Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Korea

The Immigrant Sacrifice

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“Isn’t it ironic how after making such a huge sacrifice to immigrate to Canada, so that your children to have a better life, your son goes ahead and moves to Korea?”

While I was visiting Vancouver a few months ago, but still living in Korea, that was a statement I overheard someone tell my father. (I am now back living in Canada).

I was born and raised in Canada. My parents left absolutely everything in Korea over 30 years ago so that my sisters and I could have a better life. I even remember my father telling me how when he got off the airplane and landed in Canada, all he had was $10. And with that $10 he bought a watch and got a ride to his parent’s house, who also just recently immigrated.

When my parents moved to Canada, they had absolutely nothing…except family, love, hope for a better future, and God. They moved away from a country where they knew the language, the culture, the history, and the food, and they became aliens, mutes, and deafs in a foreign country called ‘Canada.’

They worked at grocery stores, saved every penny, and did whatever they could do in order to forge a better future for their children. They didn’t want their children to go through what they were going through. They sacrificed.

[Read more…] about The Immigrant Sacrifice

The Architecture of Asian Christianity

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Two weeks ago, when my wife and I travelled down to my mom’s home town (Seosan, Choongchun-Namdo, South Korea) for my uncle’s funeral, we came across this interesting building. Upon closer examiniation, we discovered that it is a Catholic church, but I was just in awe of the Asian flavor that the cathedral had.

Living in Montreal, Quebec for a couple years, I definitely saw my fair shair of cathedrals. Montreal even boasts of the St. Joseph Oratory, which has the third largest dome in the world, and the Notre-Dame Basillica, which has an amazingly dramatic Gothic  Revival architectural style.

However, never did I once see a cathedral that was so architecturally Asian!

Now that is a prime example of architectural contextualization!!

The Power of Shame in Asian Cultures

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I have never heard so much about suicide until moving to Korea. Sure, there were the occasional suicide stories in the news back in Canada and in Hollywood, but to so frequently read the names of celebrities, political leaders, and high-profile individuals in the headlines in apposition with the deadly words, “suicide,” was unfathomable.

“South Korean Ex-President Kills Himself” is one of the major headlines in the news today. Even if one were to survey this past year’s news, one would frequently come across stories of celebrities committing suicide in Korea.  Committing suicide in Korea is really not an occasional occurrence.

But why? Is it that the preciousness of life isn’t valued any more? Is it a decision of the whim? Why am I coming across so many stories of suicide in this shame-based-Confucianistic culture of Korea? [Read more…] about The Power of Shame in Asian Cultures

Sociology of the Homeless in Seoul, Korea

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There are approximately 1 million homeless individuals in Seoul, and 300 at Seoul Station, which is a major landmark in Seoul.  That’s very intriguing because the population of greater Seoul is 24.5 million people.  That means 1 in every 25 people is homeless in Seoul. Since writing this article, I have had much discussion on this statistic above. I heard this initially from a worker on the field with many years of service helping out and caring for the homeless. However, in a recent article from the Yonhap News Agency in 2011, they reported that there are 4403 homeless individuals in South Korea. This number seems a bit low to me, but then again, how is the Ministry of Health and Welfare defining “homeless?” (edited on Aug 8, 2012)

Now let’s return back to my original article.

We had an outreach to the homeless in Seoul a few weeks ago, and I noticed something very intriguing about the sociology of the homeless here.  We went to the City Hall Subway Station and discovered that there were three types of homeless, for lack of a better word, “lifestyles.”

The first type of “lifestyle” is the large-community “lifestyle” where many homeless individuals live together in community.  For example, we saw an area at the City Hall Subway Station where 20-30 homeless individuals lived together in community.  The second type of “lifestyle” is the small-community “lifestyle” where a few homeless individuals live together in community.  The third type of “lifestyle” is the individualized private “lifestyle” where the homeless live by themselves.

When I noticed all three lifestyles, I wasn’t surprised by those who lived in the large-community or even small-community lifestyle because Asian Culture is so community-focused.  However, what I couldn’t quite understand was why there were so many different dynamics between the lifestyles.

Here are my thoughts or hypothesis as to the differences:

1) The homeless individuals in the large-community “lifestyle” were a lot more forceful and demanding when we handed out the blankets to them.  It’s almost as if they knew that they somehow deserved the charity, so they wanted as much charity as possible.  As a result, I believe that the homeless who live in these larger communities have accepted their homeless condition and are more-or-less content with their identity being linked with homelessness.

2) The small-community “lifestyle” individuals are not adapting to the large-community “lifestyle” because they are possibly holding onto the hope that there is a way out of their condition.  A few minutes after giving one of our blankets to the small-community “lifestyle” homeless, I saw him scratching out the bible verse that we had taped on the case.  It almost seemed as if he was concerned with the “presentation” of the blanket because he wanted to sell it.

3) The homeless living a individualized private “lifestyle” actually turned out to be the most grateful for our blankets.  There were even a few homeless who didn’t want the blanket and suggested that we give it to others who are more in need.  Furthermore, when we gave them food, they were bowing their heads to us with gratitude – a gesture that we seldom came across with the other two “types” of homeless “lifestyles.”  My hypothesis is that these homeless are F.O.S.’s – “fresh on the street.”  In other words, they recently lost their job or some other unfortunate situation happened, which in turn, caused them to move to the streets.  As a result, they are still living in heavy shame regarding their condition.  Thus, by not associating with other homeless individuals, they are convinced that they will get back on their feet again.  Homelessness is not their identity, it’s just a temporary condition.

Has anyone else seen similiar patterns of the homeless in other cities? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

The Common Locations of the Homeless in Seoul, Korea:

  • Seoul Station
  • Ulgiroo 3Ga Station (Line 2)
  • Yeungdeongpo Goochung (Line 5) –> this station has the most homeless individuals and the majority of them will gather here at 11:00 pm to sleep.