Featured on choa magazine Volume 4: Sex.

Jayci Lee writes poignant, sexy, and laugh-out-loud romance featuring Korean American main characters. She shares her journey from a career as a litigator to becoming a romance author, the role of faith in shaping perceptions of sex and romance within Korean diasporic communities, and the importance of embracing pleasure.

Originally published on January 2025.

Interview by Harriet Kim.

Audio Edited by Frances Kim.

Welcome to the final episode of groundings. In this episode, Ki-Sang looks back on the past season of groundings and offers her reflections on the process and importance of telling our own stories as Korean women in the diaspora. 

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora. Support us at choamagazine.com/support

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim
Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

In a winding conversation that takes us through the past, present, and future, groundings introduces you to choa magazine’s newest member, Ashley An. 

This intimate conversation explores how our identity is shaped by our hyphenated and immigrant experiences, our conversations with our mothers, and our relationships with God.

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

Through a conversation that flows through personal trauma, the amplification of Asian American perspectives, and intergenerational affirmation of identity, this episode explores Julia Chon, we get to know the person behind @kimchi.juice and @koreanarchives.

In this wide-spanning conversation with Ki-Sang and Harriet, Julia shares how her relationships with her family, strangers, and artist communities have shaped her career, her understanding of herself, and her understanding of what it means to be Korean.

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You can find Julia’s original artwork on Instagram @kimchi.juice⁠ and her archival work @koreanarchives.

Specific artworks mentioned in the episode include:

Organizations, artists, and community members from the episode include:

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

We are re-introducing Harriet, the co-founder of choa magazine, in this week’s grounding. You may have heard her talk about choa magazine before, but this is the first time Harriet shares a deeper, more personal story about who she is, who her family is, and how she moves through the world.

In this episode, Ki-Sang and Mirae share an intimate conversation with Harriet about her family’s multi-decade and multi-generational history in so-called Toronto, her dream job as a kid, and her way of processing the world by helping others put out their own work and art. 

For Ki-Sang and Mirae’s own episodes, check out episodes 3 and 5 of groundings 🌱 

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You can find earlier interviews with Harriet and Mirae on our website at choamagazine.com.

Send us comments, questions, and feedback @choamagazine on Instagram or via email at [email protected].

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim
Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

An exploration into mixed-race Korean experiences, Harriet and Ki-Sang speak with Hilary Hwu, a Chinese-Korean neonatal intensive care nurse, for the sixth episode of groundings.

With an upbringing that thoroughly blurred the cultural lines of Korean, Chinese, Myanmarese, and Japanese influences, Hilary gives us a window into her transition into adulthood, as she moved across the continent to build a new community and career, while evolving her relationships with her parents and her own mental health.

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The episode mentions made in, a podcast that discusses pop-culture moments and current events through the lens of two female members of the Asian diaspora. The Asian Canadian Therapist Directory is available on our website, www.choamagazine.com.

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

Mirae, choa's co-founder, is this week’s guest on groundings.

You may have seen and enjoyed her writings, graphic designs, and as of late, her monthly recommendations, but this week's groundings episode explores the lesser known sides of this choa team member. 

In a conversation with Ki-Sang and Harriet, Mirae shares her experience as an immigrant and diaspora member in both Toronto and in Singapore, how her work with diasporic artists and storytellers have shaped her own sense of identity, and why K-pop will always feel more like home than Western entertainment.

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

June Hur is a Korean historical YA novelist whose novels that have been described as K-dramas in book form. She is the author of best-selling and award-winning books The Silence of Bones, The Forest of Stolen Girls, The Red Palace, and the upcoming A Crane Among Wolves. 

In this episode of groundings, June and Ki-Sang discuss the pains of being an introvert in an extroverted world, the role of history in rooting us a collective identity, and the beauty and challenges of being a diasporic creative.

A Crane Among Wolves will be released in May 2024 and is available for pre-order. You can find June’s blog, pre-order her upcoming novel, and learn more about her existing books on junehur.com. 

For more details about choa magazine’s call for submission for Volume 4: Sex, visit https://www.choamagazine.com/submissions.html. Deadline is March 31, 2024. 

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

Welcome to our first deep dive into a choa member’s inner world. Ki-Sang’s been with choa magazine since 2021, but this is the first time she shares the story behind her name, her current pursuits, and her love-hate relationship with K-entertainment and K-beauty standards with our diasporic community. 

Subscribe to groundings to catch Mirae and Harriet’s stories in upcoming episodes.

To catch up on choa magazine’s Jane’s Walk of Toronto’s Koreatown, check out the “jane’s walk ‘23” highlights on our Instagram @choamagazine.

For more details about choa magazine’s call for submission for Volume 4: Sex, visit https://www.choamagazine.com/submissions.html. Deadline is March 31, 2024.

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim
Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com

Jacquie Lee is a city planner in Toronto and the founder of Sonyo Kimchi. Jacquie started Sonyo Kimchi during the Covid-19 pandemic when she moved in with her grandparents to take care of them. In a conversation after a kimchi-making workshop in 2023, Harriet and Ki-Sang sit down with Jacquie to talk about her relationship with food prior to Sonyo Kimchi, the question of authenticity and intuition of food cultures, and the experiences we share as children of diaspora visiting Korea.

You can find Sonyo Kimchi on Instagram @sonyo_kimchi or go to sonyo.ca to sign up for upcoming workshops and order vegan, gluten-free kimchi across the GTA.

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groundings, a storytelling project from choa magazine, takes a deep dive into the inner lives of women in the Korean diaspora.

Hosted by Ki-Sang Yi

Music by Haedeun Kim

Follow us on Instagram @choamagazine or visit our website choamagazine.com