Korean Women Dominating Sports from Golf to WWE

In light of the "Feminism" and the "Sports" segment today, I thought this was an interesting background article that goes through some of the Korean Women that are taking over the sports world. These ladies have become new role models for Asians in their own ways. It's interesting to point out that some of these ladies had strong paternalistic pressures or support (whichever you want to call it). Among Asians and Asian-Americans, we complain about typical unnecessarily great pressures from our parents (like any culture). In the article talking about the Baseball Chan Ho Park, it talks about the interpretations and the iconic, index and symbolic elements combined with nationalisms (Korean and American in this case). Korean and Korean-American women athletes have to not only mediate with the common split nationality dilemma but these people are also changing the way we perceive gender/sex as their successes, which is very difficult considering the traditional Asian view on women. (EK)

ASIAN POP Korean Women Take Over the World - by Amy Moon, SF GateFriday, October 29, 2004

I recently remarked to a fellow Korean American about how Korean women have taken over the world of golf, and she countered with, "A Korean woman is one of the top pool players, too." Then we were off: "And what about those Olympic archers?" I said. "And," she added, "there's a Korean female wrestler, and a Korean woman made it into the final round of high-stakes poker. Korean women are dominating all the second-tier sports." "All the redneck sports," I joked.
It's true that some of these women were born and raised here in North America, so they're not really Korean-Korean, from Korea, but their parents are. And that makes them recipients of the legacy of Koreanness. My friend said, "Korean women are going to take over the world." From second-tier redneck sports to world domination? It's possible. I recall a Korean journalist in a documentary about Korean immigration to the United States saying emphatically, "Chutzpah -- Koreans have chutzpah."
Be that as it may, and taking into account the pitfalls of ethnic stereotyping -- even when you're one of them -- could there be something to their success?
(Another friend told me that in "The Great Shark Hunt," Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "Pound for pound, Koreans are meaner than wharf rats." I bought the book and skimmed it nearly page for page but could not find the reference -- although I'm sure that if Thompson said it, he meant it in a positive way ...)
Korean women haven't typically been seen as the sporting type. Historically, their role has been, first and foremost, to be good wives and mothers. Fairly recently, they've tended to excel at being model-minority musicians, doctors, lawyers and stockbrokers and also, in Korea, habitués of plastic surgery (but that's another story, sort of). But times have changed -- and, particularly for the women born on this side of the globe, where the cult of celebrity has had a longer and more illustrious reign, they may still have some traditional values, but they're also forging new paths.
So who are some of the players on the Korean diaspora's female athlete roster?

Michelle Wie, 6-foot-tall Hawaiian golf prodigy

First, some context: It all started with Se Ri Pak, a Korean golf phenom who quietly blasted onto the American links in 1998 when she was 21, winning both the Ladies Professional Golf Asssociation (LPGA) Championship and the Women's U.S. Open (she was the youngest player ever to do so), as well as being named Rookie of the Year. The field now includes a whole pack of Korean golfers (immortalized on the Web site Seoul Sisters) known for their determination on the green (not to mention for pocketing of a lot of green as well). Currently, four Korean golfers are among the LPGA's top 10 money leaders.
But among these women, the one who has garnered the most attention is Korean-American Michelle Wie. The Amazonian, baby-faced Hawaiian girl wonder shook up the golf world when she strode confidently onto the grass and played her first LPGA tournament at age 12 -- the youngest girl ever to qualify. Wie was also bold enough at that age to tell the press that she someday wanted to play not only the LPGA tour but also the Professional Golf Association (PGA) circuit and to qualify for the crème de la crème of golf tournaments, the Masters.
Earlier this year, Wie, then 14, played in the PGA's Sony Open, where she missed the cut by one stroke and finished tied for 80th -- ahead of 48 men.
People have been calling her a golf prodigy, and many have proclaimed her to be the LPGA's future Tiger Woods; even golf great Arnold Palmer predicted greatness. "She's probably going to influence the golfing scene as much as Tiger, or more," Palmer said in an interview for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "She's going to attract people that even Tiger didn't attract: young people, both boys and girls, and families."
Funny he should mention Tiger Woods. By all accounts, Wie's parents, B.J., a professor of transportation at the University of Hawaii, and his wife, Hyun, a real estate agent, are following in the footsteps of Woods' parents in grooming their golf-prodigy daughter to be a full-fledged superstar. Her parents have golfed together with Wie since she was 4 years old, and they continue to travel with her to every meet, managing her career, cooking her food, keeping her safe. Early on, Wie's father served as her coach and caddie, and he has been instrumental in making sure her eye is on the ball. It was widely reported that her father even carries two photos of Tiger Woods in his wallet: one of Woods at the top of his backswing, and the other of him at the end of his swing. Apparently, he consults these photos frequently and comments on her strokes.
In an interview for Golf Today, Wie jokingly complained, "He put posters from Golf Digest all over my room. My whole room was filled with Tiger, Tiger. I get mad at my dad because my dad doesn't have a picture of me in his wallet. He has two pictures of Tiger."

Gail Kim, Korean-Canadian professional-wrestling diva

The super-sexy Gail Kim is one of the 11 female stars of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Monday Night Raw. This diva, originally known as La Felina (she wore a mask to pay homage to the great masked Japanese wrestlers), started her wrestling career billing herself as Queen of the Cats and employing a dominatrix persona. In her first match ever, Kim won the title belt to become WWE Women's Champion.
Although many might hesitate to call wrestling a "real" sport, claiming its over-the-top antics put it more into the category of entertainment, it is physically demanding nonetheless. Kim attributes her superlative wrestling ability to her overall athleticism. "I was always into sports," she told me over the phone from her native Toronto. "In high school, I played basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, badminton -- two sports every season -- and I was named female athlete of the year twice." When she first started, WWE agent Dave "Fit" Finley, who works extensively with female wrestlers, predicted that she would raise the bar in the WWE Women's Division. "She's totally different than all the girls we've got right now," he said in an interview for the Official Women of Wrestling Web site. "She can fight, and she's as tough as they are, but she's got all these high-flying maneuvers."
Kim is dedicated to the sport, pointing out to me that women's wrestling has changed over the years. "It used to be thought of as girly and not serious, and now we hear all the time, 'You girls really kick ass,'" she says. "That's the pay-off.
"I have lots of people tell me I'm beautiful and ask if I'm a model, but the biggest compliment I got was, a fan came up to me and said, 'You're the best female technical wrestler,'" says Kim. "That's the one compliment that sticks out."

Jeanette Lee, sultry pool goddess known as "the Black Widow"

In 1994, Korean-American Jeanette Lee was the No. 1-ranked pool player in the world and earned the "Player of the Year" award. Then, when pool was accepted as an Olympic sport, she won the gold medal for the United States at the 2001 Akita World Games in Japan. Lee is also the reigning ladies' trick-shot champ and holds the world record in "women's straight pool high run."
But it's not only her prowess at billiards that has made her a star. With her long, black hair and provocative all-black attire, including long black gloves, Lee is an arresting figure on the pool circuit. Of her nickname, the Black Widow explains in a phone interview, "They say I'm sweet and personable, but when I'm on the pool table, my demeanor changes. I lure in my opponents, and then I eat them alive."
Lee has become a pop-culture celebrity, ranking third after Anna Kournikova and Marion Jones in ESPN's World's Sexiest Female Athletes contest and making Esquire's Women We Love list. The native New Yorker is also star of a video game, Sony's Virtual Pool 3, featuring Jeanette Lee. (You know you've arrived when they make you into a video-game character).
Lee's activities extend beyond the table as well. She serves on the board of trustees for the Women's Sports Foundation and is the national spokesperson for the Scoliosis Association. (Lee was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 13 and has undergone several corrective surgeries as a result.) She also authored "The Black Widow's Guide to Killer Pool."
"I've been No. 1," says Lee of her status in the pool world. "I'm No. 3 now, but I'm still hungry. I want to be No. 1 again."
Korean Heritage
All these women, and all this glory, for the first time ever in the history of the world. So, what gives here? To cite a somewhat dry and academic source, The Journal of Sport & Social Issues included a piece titled "Culture, Gender Roles and Sport: The Case of Korean Players on the LPGA Tour," in which the authors postulate, "At the core of their success are several traits that are consequences of their cultural upbringing: a work ethic that is the envy of the tour, a devotion to the game that is unparalleled and indomitable mental toughness. These traits and certain aspects of the Korean psyche, culture and family help explain why female Korean golfers on the LPGA are thriving."
One can only assume that these are the same qualities other Korean and Korean-American athletes possess as well.
Kye-young Park, an associate professor of anthropology and Asian-American studies at UCLA, attributes these traits to historical factors. After the Korean War ended in 1953, she says, South Korea butted its way from a nearly third-world country to a global economic powerhouse through sheer force of will and bone-crushingly hard work. Koreans' belief in this ethic is abiding. It is apparent not only in their titanic effort to re-create themselves and their homeland after a devastating war but also in the mind-set that they bring to making it on foreign soil as well. "Korean immigrants have that mentality," says Park. "They believe anything is possible. That's why they go to South Central [L.A.], anywhere -- they don't care. They went through poverty, military dictatorship, worse conditions than anything here."
And, indeed, the current crop of Korean athletes seem to be the progeny of that brutal ideology -- some might say even to a fault. For instance, Korean women have dominated Olympic archery since they started competing in 1984, winning all 10 individual and team gold medals each time. To toughen the players up, the Korean Olympic archery team, men and women alike, were reportedly subjected to harsh treatment such us being forced to cleaning up city sewage, staring at dead bodies in a crematory, climbing a mountain with a 176-pound rubber dinghy on their backs and staying up all night as part of their training. In a 2001 report from CNN, South Korea's top female archer acknowledged that the training was harsh. "But I feel good, and I think it has helped me prepare for the coming championships," said 18-year-old Park Sung-hyun.
As for the Korean golfers, Park says that in Korea, golf is more than a mere sport; it's a status symbol. "In recent history, Koreans have invested a lot in golf playing," she says. "If anyone invested as much time and money, it seems like their success is a logical outcome."
Brian Murphy, a sports writer for The Chronicle, agrees. "It's nothing particular that Koreans do that, say, Japanese or Scottish or South Africans don't do," says Murphy. "It's just that golf at this moment in time is very popular there, and, as a result, a lot of young women are playing and practicing a ton." But Murphy also noted that a cultural work ethic does come into play. "Discipline is stressed very highly in some families," he says, "and golf is a sport where work and discipline, and practice, are the most important ingredients for success."
Park says that studies done on successful Korean women politicians found that they all had strong fathers, which she says is also true for the golfers. Korean phenomenon Se Ri Pak's father was notorious for dominating his daughter's life, from making her sleep in cemeteries to get over fear to keeping her from normal teenage activities to focus exclusively on playing golf.
Other Koreans in the golf world have made headlines in not-so-positive ways as well. In a Golf Digest list of news makers at the end of 2003, one item was the Korean dads: "There are 18 players of Korean origin on the LPGA Tour, and the actions of a few family members drew fire. Reports of illegal hand signals, offering illegal advice in Korean, intimidation of caddies and, in one extreme case, a dad kicking a ball out from behind a tree, were so widespread that commissioner Ty Votaw called a Koreans-only meeting in August to go over the rules. Some said it was cultural misunderstanding, some said it was jealous players envious of the Korean success and others said it was a real problem caused by dads with dollar signs in their eyes."
And a report in The Sports Business Journal about Asian Americans and sports singles out Korean parents as pushing their kids too hard.
UCLA's Kye-young Park notes that Korean parents are applying the same model-minority standards to sports as they have always done to academics. "The problem noted by fellow Koreans," she says, "is that Korean parents will reprimand their kids publicly, impose military-like training on them. They're applying the same rigid rules to golf playing."
Not all these relationships are characterized by ruthlessness, however. Based on the many articles I read, Michelle Wie and her family appear to be as tight as possible, and although her parents seem to have a firm control on guiding her career and her life (When I emailed her father asking to interview her, he politely replied, "Thank you very much for your interest in Michelle. I am sorry to inform you that Michelle will be unable to participate in your story because of her busy schedule at school and travel."), their relationship appears, by all accounts, to be extremely close and amicable.

The New Model Minority

Park says that when Koreans started immigrating to the United States, they didn't understand the importance of sports in American culture. "It used to be that if you were good at sports, it was a bad sign; it meant you were not good at studies," says Park. "Parents would often discourage their kids from playing sports." But that notion is changing. "Now, Korean parents see sports as a way to become Americanized and get ahead," she adds.
Korean parents want nothing short of the best for their progeny. This driving ambition, fueled by love, is what the strong family bond is all about. Again, the Wies are part of this trend. The parents have dedicated their lives to developing their daughter as an athlete -- the new model minority. In a story for Slam, a Canadian sports Web site, Wie's father says the goal is for her to lead an ordinary -- and extraordinary -- life. "We want her to have it normal, then abnormal -- become a very, very great golfer, very rich, with a rich personal life," he said. "Most of all, we want her to be happy."
But reaching excellence in a sport isn't incumbent on parental pressure. Sometimes a good example is all that's needed. Pool phenomenon Jeanette Lee says her success is based on hard work and that the work ethic comes from her Koreanness. "To this day, I don't know anyone who worked harder than me," she tells me. "Second to none." The story of how she discovered pool one night as a teenager and became obsessed, spending all her time practicing, is legendary. "For five years I never went out," she says, "I never saw a movie, I never went to a party, I didn't do anything but play pool and eat hot dogs and coffee at the counter."
She adds that she gets her obsessiveness from her parents. "Especially in New York, where I grew up, there is no limit to what Koreans are willing to do to get the job done," Lee adds. "It's called heart: you work hard, constantly analyzing your performance, keeping yourself focused, and everytime you fall, you just get back up, torn and bloody and sweaty and beaten up, you just keep getting up and grinding it out. I think that that is a very strong Korean trait."
She says her parents don't even come to watch her play, because they're so busy working. "My mom is an RN, and she only takes vacation when I come to visit, and my dad runs a candy store across from the Empire State Building," she explains. "He gets up every day at 3:15 [in the morning] and works until 9 at night."
WWE bombshell Gail Kim says hard work is the primary cause of her success. But the other aspect is competitiveness. "Koreans are competitive," she says. "I see it in my father, especially. He was very competitive, independent and strong, motivation-wise." Kim, who has one older sister, adds, "I truly believe this, and I don't know if he'd like me saying it, but I think I am the son he never had. I have more of his characteristics [than my sister] -- I was more tomboyish."
Filial piety is a very strong concept in Korean culture. It is very important for children to not only obey their parents but also to make them proud. To have a child who underperforms in a society as competitive as Korea's is to lose face. And, sometimes, it seems that there is no satisfying this hunger to be the best. After all, what is good enough?
Kim says her father wanted her to be a golfer or a boxer. "But I ended up doing a boy's sport, which is close," she says. "He's psychotic about golf. Even now, although he's proud of me, he still says, 'Don't you want to be a professional golfer?'"
"This might sound really cheesy, but I want to make my parents really proud," she says. So, are they? Have they've seen the cheesecake shots? Are they're OK with that? "Oh, yeah," Kim replies. "My mom brings my pictures to church."
Pool maven Jeanette Lee says, "For awhile, my dad was putting a little bit of pressure on me. It was kind of joking but yet I felt he meant it. He'd say (and here she adopts a tough guy voice), 'Hey, when you going to win the Olympics? When you going to win the Olympics?' I was like, 'Dad, dad, it's not an Olympic sport.' This is way back when I first began, when pool wasn't even an Olympic sport yet."

Beyond Model Minority

Perhaps it is partly because both Lee and Kim were born and raised in the Americas that they've blown past the good-girl model-minority stereotype. Both have no problem with being sexy and capitalizing on their good looks, but these are not passive bimbos.
"There are a lot of beautiful women in pool," says Lee. "They wear Ann Taylor, Banana Republic. I'm there in my New York black leather pants. I'm not looking to be Pamela Anderson. I'm looking to be Electra -- daredevil, tough, sexy in a strong, womanly way, not cutesy, prissy or soft. And I'm lucky we're in a time and a place where men and women find that appealing."
Kim, too, makes the most of what she has. "I don't want to sound full of myself, but I've worked hard to look good, so, if I can wear shorts, I might as well show it while I can," she says. She even took it a step further and got breast implants when she was in her 20s, before she started wrestling. "But I didn't tell my dad. I told my mother, and she wasn't into it, but I kept pushing, and she trusts me, so she came around."
They're both proud of being Korean and breaking ground in their sports. "I think it's so cool -- I think it's so much cooler to make the path," says Lee. "It's a time when people are celebrating ethnicity and diversity. I feel fortunate to be part of it."
"I definitely think being Korean opened the door," says Kim. "I have a unique look. There are no other Asian women in wrestling. I knew that was an advantage. They have blondes, brunettes, black women, but not Asians."
She adds, "I would love for Asian-American people to see there's an Asian-American woman in WWE."
Fellow Korean-American Michelle Wie does not seem to be bombshell material. Instead, all accounts paint her as a fairly typical 15-year-old who loves video games, chatting on her cell phone and going to the mall with friends. And she's even excited about her conceptual-physics class. But, nonetheless, Wie has star quality. As a golf-nut friend of mine said, "She draws people in. Guys want to watch her. She's 6 feet tall, good-looking, hits the ball super hard. Hell, I want to watch her. She's 15 years old, and she could make it into the PGA."
Chronicle Sports writer Murphy says, "In the past few months, she's finished top-10 at an LPGA major (the Kraft Nabisco) and tied-13th at the U.S. Women's Open. I'm a big Michelle Wie fan. I think she's going to light the sport on fire, and the best is yet to come."
And, whereas Wie still has amateur status and isn't making money on the tournament circuit, Lee and Kim are sensible career women focused on making a living. Kim refers to the WWE as a company she loves working for and Lee says, "Right now, it's a struggle for pool players to make anything. I don't make a living on tournament winnings alone. I do a lot of public speaking to earn money."
Lee also does special events like the Jeanette Lee Experience, to be held March 17-20, 2005, at Las Vegas' Plaza Hotel and Casino. It's an opportunity for her to teach pool with other professionals, including her own teachers and her husband, former champion George Breedlove. People sign up for the chance to hang out with her, but what they end up with is learning how to play better pool.
Lee says, "In the beginning, it was all about being No. 1: fame, glory and big bucks. Now, I'm more into the legacy. What have I done that is more meaningful than trophies in a trophy case? I want to be a champion for women's sports, a leader, ambassador, in a positive way."
And, when all is said and done, there's the love of the game itself.
Kim says it's hard to explain, but wrestlers talk about what they do as almost like an addiction. But what are her ambitions? Does she sees wrestling as just a stop along the way to bigger fame and fortune? "I love wrestling as a sport, and I hope people will remember me for that," she replies. "I don't think of it as a stepping-stone to other things. I just love wrestling. If you love it, it shows. I put everything into my matches."
Lee echoes this sentiment: "If I hit the lotto and became a millionaire, I would play pool forever."

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/archive/2004/10/29/korean.DTL