Francis and Ginger Park: Writing on Korean Heritage and Storytelling Across Generations

In this episode of SLANT, host Dana Tai Soon Burgess welcomes acclaimed authors Frances and Ginger Park, two Korean American sisters whose works span novels, memoirs, and children’s literature. Frances, author of the recently released novel Blue Rice, and Ginger, known for award-winning books like The Hundred Choices Department Store, reflect on how their Korean heritage, family history, and childhood memories inspire their stories. The sisters discuss growing up in post-war America, their parents’ immigration, and the profound impact of Korea’s history on their writing. They also share insights into their collaborative process and running their long-standing Washington D.C. chocolate shop, Chocolate Chocolate. Join the conversation as they explore how personal and cultural memory shape their powerful storytelling.

Find us on www.slantpodcast.com and follow us on social media @theslantpodcast

Transcript

Dana 0:24

Welcome to slant podcast. This is your host, Dana Tai Soon Burgess. This podcast is an ongoing conversation around the Asian American experience through the lens of artists and luminaries. Thank you for tuning in. Today's guests are the Park sisters. Frances Park is a Korean American author of 14 highly praised books, novels, memoirs, and co authored children's books published in seven languages. Her just released novel, Blue Rice, which opens in post war South Korea and ends in 1960s white America, is dedicated to all the lives lost and souls shattered during the Korean War and to her late mother. Who lived and breathed it as she carried on in America, humming Korean songs. Francis's short stories and personal essays have appeared in Oprah magazine, the Massachusetts review, the Columbia journal, the London magazine, the Chicago quarterly, and dozens more. She earned a notable in the best American essays, 2017. Her sister Ginger Park is an award winning author of many books for kids and adults. that reflect her Korean heritage. Her books have been published in five languages. Ginger has received multiple awards for her books, including the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award, the Notable Books for a Global Society Award, and a Patterson Book Prize for Young Readers, among others. Welcome, Francis and Ginger. It is a pleasure to have you both here today. How and where did you both grow up?

Park Sisters 2:09

We both grew up in Fairfax County. This is Frances, I was actually born in Boston, but came here when I was very young with the family. That was a few years before Ginger came along. So you might call us born and bred Washingtonians. Yes.

Dana 2:27

And did your parents and grandparents do?

Park Sisters 2:32

Both grandfathers were pastors. One in northern Korea and one in South Korea. Of course, this was before the division of the country and our mother. She stayed home, but our father worked at the World Bank as a senior economist and our grandmothers were missionaries.

Dana 2:55

were they Christian or Catholic or Methodist?

Park Sisters 3:00

So they were Christian on our father's side. They were Methodists and on our mother's side, they were Presbyterian.

Dana 3:10

And when did they immigrate to America? That would be your parents.

Park Sisters 3:15

Our parents came to America in 1954. Just after the Korean War ended.

Dana 3:22

hmm. A very tumultuous time.

Park Sisters 3:26

Very, very Our father was very politically involved at the time. He was the personal secretary to the first president elect of South Korea, Syngman Rhee. He was in college and he had taught himself to speak English at a young age, perfect English. And so she used like as a liaison. Yeah. Between the American generals. The Koreans.

Dana 3:55

So you come from a very scholarly background, and also The religious background, which was very associated to texts.

Park Sisters 4:06

Yes. Yes. I did not follow in my father's Harvard footsteps. My true education was behind a candy counter, chocolate, chocolate. Where, where we learned a lot. No regrets. Um, as scholarly as our father was, he did not fulfill his dreams. Most people would think going to Harvard is enough, but for him, it wasn't. that was kind of a stepping stone to something greater. Unfortunately, he passed away or he could fulfill that dream. But yes, we do come from very religious background, although we ourselves are not associated with a church organized religion.

Dana 4:47

And how do your Korean American identities today inform your characters? Are your characters autobiographic?

Park Sisters 4:56

I think in some works they are, and in other works, they're completely fictional. Our mom outlived our father by 40 years and we took care of her. So we were always listening to her stories and, just over the years, not even realizing we were recording them. A lot of them found their way into our works. Yeah, would have to agree with Francie. Most of my characters from the 100 Choices department store were inspired by real people. I don't like talking about myself. I prefer writing about other people. And for whatever reason it enriches my life. I like to do both. Yeah. I, I wrote a memoir. It didn't start out as a memoir. It just started out as love letters to my dad because I just missed him for so many decades. And I just thought, you know what, I'm just going to grab the pen. I'm not going to have any plan, any format. I'm just going to write as real and raw with no rules. And I ended up writing a number of them and then they ventured out to other people I've loved. And my mom died during the seven year writing of it. Then I wrote more about her. And after it was all said and done, it's interesting. You look back and more than anything, you see like who was so important to you and who, never made it into the pages and you learn a lot about yourself,. It's interesting too, because a lot of the response From Korean readers for my book is very different than the response from American readers, American readers. It's an experience. It's very eye opening to them. Many people to this day don't realize that Korea was under Japanese occupation. But in Korea, they do know that. And so many of them have said they couldn't believe that I was American. Because I was writing about something that felt so close to their hearts and, we have our parents to thank for that because our father, he worked at the World Bank, and every few summers, the World Bank sent his family home to Korea. And, at the time, I don't think any of his children enjoyed those visits. It was a very foreign place to us. We were very American. it was post war Korea. Post war Korea. And nobody explained anything to us. Exactly. Our parents didn't explain to us that you're visiting a post war country. Which felt like a third world nation. And in, in many ways it was very startling for us, shocking. And we wanted to just come back home, but the truth is, I don't think Francis or I could write what we've written out those visits to Korea. No way.

Dana 8:10

That's beautiful. As authors, why the focus on children's and young people's books?

Park Sisters 8:19

My mom would tell me stories growing up. That never made any sense to me. For instance, she told me that she had to run away from home. So I would turn around and tell my friends, my mom ran away from home and they would tell their parents, Mrs. Park ran away from home and then it would get back to my mom. My mom was like, I, I didn't really run away from home in the way that you're saying, and I couldn't really understand. And so. When we got a little older and she explained these stories to us, I thought these are really rich stories for children. Not every ending of every book should be like a fairy tale. I think it's healthy for children to understand that there are worlds out there that they may never know. They may never visit, but through words, they would have felt like they stepped into the shoes of a person who has, this is Frances. Another kind of funny story when I was little, little parallel to Ginger's is, here it is the height of the Cold War. And I'm telling everyone in this apartment complex we live in that my dad is a communist. Because he was an economist, but I thought it was communist. So all of these neighbors are scared to death, is brave enough to approach our parents. And that's when I learned my dad was not a communist. He thought things like that were funny. That was the kind of man he was. And what one other thing about children's books is Ginger and I have always believed that just as many adults love our children's books. Yeah, they're serious topics, but written in such a way that children can understand at least some of what we're saying and it prompts them to ask questions. Yes.

Dana 10:22

absolutely so important. Francis, I'm thinking of blue rice and the protagonist there was heartache, yet resilience, and even humor in the story. How do you see all of these? components as being part of the human condition.

Park Sisters 10:39

For me, writing is subconscious at best. I don't analyze anything I do. I just like to go at it. I don't even like to edit too much, but obviously it comes from somewhere. And I always do like to think that I write about the human condition, good and bad. And expressing things that maybe you wouldn't in the light of day and seeing where you are. A lot of people do wonder why I called the novel blue rice, our mom, all her life yearned for her childhood. It was idyllic. She was born into a prosperous family and they had a summer home in the mountains. And she talked about this summer home until the week before she died, when she was in hospice, because the water was so blue. It turned the rice blue and that's where the title came up.

Dana 11:41

And Francis, tell us about writing a story about sisters, specifically your thoughts on your book, When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon.

Park Sisters 11:50

When I wrote that, Dana, I did not realize that I was modeling at least some of the characters on my family. I didn't. I just wrote. I just wrote like crazy. none of the scenes in there ever happened, but I think the insecurities, the way you overcome. How you feel when you don't think you're looked at properly how you, gain some time of some type of acceptance, even if it's just within yourself, how to make yourself feel better. Those were all obviously all in me, but honestly, when I was writing it, I just went for it.

Dana 12:32

You seem to access a deep emotional well and you bring it to light.

Park Sisters 12:38

Yes. I like to think so. I like to think so.

Dana 12:43

Ginger, I was so moved by the historic as well as emotional accuracy of your book, The Hundred Choices Department Store. How do you go about researching and developing your characters and their environment?

Park Sisters 12:57

It first started out with many nights talking to my mother. We would stay up every night after dinner, TV on, lights out. and it was an organic process. I would just ask my mom a question about her life and the process in no way was linear. She would tell me 10 different stories. And I would extract from those stories and spin my own tale. However, when my mom read the book, she was crying. And I remember the only word she said were my story. And I knew I had done a good job as far as the historical aspects. I did a lot of research. The thing is I'm not a historian and perhaps there's a historian out there that might question. Some of the accuracy. I don't know. But I chose to go with my mom's memories because I feel that the memory of something it's emotionally charging. It's real. And when you look at something from a historian's point of view, it's just factual. And I wanted to document one person's experience and how they remembered things.

Dana 14:15

What a great way to honor your ancestors It makes me think of memories as time capsules. I'm fourth generation Korean American, and I remember all of these stories from my grandparents talking about the Korea that they remembered. And when I finally Went to Korea and was working in Korea. I felt a complete disorientation. It was the first time that I really was like, wait a second. I am definitely Korean American, not Korean. And the place that I grew up thinking existed was from, 70 years prior. It was such an awakening. The Hundred Choices department store has recently been translated and republished in Korean. What a beautiful homecoming for a Korean American author. How does this accomplishment make you feel?

Park Sisters 15:08

At first I was just so overwhelmed by the response, Korean people are very emotional. They express how they became the character in the book, and how it kept them up. all night and how they thought about her for days. and I thought about that and I thought, my mom passed away and I thought she's gone. She's not. She's in the hearts of Korean people where she was from. And that is just so life affirming for me.

Dana 15:46

You have co authored books. Will you tell us about the inspiration for and process of writing To Swim Across the World, a novel?

Park Sisters 15:57

That was an interesting one. This is Francis. It's one thing when we do the picture books because they're short, we come up with a premise and then we go back and forth. When you write a long work, like To Swim Across the World, you sort of imagine us both at the laptop writing. We actually, in the light of day, never spoke about the novel. We went into this silent zen. For several years, passing back chapters. If I would send something to Ginger, she would mark it up with her red pen and give it back to me and I would look at it and I don't ever remember arguing between us or it was(we don't argue). Yeah. And it just went back and forth like this for years and we'd be working on different chapters until it was done. It was a long time ago, but it was very interesting. I mean, because, we own a business together and we would see each other Some days we would be there for eight hours and Not one word. Not one word. It was like the book didn't exist. Yeah. It was almost like you were breaking, it was too sacred. To talk about where we were breaking creative rules, if that makes any sense at all.

Dana 17:16

You have a successful store in downtown Washington, D. C. named Chocolate Chocolate. Tell us about your popular store.

Park Sisters 17:26

We've seen it all. We've seen it all. We opened during the Reagan era and you can imagine just, we've seen a whole generation come and go. We saw Gorbachev. Yeah. Get out, stepped out his limo and wave at everyone. Right. And, in those days, everything was so different because, everyone was so dressed up and Duke Siebert's was in our building and you would just see the limos. Nancy Reagan used to walk by in a red dress all the time. It was just so different. Everyone was in a hurry. Everyone was ambitious. Everyone, wanted to get off work and go to the big happy hours and, the thing about our business is that we have evolved over the years. we went from working, just doing notes on an IBM Selectric typewriter. That we rented. That we rented. To having our own laptops. And in that time, the one thing that was always steady for us as time went on is that we just love being at our store and we love being behind the counter. It kind of gave us that balance in our lives because when you're writing, you go into your safe space. Where nothing else exists, not the news, not. The chaos, you're in your safe space and you create your own world. At the same time, it's very isolating. Then you get to go to the chocolate shop and you meet people, old friends, and that has always been steady at our chocolate shop. And during the pandemic, That was lost because we were closed for a long time, and we just kind of felt like we were in, one of those fulfillment stations, where we were just packing chocolates to be mailed, and that's not what we wanted because Chocolate Chocolate, it really is kind of an extension of our home. And we're blessed to have the clientele we do. Yes. From all over the world. And you have people coming in. Who are crying and thanking us for staying open. And I, all I can say is you can thank us for being a little crazy. Yes. It's oh, well, chocolate makes everything better. It really does make everything better.

Dana 19:48

I so agree.

Park Sisters 19:51

Like I never met or saw another Korean American from kindergarten through college. And, I grew up feeling like an American, but then I would be reminded somehow that I was not, and as I grew older, I became more aware and by the way, I never even wrote about Korean Americans or Koreans. until about my fourth novel. It never occurred to me. Until what must have been like 1992. And I started writing when I was 10. But I've never really felt that comfortable in my skin, except in places like around my family or around good friends or our shop. I always feel safe in our shop. It's just a safe place. Yes. It's it might be in public, but it just feels like an extension of our home. Like nothing bad could happen there.

Dana 20:53

You've really moved from an outsider perspective to the center, right? You've added the Korean American experience to the canon of American literature, really.

Park Sisters 21:05

I guess we have ginger. Well, when our first picture book came out, my freedom trip. Fired by our mom's flight from Northern Korea to South Korea. Publisher had no idea. Of any history in Korea, Korea is almost like this country, at least back then, that was just lost on the map. And we argued with them, we didn't want them to say as a subtitle, a child's escape from North Korea, because it wasn't North Korea when our mom escaped. 1947. It was still one country. It did have a division But it was Northern Korea, but they said it didn't really sound good. So every time I see that subtitle, I slightly cringe. But there was one caveat. Yeah, they wanted us to change the ending. And that ending was that our mom was reunited with her mom. And that did not happen in real life. So certainly wasn't something we were going to change for. If I go back to the fairy tale, happy ending. Yeah. I just want to do a shout out to our incredible agent Jennifer Hunter. Who has never been an agent that harnessed you or put you in a box. She will, she is happy to see anything and nourish any book that you have. So she is a rock star.

Dana 22:38

And, Francis, will you tell us about your upcoming novel, On Love?

Park Sisters 22:46

yes, so it's about a Korean family from this area, actually who take a cruise on the Pacific Ocean in 1969. And you will see that the father in there actually is modeled after our father, if he had lived to old age, I had imagined him because there's a current story and a past story in the current story. He's turning 90. I always fantasized about what it would be like to have our dad at an old age and how I would have loved to have taken care of him. But the bulk of the story takes place in 1969, and there is a lot of adventure, there's a lot of high romance, it's kind of a literary romp, you might say, but at the same time, there's an uncle who comes on the trip. Who is a clownish type who never had any respect and something happens and he finds respect on the ship and up to now, he's never really had a real job. He's always just taking care of the family. It's kind of a sidekick. He decides not to join the family on the rest of the trip when the cruise ends, he doesn't come home. And so in current day, that the two brothers have been estranged for 50 years. We, and I know I like to write books with different voices. I consider myself and Ginger always tells me I'm, a chameleon when it comes to writing. Before I started writing books about Koreans and Korean Americans, I had various voices like a Southern woman, a Greek boy in Baltimore. I like to just take on different, voices, but I understand for marketability. I feel that I should usually write from the Korean American experience and it is what I know and it is what I'm most comfortable with. But all my works, I'd like them to be very different from the other.

Dana 24:59

Are these different voices, residual imaginary friends from childhood, or are they even past life impressions? Where do they come from?

Park Sisters 25:10

Oh. Well, I can say the book that I'm writing right now. I'm currently writing it in third person from the perspective of a 14 year old Korean boy living in Northern Korea, but I'm leaning towards changing it to first person. And he is inspired by one of my mother's five brothers. For me, I would say all of the above and also something premonitory when I was writing that Lonely Spell, the memoir with 26 different pieces and a lot of them I was always part of them, but I also focused on people I knew and who had affected me deeply. Good or bad. I didn't know while I was writing it that everyone would die during the writing of it. We lost our manager. I lost my best friend, two best friends. We lost our mom. We lost our mom. I think I knew the whole time I was writing it that I was going to lose all these people. So, you just don't know what your brain is doing. That's so true. It's working when you don't think it's working. Yes. That's interesting that you asked that question because I don't know if you remember, Dana, in the prologue of the 100 Choices department store, and it's from the, the voice is that of an 89 year old woman. Okay. Well, and I said 90 in Korean years, because, they're born, you

Dana 26:46

A hundred days.

Park Sisters 26:47

Exactly. I had a feeling that I knew that this would be the final work that I would complete while my mom was alive. I saw her slowing down. And in fact, she would die when she was 89. She would not see the publication of the book. She would be the first person to read it though. But she died eight months later. Before it was accepted for publication, but that was, it was kind of Mm-Hmm. that she loved it. Yeah. She gave you the high five judge. Mm-Hmm.

Dana 27:16

What's on the horizon that we should be looking out for from the Park Sisters?

Park Sisters 27:22

Well, I'm currently working on a novel. I already have the title, I guess I can share it. The Hotel Magnificent. It's actually inspired by my mother's family who owned a hotel. In Northern Korea, circa 1937. And like Francie's story Anh love, there is romance in here, which is kind of a new area for me. I don't know why I usually shy away from any kind of love story, but I think this one is working. So I'm looking forward to it. But there's something else we have a children's book coming out in March called, Suka's Farm. And again, it was dedicated to our father. In the story, it's an unlikely bond between a little starving Korean boy, and a Japanese farmer who this is during the Japanese occupation and the Japanese farmer allows him to work on the farm. Tending goats because his family is starving. It's a beautiful story. We're very excited about it. Yes, it, there is a real life story behind it. Our dad did own a goat farm when he was young but it was his passport out of poverty. Yeah, he was. And he remembered the names of all the goats. Till the end. Yeah. And then the next picture book that's coming out is called Venice Dole. So, Dole, meaning the first birthday. And you know all about that, Dana. Yes. The first birthday is the most important because it's very hard for children to survive in the day. And this is modern day, but it has a historic backdrop. It does. It feels that way because naturally the little girl who's turning one cannot be the voice of the story, so it's her little brother who's five. And he wants to know why the birthday is so special. So you learn about the whole history of the doll and why it's the most celebrated birthday in Korea. And it does have the feel of a time past because it takes place in a rural village. Yes. We're very excited for both of those.

Dana 29:55

Francis and Ginger, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm sure our listeners will want to purchase your fine books and when in DC, of course, visit Chocolate Chocolate. Wonderful.

Park Sisters 30:07

Thank you. They can visit us at parksisters.com.

Dana 30:11

Well, thank you so much and, wishing you all the best of luck. Honestly, it's such a joy to be able to speak with you both today. Thank you for tuning in today. Please rate the podcast on your listening platform and tell your friends. Feel free to contact me at slantpodcast. com. It's always great to hear from you, our listeners. A special thanks to our sponsors, the Dana Tassun Burgess Dance Company, the Cherry Blossom Giving Circle, and the Dehde Liam Gunawan Hickory Legacy Fund.