Talk:List of Korean Americans

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Contents

[edit] J Church

I don't see Lance Hahn of the band J Church on this list. The band is from San Francisco. Lance is very well respected and does a lot of music writing now for MRR and other publications. Should the founder of Asian Man Records be here also? --McDogm 03:12, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sandra Oh

I see that Sandra Oh is included here. As far as I know, she is Korean-Canadian, not American. Am I missing something here? Are we extending the list to people of Korean heritage who have spent a lot of time in the U.S.? --Iceager 1 July 2005 14:57 (UTC)

Well, there are a lot of Korean-born people on the list, notably Philip Jaisohn. I don't see why Canadian-born people couldn't be included as well. Of course, Sandra Oh should also be included on the List of Korean Canadians. -- Visviva 4 July 2005 03:08 (UTC)
The difference is that Philip Jaisohn became an American citizen. In general, not everyone who spends a lot of time in the U.S. identifies oneself as American or takes on American citizenship. We don't generally call Syngman Rhee Korean-American, for example, although he spent much of his life in the U.S. and died in Hawaii. I see that the introduction of the list has been modified to include Korean Canadians in parentheses, but if the nature of the list is being modified, it should be moved to List of Korean Americans and Korean Canadians; I don't know if such a modification is wise. But maybe we should be thinking about alternate lists, either to replace this one or to complement it.
In general, I'm not too fond of "Ethnic-American" categorisations, as I've observed many Americans use the terms carelessly and apply it to non-Americans as if these were names substituting for entire ethnic or racial groups. Maybe the person who included Sandra Oh or Leonard Nam on the list genuinely thought they were American, but I'm not sure it ever enters people's minds to apply the "American" criterion.
What people usually mean when they say "Korean American" (and I myself have been called "Korean American" numerous times), it seems, is "people of Korean descent". Currently the list of Koreans says it includes people of Korean descent, but it doesn't clarify what its relationship with the list of Korean Americans is. I'm all for a list of non-Korean nationals of Korean descent, which would include Americans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, and Germans of Korean descent. There are lots of noteable people in this general category that are not really collected in any list. One could of course include all of them in the current List of Koreans, but I think a separate list would be useful. --Iceager 01:48, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Leonardo Nam

Born in Buenos Aires, educated in Australia.

[edit] Proposal for list inclusion

I have made the following proposal regarding the criteria for inclusion for these lists. If this is something that you have comments or ideas about, please provide feedback. Thanks. Wikibofh 9 July 2005 19:15 (UTC)

[edit] Elizabeth Shin

An anon has twice removed Elizabeth Shin from this list without explanation. Although I note that her article does not currently refer to her ethnicity (except via a category link), I don't think that has anything to do with the removal. It might have more to do with notability, but to me she seems amply notable. Comments? -- Visviva 03:36, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

This is a list of famous Korean-Americans and although tragic, there have been just too many deaths of non-celebrities that are relevant for inclusion in this section. Krballer 17:06, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] regarding Korean MLB player

Please note that none of Korean MLB players are Korean-American. They are Korean. None of them immigrated to America. All of them live in Korea during offseason. Only MLB player who can be possibly considered as Korean-American is Terrmel Sledge (however, he is half African-American and Korean).

[edit] Ethnicity lists discussion

Please see discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) for current discussion of a potential policy to apply to all ethnicity lists on Wikipedia, including this one. JackO'Lantern 20:36, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

I'm sourcing the list in accordance with Wikipedia's No Original Research and Verifiability policies. Basically, anyone described by a reliable source as "Korean" or "Korean-American" (i.e. as opposed to "of Korean descent", "Korean mother", etc.) is on the list. Here are the people I couldn't find anything for. If you have a reliable source that fits that please restore the names:

Mad Jack O'Lantern 01:04, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Please be careful when adding people on the list.

Please be careful when adding people to the list. Just because people you want to add are well-known in America, that does not mean they are Korean-American. For example, Park Chan-wook and Kang Jae-kyu. Yes... I know they are well-known movie directors and have directed several Korean movies that are also well-known to American viewers. However, they are NOT Korean-American. They were not born in America. They were born in Korea. They are Korean citizens. They live in Korea. Do you see it? They are far away from being Korean-American.

Please be careful.

  • Nowhere does it say that an American Citizenship defines an American citizen. No where does it say that you must be born in America to become one. An American is simply someone who inhabits America for a long time while taking on the life-style. Got it? Secondgen 11:27, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the first writer that, although a Korean-born person lived in the United States for years, does not make the person an American citizen. If the person of Korean heritage was born outside of the U.S. and its territories or were not born of parents who are U.S. citizens, then the only way the person can become a citizen is through the naturalization process where the person applies for and accepted for U.S. citizenship. A Korean-born person who lives in the United States can theoretically remain a U.S. permanent resident for many years without attaining U.S. citizenship, as long as the permanent residency is kept current with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Many long-time residents become "Americanized" in their lifestyle after spending many years here, in spite of not having U.S. citizenship.
Also, American citizenship is defined in the article for United States nationality law#Acquisition_of_citizenship (that is, in the political sense) and also here, unlike the case of permanent residence only, regardless of whether that suits our view of how things should be. Lwalt ♦ talk 21:00, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Michael Kang

Currently Michael Kang, who is listed as director/actor (presumably of The Motel) has a bluegrass band's instrumentalist as his link...

I fixed this one. ColourBurst 03:01, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NAMING

In order to be consistent with wiki naming policies we should change all these names to reflect proper Korean name order, that is, last name first followed by first name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.209.18.216 (talk • contribs)