Living as a visible minority in another country has taught me a lot about race, colonization, and globalization. Something else it’s shown me is the delicate underground web we may take for granted in the suburbs. Everything here is closer to the visible surface— income inequality, pollution, garbage, consumerism, animal cruelty, effects of war. Sometimes I pass someone old enough to be my grandmother carting a rickshaw full of cardboard. Social security was only recently established and elder poverty is a huge problem. I see grannies selling gum for a dollar outside department stores selling $500 padded jackets. Sometimes I see elderly without limbs, or I see a set of…

South Korea went from being one of the poorest countries on Earth to the world’s tenth largest economy in less than 70 years. Korea has almost all the luxuries of American life, plus benefits my home country lacks: universal healthcare, cute school supplies, and extensive food delivery that UberEats only dreams of being. But seventy years is not a long time and even through through the Miracle on the Han River, age cannot be hidden. American culture seems almost ashamed of the elderly– put them in nursing homes until they are forgotten. I never really saw age until I got to Korea. In spite of the massive economic growth, sparkling…

On a long bus ride home, several people avoided sitting in the empty seat next to me, less because I smelled (probably), and more because sitting next to a foreigner can always be a little bit scary. Finally, the bus was too full to ignore me any longer and two very tall college boys got on. One gestured to his huskier friend to take the seat next to me but that friend insisted on standing. The first guy sat down in defeat. The seats were too small to avoid touching thighs even though he gripped the seat edge and sat rigidly straight on turns to avoid bumping shoulders. There was…

Whenever I see a mannequin in Korea, I experience the most cognitive dissonance. Or rather, just post-colonialism. Excluding small island nations, Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world. The Koreans of today can be traced back to the Koreans from almost 5,000 years ago in nearly the same location on the peninsula. I know because I read it about it in a bus station museum somewhere in Gangwon province. And yet every time I see a mannequin, it’s white. Not only in color, but in very obvious Caucasian European features. It’s not only local brands or big-name shops. It’s also municipal branches like the police department…