In the New World: The Making of A Korean American (Kolowalu Books

by Peter Hyun

In 1924 seventeen-year-old Peter Hyun arrived in Hawaii with three younger siblings, leaving behind family and friends in Japanese-occupied Seoul and the Korean community of exiles in Shanghai. The early chapters of this spirited autobiographical account, the sequel to Man Sei!, recount Hyun's life as a young Korean coming of age in Hawaii and as a college student studying philosophy and theatre arts in Indiana. After college, Hyun moved to New York and in 1930 began working as an assistant stage manager with Eva LeGallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. He later went on to direct theatre companies in New York, Massachusetts, California, and Montreal. As Hyun was one of only a handful of minorities working in the avant garde theatre in the 1930s and 1940s, his account contributes to our understanding of the place of Asians in art outside the mainstream. He also provides a personal perspective on key periods in American race relations, particularly during World War II and the Korean War. In the New World celebrates a rich life full of diversity. Throughout his life, Hyun believed that the making of a Korean American was essentially a cultural marriage - a marriage often requiring a lengthy and difficult engagement to succeed. In the New World is the story of Hyun's engagement, with all its triumphs and misfortunes, told with candor and wit. Peter Hyun died in 1993 at the age of eighty-seven.

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1995

Reviews

[Beth Harper]

Hyun is one of those Zelig figures, for the 1930s-1950s. He was involved in avant-garde theater and WPA projects in New York City, and was a good friend of May Sarton's; was in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was bombed; served in the army in the 1940s (including a stint in post-war Korea) and during the 1950s, was accused of being a communist. I found his accounts of life in Hawaii in the 1930s and 1940s the most interesting, but he made even his entrance into the insurance industry interesting.