Joan Sung is a Korean American daughter of immigrants who writes about her journey into uncovering her Asian American identity.

Joan Sung
Author

hey friend.

military veteran

daughter of immigrants

storyteller

Too frequently are Asian Americans told what it means to be Asian American. But when do we truly get an opportunity to explore it for ourselves? To discover who we truly are? Being Asian American and a child of immigrants means that we have to make meaning of the in-between place that we are always straddling: One foot in our parents' culture and one foot in American culture, trying to reconcile the two identities. But the place in between is what is what we need to call home. The in-between place is what it means to be Asian American.

A few thoughts...

Kinda Korean

Joan Sung was never privy to her family secrets until her mother felt she was ready for them. But every time, it was like a grenade going off in her life that caused her to question who she really was as an Asian American woman.
Kinda Korean is a deeply heart-felt and, at times, humorous memoir about Sung's painful coming-of-age as a Korean American daughter of immigrants. It is a tale of struggle, generational trauma, and finding one’s racial identity. Sung explores the deep desire to be accepted by a society that perpetually makes her feel like an outsider. Feeling either too Korean or too westernized, she struggles to reconcile the two identities.