Koreatown, Los Angeles : immigration, race, and the "American dream" / Shelley Sang-Hee Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Shelley Sang-Hee, 1975- author.

Series:

Asian America.

Asian America Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Korean Americans--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

Korean Americans.

Immigrants--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

Immigrants.

Minorities--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

Minorities.

Racism against Asians--California--Los Angeles--History--20th century.

Racism against Asians.

Koreatown (Los Angeles, Calif.)--History--20th century.

Koreatown (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Los Angeles (Calif.)--Race relations--History--20th century.

Los Angeles (Calif.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The story of how one ethnic neighborhood came to signify a shared Korean American identity. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Los Angeles County's Korean population stood at about 186,000—the largest concentration of Koreans outside of Asia. Most of this growth took place following the passage of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which dramatically altered US immigration policy and ushered in a new era of mass immigration, particularly from Asia and Latin America. By the 1970s, Korean immigrants were seeking to turn the area around Olympic Boulevard near downtown Los Angeles into a full-fledged "Koreatown," and over the following decades, they continued to build a community in LA. As Korean immigrants seized the opportunity to purchase inexpensive commercial and residential property and transformed the area to serve their community's needs, other minority communities in nearby South LA—notably Black and Latino working-class communities—faced increasing segregation, urban poverty, and displacement. Beginning with the early development of LA's Koreatown and culminating with the 1992 Los Angeles riots and their aftermath, Shelley Sang-Hee Lee demonstrates how Korean Americans' lives were shaped by patterns of racial segregation and urban poverty, and legacies of anti-Asian racism and orientalism. Koreatown, Los Angeles tells the story of an American ethnic community often equated with socioeconomic achievement and assimilation, but whose experiences as racial minorities and immigrant outsiders illuminate key economic and cultural developments in the United States since 1965. Lee argues that building Koreatown was an urgent objective for Korean immigrants and US-born Koreans eager to carve out a spatial niche within Los Angeles to serve as an economic and social anchor for their growing community. More than a dot on a map, Koreatown holds profound emotional significance for Korean immigrants across the nation as a symbol of their shared bonds and place in American society.

Contents:

The changing face of LA

A little Seoul sprang up : place entrepreneurs and the "Korea Town concept"

Searching for Koreatown : generational divides and cultural bridges in Korean America

A small world : Korean Americans and global Los Angeles

"Most of these areas were formerly Black" : interracial conflict in South Central and the burning of Koreatown

A good comeback.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Mai 2022)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503631830

1503631834

OCLC:

1322124175