Clay Walls

A landmark modern classic about the Korean-American immigrant experience and the dawn of Los Angeles’ Koreatown

Clay Walls tells the story of Haesu and Chun, immigrants who fled Japanese-occupied Korea for Los Angeles in the decade prior to World War II, and their American-born children. First published in 1986, it offers a portrait of what being Korean in the USA meant in the first half of the twentieth century, exploring themes of immigration, racism and generational trauma, and depicting the early decades of Los Angeles’s Koreatown. Through three sections representing the perspectives of mother, father and daughter, what resonates the most is the voice of a woman and her self-determination, through national identity, marriage and motherhood.