Korean-Americans celebrate immigration with Rose Parade float

Tuesday December 31, 2002

By LAURA WIDES
Associated Press Writer

DUARTE, Calif. (AP) As the United States and North Korea engaged in a diplomatic showdown over nuclear weapons and South Korea criticized U.S. policy, a Rose Parade float was taking shape to celebrate 100 years of Korean immigration to America.

The float featured a replica of the S.S. Gaelic, which brought the first documented group of Korean immigrants to Hawaii, and South Korea's national treasure, the massive Namdaemun Gate, built in the 14th century as part of a fortress wall to protect Seoul.

``The Rose Parade is world famous,'' Pyong Yong Min, head of the Hawaii-based, national Korean American Centennial Committee, said in a recent interview. ``And we wanted to bring our celebration to the world.''

Centennial float chairman Ray Park said he hoped that in light of North Korea's decision to restart its nuclear weapons program, the float would highlight a positive side of Korean history and culture.

``We want to let the mainstream know who we are and to know we are part of them,'' Park said.

The float was designed to depict palace guards, courtesans and white herons, using more than 75,000 roses and other flowers. Walnut shells, oats and ground cinnamon cover the gate walls.

Olympic gold medal diver Sammy Lee, Texas Rangers pitcher Chan Ho Park, and CNN broadcaster Sophia Choi were to ride the float down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard in the New Year's Day spectacle.

Centennial Committee members said the Namdaemun Gate symbolizes protection and a safe haven for Koreans. The United States also has represented a haven for Koreans who arrived on its shores, they said.

Around 1 million Korean-Americans live in the United States, more than half of them in Southern California, according to the Los Angeles-based Korean American Coalition.

The float is the most visible of centennial celebrations to be held nationwide in 2003. A Smithsonian exhibit will look at the first Koreans who came in 1903 to work on Hawaiian sugar plantations, and at the immigrants who arrived in the 1950s during the Korean War.

The Centennial Committee received most of the money for the $300,000 float from Southern California businessmen. Students and community groups also held fund-raisers.

In the final days before the parade, their scissors clicked like thousands of crickets, as they snipped petals in the cavernous Fiesta Parade Floats warehouse in Duarte, about 10 miles east of Pasadena.

``The float fits the theme of the parade, 'Children's Dreams, Wishes and Imagination,' because we are trying to make our history part of our children's lives,'' Park said.

Caroline Kim, 20, who spent hours gluing split peas onto the legs of a 10-foot white heron, said she's already learned some history.

``It makes me proud to see the float. A lot of people kind of overlook Koreans. They think we're either Chinese or Japanese,'' said Kim, a junior at the University of California, Riverside. ``This float is beautiful with all the different flowers, and maybe people will learn something.''

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On the Net:

Korean Centennial: http://www.koreancentennial.org/

Tournament of Roses: http://tournamentofroses.com

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)