From the City of Mountaineers to the City of Masters

Roughly 7,000 miles from West Orange, and just 50 miles southeast of Seoul, South Korea, lies a traditionally rural, yet constantly developing town called Anseong.

Triple the population of West Orange, this is considered small by Korean standards. This is a city that prides itself on its nationally renowned “Anseong grapes”. The hard work of generations of farmers can undoubtedly still be seen amongst the plethora of farms that cover this “City of Masters,” a nickname which they hold very high. Shockingly, within a ten minute stroll from many of these patches of agriculture lies Anseong’s very own Main Street. “Anseong Sheenay,” the phoenetic translation of downtown Anseong, is a bustling area of restaurants, coffee shops, fashion outlets, seafood merchants and karaoke bars lined with taxis at all hours of the night. This vibrant Korean city still somehow hanging on to its agricultural roots has been my home for two years, and the proximity of its booming downtown to its scenic farms is still not easy for me to wrap my mind around.

As a teen, I thought that living in West Orange was bizarre enough with the loud urban corners and quaint suburban cul-de-sacs so close to each other. Little did I realize what was on the other side of the map. Aside from the vast differences in city planning, a second does not go by that I do not recognize the interesting dissimilarities between these two towns that will always have a special place in my heart. Rather than get my eggplant parmesan at neighborhood pizzeria Johnny’s, I now get my fermented cabbage, fried egg and rice at my favorite Kimbap Chung-guk. Rather than live in the sea of diversity that my hometown prides itself on, I now stick out like a sore thumb amongst Anseong’s overwhelmingly homogenous, native Korean community.  

I am interested in further sharing such cultural, legal, social, economic, anthropological, and culinary contrasts between not only West Orange and Anseong, but overall Korean culture and that of the Garden State. These past two years have not only taught me about where I moved to, but also more about where I am from. There is so much to be spoken of, and it would be far too selfish of me to not share such observations with the members of the community that made me who I am today.