Hello! It was cold outside when I wrote the first chapter and now the long winter is over and warm spring is here. The first column was rather serious; about the history of Koryo-saram (the Korean diaspora) in Kazakhstan, but today I will go on a light note to reflect the warmth of spring and share things about Kazakhstan.

 I first learned about Koryo-saram in Kazakhstan through the housekeeper who kept the house and sometimes prepared authentic Korean dishes such as seasoned thin slices of carrot and Japchae (Korean stir-fried sweet potato noodles). I was still young then and because she looked a lot like a Korean person and spoke Korean well, I thought she was Korean, but she was actually a Koryo-saram. Koryo-saram are indeed citizens of Kazakhstan, with their roots in Korea, through their grandfather and grandmother having been forcibly deported from the Maritime Province of Siberia, Russia. Generation after generation, many Koryo-saram blended in with their present surroundings and forgot the history of their ancestors. But still, there are traces of Korean cultural traditions in Kazakhstan kept by Koryo-saram.

 The world's only Koryo Theater that was established in Vladivostok, Russia in 1932 was relocated to Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan in 1937 after the deportation. Here at the theater, Koryo-saram wear Hanbok (Korean traditional clothes) and put on Korean cultural performances and plays including Samulnori (traditional Korean percussion quartet). And there is Koryo Ilbo, which has continued down to these days since 1938 to publish local news and literary works in Korean for all Koreans living Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, middle-aged female Koryo-saram sell traditional Korean side dishes, such as seasoned thin slices of carrot, spicy raw fish salad and kimchi, that's made less spicy by using cabbage from a Kazakhstani bazaar. They are all the evidence of how culture merges into everyday life and passes down through generation, even though historical events may only remain in records.