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Han hyun min5/17/2023 “If you see someone else looking different then he can’t be Korean. “We’re proud of being just one tribe, one blood,” Lee said. Someone who is not Korean by blood is seen as the “other,” she explained. Lee said that having “Korean blood” is very important in South Korea. Robinson said that in Korea, people are considered either Korean or foreign. Because of that, she says, many Koreans view Africans as poor and African-Americans as violent. She said the only time most Koreans have ever seen a black person is on television. But she said it is usually because of ignorance – or a lack of knowledge and experience. Robinson said that her family has experienced racism in South Korea. She and her husband have taught English in Daejeon for seven years. Khiana Robinson lives in South Korea with her family. (An earlier version mistakenly stated the picture was taken in South Korea.) Pictured: Leonard Robinson, center, with their daughters Anaya, left, and Naima, right. Khiana Robinson, far right, with her family in Japan. In 2012, Lee and her family moved to the United States for her husband’s education.įoreigners make up less than 4 percent of South Korea’s population.Īfricans and African-Americans are a small percentage of South Korea’s foreign-born population. “I don’t think she hates her skin,” Lee said. One of Lee’s daughters once told her that she wished she had a yellow face like her mother. She said it is “hard since I look different from them.” In Korea, people often stared at Lee’s daughters. Because the skin color and also (James is) from Africa.” She said, “The reason that they were being against (our relationship) was (because) our children will be discriminated (against). Lee said her parents worried that if she had children with James, the children would have a difficult life. “She was always like ‘just date, but don’t think about getting married,’” Lee said of her mother. She said her mother did not want her to marry James. Lee said James was the first black person that she and her parents ever met. Lee publishes videos on YouTube about her biracial family. She has two daughters named Yuri and Dasomi. Pictured: James, far left, with their daughters Yuri, center left, and Dasomi, center right. Lily Lee, far right, sits with her family for a portrait. That is something that many Koreans with dark skin experience. That is a high number for a beginner.ĭespite Han’s success, people still question whether he is Korean. Since he started modelling, Han has been in more than 30 fashion shows during two Seoul Fashion Weeks. “A dark-skinned fashion model like Han was unheard of in South Korea,” Youn told AFP.Īt first, many Korean fashion designers and magazines dismissed Han and Youn because of Han’s dark skin. However, he knew that signing Han was a risky move because of his darker skin. Youn signed Han as a model after seeing Han’s Instagram photos and his “ electrifying” walk, AFP reported. An agent is someone who helps models get jobs by contacting fashion designers and magazines. He is the first black-Korean model to take part in South Korea’s fashion shows.Īgence France-Press news agency spoke with Han and his agent, Youn Bum, last month. Han’s mother is Korean and his father is Nigerian. He has lived in Seoul all his life and only speaks Korean.īut, people in South Korea often think he is from somewhere else. “Even now, there are more and more.Han Hyun-Min is a 16-year-old South Korean model. “In Itaewon, I had a lot of friends like me, so that was good,” he says. If I was with a friend, their mom would come and say don’t play with that kid.” Yet Han found refuge in Itaewon, where most of the city’s biracial children grew up. Yet that need to preserve Korean pride and culture left many with certain attitudes toward “outsiders.” It’s painful to hear him speak plainly of it-“They would say bad things about me. The country remains largely homogenous and fiercely nationalist, a trait one can trace back to the Japanese occupation in World War II. He had to learn that perseverance early on, as growing up in Seoul was not easy. “But rather than leaving, I want to work harder-being Han Hyun Min and building my own unique charm is important to me.” “Because my skin is different, some designers and brands won’t really use me,” he says. “Now, they talk to me a lot.” Still, he faces trouble here. “At first it was bad, but nowadays, people know me,” he says, happily. Back then, in fact, most people assumed Han wasn’t Korean at all-rather, one of the international models, flown in to walk shows-and would speak to him in English backstage (he can’t speak a word of it), or not at all.
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