Renewing Hope for Elderly Koreans

For many elderly Korean Americans who live alone in Los Angeles, today’s celebration of the lunar new year can be a lonely time.

Their families are scattered across America and on the Korean peninsula, and the tradition of entire families gathering to pay respect to the clan’s patriarch and matriarch has pretty much ended in 21st century Los Angeles.

So on Friday, staffers at the Adult Day Health Care Center in Koreatown became surrogate children and grandchildren for an old-fashioned celebration. Wearing colorful Korean apparel, they offered saebae -- the traditional new year’s bow. Then, they sang old songs, karaoke-style, familiar words flashing on a giant video screen, as the seniors sang along and clapped.

They also danced and played games. And, afterward, they shared a Korean meal.

“I feel joyful. It’s wonderful that we can celebrate the new year like this,” said Tok-Soon Pang, 75, elegant in a pale-green hanbok. “When I’m alone in my apartment, I feel so down. But when I’m here, I feel good.”

Pang, who has spent the last 20 years in Los Angeles, said her children now live in Korea, so having a place to come to socialize with other Koreans on a special day is a godsend.

“Though they have lived in America for a long time, they are isolated because they don’t speak English and are not familiar with the [dominant] culture,” said Dong-Eok Shin, the center’s program director. “On special occasions, we try to create a familiar atmosphere and honor them by doing the traditional Korean things that they miss.”

“You’re better than my own children,” Shin said he has been told.

The lunar new year, better known as the Chinese new year in this country, is celebrated by a quarter of the world’s people, including millions of Asians who live in the United States.

The traditional Los Angeles Chinatown parade, car show and festival -- ushering in the Year of the Ram 4701 -- won’t begin until next Saturday.

But in Koreatown, celebrations for Sol, the Korean new year, were in full swing Friday. Shoppers flocked to supermarkets, snatching up crunchy Korean pears flown in from South Korea, and rice cake vendors worked overtime.

Choice fruits and rice cakes are not only for the living, but for the deceased too. Non-Christian Koreans pay respect to the deceased by making food offerings on an altar.

Amid the hustle and bustle of Koreatown, the holiday also struck a poignant note -- a snapshot of the community undergoing so much change in so short a time. It was clear that becoming Americanized was exacting a price from the traditional Korean family.

“America is such a big country, it’s hard for families to get together,” said Il-Joo Kang, 84, who was enjoying a front-row seat at the celebration.

Even when she cannot be with her children and grandchildren, who live in seven different cities, Kang said she is thankful they’re doing so well. “I have a grandchild at MIT and another at Harvard -- and there are five PhDs in the family,” she said.

Yet, Laura Jeon, chief executive officer of the Korean Health, Education, Information and Research Center, which operates the center, believes the Korean emphasis on success hurts the community.

“They’re so focused on becoming successful, nobody wants to volunteer,” she said. “They think of their immediate family -- their children -- but not the community as a whole. We lack leaders with vision and people who want to serve as volunteers.”

She said that despite loneliness and isolation, many elderly Koreans choose to live alone because they want to be independent and don’t want to be a burden to their children.

Living alone is especially difficult for elderly men because they often have not learned to care for themselves, she said.

Even for the women, living alone poses challenges because they can forget such things as making sure they have turned off stoves. As a result, apartment managers then want to evict them, she said.

She said adult children lead busy lives and don’t have time to visit their parents.

About 65 seniors come to the center nearly every day for meals, English lessons, health care advice, exercises and recreational programs for at least four hours a day. Even in the festive atmosphere, the division of the Korean peninsula was on the minds of many.

An 86-year-old Koreatown resident, who asked that she be identified only as “Mrs. Lee,” said holidays are trying times for her because her two daughters are in North Korea.