MY KOREAN IDENTITY AND QUEST FOR UNDERSTANDING (Korean Youth Studies, 1), edited by Sora Yang of Sydney, Australia, is a very important book in the area of Korean studies. This ground-breaking book contains 13 articles by Korean youth from around the world, in India, Africa, Australia, and the USA. The winner of the 2008 Global Rev. Ham Suk-Hyun Essay Contest, on the topic of "My Korean Identity," Sora Yang has contributed important articles on Australian Korean community, which is a growing Korean community around the world. Sora Yang also explores her own identity as a Korean and an Australian. Jung-Im Jeong, a Student Council secretary at Canadian International School in India and the president of Bangalore Korean Presbyterian Church Youth Group in India, who is one of the early Korean settlers in Bangalore, India, due to her father's executive responsibilities in the IT sector, writes about the situation in India in terms of culture, economics, and society. Jung-Im Jeong focuses on how she developed into a leader desiring to help the people of India and also other people in need around the world. Haebin Yoon writes from Senegal, Africa, regarding her "immigration" to Africa with her missionary father, who was sent by the Korean Presbyterian Church (Ko-Shin) in Korea. She desires to follow in her father's footsteps as a missionary to Africa. Paul Sungbae Park, who has received much acclaim as an emerging young historian in his own right, has written an article exploring the experience of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the manner of vicarious participation, so emphasized by Professor Robert N. Bellah of University of California at Berkeley, Paul Sungbae Park has placed himself in a vicarious position of a member of the corps of discovery of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Furthermore, Paul Sungbae Park examines similarities between the Korean Joong-Mae System and the Shakespearean arranged marriage system as found in ROMEO AND JULIET. Michael Chon, the first-born son of a cutting-edge telecommunications company founder in New Jersey, desires to expand his dad's company into a multi-billion-dollar empire. He relates his prowess as a star soccer player to his competitive spirit. As the president of his whole school, Michael Chon explores his own competitive spirit as both inherited and acquired. Joon Park, who is highly ranked in his elite magnate school in New Jersey, recounts his summer trip to South Korea and reminisces about his grandmother who wants him to grow using Korean herbal medicine. Joon Park writes with humor and figurative language that is rarely found in such a young person. Timothy Chon, Andy Jung, and Jake Byun write autobiographically about their experiences in Korea. Their testimonies serve as first-hand primary source accounts not only of the description of youth life in South Korea, but also of primary document preserving Korean youth perspectives on events and issues. Gloria Bae, a star student in her honors class, describes the bond that exists between a Korean mother and a Korean daughter, focuses on Korean food creation. The touching story will not only warm your heart, but it will also give you an insight into Korean cuisine and the Korean family.
