(Left to Right: Choon Taek Lim, Peggy Chung, Dr. James Muyskens, Hae Min Chung, Pyong Gap Min, Yung Duk Kim)

The 2014 Gala of the Research Center for Korean Community (RCKC) and the Research Foundation for Korean Community (RFKC) was held on Thursday, September 25, 2014, in the Ballroom of the Student Union building at Queens College. Approximately 150 people attended the gala.

This gala was organized by Research Foundation for Korean Community (RFKC), the non-profit organization that supports the activities and operation of the Research Center for Korean Community (RCKC). We would like to offer special thanks to members of RFKC who served as members of the Gala Organizing Committee, in particular Hae Min Chung, Henry Hong Kyun Jung, and Jea-seung Ko. We would also like to thank Jiwoon Kristine Choi (winner of RCKC's essay contest) for coming all the way from Amherst College to present her wonderful essay, and Dr. James Muyskens (former president of Queens College) for delivering a moving keynote address. And last but not least, we would like to thank everyone who attended the gala for supporting RCKC. 

We would like to announce the publication of a new bilingual book that we have been working on for the last two years. The title of the book is Korean Americans Who Have Empowered the Korean-American Community (재미 한인사회에 힘을 실어준 한인들), and it was co-edited by Pyong Gap Min (Director of RCKC), Thomas Chung (Editor/Web Manager at RCKC), and Young Oak Kim (Research Associate at RCKC). This book, which is published in one volume in both English and Korean, features biographical essays by 18 prominent Korean Americans, including politicians, administrators, and advocates. This edited collection of biographical essays, which was published by the Seoul-based Bookorea Publishing Company, is being distributed in Korea. We would like to give special thanks to Dongho Cho (Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Queens College) for translating all of the essays. We would also like to thank all of the esteemed contributors for taking time out of their hectic schedules to write essays for this book.

Although we have not yet determined a date and location, we plan on having a book release party in the Flushing area some time after our upcoming annual gala (which will be held on Thursday, September 25, 2014 in the Ballroom of the Queens College Student Union building, in case you forgot).

Those of you who live in the New York-New Jersey area can purchase the book at the release party or by contacting RCKC at rckc.qc@gmail.com

For those of you who live in Korea, you can either purchase the book at any major book store or online by clicking on one of the following links:

Kyobo 교보문고 

Bandi/Luni's 반디앤루니스

We are very excited about the publication of this book, and we hope that it will be of great interest and use to readers, scholars, and government agencies in the United States and Korea. 

We are pleased to announce the winners of the First RCKC Essay Contest on Korea and Korean Culture. We have awarded cash prizes to the top six essayists. The other nine essayists will receive certificates of achievement and their essays will be included in an edited book (along with the six cash-prize-winning essays). The winners are as follows:

We would like to thank the Korea Society and Korean Cultural Service New York for offering financial support for this essay contest. Congratulations to all of the winners! As mentioned earlier, all of the winners will also receive certificates of achievement and their essays will be featured in an edited book and on our Korean American Data Bank.

On Thursday, June 19, 2014, Pyong Gap Min presented a lecture based on his paper "Ethnic Attachment among Korean-Chinese in New York City" as part of our ongoing lecture series. This presentation was held at the Korean Community Services (KCS) Auditorium, 35-56 159th Street, Flushing, NY 11358, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Between thirty and forty people attended the lecture, which was the 25th in our ongoing seminar series. The discussion after the conclusion of the lecture was particularly interesting. In response to Professor Min's lecture, Leslie Bai, a Korean-Chinese resident of New York City and the Director of the Korea Center at Long Island University, also shared her thoughts and experiences. Additionally, many staff members of the Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA) were in attendance.

Professor Min's paper examines twice-migrant Koreans from China (Joseonjok/조선족) who now reside in New York City, and their ethnic attachment to Korean immigrants and to South Korea, using personal interviews and census data. Findings show that the Korean-Chinese informants maintain a high level of Korean cultural ethnic attachment, but have little social attachment to either Korean or Chinese immigrants because of a tendency to associate with other members of their own subgroup. Although they have strong Korean ethnic identity, unlike most Korean immigrants (whose ethnic identity focuses on and originates from their South Korean homeland), Joseonjok identify more with Joseon (the last Korean dynasty before the peninsula was divided into North and South Korea). The predominant majority of the Joseonjok informants would cheer for the Chinese team in a hypothetical soccer game between China and Korea, reflecting their strong loyalty to China as opposed to their ethnic ancestral homeland.