A Second Homecoming in Musok | Mudang Sung Park | Legacy Project Queer Joy

Mudang Sung Park (he/him) was born in Seoul, Korea, and immigrated to the Ridgewood/Bushwick area with his family when he was young. Sung always knew that he was born in the wrong body, but being “queer” was something he attributed to whiteness. And there was another complication to his gender: like many Korean Americans, Sung grew up in the church, and came from a family of ministers. After college, he went to seminary, where he obtained a divinity degree, and was under care at a church to be ordained when his father suddenly passed. He wanted to honor him, but because his family had stopped practicing traditional rites long ago, didn’t know how to, and left ministry, having grown resentful of the ways in which the church prohibited indigenous practices in Korea. Wanting to relearn the practices of his spiritual heritage, he sought out a mudang to mentor him in musok, and was surprised to learn that he came from a lineage of not only ministers, but mudangs as well. He doesn’t know of other trans men who are mudang, and isn’t sure if there’s a significance to his gender and his spirituality, but he feels that there must be one, as coming into the musok tradition has felt like a second homecoming into the queer Korean American community.
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CREDITS
Directed by Deborah Baik & Kimberly Young Sun
Interviewer: Deborah Baik
Editor: Kimberly Young Sun @kimberlyyoungsun
Camera: AJ Valente @ajyval, Janice Chung @janicekaramchung
Gaffer: Jason Chew @chewchomp
Sound: HJ Lee
Prop Stylist: Celine Son @clnsn
Production Coordinators: Yoon Perera Lee, Celine Son
On-site Therapist: Kim Konopka
Funding for this project made possible by Korean American Community Foundation @kacfny with support from the Reva and David Logan Foundation @revaanddavidloganfoundation
KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

[@Charlene-os9is]

❤️

[@aurori11]

what an incredible story by a skilled story teller. thank you for sharing

[@user-uu5dc6wr6h]

i grew up in the korean church too and am queer myself. im no longer apart of the church (irregardless of my queerness) but i do want to have some sort of belief in my life however and i hope/wonder if that wholeness/firm standing that sung park speaks of is something i will ever find
i actually wrote a short paper about mudangs in college and hope to learn more about them, although that would probably require me to read research in korean and also see mudangs in korea myself.
i hope to see indigenous practices continue on and become stronger as we reconsider what imperialism has done to countries, and that includes korea.
also, if sung park ever sees this- yes i do think it’s significant that you’re the only korean american trans mudang you’ve met.
thank you for sharing the story of the family who brought u in. ive been spending a lot of time with my partner’s family and feel like i’m forcing myself into their home/stealing from them.
hearing you speak about being embraced by your newer family makes me feel a little less lonely.
you have a really fascinating story and i hope to see a mudang in person one day, maybe sung park lol. either way, thank u to the people who took part in the creation of this video ❤

[@px9ik]

Korean American Story posted his Instagram handle if you want to get in touch with him:-)

[@josephinekim8957]

Gen X are NOT invisible we choose when and how to be heard and seen lol