[Perspective]
Muddling toward multiculturalism

Dana Choi

Your “annyeong haseyo” may have been greeted only by a twittery giggle. You might have been blatantly bypassed in the company decision-making process. Or it could be that when you asked where the bathroom was, the response was directed past you at the nearest Korean-looking person who seemed to be associated with you.

There are many little moments like these waiting for a non-Korean in Korea, when not being from here can get in the way of where you’re trying to go. This place has been changing fast over the past few decades, but it was the same for a long time before that. And some old closed-door habits are making like Bruce Willis in a hotel at Christmas.

Korea’s homogenous history does make a tempered view of such matters necessary. And, to be fair, dealings that are tainted with discrimination here are generally far less harsh than in places where minorities are more visible. But there are still many issues that need to be addressed before Korea can become the globalized nation it longs to be.

Dana Choi, a model and promoter whose mother is Korean and father is Dutch, is on a mission to create a more open society. She is teaming up with her friend Mina Turner, who’s also half-Korean, to write a book about the experience of mixed-race people here.

“After coming to Korea, we’ve had a lot of good experiences and a lot of disappointing experiences,” said Choi. “Korea is what it is. Koreans don’t grow up with kids with blond hair and blue eyes. So school can be a miserable place for halfies or foreigners.”

Choi has run into some walls in her experience as a model. “In the beginning, they were like, ‘Great! You have such a different look.’ But after a while they were like, ‘Oh, you look so different from everyone else.’”

Old stigmas still sometimes get in the way for half-Koreans. “We want people to know that their dads don’t have to be in the army and their moms don’t have to be prostitutes. There are some bad stereotypes.”

Choi has no illusions about the obstacles she’s up against.

“It doesn’t matter how Korean I try to be or what my hairdresser does to my hair. Even though I’m half-Korean, people don’t look at me as Korean. I’m a foreigner,” she said. “I think gyopos [ethnic Koreans from abroad] get this too.”

The government is aware that there’s an issue, but its moves to correct it often belie a lack of insight.

“The government’s putting all this money into field trips for biracial kids, but they’re approaching it the wrong way,” said Choi. “Instead of trying to educate the rest of the kids they go to school with, they’re sending the biracial kids away.”

But Choi is out to kill with kindness. “We’re trying to let things go and be more open. We want to set a good example, so people know that we’re not so different; that we’re all the same people on the inside.”

By Richard Scott-Ashe, Deputy Editor [richard@joongang.co.kr]