Korean Americans: Difference between revisions

 

The majority of Korean Americans across various social categories go to church. Won Moo Hurh attributes this to 4 factors, including the Christian backgrounds of both early and recent immigrants and the ethnic function of the Korean American Church.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hurh |first=Won Moo |title=The Korean Americans |date=1998 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-29741-0 |series=The new Americans |location=Westport, Conn.}}</ref> Many early Korean immigrants were Christians in Korea who came to the US through the support of American missionaries. The churches established by early Korean immigrants thus became associated with ethnic organizations. Korean immigrants who arrived in the US following the US Immigration Act of 1965 also came from urban middle-class backgrounds and were predominantly Christian.<ref name=":0" />

 

 

In 2004, there are 89 Korean Buddhist temples in the United States; the largest such temple, Los Angeles' Sa Chal Temple, was established in 1974.<ref name="suh">{{citation|title=Being Buddhist in a Christian World: Gender and Community in a Korean American Temple|last=Suh|first=Sharon A.|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=0-295-98378-7|pages=3–5|year=2004}}</ref> A small minority, about 2 to 10% of Korean Americans are Buddhist.<ref name="ency">{{cite book |last=Lee|first=Jonathan H. X.|author2=Kathleen M. Nadeau |title=Encyclopedia of Asian American folklore and folklife |publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2011|isbn=978-0-313-35066-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofas00leej/page/703 703] |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofas00leej/page/703}}</ref> Reasons given for the conversion of immigrant Korean families to Christianity include the responsiveness of Christian churches to immigrant needs as well as their communal nature, whereas Buddhist temples foster individual spirituality and practice and provide fewer social networking and business opportunities, as well as social pressure from other Koreans to convert.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yoo|first=David|author2=Ruth H. Chung |title=Religion and spirituality in Korean America |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2008|isbn=978-0-252-07474-5}}</ref> Most Korean American Christians do not practice traditional Confucian [[Veneration of the dead|ancestral rites]] practiced in Korea (in Korea, most Catholics, Buddhists, and nonbelievers practice these rites).<ref name="ency"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Park|first=Chang-Won|title=Cultural Blending in Korean Death Rites|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |date=10 June 2010|pages=12–13|isbn=978-1-4411-1749-6}}</ref>

==Cuisine==

[[File:David_Chang_David_Shankbone_2010.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[David Chang]], at the [[Time 100]] gala in [[Manhattan]], is an American restaurateur, author, and television personality.]]