Miss Kim Lilac is a story about a lilac tree called ‘Miss Kim’ that was brought to America from its native Korea and named by an American botanist. The tree's name, which has changed over time as it moved across countries, is an imprint of colonial history, female objectification, capitalization of nature, and the migration of Korean women.
In the twenty-minute experimental documentary film, Miss Kim Lilac(2023), Chung’s journey to New Hampshire where she finds the early Miss Kim lilac specimens intersects with the narrative of its history that unfolds through the lilac’s perspective. If the name is the most fundamental linguistic framework to recognize oneself, will Miss Kim be able to find herself lost inside her multiple names?
As a Korean woman traveling between the U.S. and Korea, Chung perpetually re-recognizes herself with a new persona revived with her wrong name that is misspelled and called in the U.S. The idea of self that is embodied by its dominant language is slippery and loose. Among the tree’s multiple old names, it is now called ‘Miss Kim’, an outdated term in Korea that has dismissal connotations for secretary women who work at the office. For women and immigrants, whose names are often erased and mistranslated, how can they reconcile the impaired relationship with their given names?
“Since I was a child, my mother has collected disposable sauces such as hot sauce, Parmesan cheese, and soy sauce that come with food delivery. She categorized these sauces, stored them in a corner of the refrigerator, and labeled them accordingly. These sauces, which were about to be thrown out, are given their place to exist by naming them. If one's very first moment of their name being called is by a caregiver, the act of naming primarily carries intimacy and care. .”
Miss Kim Lilac starts from the place where the name and the object are perplexing. It playfully reverses perspectives of the subject in an attempt to reimagine its history. Can this create a new linguistic framework that is plural and multitude?
