Two Names. Two Cultures. One Person.
Concept Statement
Two Names. Two Cultures. One Person is a memoir written in both Korean and English that navigates through the conflicts of growing up between two cultures. The memoir tells personal anecdotes of my relationship with my cultural identity and the difficulties of accepting it through a distraught relationship with languages and misguided connections with my name.
Motivators
This thesis was motivated by the desire to create a personal project dedicated to myself during my final academic years. As a writer, I have based content on my own experiences, but I have never written directly about them. The main goal of my thesis was to design work that would be an internal reflection of myself and express personal, vulnerable stories that I have never publicly shared.
In addition, I wrote a bilingual memoir as a form of expressing my cultural identity. Working in a second language was incredibly difficult, but it allowed me to dynamically express the intricate, complex emotions I had felt while growing up.
The Korean was always on the left-hand side.
The English was always on the right-hand side.
Purpose
My memoir originally served as a therapeutic method to close the chapter of internal conflict about my cultural identity. It has since evolved into an introspective reflection about my journey and the never-ending search for defining one’s identity. By the end of the memoir, I am satisfied with the person I have become as a temporary moment of peace as I await more experiences to eventually change how I define myself.
Target Audience
Although the work seeks to start a discussion about identity with 1.5-generation immigrants* in their 20s, the work is not limited to this community. A wider group of adult audiences who have had to inherit two or more differing cultural heritages are also welcome to the conversation.
The work opens up conversations about old wounds regarding identity and finding a way to heal through them.
* 1.5 generation immigrants refer to those who have immigrated to a new country at an early age.
Table of Contents
Origin: Years 0 – 4
Blurring Lines: Years 5 – 8
Separate Lives: Years 9 – 12
Peace//breaker: Years 13-15
(Ir)replaceable: Years 16-17
Affirmation: Years 18 and after
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