The centennial honorees chosen to ride on the Rose Parade float, pictured here holding flowers, are surrounded by members of the Centennial Committee at a reception at the J.J. Grand Hotel in Koreatown on Dec. 31.
PASADENA, CALIF. — In front of a global television audience of millions, and an additional half-million fans who lined the streets of Pasadena, Korean America made its grand entrance into the 114th annual Rose Parade with a towering centennial float that won the coveted Past Presidents’ Award.
For many Korean Americans, the float — one of the most visible symbols of the yearlong centennial celebration of Korean immigration to the United States — seemed to tell the community’s success story. The breathtaking combination of pink, orange and red flowers brought pride-tinged tears to the eyes of many KAs, both young and old, who viewed the float on New Year’s Day.
“I’ve never seen such an excellent presentation in a parade,” said Mike Hong, the honorary chairman of the Centennial Float Committee, who watched the parade from the stands along Colorado Boulevard, with numerous other KAs.
“The sense of pride in our second generation’s eyes was special,” added Hong, also the chairman and CEO of DuraCoat Products, Inc., a company that produces innovative paint products. “I had a lot of tears coming down when I saw that.”
But once the pollen settled and the flowers wilted, it became apparent that not all second-generation KAs were touched and wowed by the float. There was, rather, a mix of emotion, with some feeling pride and others, disappointment or even exclusion.
“They turned the float into a tourist attraction,” said Jin Kyoung Jun, a second-generation KA who works as a program coordinator for Mindullae, a Los Angeles-based organization that aims to educate KAs in the arts and on political issues. She pointed out how there were few symbols of Korean America on the float. Instead, many of the features were traditional symbols of Korea better suited for a postcard.
The float featured a towering Namdae-mun (one of the four main gates of the old city wall in Seoul) toward the rear, with numerous pink mugunghwas (hibiscus, also known as the rose of Sharon, which is South Korea’s national flower) and white herons also lining both sides. Four 20-foot-tall structures of Korean figures dressed in traditional hanboks (Korean dress) were also prominently featured.
One of the few items representing the American part of the Korean immigration journey was the replica of the S.S. Gaelic, the ship on which the first large organized group of Korean immigrants arrived in Hawaii in January 1903.
To Jun, the float should have represented the journey of Koreans escaping the atrocities of the Korean War and Japanese colonization, and crossing the Pacific Ocean in search of freedom and the American Dream. On a broader level, she said she would like to see a centennial program that addresses such subjects as the struggles of the first Korean immigrants who came to Hawaii as sugar plantation workers.
Other second-generation KAs like Soo Sun Choe were also concerned that the individuals chosen to ride the float may have sent the wrong message to the world about what it means to be Korean American.
