Korean culture rises with L.A. skyline: Column

• The Hanjin Group of South Korea is building the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.
• Here in the U.S.%2C Korean-Americans are increasingly visible and influential.
• The 73-story New Wilshire Grand being built in downtown L.A. is of a piece with this cultural arrival.

The Hanjin Group of South Korea, better known to Americans through its flagship subsidiary Korean Air Lines, is in the process of building the tallest structure west of the Mississippi. It's going up right in the heart of downtown Los Angeles — the sort of project bound to stir conversation and controversy.

And yet there's no controversy and little conversation. No one is screaming that the Koreans are buying up America. No one is complaining about how the Wilshire Grand Hotel has been demolished to make way for a skyscraper. If you read the online comments to the handful of news articles on the project, Angelenos say they welcome the shiny glass and steel New Wilshire Grand.

This reaction is very different from the alarmism of the 1980s when Tokyo's Mitsubishi Estate Co. purchased Rockefeller Center in New York City as other Japanese companies invested in firms and properties all over America.

What's the difference?

One obvious answer is that South Korea, unlike Japan, was never an American enemy. The less obvious answer is that South Korea, despite its achievements and longstanding connections to America, has been slow to penetrate the U.S. consciousness.

'Unknown' then

When I was growing up in 1980s' New York City, the son of Korean immigrants, the construction of a Korean skyscraper would have been inconceivable. South Korea was virtually unknown, except when it was depicted as poor and war-torn in MASH. The Korean War is referred to as "The Unknown War."

After the war, South Korea's economy languished as Japan boomed. By 1967, Japan had the world's second largest economy, and its culture established a place in American minds.

South Korea's invisibility in America didn't last, however. Its international profile has grown. The current secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, is Korean.

Grand arrival

Here in the U.S., Korean Americans are increasingly visible and influential, in the arts (for example, L.A. painter and graffiti artist David Choe), and in education and development (Jim Yong Kim, the former president of Dartmouth College, was appointed president of the World Bank in 2012). Korean cuisine is spreading beyond urban enclaves. And only those who live under rocks were unaware of the sardonic lyrics and equine gyrations of Psy's Gangnam Style.

The 73-story New Wilshire Grand being built in downtown L.A. is of a piece with this cultural arrival. Right now, it is a hole in the ground — a hole with a new foundation after a recent concrete pour. When it is completed, it will rise to claim the title of tallest structure in the West.

In one sense, the building has been in the making for generations. For this immigrant son, it is a testament to how much has changed in this country. The skyscraper will be a point of pride. Even if you don't hear all that much about it.

Paul S. Nam teaches Korean and Japanese history at Occidental College. He wrote this forZócalo Public Square .

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