Radical Folklore in “ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME”

Professor Elaine H. Kim and author Ryan Lee Wong discuss the themes of radical folklore in ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME.

Elaine H. Kim is Professor Emerita of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. She wrote, edited, and co-edited ten books, the first being Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context (1982) and the last Fresh Talk, Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art (2003). She is associate producer of Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Television and Film (1988), co-producer of Sa-i-gu: From Korean Women’s Perspectives (1993), and producer, director, and writer of Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded (2011). She is co-founder of Asian Women United of California, the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, and Asian Immigrant Women Advocates in Oakland, California. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at the University of Notre Dame.

Ryan Lee Wong is the author of the forthcoming novel Which Side Are You On. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, lived for two years at Ancestral Heart Zen Temple, and currently lives in Brooklyn, where he is the administrative director of Brooklyn Zen Center. Previously, he served as program director for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and managing director of Kundiman. He has organized exhibitions and written extensively on the Asian American movements of the 1970s.

This panel was created in conjunction with Ma-Yi Theatre Company’s production of ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME, performed at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La Mama between August 23rd, 2022 and September 18th, 2022.

An epic new play by Daniel K. Isaac (“Billions”, The Chinese Lady), directed by Ralph B. Peña (The Chinese Lady, Among The Dead), ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME traces the journey of a Korean family from the wars in Korea to the riots in Los Angeles. Told with great humor, irreverence, and elements of magic, ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME uses traditional Korean fables to examine the thorny legacies of war and trauma.