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The notions of hybridity, recreation of tradition, authenticity, and accessibility emerge from this instance and evoke some questions about representations in performance. The young people in this study have their own personal style, but in contexts such as rallies or among other Koreans, seemingly innocuous items of clothing such as T-shirts serve as statements that show allegiance to political happenings in the Korean peninsula and as a statement of their identities as Koreans. In this chapter, I will also examine the ways in which T-shirt inscriptions reflect political and ethnic affiliations of group members.
The next two chapters look at the uses of languages—Korean, English, and Konglish—to establish Koreanness. All the group members speak either English or Korean. However, not all the members can speak both English and Korean, and those who are bilingual have different competencies in the language. Most prefer one language over another. This poses some challenges in communication, in instruction, and even in daily conversations. Often, we translate idioms to each other and make humorous and witty puns. Konglish is a blend of Korean and English and most Korean-English bilinguals tend to substitute words and expressions in daily conversations. The Konglish I am looking at here is slightly different because the type of Konglish that the group speaks is in many ways invented as an in-group code. As members become increasingly conversant in both Korean and English, idioms, puns, jokes, and malapropisms emerge in everyday conversations. The use of language delineates in-group boundaries among the group members but also connects group members to Korean communities in the United States as well as transnationally.
The final ethnographic chapter focuses on two events that culminate the issues of identity formation, language use, and representation through song. In this chapter, I will demonstrate how a traditional practice is transformed into a present-day practice to publicly represent Koreanness. Part of learning pungmul also involves learning folk songs with lyrics that do not necessarily translate into English. Therefore, what we take away from learning folk songs are tune, context, and use.