No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
Disembedded and Free-Floating Bodies Out of Place and Out of Control: Examining the Borderline Existence of Adopted Koreans By Tobias Hiibinette Introduction Recently, there has been an upsurge in studies examining previously uncategorizable and unrecognized groups transcending antithetical and binary opposites of white/ non-white, male/ female, hetero/homo and the like. Words like borders and margins , and prefixes like bi- (both), interbetween ) and trans- (beYond) frequendy turn up in this research trend; these positions challenge essentialist theories and notions of identity based on a social constructivist understanding of it, and take place at the intersection of postcolonial, feminist and queer theory. In dialogue with this new research development, this paper sets out to examine one of these hitherto neglected and under-researched groups, namely the specific ethnic Korean diaspora of 160,000 children who since the end of the Korean War have been adopted from Korea to fifteen different Western countries. My examination of adopted Koreans starts by providing the history of this extraordinary trade and trafficking in Korean children beyond the mainstream and hegemonic narrative of international adoption as a benevolent and humanitarian child welfare practice. It will be followed by a framing of this absolutely unique, forced child migration in modern history within the context of Western colonialism and Korean nationalism. For many years these two ideologies also spoke for and represented the group, but nowadays adopted Koreans have started speaking out about their own experiences as well as reaching out to each other and organizing themselves. After an introduction to this recent emergence of an adopted Korean voice and movement, this paper analyzes the ethnic subjectivization of adopted Koreans by reading and citing excerpts from a selected number of autobiographical texts, using a combination of Judith Butler's performativity theory 129 Adoption ' 'flat-face' or 'squint-eye' . . . the harm is doubly intensified by the adoptee's ignorance of his or her own culture and origin, lack of having many, if any, models; having to explain that 'No, I'm not Chinese or Japanese - I'm Korean' and not really knowing what that means. The difficulty that all adolescents face in trying to fit in with their peers is intensified in trying to look 'white,' act 'white,' and not looking like the people you are most likely to imitate - one's parents" (16). And Su Niles says that: "I walk in this skin. And in this skin, I am any American. A single image has been etched inside of me my skin conflicts with me. The world sees me culture gap with other pioneers who are bravi own prejudices, I realize how much energy i however willing the spirit. And I slam up agai It hurts so much to still be on the outside. It one with which I am intimate" (23). This pain and dislocation may also explain th suicide rates, mental illnesses, and social probl adoptees as reflected in the depressing and wo Swedish adoption research that also bridges th and qualitative studies.14 New Swedish adop huge samples of international adoptees from p shows that many adult adoptees have serious p economic and psycho-social issues such as su attempts, as well as criminality and unemploy been adopted by couples or singles predom Swedish elite, as it is estimated that 90 percen belong to Sweden's upper and middle classes.15 and rest, no place to find solace, no free zone to defend (or at least understand and emph non- Western immigrants from Asia and Ko form of families and friends, adopted Kore in the form of suicide as the ultimate way struggle to survive, negotiate, and navigat identifications, imaginaries, discourses, and in end to be left alone. In this interpretation to ignoring and leaving behind mainstream posit dominated by psychologists and psychiatrist 150 Hübinette, "Disembedded" explain such "deviant" results among international adoptees with genetic defects, low IQs, separation traumas, and attachment disorders. My interpretation is also a critique of post-modern concepts of nomadism and cosmopolitism that glorify liminal existences and border crossings: passing and transgressing like an ethnic chameleon is not always either a self-liberatory act nor a pleasant state. During childhood, this constant batde of acceptance of my...
Loading…
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 20 citations exist upstream.
Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.