Abbi-Hope Jihye Park
Abbi-Hope is a junior at Orange County School of the Arts studying creative writing. At school, she serves as the captain of the competing cybersecurity and coding team and as president of the Asian Pacific Islander Student Union, which focuses on amplifying AAPI voices on campus. Through her exploration of her own Korean identity, she has developed an AAPI class curriculum and distributed it to over 250 teachers nationwide. Some of her passions outside of AAPI activism include social media marketing, website development, and videography. In her free time, she enjoys eating, trying new restaurants with family, and playing with her three reptiles.
Finding a Second Home in Koreatown
Interview by Benjamin Yoo
Where is your hometown? Do you live or work in Koreatown?
My hometown is Yorba Linda. I don’t live or work in Koreatown, but I go there often.
Why do you often go to Koreatown?
I love going to K-Town to eat with my mom or just walk around. I also go there for the Koreatown Storytelling Program, and sometimes there are pop-up museums or public events. I recently went to a screening of a short film in Koreatown, which was cool.
What was the short film about?
It’s called “Blurring the Color Line.” It was about racism and where Asians stood back when Brown v. Board of Education was a thing. [It was about] the kind of community that Asians made for themselves — like balancing oppression and being in the middle of the white versus Black oppression.
Do you have any favorite restaurants or meals in Koreatown?
I love Crab House. They serve soy-marinated raw crab, uni (sea urchin) rice, and a bunch of other seafood. My grandma makes marinated crab, but a spicy version, so I like to go to [Crab House] for the soy version. I also go to another place that makes spicy crab. I love BCD (Buk Chang Dong Tofu). They have BCD where I live, too, but I still go to Koreatown to eat there. There’s also a dessert place I like called Melo Melo. They have coconut jelly with fruit toppings. It sounds simple, but it’s yummy, and I go there with my friends sometimes.
What’s special about Koreatown that makes you want to hang out with your friends there?
It’s just somewhere familiar for me because I’ve been there [a lot] and know where everything is. Even if I don’t know the location, it still feels familiar. Honestly, I go with my mom a lot just because there’s [so much] Korean food there, and the culture is diverse. We just like being in the middle of all that; there’s always something fun happening in K-Town. Right next to an ice cream place, there is always something happening. There was a “Squid Game” [event] before, and then some other shows held events there as well.
Koreatown is fun to walk around and bump into all [sorts of] things randomly. Where I live, it’s not a walkable area. Koreatown is a different environment for me. More specifically, my grandparents worked in Koreatown, so I’ve been [coming here] since I was young. I would visit my grandma, who was working at her watch and jewelry shop, and my mom’s dad, who used to work in the garment industry.
Do you feel like you’ve had a strong connection to Koreatown since you were a child, or has this developed more recently?
It developed more recently as I got more involved with KSP. Before, I would just go for food. But now I go to Koreatown at least once a week. Sometimes, I miss school and go to K-Town because KSP starts before school ends.
What are your thoughts on Koreatown overall?
I like it. I always say I wish I lived there since I go so often. The drive to K-Town is usually 1.5 hours. I just like it there more. It’s more culturally diverse, and you know the saying, “Everything is in L.A.?” That’s exactly how I feel about K-Town. I remember that over the summer, the Getty Museum was there [in Koreatown] to celebrate their anniversary. I feel like just being close to all those events would be interesting. Whereas now, I have to drive a long time to get there.
Is there a special or specific memory you can think of where you thought of Koreatown as your second home?
It was a process. At first, it started when I came more often [to eat] with my mom and visited other restaurants. Once I started venturing out, coming to KSP in person, and understanding the layout of Koreatown, [I began to feel] more connected to it. Before, [KSP] was always on Zoom. I think I did three semesters of KSP on Zoom. This semester is my first time coming in person.
Usually, when I go to KSP, I go to a cafe first. Doing that made me feel more involved because, at that point, it felt more like home. That’s something I do at home, right? I’d go to my local cafe or restaurant, sit down, and do homework by myself. I’d feel comfortable doing homework alone. And once I started feeling that way about Koreatown, I realized, Oh, I feel a lot more comfortable here than I did before.
.
Do you see a future in which you’ll stay connected to Koreatown after KSP and college?
I do. I’m interested in working at a nonprofit like KYCC. It doesn’t even have to be a full-time job. I want to be a part of the Koreatown community, and my end goal after college is to work somewhere in L.A. I want to work in the tech industry, and the closest tech industry [to me] is there. I would love to stay involved in something like a nonprofit similar to KYCC because, ultimately, that’s where my passion is. I enjoy API (Asian Pacific Islander) social justice, but I just love everything KSP has done for me. So, I would love to work for nonprofits similar to KYCC, or possibly KYCC itself. It’s something I’ve talked to my parents about as well, and they’re completely supportive of me.
What’s your favorite part about doing nonprofit work for KYCC?
KSP has connected me with so many things and given me many more opportunities to explore my own heritage than I would have [on my own]. It’s something I’m thankful for, and I want to be able to give back to the youth in the same way. KSP has nurtured my passions and allowed me to grow in ways I couldn’t imagine.
This type of social activism wasn’t always something I was interested in. It wasn’t until after the API hate during quarantine that I became passionate about it. I also love how KYCCLA is always involved in the community. They’re always at big events. I see their booths everywhere, even when I’m not attending KYCCLA events.
Do you have a favorite place in Koreatown?
I love going to Kim’s Home Center. It’s a huge store that has a bunch of imported goods from Korea and knickknacks. It’s so fun to walk in there because you’ll see the most random things. We’d go there for dorm room shopping. My sister got everything she needed for her dorm room at Kim’s Home, and we’re planning to do the same for me because it’s the one place I can go that literally has everything. My mom told me about how a lot of people immigrated to the U.S. and into Koreatown, and Kim’s Home was the one place where they could buy everything they needed for their home. As you can imagine, it’s a store full of everything.
You said that your grandparents had a store in Koreatown. Can you elaborate on what kind of store it was and what they did there?
My grandma sold watches and jewelry. I’m pretty sure she got all those imported. I’m not exactly sure what she did because I know the jewelry business is a little more complicated, but she’s retired now. I remember she would always ask us what type of watch we wanted, and we always wanted the G-SHOCK BABY-G, so we got one every year for Christmas in a different color.
Do your grandparents still live in Koreatown?
No, my grandparents live in the Fullerton/La Mirada area now. That’s basically a Korean [town]. That area has mostly Koreans, and there’s so much Korean food there. I go there every Sunday with my friends to get Korean food after church.
Is there any way in which you wish to contribute more to Koreatown?
I wish I could participate [more] in my church’s food pantry on Saturdays and stuff like that. During COVID, I would go there every single week. I would then deliver the excess groceries to nursing homes or senior citizen homes. I’d also pass out flyers every week. I was probably spending two full days out of my week doing that. I liked that type of volunteer work, but right now, my schedule is so hectic.
I basically didn’t have to [attend] online school. I would log in on Zoom on my phone and go volunteer at the senior homes. But I’m really busy with school now and taking six [Advanced Placement] classes. If I had time and lived in K-Town, I would definitely do more volunteer work there because I [enjoyed] doing volunteer service. It’s fulfilling.
Did you feel closer to Koreatown during the pandemic compared to now, since you had more free time back then?
No, I’m [still] close to it. As I said, I usually go once a week or something, so I still feel close to it.
Do you still do the type of volunteer work you did during the pandemic, or is it mainly KSP now?
I still do that type of volunteer work because my church holds food pantries every other week. On some Saturday mornings, I go with my church friends to volunteer there.