A Postcolonial Self

Hee An Choi

Description

Theologian Choi Hee An explores how Korean immigrants create a new, postcolonial identity in response to life in the United States. A Postcolonial Self begins with a discussion of a Korean ethnic self ("Woori" or "we") and how it differs from Western norms. Choi then looks at the independent self, the theological debates over this concept, and the impact of racism, sexism, classism, and postcolonialism on the formation of this self. She concludes with a look at how Korean immigrants, especially immigrant women, cope with the transition to US culture, including prejudice and discrimination, and the role the Korean immigrant church plays in this. Choi posits that an emergent postcolonial self can be characterized as "I and We with Others." In Korean immigrant theology and church, an extension of this can be characterized as "radical hospitality," a concept that challenges both immigrants and American society to consider a new mutuality.
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. A Korean Ethnic Self (We)

What Is Korean Ethnic Self?
A Korean Ethnic Self versus a Western Concept of the Self
A Korean Ethnic Self (We) in the Context of Christian Faith

2. A Marginalized Self (I as the Other versus We as the Other)

How Immigrants Experience Their Self
A Marginalized Self (I as the Other) in the Racial Formation
A Marginalized Self (I as the Other) in the Discourse of Sex/Gender
From a Marginalized Self (I as the Other) to a Marginalized Communal Self (We as the Other)

3. A Postcolonial Self (I and We with Others)

From a Marginalized Self to a Postcolonial Self (I and We with Others)
What Is a Postcolonial Self?
The Practice of a Postcolonial Self: Radical Hospitality

Conclusion

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Theology

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 04 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438457376
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

A Postcolonial Self
A Postcolonial Self
Korean Immigrant Theology and Church
Choi Hee An
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
An, Choi Hee.
A postcolonial self : Korean immigrant theology and church / Choi Hee An.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5735-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4384-5737-6 (e-book) 1. Korean Americans—Religious life. 2. Korean American churches. 3. National characteristics, Korean. 4. Asian American theology. 5. Race discrimination—United States. 6. Koreans—United States—Social conditions. I. Title. BL2525.A565 2015 230.089’957—dc23 2014035449
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For My Beloved Husband, So Kee Boem
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Korean Ethnic Self (We)
What Is a Korean Ethnic Self?
A Korean Ethnic Self versus a Western Concept of the Self
A Korean Ethnic Self (We) in the Context of Christian Faith
2. A Marginalized Self (I as the Other versus We as the Other)
How Immigrants Experience Their Self
A Marginalized Self (I as the Other) in the Racial Formation Process
A Marginalized Self (I as the Other) in the Discourse of Sex/Gender
From a Marginalized Self (I as the Other) to a Marginalized Communal Self (We as the Other)
3. A Postcolonial Self (I and We with Others)
From a Marginalized Self to a Postcolonial Self (I and We with Others)
What Is a Postcolonial Self?
The Practice of a Postcolonial Self: Radical Hospitality
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
It has been a tough journey to bring this book to birth. As I have studied the Korean immigrant church and theology, I have felt so much pain. It was not an easy task to look deep into Korean immigrant lives and their struggle against severe discrimination. However, as I recognized the value of Korean immigrants’ lives in their immigrant church and theology, I found hope to write this book. I enjoyed the process of peeling the multiple layers of the complex dynamics that Korean immigrants experienced as I named them.
I am so grateful that I have not walked this journey alone. I could not have written this book without the encouragement and prayers from my beloved family, friends, church members, academic and spiritual mentors, School of Theology colleagues at Boston University, colleagues from other institutions, and students who have believed in me and shown unceasing support and care. I have been surrounded by insurmountable grace and love from them.
I thank the State University of New York Press and my editor, Nancy Ellegate, who believed in me and supported me in the publication of this book from beginning to end. I especially thank my friends Christopher and Sharon, who read my work line by line and supported me in the process of endless editing.
I thank my parents and family, who lift up unceasing prayers to God every day. And I thank my husband, who was not afraid to challenge my work and was willing to be a brave conversation partner in this work.
Introduction
Immigration is a global phenomenon, an inescapable trend of the twenty-first century. Immigration happens in every country in many different forms and changes the social, cultural, political, and religious aspects of our lives across the world. The process of immigration has brought some common experiences to many immigrants, both individually and communally. At the same time, ethnic and individual experiences of immigration are unique because of their different circumstances. Given their uniqueness and differences, what immigrants continue to experience needs to be carefully analyzed and named within various interdisciplinary perspectives. Immigration is not a simple concept, especially in America. From the beginning of American history, a steady stream of immigration has been a main characteristic of American society and has given rise to multiple layers of discrimination against and prejudice toward different races and ethnicities, along with class and sex/gender discrimination.
American immigration was born out of colonial wars. As immigrants from European colonies fought for national independence from European powers in the early settlement of this country, they saw themselves as the colonized and the oppressed. They were freedom fighters for justice and claimed to build their own independent country. However, their independence came with a heavy price to others. In order to gain economic and political power, early settlers brought Africans by force and incarcerated Native Americans in certain places. As they engaged in violent acts toward Native Americans and African slaves and exploited their labor and resources, they maximized their profits and wealth at the expense of these people. At the same time, their violent acts were interpreted as a “normal” way of life. They justified their actions by asserting European white superiority. Even as they were free from colonial oppression, they kept others from freedom by using colonial violence.
While African slaves were forced to be involuntary immigrants through slave trade, many Asians and Latino/as came voluntarily though out of necessity for their own survival for different reasons and provided cheap labor to build a strong American national economy. African immigrants, Asian immigrants, and Latino/a immigrants were used as free or cheap labor. Prior to 1871, there was no restriction on immigration. There was an open-door immigration policy. However, in 1875, an immigration policy was established excluding certain groups of people. From 1882 to 1943, anti-Chinese provisions were in force. Even though the criterion for U.S. citizenship of “all free white persons” was removed after the Civil War and the clause “of the African race or of African descent” was added, anti-Asian sentiment did not easily disappear. 1 As immigrant policies were changed and specific restrictions were brought against certain ethnic groups, discrimination against those groups was legitimated as institutional rules and laws that were spawned originally forced by a colonial mentality.
Immigrant experiences in America are a result of direct colonial influences. Colonialism is a physical, psychological, and even spiritual exercise of a nation’s sovereign power beyond its borders, involving physical, geographical dominion; psychological oppression; and spiritual manipulation. Although many former colonies have now achieved national independence and tend to believe that they are free from colonialism, world power dynamics have not changed. With or without geographical dominance, the same colonial and imperial policies and rules dominate formerly colonized countries culturally, socially, and politically. Even though physical domination is limited because of the newly won independence of formerly colonized countries, the descendants of colonizers create persistent sociocultural, religious, and even linguistic structures to portray the formerly colonized as inferiors. Many colonial rules and cultures are still influential and dominant in the formerly colonized world. It is a new form of colonialism: postcolonialism.
The power of postcolonialism within power structures and institutional ideologies reaches far beyond any territories or borders. Its methods involve geographical visibility/invisibility, psychological control/manipulation, religious distortion, and more. Through immigration, postcolonialism controls and powerfully exercises its influences. Racism, sexism, and classism in America merge into this postcolonial discourse and accelerate its influence on nonwhite immigrant populations, not only here but also around the globe. Along with racism, sexism, and classism, this postcolonial power evokes in immigrants an urgent need and desire to adopt American white culture without analyzing the toxic postcolonial manipulation in the early stages of their immigrant lives.
However, unlike the power of postcolonialism within power structures and institutional ideologies , there is the power of postcolonialism within people , which is not just a resurgence of colonialism. As many immigrants are aware of American colonial/postcolonial power in their own countries, they also experience liberation and exercise national self-determination as freedom from colonial/postcolonial power. 2 The power of postcolonialism that people exercise is the power of resistance and challenge. It resists the colonial and postcolonial power structures and challenges their impacts on toxic postcolonial, sociocultural, and political manipulations and institutional ideologies. It is the power to resist postcolonial domination. It requires geographical ethnic gatherings, many complex layers of psychological transformative processes, spiritual religious practices, and more for immigrants to attain “better” lives in America. Through religious institutions such as churches and temples, this power is used as a heuristic movement against racism, sexism, classism, and other prejudices from the perspective of the margin. It creates a critical moving force to encourage and sustain immigrants’ lives. It is immigrants’ indefatigable drive not only to survive but also to thrive in their determination to overcome the power of postcolonialism within power structures and institutional ideologie