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CANADIAN LANDSCAPES/ PAYSAGES CANADIENS
to the host culture and, most importantly, “the sense of being understood”
(Kim-Craigg 181).
LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS
Now we will see how the Church is reflected in literary works written by
Korean-Canadian authors and whether this is congruent with the historical
and sociological sources presented in the previous passages.
First, we are going to have a look at Jean Yoon’s short story entitled “Hal¬
monee,” which was published in the volume Han Kut (2007) written by Kore¬
an-Canadian women. The story presents a three-generational Korean immigrant
family living in Canada. The grandmother, “Halmonee”® does not speak much
English. Only her family and television connect her, very loosely, with the host
culture. The only company she enjoys is that of the Korean preacher and his
wife. She often calls on them on the pretext of dying:
There is a book in her hand with very large print. The pages are thin and elegant so
you can see, like veins in the skin, the words on the opposite page. I think it is the
bible she is reading, but maybe it’s a book of hymns. She doesn’t sing herself but
she enjoys calling the preacher and telling him that she is dying [...] And when the
preacher comes, he brings his wife, a neat lady with shoes that match her pale peach
dress. They hold her hand and sing energetic hymns over and over (J. Yoon 18).
As the excerpt also illustrates, these hymns and religion serve as a solace for
Halmonee ina strange host country she cannot identify with. The appearance
of her book of hymns (thin and elegant pages) also reflects her reverence towards
Korean Christianity.
Mary/Yu-Rhee, the main protagonist of Ann Y. K. Choi’s Kay’s Lucky Coin
Variety (2016) comes from a Buddhist family but she does not practice her
religion: “I told everyone I was a Buddhist, although I rarely went to the tem¬
ple. As immigrant children, we led parallel lives and were bound by parallel
expectations of great achievement, which ultimately led to a lot of conspiring
against our respective parents” (A. Y. K. Choi 22). She regards Christianity as
a feature of host culture education: “In six hours, I’d be back in my homeroom
class. A shiver ran down my spine. I’d be standing for the national anthem,
followed by Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...” (A. Y. K.
Choi 43). Her brother, Josh, on the other hand, sees Christianity as an oppor¬
tunity to make friends, network and integrate into the host culture. Mary/
Yu-Rhee is angry with him because she feels this is only an excuse to leave his
share of work to her at the family-run convenience store: “I was angry the day
5 “Halmonee” means “grandmother” in Korean.
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