This document describes an orphanage called Shinmang Orphanage located in Korea. The orphanage houses over 40 boys and girls ranging in age from 1 month old to 17 years old. These children come from a variety of backgrounds, including having one or both parents who are unable to care for them, being abused or abandoned, or having single parents who gave them up due to social pressures. The author recounts visiting the orphanage regularly and bonding with the children by playing, drawing, and giving piggyback rides. She expresses sadness at having to leave the children and the orphanage after spending two years visiting regularly.

1. NEH AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011 69
AN UNLIKELY FAMILY
This family looks nothing like your
traditional Korean family; quite the
opposite. Their ages range vastly from
just a month old to 17 years of age; they
all have unique stories, personalities and
aspirations, yet the thread that ties them
together is that they are have all been
orphaned or abandoned.
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY BY INGE KATHLEEN

2. 70 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011 NEH NEH AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011 71
Tucked in the Korean hillside, two hours east from the madness
of central Seoul, lies a small bustling village of sorts called Shinmang,
where a family of more than forty young boys and girls live.
This family looks nothing like your traditional Korean family;
quite the opposite. Their ages range vastly from just a month old to
seventeen years of age; they all have unique stories, personalities and
aspirations, yet the thread that ties them together is that they have all
been orphaned or abandoned.
Shinmang Orphanage has been in operation since 1952. It has
slowly grown to house more than thirty boys, ten girls, and an
assortment of bushy dogs. Shinmang is a place where these children
cangrowupwithalovingfamilyuntiltheyreacheighteenyearsofage
when then they become independent.
Most of these “orphans” still have one or both of their parents alive
and almost all have closely related family, but most will likely never
return to their families nor be adopted.
The children come to Shinmang for a variety of reasons. A few
have no parents; others have parents who are mentally or financially
unable to provide for them; others have been abused or abandoned;
while others have single parents who gave them up because of pres-
sures from their family or a future spouse. This pressure is rooted in
Koreans’ Confucianist beliefs of bloodline.
The blood is an important link between parent and child. It is so
valued that new spouses do not want a child that does not have their
own blood. Furthermore, the idea of adopting, a completely unknown
is much more foreign to many Koreans. This is why adoption is so
rare here.
“[Koreans] don’t want a kid from another bloodline,” says Myung
Hee Park, the director of the Shinmang Orphanage.
When Koreans choose to adopt, however, they usually do so
without their friends or family knowing. One way they hide it is by
faking a pregnancy and then adopting an infant.
Since the 1950s, more than 200,000 Korean children have
been adopted, with more than 160,000 of these children going to
international homes.
However, most of the children at Shinmang are much too old to
be adopted. According to the U.S. State Department, 86 percent of
children adopted in Korea are under the age of one. Additionally, the
parentalrightsformostoftheShinmangchildrenrestwiththeirfam-
ilies, even in cases when they are abandoned.
I began visiting Shinmang Orphanage about a year and a half ago.
I found it with the help of my Korean friend. The orphanage is just a
subway stop and a twenty five-minute walk away from the little coun-
try school where I teach.
I remember the first time I went. It was a frigid winter day, and the
director, Myung Hee Park, came to pick me up at the train station. I
got in her car, and almost immediately we turned off the main road in
favor of a back road that took us past little farms, worn hanok houses,
and frost-kissed rice fields. We then wound up on a narrow road and
arrived at Shinmang, an orphanage that at this time was only for boys.
Since the 1950s, over
200,000 Korean children have
been adopted with more than
160,000 of these children going
to international homes.
AN UNLIKELY FAMILY
NEH AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011 71

3. 72 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011 NEH
I was there not to teach English to the children, but to simply play
with them. I was a little nervous about what I would do with them; my
Korean level was barely higher than survival. However, I figured despite
this language barrier, I was a child from a family of nine kids, and I would
improvise somehow.
Park toured me around the house and then led me to a room with
a few little boys inside. She said that I could hang out with them for a
few minutes while she finished up some office work. The boys were all
gathered around the television enthralled by a Disney cartoon. I went
and sat with them for a moment and tried to impress them with my
Korean, but they just looked at me like I was a white ogre. Fair enough,
I thought, apparently my language skills weren’t the way to their little
hearts. Instead I managed to bribe one of the smallest ones away from
Mr. Disney with crayons and white paper.
With these materials at our disposal, we sprawled on the yellow
laminate floor, laying flat on our bellies. We began drawing anything and
everything we could think of. I would draw a bunny and then he would
draw the same one. He would draw a flower, and I would color it in.
Then I drew a tree, but apparently it wasn’t up to his standards, so he
dramatically scratched it out and then giggled mischievously. Before we
knew it, time had flown by, and dinner was ready.
He motioned with his hands that it was time to eat. We placed our
masterpieces in his closet, and then he grabbed my hand tightly and
led me up the stairs to the little dining hall. He then told me with grand
authority where I was to sit. I must sit right next to him! My heart melted
right to the floor.
From that moment forward, he and all his siblings have had my heart.
On this day orphans became real to me. These little ones were not from
Oliver Twist or the Little Princess. When I left them that evening, the
movie didn’t end. They didn’t get to go home and be tucked in bed by
their mother or father. They weren’t going to get chicken noodle soup
when they were sick or play catch with their dads. It wasn’t their fault,
either. There was nothing wrong with these children; they had brilliant
personalities, and beautiful hearts, but that didn’t matter.
Since that winter day, I’ve gone to visit their ever-growing family
almost weekly. We’ve drawn quite a few more masterpieces; they’ve
made me the official piggyback ride giver, human horse, tickle monster,
and I am even required to give unlimited airplane rides for a nominal fee
of 뽀뽀 (kisses) and hugs.
After two years in Korea, I only have a few days left until I leave for
Thailand to travel and to work with Burmese refugees. It will be sad to
say farewell to my friends and all the delicious Korean food that I love
so dearly, but I have Skype and a kitchen. These losses can be remedied.
My greatest sadness is knowing that gone are the days of walking up
the hill toward their house and hearing them scream at the top of their
lungs ‘Inge wasayo!’ (Inge has arrived!) Or having them hug me tightly
and then spending the evening spinning round and round until we all fall
to the floor from blissful dizziness and then doing it all over again!
If only I could take a couple of them with me, I pray, maybe one
day soon.
Shinmang Orphanage is in Gyeonggi-do Province in Shinwon-ri
between Yangsu-ri and Yangpyeong. For more information about how
you can help, go to www.shinmang.or.kr/ or contact director Myung Hee
Park at 031-772-6244 or via email shinmang1952@hanmail.net. Their
address is 경기양평군양서면신원리산53번지.
These little ones were not from Oliver Twist
or the Little Princess. When I left them that
evening, the movie didn’t end. They didn’t get
to go home and be tucked in bed by their mother
or father.
AN UNLIKELY FAMILY