Expectations reexamined: Author Rosa Kwon Easton explores her Korean grandmother’s immigration to Japan
by Yvonne Liu At 60, Rosa Kwon Easton is on the brink of a new chapter in her life with the impending release of her debut novel, “White Mulberry.” Easton’s path to becoming an author is as complex as the characters in her book. After immigrating to Los Angeles from Korea at age seven her childhood was a delicate balance between her Korean heritage and the American assimilation her parents pursued for their family. “My parents believed that in a society where we looked different, we had to use our brains to succeed,” the Rolling Hills Estate author said. The pressure to excel academically wasn’t just an external expectation; it also emanated from within. Her father, a banker in Korea, first worked as a janitor in America, while her mother took on night shifts on a factory assembly line. “Seeing how hard they worked, instilled in me and my two brothers this obligation to satisfy their dreams,” Easton said. In the Kwon household, as it has been in many Asian American households, immigrant parents pushed their children into stable, lucrative professions like medicine, law and business rather than the arts, sports, and other less stable careers. “They wanted a certain path for us, one…
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