When I finished she started bawling again that “I don’t have a middle name.” Well, throughout her school years, she gave herself several different middle names.

So I sat her down and wiped her tears away and explained that her first name was so beautiful she didn’t need another name, and I thought that appeased her. And it was…until the first day of Kindergarten when she realized all the other kids had middle names. Her first name is Gabrielle, and I thought that was enough. The story about my daughter is amusing, I think. No young woman wants to be called “Ho” 😦 which is what her real name is. My Cambodian friend used her American name for similar reasons. Keys-Acrylic paint on a small canvas purse- Trompe-l’œil by Ink n Paper When someone changes our name, the memory box loses its key.ĭon’t allow anyone to steal the key. There is my culture my family and my emotions. In my name, there is my past, my present, and my future.

In my name there is my whole life encrypted in ink shaped into tiny letters. There is the first boyfriend who whispers my name before kissing me, there is my dad who calls me a day before dying to say goodbye, there is my teacher who proudly yells my name before a poetry award. Nonetheless, in my name there is my personal story. It is difficult to pronounce and to understand.

I was not aware of all the rules Korean people had to abide under Japanese oppression. YES, before reading When my Name Was Keoko, I was aware of the history of Korea, but I was not aware of all its details. In those books, not, much is said about other cultures and their struggles. We often know about WWII from Western culture books. There is a whole chapter dedicated to kanji characters and their magical meanings! If you are, like me, enamored with historical fiction, you will absolutely adore this novel.ĪND, if you are, like me, in love with Kanjj, you will tightly hug this book until each Kanji character is squeezed out of the page and poured into your heart. Sun-hee, Tae-yul and their family fight in silence against Japanese rules, while struggling to keep their Korean identity alive in a world that seems to bring only negative changes. Korean traditions are to be forgotten they are to be buried under Japanese oppression. Young Korean men are forced to join the Japanese army. Young Korean women are forced to work in Japanese factories or drafted as “Comfort women” for Japanese soldiers. Korean students must read and write in Japanese. Under Japanese occupation, food is scarce and Japanese rules are unbearable to accept. Sun-hee, her brother Tae-yul, and their family live in Korea– a colony of Japan. … Let them! Let them arrest me! They will have my body but not my soul-my name is my soul!” “By order of the Emperor, all Koreans are to be graciously allowed to take Japanese names.

When my name was keoko book