Abstract
Ok-Sun Lee says that she has “endless han.”1 She came back to Korea after spending 58 years in China. She was kidnapped to be a comfort woman, and after World War II was over, she was abandoned and stayed in China because she did not have the means to come back home. She could not have her own children, but she married a man who had a son from his previous marriage. She raised this son as her own. She never forgot about home, but going back to Korea was like an impossible dream, as she did not even know how to read and write. After her husband passed away, she decided to move to Korea to share her han-ful story.2
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Notes
The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Japanese Sexual Slavery, Stories That Make History, (Seoul, Korea: Women and Human Rights, 2004), 179–183.
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 350.
Peter Scholliers, “Meals, Food Narratives, and Sentiments of Belonging in Past and Present” in Food, Drink and Identity, ed. Peter Scholliers (Oxford; New York: Berg, 2001), 3.
Monica Janowski, “Introduction: Feeding the Right Food: The Flow of Life and the Construction of Kinship in Southeast Asia,” in Kinship and Food in Southeast Asia, ed. Monica Janowski and Fiona Kerlogue (Copenhagen, Denmark: Nias Press, 2007), 4.
Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate. Hold On to Your Kids (New York: Ballantine Books, 2004), 207. The authors deplore how the custom of sit-down family meals has become diminished in the United States and argue that family meals need to be given more emphasis and time for children to feel connected with their parents.
Among the many books on this subject are Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1993).
Selene Yeager, The Doctors Book of Food Remedies (New York: Rodale Inc., 2007).
and Annemarie Colbin, Food and Healing (New York: Random House Inc., 1986). Doctors commonly recommend healthy diet and exercise as part of healing to treat physical and mental problems such as heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, or stress.
Ruth Duck, “Hospitality to Victims,” in The Other Side of Sin, ed. Andrew Sung Park and Susan Nelson (New York: State University of New York, 2001), 165.
Andy Langford, general editor. The United MethodistBook of Worship (Nashville, TN: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992), 38.
United Church of Christ, Book of Worship: United Church of Christ (New York: United Chruch of Christ Office for Church Life and Leadership, 1986.), 35.
Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), 19.
June Christine Goudey, The Feast of Our Lives: Re-imaging Communion (Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2002), 17.
Marjorie Procter-Smith is not the first one who links the Eucharist and justice. There is a strong tradition in this regard in Liberation Theology. There are also attempts to address the problems of hunger and other injustice issues in light of the Eucharistic vision of a just society. The examples of such works include Tissa Balasuriya, The Eucharist and Human Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979).
and Monica K. Hellwig, The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1992). In this section, I will focus on the position of Marjorie Procter-Smith.
Marjorie Procter-Smith, Praying With Our Eyes Open: Engendering Feminist Liturgical Prayer (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 120.
Marjorie Procter- Smith, In Her Own Rite (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1990), 151.
Procter-Smith, “The Whole Loaf: Holy Communion and Survival,” in Violence against Women and Children, ed. Carol J. Adams and Marie M. Fortune (New York: Continuum, 1998), 476.
Andrea Bieler and Luise Schottroff, The Eucharist: Bodies, Bread, and Resurrection (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 13.
William Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist (Oxford; Malden: Blackwell, 1998), 206.
For details on the tradition of women disciples and prophets, see Karen Jo Torjesen, When Women Were Priests (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995).
Ivoni Rochter Reimer, Women in the Acts of the Apostles (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995).
and Anne Jensen, God’s Self- Confident Daughters: Early Christianity and the Liberation of Women (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), among others.
Grace Gi-Sun Kim, The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women s Christology (Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2002), 158.
Thich Nhat Hahn, “Ahimsa: The Path of Harmlessness,” in Buddhist Peacework: Creating Culture of Peace, ed. David W. Chappell (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1999), 155.
Christopher Key Chapple, “Nonviolence to Animals in Buddhism and Jainism,” in Inner Peace, World Peace, ed. Kenneth Kraft (New York: State University of New York Press, 1992), 50–51.
M. Hiriyanna, Outlines of Indian Philosophy, 4th ed. (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1958), 24.
Swami Saradananda, a yoga practitioner witnesses, “One day my mother decided to cook a special treat. She bought some lobsters, filled the bathtub with water so they could await their fate in comfort, and put a big pot of water on to boil. As the live lobsters were dropped into the boiling water, I heard their screams. The thought crossed my mind, ‘How could I cause such unspeakable suffering to my fellow beings, just because I liked the taste of their flesh?’ I understood firsthand the yogic principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) and never ate meat nor fish again.“ The Yoga Cookbook: Recipes from the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers (New York: Fireside, 1999), 10.
M. K. Gandhi, “Health and Diet,” in The Gandhi Reader, ed. Homer A. Jack (New York: Grove Press, 1956), 297.
Christopher Key Chapple, Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (New York: State University of New York Press, 1993), 42–43.
Shamita Das Dasgupta and Shashi Jain, “Ahimsa and the Contextual Realities of Women Abuse in the Jain Community,” in Body Experience: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America, ed. Shamita Das Dasgupta (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 153.
For a more comprehensive study of engaged Buddhism, see Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, ed. Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), and Sallie B. King, Being Benevolent: The Social Ethics of Engaged Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005).
Terrence J. Rynne, Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), 184.
Michael Pettid, Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History (London: Leaktion Books, 2008), 34.
Roy Hamilton, “Introduction,” in The Art of Rice:Spirit and Sustenance in Asia, ed. Roy Hamilton (Los Angeles: Regents of the University of California, 2003), 23. This book is a fascinating study of rice and culture in Asia.
Roy W. Hamilton and Thitipol Kanteewong, “Offering the New Rice to the Buddha in Mae Chaem, Northern Thailand,” in The Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia, ed. Roy W. Hamilton (Los Angeles: Regents of the University of California, 2003), 183.
See Roy W. Hamilton, “The Goddess of Rice” in The Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia, ed. Roy W. Hamilton (Los Angeles: Regents of the University of California, 2003), 255–271.
Stephen Sparkes, “Rice for the Ancestors: Food Offerings, Kinship and Merit among the Isan of Northeast Thailand” in Kinship and Food in South East Asia, ed. Monica Janowski and Fiona Kerlogue (Copenhagen: Nias Press, 2007), 231. Khwan khao is one of the names of the spirit of the rice. Other names include mae kusook and maephoosop, both translated as “Mother Rice,” which indicates that rice and women are closely related in this culture. Ibid., 230–231.
Masao Takenaka, God Is Rice: Asian Culture and Christian Faith (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1986), 18.
Su Yon Pak, Unzu Lee, Jung Ha Kim, and Myung Ji Cho, Singing the Lord’s Song in A New Land: Korean American Practices of Faith (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 93.
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, ed., Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women (Parkersburg, IA: Mid-Prairie Books, 1999), 177.
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© 2013 Hwa-Young Chong
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Chong, HY. (2013). Broken Bodies Breaking Bread. In: In Search of God’s Power in Broken Bodies. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137331458_5
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