The Paradox of Recreating the Taste of Home: Critical Perspectives on the Culinary Heritage of North Korean Immigrants in New Malden

This paper has explored the community of North Korean (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) migrants living in New Malden, U.K. in 2018. New Malden is the largest North Korean diaspora community outside of East Asia. The reseach questioned how people, who fled from the homeland where the poverty and tyranny deprived them of their tradition, recovered and recreated their own cultural heritage in a foreign country. The study particularly focused on their culinary culture which demonstrated well of their sense of authenticity and the character of North Korean intangible cultural heritage.The research findings are: 1. The concept of authenticity was created among North Korean migrants even though their mother tongue did not have the exact word that is equivalent to the Western sense of authenticity.2. The North Korean local culinary heritage was enriched in New Malden by the people who cooked their traditional food, while it was disappearing in their homeland due to the famine and the poverty.3. The North Korean migrant community was fostered by safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage, through the cooking of traditional food. The paper discussed the loss, recovery, and the efficacy the heritage through the whole journey. It also suggested potential topics for the further research and referred to limitation of the paper.