• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.317-327
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate Chinese female marriage immigrants' dietary life after immigration to Korea, focusing on comparison between Han-Chinese (traditional Chinese) and Korean-Chinese (Chinese of Korean descent). Methods: An in-person survey was conducted with women married to Korean men, having one child or more aged 1-6 years old, and having resided in Korea for at least one year before the survey. The data were collected from the 309 respondents comprising 151 Han-Chinese and 158 Korean-Chinese in the summer of 2013. Results: Overall, there was no significant difference in dietary practice, dietary acculturation, dietary behavior, dietary habits, and food intake between the Han-Chinese and the Korean-Chinese respondents. Over 50% of the respondents ate Korean food every day. The overall level of dietary acculturation was about 3.5 out of 5 points. The average score of healthy dietary behavior was a little bit higher than 3 out of 5 points. Approximately 3/4 of the respondents showed increasing frequency of eating out. The respondents reporting increase food diversity were over 70%. Decreased frequency of skipping meal was about 60% of the respondents. Over 50% of the respondents showed increasing consumption of Kimchi, vegetables, fruit, and meat. Conclusions: Dietary life of Korean-Chinese female marriage immigrants was similar to that of Han-Chinese female marriage immigrants after immigration to Korea. The results from this study suggest that not only Han-Chinese but also Korean-Chinese should be targeted in various diet-related acculturation support programs as important multicultural populations in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.807-815
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• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate the factors affecting the dietary adaptation of female immigrants in multi-cultural families in Busan. The survey was conducted from October 10 to November 30, 2010 using questionnaires, and the data was analyzed using the SPSS program. The subjects were mainly from China (58.8%), Vietnam (14.7%), Philippines (8.8%) and Japan (7.4%). The longer they had resided in Korea, the lower their preference they had for Korean foods. There were no significant differences in preference according to their nationality. The subjects reported that their consumption of cereals (36.7%), meats (40.0%), fish (50.8%), milk and dairy products (47.4%), vegetables (48.3%), fruits (44.8%), fat and oil (29.1%) and beverages (32.8%) were increased after immigration. They usually obtained information about Korean foods from family (26.5%) and television and internet (26.5%). Sixty four point seven percent of the females ate 'everyday' Korean foods and 30.9% ate their home country foods every day. A higher will for learning Korean foods, intake frequency and age resulted in a higher adaptation of Korean dietary life. Lower marital conflict resulted in higher adaptation. These results suggest that it would be effective to provide systematic nutrition education program for female immigrants and their families to adapt to Korean dietary life.

• Survey Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.63-85
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• 2010

This study defines the substance and multi-dimension of emotional reactions which Koreans have toward foreigners to find the starting point of change in values which is an inevitable task in this multi-cultural society. The results indicate that the Bogardus scale which has been used to measure the social distance toward the minority race is found to have limitations in explaining the closed attitude of Koreans toward 'nation' and 'kinship through marriage'. To supplement such limitations, exploration on attitudes toward foreigners from different native places is performed based on the 'evaluation', 'power' and 'activity' dimensions of the Affective Control Theory. As a result, Americans are highly evaluated in all three dimensions while Japanese are evaluated low in the 'evaluation' dimension and high in the 'power' and 'activity' dimensions. North Korean defectors and ethnic Koreans from China (the Chosun race) are high in evaluation but low in other dimensions. West Asians are evaluated low in all three dimensions. By comprehending the influencing factors and the relative influence of social distance, it proves that the 'evaluation' dimension is the common denominator in all groups while 'power' dimension toward Japanese and 'activity' dimensions toward Chinese and West Asians influence social distance. All foreigners excluding Americans receive closer social distance when having higher education level. Moreover, American women and older North Korean defectors receive closer social distance.