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Lowell Rojon, Musician

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Lowell Rojon
Interviewed by Miae Kim
2005

Lowell Rojon: [00:00:00 My name is Lowell Rojon. Lowell Stephen Rojon, uh, formally my name was Shin Sung Ho. When I was in Korea I was born in Korea Seoul Korea in 1955 and I was adopted at the age of two by an African-American family. The Hudsons out of north Chicago Illinois. And so they were my new parents. And then I was renamed Lowell Stephen Hudson and since let’s see I turned 21 I changed my last name. I can give you reasons for that. But anyway my last name changed at 21 to Rojon, I changed my last name to that. My reason for that was because OK I am Lowell Stephen Rojon formerly known in Korean by my Korean name Shin Sung Ho. I can appreciate. I can appreciate that.

Miae Kim: [00:01:20] Do you remember anything about your life in Korea? Read more...

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Hyunju and Ruben Chappelhine

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Hyanju Chappelhein: [00:00:00] I’m Hyanju Chappelhein and I grew up in Michigan and I currently live in the Bay Area.

Ruben Chappelhein :[00:00:06] My name is Ruben Chappelhein and I grew up in Colorado. And I also live in the Bay Area with my wife.

[00:00:19] Ruben Chappelhein: Well I guess at first it was it was awful. I mean I was adopted when I was seven. And immediately all the kids you know on the playground either want to fight me or just want to call me names. And so that was a very difficult struggle that first year and then a year later I was re-adopted by a family in Colorado and went through the same thing. I had to – it was a new group of kids you know, a bunch of heights bunch of names. And then things things change. You know as you get older the kids get used to you and you get you make some good friends. But there’s always that struggle. Of being Asian in a very white society. I mean I’m from Colorado Longmont Colorado where I went to high school. So that’s about as white as it gets and I don’t know. I I always felt like I was never part of my my my peers. Like their goings on their lives. I always felt like I was an outside observer because I always felt like in that environment. So not until I actually started hanging out with Korean American adoptees who I could actually identify with that I feel like I was actually engaging. I mean I feel like I started my life when I moved out here to the Bay Area. Read more...