Tag: adoptee

Go Away With … Chris Robert Riegel

Jae-Ha Kim

“I was actually orphaned at a very young age, just like most of the characters in both the source material of ‘Great Expectations’ and also our cheeky comedic companion piece of a film, ‘Expectations,’” said filmmaker Chris Robert Riegel. “Going through adolescence [and] knowing you don’t have a conventional background can have an effect on a sense of self, or identity. But I’ve found with my own circumstances, the start of the journey is something none of us can control.”

Go Away With … Nicole Chung

Jae-Ha Kim

With her first memoir “All You Can Ever Know,” Nicole Chung candidly offered personal reflections on being a transracial adoptee. The bestselling author’s latest book “A Living Remedy” (Ecco) deals with grief, classism and America’s broken healthcare system, which contributed to the deaths of both her adoptive parents.

Go Away With … Lindsay Price

Jae-Ha Kim

“After 50 years of being in America, I took my mother back to Korea,” says actress Lindsay Price. “She had been adopted at age 12 and had never been back since. I was seven months pregnant with my first child and I wanted to understand where she came from in a deep and true way. It was the most profound trip ever for the both of us, but it was also no vacation. Talk about coming home exhausted. But I’ll say it will be the trip of my lifetime as far as meaning and transformation goes. And man, do I love Seoul.”

Go Away With … Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman

Jae-Ha Kim

Actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman says, “Years ago I read a quote that I fell in love with that said, ‘I can’t think of anything more pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you enjoy something, there’s nothing guilty about it.’”

“Doctor Crush” (닥터스)

Jae-Ha Kim

“Doctor Crush” is full of bad characters full of bad intentions: the money-hungry father-son duo trying to take over the hospital; Ji-Hong’s uncle, who steals his inheritance and then dumps him off at an orphanage; Hye-Jung’s father, who abandons her; and even Hye-Jung’s raison d’etre for much of the series: revenge.

Family bonds locked in time at Seoul tower

Jae-Ha Kim

The main characters in K-dramas often demonstrate their love by attaching personalized padlocks on a fence on the tower’s observation deck. Tens of thousands of “love locks” can be found here. It’s a trend well established in cities such as Paris and Prague, but the tradition has taken on an added dimension in Seoul. While couples still attach locks to declare their love for one another, the fence has become a popular spot for adoptees and their adoptive parents to leave padlocks honoring the day they became a family.