envy.

Star: Let me see now, uh, DJ Benji attention! In case you didn’t hear me, I said, I want to put some mayonnaise in between your baby girl’s ass crack and take a bite.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4161148

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has ruled that a Dublin police shooting of two Korean men in August was justifiable.

In a letter to Dublin police chief Gary Thuman that accompanied the report, District Attorney Tom Orloff wrote “I have reviewed and agree that although the result is tragic, there is insufficient evidence to prove criminal liability against Dublin police deputy Tara Russell and Dublin police deputy David Taylor.”

On Aug. 11, officers answering a disturbance call shot Kwang Tae-Lee, 61, of Korea after he refused to put down a knife inside his sister’s Dublin home. One bullet hit homeowner Richard Kim, Tae-Lee’s brother-in-law, who was hiding behind a bedroom door.

Members of the Korean community are upset that the report, completed in March, has just now come to light.

“We were pretty surprised that no one was notified,” said Hun Kim, executive director of the Korean Community Center of the East Bay. “People we thought might know about the report didn’t know about it and were just as surprised as anyone.”

Kim said he and others have asked for months about when the investigation would be complete.

From the beginning, the Korean community has called for transparency and impartiality in the investigation and for cultural sensitivity training for police, especially because Tae-Lee did not understand English.

Immediately after the shooting, police did not disclose that Kim had been shot by police until he died three days later.

Many in the Korean community were not so much surprised by the District Attorney’s findings but of how it was released. A local newspaper had to file a Public Records Act request to get it.

Others are angry about the delay, said B. J. Han, a reporter for the Korea Times.

“They are so upset the D.A.’s office did not disclose the report for almost two months,” he said.

Dublin contracts for police services with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Department spokesman Lt. Jim Knudsen referred questions to county counsel, Richard Winnie. Neither Winnie, nor senior deputy district attorney John Jay, the report’s author, were available to comment Friday.

According to the report, on Aug. 11, neighbors said they had difficulty sleeping because of loud singing and then screams coming from the Kims house in the 3000 block of Innisbrook Way.

Jee Kim told police her husband and her brother had fought earlier and she and her sister-in-law had to separate them. Autopsies showed Richard Kim had a blood alcohol level of .20 and Tae-Lee .19.

Jee told investigators her husband yelled before he closed the bedroom door that he was calling the police. She said she told her brother, in Korean, when the police were in the house.

According to the report, officers arrived about 11:40 p.m. and heard screams. They knocked on the door and tried to kick it in. From the window, Deputy Russell saw Tae-Lee walk up the stairs with a knife and saw Yang Oh, Tae-Lee’s wife, come downstairs walking with difficulty, clutching her side. Oh, who later said she had been drinking that night, let the officers in.

Because of her condition, the deputies thought Oh had been an assault victim. Russell also saw Tae-Lee carry the knife above his head and head toward an upstairs bedroom, where deputies later found Richard Kim behind a door.

The report says the officers thought they, the two women, and whoever was in the bedroom, were in danger of being stabbed or killed. Both repeatedly ordered him to put the knife down. When he did not, they fired.

Tae-Lee was shot five times and died at the scene. A bullet from Russell’s gun pierced the door and hit Richard Kim in the left arm and left eye. He died three days later at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley.

“To justify the filing of criminal charges, it is necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the killings were neither justifiable nor accidental,” the report concluded. “There is credible evidence that the first shots were fired at Mr. Lee in defense of another and subsequent shots were fired in defense of others and in self-defense. Sadly, one round fired at Mr. Lee passed through the door and accidentally struck Mr. Kim.”

According to the district attorney’s report, a homicide is justifiable if the person believes the victim was going to commit “a forcible and atrocious crime” and danger was immediate.

Oakland attorney John Burris has filed a $60 million wrongful death claim on behalf of Richard Kim’s family. Burris said he did not get the report until about a week ago.

Burris said the civil rights of his client, her brother and her husband, were violated.

“(Tae-Lee) was never given a sufficient opportunity to comply,” Burris said. “One, he didn’t speak English; and two, as his sister was communicating with him in Korean, he was shot.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14514424.htm

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A man who police said beat a Penn State student to death with a baseball bat, beer bottle and rolling pin was ordered to stand trial on Thursday for first-degree murder.

Andrew Rogers, 28, also faces charges of second- and third-degree murder, robbery and theft in connection with the death of student Youngcheol Park, 24, on Feb. 23.

Rogers left State College, then walked into a police station four days later in his hometown of Uniontown and told an officer that “there may be a body in my kitchen,” authorities said.

State College District Judge Jonathan Grine ruled at a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence to send the case to trial.

Police have said that Rogers described a brawl over cocaine and money with Park, an apparent poker buddy, and a third man, identified only as “Sweet.” Authorities were still looking for that suspect.

Rogers may have beat Park dozens of times, authorities said. A defense attorney has said Rogers may have been defending himself.

Park, a native of South Korea, was an undergraduate studying aerospace engineering.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-04062006-637695.html

February 1, 2006
6pm

Rap, Race & Black-Asian Relations
A Panel featuring Jeff Chang and Kenyon Farrow
Moderated by Walidah Imarisha
Location: 360 Huntsman Hall

DESCRIPTION of EVENT:

Since the 1992 L.A. Riots, the topic of Black-Asian relations has gained greater attention among a broad range of people, including academics, community activists, and pop culture aficionados. And in the last decade, hip hop has become a popular topic of debate among activists and intellectuals. We bring these two conversations together to explore how Blacks and Asians engage one another vis-a-vis hip hop and what impact this has on Black-Asian relations in general. We will explore issues such as cultural sharing versus cultural accommodation, how different groups are represented and represent themselves and each other in hip hop music and imagery, how gender and sexual politics inform racial representations, whether and to what degree different groups should be involved in hip hop, and if multiracial involvement in hip hop contributes to tensions between Blacks and Asians or helps to lessen it.

Dear Reader,

Esther Ha (a Korean exchange student from Missouri and is currently in Alabama) is interested in learning about your opinions about the following topic …

1. What is your position on the issue of the Korean reunification? Do you think it should be done? If you oppose, why?
2. What factors do you think obstruct the reunification the most?
3. Do you know how American Koreans feel about the division of Korea?
4. What is most likely to happen to Korea based on current events?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Regards,
Max

Heather Park is not what you expected. She dreams in pictures. She sings with soul.

Soul of a woman, eyes of a child, a voice that exudes warmth, and a tone that invokes you to keep listening. Her music has a lyrical intellect, with a soul that’s pure hip-hop. Her velvety voice is laced with a soulful edge, her songs transcend genres and embodies a style all its own. Amidst rich, moving harmonies and vocal arrangements, her songs explore aspects/angles of love and life in a voice of rare sincerity.

Her sound is unique, drawing from the eclectic mix of her musical influences. A classically trained pianist, she grew up listening to everything from hip-hop, R&B, folk, pop, and even country music. There is no simple explanation for her soulful singing. “I honestly don’t know where it comes from. I wish I had an easy answer. It’s just something that’s always been inside of me. I don’t know how to sing any other way.”

She was introduced into the music scene in 2002, when she made a choice to pursue music over going to graduate school, much to the disapproval of her parents. While working at a deli in New York City, her demo caught the attention of the programming director of New York’s Hot 97, and so began her musical career.

Through a chance meeting, she met producer and songwriter Steve Francis (Stush Music) and an immediate creative connection was formed. “It was a blessing to find someone who shared my vision and who allowed me the room to grow and find myself as an artist.”

From their creative union, grew a project that was not unique to any one genre but drew from all of them. “I realized a lot of my discomfort came from trying to fit in to external notions of what I should sound like, how I should sing. Now, I’ve stopped trying to comply and learned to just be.”

With the release of her debut album “Dream In Pictures”, Heather has established herself within the industry. Her album is an eclectic blend of styles and captivating vocals. She’s been featured in Jade Magazine, Asiance magazine, Asianmusicsource.com, and has performed on Imaginasian TV.

It’s a never-ending lesson, learning to love the skin you’re in. I’m certainly no exception. The songs in “Dream in Pictures” are an honest reflection of my heart and mind. It’s such indescribable bliss to be able to write and sing music that finally resonates with your soul. I hope they resonate with your soul, too.

http://www.hearthepark.com

Grace Lee Survey Results

268 Grace Lees have filled out the Grace Lee Project survey so far. They came from 23 different countries including the US, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, Scotland and Slovenia. Here are some of the results:

Are You Grace Lee? Take the survey now!

http://www.gracelee.net/index.cgi?survey_results=1

Choi elected Edison mayor
By JERRY BARCA
STAFF WRITER

EDISON — Jun Choi made history last night by becoming Edison’s first Asian mayor.

Running as a reformer, the 34-year-old Korean American eked out a 272-vote victory.

“They said “The skinny kid with the funny name didn’t stand a chance to win this election’ . . . They were wrong,” Choi, a first-time candidate for office, said during his victory speech at the Pines Manor.

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051109/NEWS/511090433/1001