When I got married (to a non-Asian), I kept my Japanese last name because I didn’t want my heritage to disappear in my name, and also because I am the last in my generation to have this family name.

I started using my korean name Kim Jin Won (김진원) for various purposes: screen name, etc. Actually, my western last name is 12 letters long, so I usually give Kim at restaurants…haha. Other than that, I usually use my western first name, Andrew.

That NYT blog is a crock, however. There was a controversial column by some Tama Janowitz in which she writes how threatens her adopted Chinese daughter how ungrateful her daughter is and how she would be working in a factory in China if it wasn’t for her as a white parent “rescuing” her daughter. Many adoptees I personally know tried to respond but were systematically censored by the NYT staff. Also, the vast majority of contributors are white adoptive parents, who always dominate the dialogue when it comes to adoption. The only other adoptees are mostly young kids, which perpetuates the concept of adoptees as eternal youths and not worthy to criticize their situation.

AKA is a good group. There are some good ones run by adoptees in Seoul too, actually. They do really good work without much recognition (or response from Koreans themselves, unfortunately). But that’s the way adoption has always been viewed over there, and here more subtly.