Parents, teachers, universities, and the country… Ask, whose hands have raised you?

In recent years, the stories and memoirs of second-generation Korean immigrants have become a genre in their own right. Korean-American authors like Michelle Zauner's "H&M Tears" (2022) and Grace M. Choi's "The War Taste" (2023) delve into tragic aspects of modern Korean history and family trauma. Julia Lee, a Korean-American writer and English professor born in 1976, has also penned a memoir titled "Whose Hand Will You Kiss?"

Lee's story traces the upbringing of Korean immigrants - parents, mentors, universities, and the nation that raised them. Lee's parents were Korean immigrants who moved to the US, got married, and opened a fast-food restaurant. Despite the horrific injuries her father sustained at work, her mother relentlessly imposed discipline to ensure her daughter's success, a success Lee never pursued.