Andrea Kim Neighbors

Andrea Kim Neighbors lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area. She has a background in cultural anthropology and museum education and is the Education Specialist at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. 

 

The Costs of a Being a Korean Female Body: A Review of White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

In Mary Lynn Bracht’s debut novel White Chrysanthemum, the sounds of the sea, the taste of salt and the cool breeze off the sea’s current permeate the world of Hana, a 12-year-old girl on Jeju Island, South Korea. Hana is becoming a haenyeo, the Korean word for female deep-sea diver. Hana has a younger sister, Emiko, or Emi for short, whom she dotes on. Hana’s mother has guided her on how to dive and breathe underwater.