Feb.22,2008 07:39 KST Article Location: Click Here
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The New York Times on Wednesday wrote about Kim Sunee's confessional memoir, "Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home", in its Dining & Wine section. In the book, Sunee poetically describes foods from places she has traveled and lived in, including South Korea, Sweden, and France. The book is a record of Sunee's craving for food and love. Although she grew up in comfortable circumstances in New Orleans since she was adopted in 1973, she could never erase from her mind the physical and emotional hungers of her childhood. As a promising poet in the early 1990s, she met and fell in love with a French businessman 17 years her senior, Olivier Baussan, the founder of L'Occitane, the line of natural soaps and cosmetics. Sunee moved into Baussan's Provencal farmhouse in France, where she appeased her hungers with local gourmet foods. But the food and surroundings weren't enough to help her find her identity. Five years after moving to France, she left Baussan and returned home. She later met a bartender named Roger and grew to love him while cooking together. Sunee now can talk about her life with serenity. As the newspaper wrote, "she has come to believe that abandoning a child can be an act of love: 'I survived. More than survived.'" |
Wed Feb 20, 2008 -- http://news.yahoo.com
SEOUL (Reuters Life!) - More than 500 South Koreans braved the cold to attend a shamanistic ritual in front of the charred remains of a 600-year-old city gate ranked as the country's top national treasure.
The imposing wooden gate was destroyed last week in an arson attack.
A shaman walked over blades in a display of power meant to repel evil spirits and appease ancestors that might have been angered by the attack, while onlookers offered money to a pig's carcass symbolizing happiness.
"We organized this ritual service for visitors to bow with piety and with regrets to our ancestors," said Lee Ki-seon, one of the organizers of the three-day event that started on Tuesday.
South Korean police last week arrested a man who confessed to burning down Namdaemun, or "Great South Gate," because he was angry over compensation for a development project he said claimed his property.
Shamans in South Korea derive their beliefs from folk religions in northeast Asia. They are believed to communicate with the spiritual world and often offer their services in chasing away evil spirits or asking a dead relative for help and advice.
A group called the "Namdaemun lovers" organized the ritual.
"I thought it would stay near us all the time. Now my heart is breaking and I feel ashamed at the same time as a Korean," said Lee Jae-ho, 50.
It was a sentiment felt by many spectators at the ritual, who said they were ashamed because they failed to protect the gate.
"I feel ashamed to my offspring. I cannot describe what I am feeling. We should restore it for our descendants," said Kim Hee-bok, 68.
The arsonist apologized last Friday for setting the gate on fire. No one was injured in the blaze.
Namdaemun has withstood invasions and colonial occupiers and was one of the few historic structures in Seoul to remain standing after the 1950 to 1953 Korean War.
Since the attack, hundreds of outraged South Koreans have gathered near it every day.
(Reporting by Kim Do-gyun; Writing by Sophie Hardach; Editing by David Fogarty)
The experience of being adopted creates unique life cycle issues that have been the subject of recent study. According to the psychodynamic literature, the factor that has the greatest influence on an adoptee's life cycle is the early loss of a primary object. This loss frequently affects an adoptee's ability to form attachments and develop a coherent adult identity.
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