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Korean Diaspora and Media in Australia: In Search of Identities
by
Gil-Soo Han
liked it 3.00 · Rating details · 1 rating · 0 reviews
An essential dimension of why one becomes an immigrant is based on a quest for identities - who one is, whom one wants to be, and how one wants to live. There is much in common between immigrants of the past and immigrants today in terms of what they seek through diasporic life.
However, one key difference relates to how they express the processes of searching for their identities.
This book illuminates the ways in which Korean immigrants in Australia express their identities through autobiographies, novels, church websites, and popular weekly magazines.
Korean Diaspora and Media in Australia also examines the role of the Korean immigrant church in contributing to the formation of transnational identities.
Han's in-depth analysis is informed by the concepts of reflexivity and internal conversation from a tradition of critical realism.
Internal conversation is enabled through human reflexivity (the regular application of mental ability) and is the process for individual agents to work out their best reactions to social conditions.
Han carefully explains this process and thoughtfully applies it to the Korean community's search for identities in Australia. (less)
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Review
This book breaks new ground in both migration studies and media studies by examining the role of various forms of media used by Korean immigrants in Australia. Gil-Soo Han draws on recent theories of identity formation, particularly Margaret Archer's model of "internal conversation," and sensitively explores the shifts from Korean to Korean-Australian transnational identities in his case studies. The case studies are drawn from a variety of media and cultural texts produced by Koreans in Australia: autobiography, fiction, journalism and church websites. Supplemented by interview data, and drawing on the author's own trajectory of identity formation as a Korean who migrated to Australia in the 1980s, these studies present a rich palette of migrants, sojourners, students and working holiday makers, from the 1980s to the present. This reveals clearly the shift from the migrant who uprooted herself from Korean society in the 1980s to contemporary young uncommitted visitors who lead fully transnational lives and inhabit transnational social spaces. Han argues that through acculturation all Korean migrants to Australia are continuously developing their transnational identities. The book uses cultural and media texts to produce an ethnography of Korean migrant experience in Australia, illuminating an expanding segment of the multicultural tapestry of Australian society.--Alison Tokita, professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
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