The Korean From America
by
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Coming and leaving Guangzhou had become routine. This trip was a bit different and the event at the massage parlor was something that never happened before. In all the years he had been coming to China, it was the first physical altercation he ever had.
He looked out the window and remembered years ago when he first rode the train to Guangzhou. Today the train was air conditioned and had cushion seats, unlike the wooden benches before. The passing scenery had also changed. The landscape was pretty much as it had been, but there were fewer women carrying loads on the ends of a pole balanced on their shoulders. There were more tractors today and fewer, if any, oxen pulling the plows. The armies of blue clad people had disappeared. Now there were colored shirts, sun glasses, digital watches, cell phones, and motor bikes. Those who could afford them, had computers and spent time surfing the Internet.
He marveled at how people were adjusting to the new life changes in China during the past ten plus years. The adjustments were much simpler in the rural areas. But, not all the sons and daughters stayed on the farms. They gravitated to the cities where one could find so many different ways to make money. Hundreds of jobs that never existed before were now available. Factory owners encouraged the farmers’ sons and daughters to come to the cities and leave the stagnant farm life. Their wages were cheap. They came to work anyway and some who were quick and smart prospered. The lucky ones started new businesses and became the new employers who hired the never ending supply of young people from the farms. Most of the migrant workers eked out a poverty line living. The good sons and daughters sent money home to the parents who stayed behind.
He thought about Sophie and wondered how she would ever disentangle herself from her job. What about the young hooker at the hotel and the not so young Lola, from several months ago. Was this Sophie’s fate? He hoped not.
The second trip this year. There will be at least two more trips this year. Maybe three. No resolution or finality to them. I seem to be just traveling. I’m just coming and going. On airplanes, on trains, in taxis. Just a series of moving vehicles. What’s the purpose? What do I really accomplish? I’m just the Korean from America. That’s all anyone can say about me. Damn, there has to be something else. What?
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About the Book
There are many descriptions of him - a malcontent, a misguided liberal, and even being un-American. He's an international business consultant.
The year began with an industrial diamond sale in Beijing. While there, he becomes involved with a North Korean and his sister, who want to defect to America. Trying to stop them is a North Korean policeman, who hunts defectors.
Meanwhile, he tries to carry out his business obligations. Along the way, he meets a variety of characters who are the modern generation of the new Asia.
He meets a special woman who could change his life. He has doubts about sustaining a lasting relationship, but she has none and possesses the conviction he lacks. The affair becomes part of his dilemma.
Life for him had become a transitory series of personal connections, ending in unfulfilled expectations. A major obstacle in his search for stability is that he cannot define his own identity. He believes going to Asia is an answer. Asia is a mythical haven for him.
Asians give him an identity, but it is not uniquely personal. It's generic. People there know him as the Korean from America. Maybe that's his only real identity.
About the Author
Young Park was a college president in California. After leaving education he has been an international business consultant for over twenty years. This is his fourth book. Prior publications include: The Life And Times Of A Hyphenated American; Shootout At Grove Street; Korea And The Imperialists.