While Chinatown, further south, goes to bed early, 32nd Street stays open until the end of the night. The Korean neighborhood in New York is finally showing the success of a hitherto very discreet community.
It’s a street that tourists don’t always pay attention to. With its exotic stores, karaoke clubs and barbecue restaurants open all night, “32nd Street” nevertheless leads those who venture there to the depths of Asia. In the shadow ofEmpire State Building, Come in Broadway and the 5e Avenue, here we are at “Koreatown“, or” K-town ” [prononcer “quai-town”]. A miniature Seoul fifteen hours by plane from the South Korea!
At a time when, further south, Chinatown extinguishes its lanterns – quite early, to tell the truth – the neon lights hanging from the buildings illuminate, for a long time to come, the 250 meters of the most animated sidewalks in Manhattan. To paraphrase Liza Minnelli or Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York, 32nd Street is the only “that never sleeps”. “It is established that within the OECD Koreans are the hardest workers, confidently explains Saeju Jeong, boss of the start-up Noom. So, we sometimes end our working day, at three o’clock in the morning. morning, by a moment of relaxation with a frenzied karaoke in the heart of Koreatown. We sing, we drink, we let ourselves go a little. ”
Typical moment of relaxation, essential for Sang Lee (right), entrepreneur in finance.
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Like the Korean community, very discreet, this artery of Midtown has long been ignored. These days, it emerges from anonymity. Not thanks to the elusive Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban ki-moon, who visits regularly and whose office is a few blocks away. But rather thanks to the second generation of immigrants, whose success is now coming to light.
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Their parents ran dry cleaners and grocery stores around the corner; they are now engineers, surgeons, lawyers, bankers, accountants, business leaders. Better: some are famous, such starred restaurateurs David Chang (Momofuku) and Jungsik Yim (Jungsik), Carol Lim, the artistic director of Kenzo and co-founder of the multi-brand brand Opening Ceremony, the fashion designer Richard Chai, the actor John Cho or the scientific advisor of Barack Obama at the White House Todd Park.
An evening in Korea Town on Manhattan’s 32nd Street.
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“Coming from a generation that experienced the Korean War as a child and the hardships that followed, our parents, who barely spoke English, worked hard in America and sacrificed themselves for us,” explains Sang Lee, 27, former investment banker at BNP Paribas and founder of Return on Change, a fundraising platform for start-ups. “They also put a lot of pressure on us to be the best in school.”
1.7 million Koreans in the United States
As a result, many Korean-Americans are over-educated, like Celina Lee. With a law, business and finance diploma in hand, this hyperactive girl then branched out into her passion, journalism. Presenter of a radio talk show, Celina Lee’s New York, New York, she is also a television host on a community channel and author of a book on the success of Koreans in the country of Uncle Sam. Published in her mother tongue, her book is a hit in Seoul and has just been launched in New York, for a social cocktail on a rooftop (“terrace”) where, at the end of September, you could meet all the Korean gratin of Manhattan.
“For us, the American dream really worked, says Celina Lee between two glasses of champagne. Some of us are also celebrities in Korea. There, more and more young people, who our success inspires, want to immigrate to the United States. ” The history of Koreans in America follows on from the Korean War. With the migration reform of 1965, the flow of migrants accelerated. These first settled in Los Angeles, California, where, we remember – as in the premonitory film by Spike Lee Do the Right Thing (1989) – Korean small traders were the scapegoats for the 1992 riots.
A Seoul street? No, the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens.
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Currently numbering 1.7 million in the United States, of which approximately 150,000 are New York, they represent numerically the fifth Asian community after the Chinese (approximately 4 million), the Filipinos, the Indians and the Vietnamese. Of Christian denomination, Koreans had so far never been talked about. Moreover, they are so discreet that, unlike Jews, Italians, Irish or Chinese, there is no joke about them.
In recent years, we have witnessed a turnaround in history: Korea and Koreans are becoming “trendy”, thanks in particular to the success of certain major brands (Samsung, LG, Hyundai) as well as to the musical vogue “Kpop” and to the singer Psy. “You can’t imagine how much the global hit Gangnam Style has changed the way people look at our community “, rejoices Dennis Hong, a professor at Virginia Tech University who is considered a genius. Currently this creator of the most sophisticated robots in the world (his machines are notably triple champions of robotic football world) is working on the development of a car for the blind!
Tasty Korean cuisine helps popularize the culture of Morning Calm Land.
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“Even if we are regarded as a” model “minority, we will always be considered as foreigners, nuance the sociologist Jeannie Kim. Because, in the United States, only whites and blacks are considered as genuine Americans. Either way, the tasty Korean cuisine helps popularize the culture of the Morning-Calm country and its 49 million people. “More and more non-Koreans come to eat with us: some days, ethnic Americans are even in the majority,” says Christina Jang, the boss of New Wonjo, an institution on 32nd Street open 24 hours a day. four and frequented by Korean diplomats as well as by stars of American football or models of the Fashion Week.
The restaurateur feels a sense of gratitude: “I am delighted to see that some already know the bibimbap [NDLR: plat populaire pimenté constitué d’un mélange de riz, de viande, de légumes sautés et d’un oeuf sur le plat] and, even, a few words of Korean probably learned in pop songs. “A sign of self-confidence: the chefs of Koreatown are now setting out to conquer Manhattan, like the very fashionable Hooni Kim, whose two tables, Hanjan and Danji, are located on 26th and 52nd Street. A year ago, the panoramic restaurant Gaonnuri, also refined, conquered the clouds, on the 39th floor of a skyscraper located at the corner of Broadway and K-town. the skyline from Manhattan …
At the end of line 7, the heart of the community
But for those who really want to discover the heart of the Korean community, a lift is not enough. You have to take metro line 7 to its terminus, in the Queens, in the district of Flushing, very close to Flushing Meadows, where the US Open of tennis is held each year. Since real estate in Manhattan has become overpriced, this is where tens of thousands of Korean Americans live. Here, passing visitors instantly lose their bearings.
In the street, the only language used is Korean and all the signs borrow its 40-letter alphabet, considered the most scientific in the world. These signs indicate karaoke and barbecue restaurants, Korean banks and supermarkets, taekwondo clubs, nail shops and cosmetics stores. Not to mention the spas and massage parlors, more and more frequented by native Americans. One of these establishments offers a massage shiatsu one hour and a thirty minute foot massage. At $ 40 all together, that’s what’s called a deal. Shall we get started? And how!
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