• American Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.131-158
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• 2021

This paper examines how nation-specific history of Asian war brides affects different representations of war brides in Velina Hasu Houston's Tea (1984) and Julia Cho's The Architecture of Loss (2003). While war brides had long been excluded from American history, Japanese war brides were brought to public attention in the 1980s. Korean war brides, on the other hand, were kept out of sight until the 2000s. Focusing on how this time gap is related to ethnic difference, this paper analyzes dramaturgical differences between the two plays such as the presence/absence of war bride on stage or ethnic solidarity/familial reconciliation as the main device of war bride memorialization. Such differences, the paper suggests, stem from ethnic/historical differences between Korean and Japanese war brides. Through historical interpretations of the plays, this paper argues that America's military relationships with Korea and Japan were reproduced within the Asian-American families of each drama in ways that raise questions about pan-Asian identity.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.26
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• pp.249-272
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• 2012

Diaspora studies has become one of the fastest growing field in the humanities over the past several decades, and the use of term diaspora has been widening to include almost any population on the move. Diaspora literature not only mirrors but actively incorporates this new notion of diaspora with characters "at the threshold" navigating new territories and identities. Querying how diaspora studies intersects with theatre and performance, this paper attempts to probe how recent Korean American drama parallels and promotes diaspora studies' radical departure from traditional notions of identities and territories. For this purpose, this essay 1) examines theoretical affinities between diaspora studies and performance studies 2) investigates how Sung Rno's plays, Cleveland Raining and wAve, explore and embody multiple and evolving meanings of Korean diaspora on the stage 3) examines how theatre can create the third space that transcends both Korean and American nationalism and 4) speculates possibilities of reframing Asian American Studies as Asian diaspora studies. Korean American characters in Rno's play redirect diasporic identities, as their concern gradually moves from "where I come from" to "where I go to." Instead of remaining in the dark as a mere spectator, both Rno and his characters choose to be 'on' the stage where they can imagine, perform, and realize (however temporarily) "unimaginable community" by confronting their own social, political, and cultural ambivalence. Stage, the threshold between reality and fiction, Korea and America, and past and future, becomes their true 'home' where they incubate and precipitate "nation in transformation" that Yan Haiping argues for as "another transnational."

• American Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.67-96
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• 2021

The Canadian public broadcaster CBC had successfully aired a sitcom centered on a Korean immigrant family from 2016 to 2021. The show is based on the play Kim's Convenience written by a Korean-Canadian playwright Ins Choi. This study explores literary features of Kim's Convenience that accounts for its popularity; three elements of the show play crucial roles in maintaining the balance between specificity and universality. First, Choi deploys a Korean immigrant story in the form of comedy. Second, the main plot revolves around an ordinary family with generational strains that ends in reconciliation. Third. the Kims are depicted more as an archetypical family than a stereotypically Asian one. By closely interweaving these elements, Choi induces the audience to find commonalities from the show, and racial specificities of the Kim's family become "spicy" attractions of the play.