The Institute for Korean Studies presents:
"Performing Korean Transnational Adoption: From Screen to Stage"
Jieun Lee
Emory University
Abstract: Since the end of the Korean War (1950–53), South Korea (hereafter Korea) sent approximately 150,000 Korean babies and children for transnational adoption to the United States, France, and Denmark, among many other countries. Starting from the 1990s, Korean transnational adoptees, now adults, have notably appeared in Korean fiction and non-fiction media especially in the narrative of birth search and reunion. In this lecture, Dr. Jieun Lee will talk about the genealogy of performing transnational adoption from Korea as it delves into the (re)presentations of Korean transnational adult adoptees’ birth search and reunion on and off stage. Comparing contemporary Korean TV and cinematic depictions to Korean theatrical portrayals, Dr. Lee will discuss the selected theater productions, Airport Baby (2020) and Ilgopzipmae (2013). These plays unsettle the ethnonationalist discourse of Korean transnational adoption that has essentialized adoptees as well as birth mothers. Dr. Lee’s lecture will underscore theater as a crucial site that challenges the myths about Korean transnational adoption, and reimagines Korean adoptees’ identity, kinship, and belonging in the twenty-first century. This lecture will include original materials from her forthcoming book Unsettling Acts: Performing Transnational Adoption in which Dr. Lee examines twelve contemporary Korean, US, UK, Belgian, French, and Danish theater and performance art works from the 2010s portraying Korean adoptees’ birth search and reunion.
Dr. Jieun Lee (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in Theater Studies at Emory University whose research spotlights transnational adoption intersected with drama, media, and activism in and out of South Korea. Her peer-reviewed articles and reviews have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Annual, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and Women’s Studies, among others. Dr. Lee is currently finalizing her first monograph entitled Unsettling Acts: Performing Transnational Adoption (forthcoming with The Ohio State University Press, 2025).
