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DOKADS / Issue 001

Stories from the
next generation

Essays, interviews, poems, photographs, and open questions from descendants of Korean adoptees. Written by us, about us, on our own terms.

anonymous is a real option →

Editor’s note

The explainers and guides below are real — researched and written by the DOKADS editorial team, with sources on our Resources page. What Issue 001 still needs is the part we will never write for you: personal stories from actual DoKADs.

Essays, interviews, poems, photo stories — anonymous and pseudonymous both welcome. Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

Featured

Explainer

A short history of Korean adoption

Around 200,000 children were adopted out of Korea over seven decades. Here is how that happened, decade by decade — and why the story is still moving.

DOKADS editorial8 min readRead this

Everything else

9 pieces

Explainer

A short history of Korean adoption

Around 200,000 children were adopted out of Korea over seven decades. Here is how that happened, decade by decade — and why the story is still moving.

DOKADS editorial8 min read
Explainer

What even is a DoKAD?

The short version, the long version, and why the term exists at all.

DOKADS editorial4 min read

Your parent’s story and your story can be connected without being identical.

DOKADS editorialExplainer
Explainer

Talking to your Korean adoptee parent about adoption

There is no script for asking a parent about the biggest thing that ever happened to them. There are better and worse ways to start.

DOKADS editorial7 min read
Explainer

Preserving adoption files, photos, and family stories

The paperwork is aging, the photographs are fading, and the person who remembers is not getting younger. A practical guide to saving all three.

DOKADS editorial7 min read
Explainer

Visiting Korea as a descendant of an adoptee

It is not quite a heritage trip and not quite a return. What to know before you book, from paperwork to the feelings nobody warns you about.

DOKADS editorial6 min
Explainer

Visas, citizenship, and what descendants can actually claim

There are real pathways to Korea for children and grandchildren of adoptees — narrower than the rumours, and wider than most people assume. Including one common move that would cost you your passport.

DOKADS editorial9 min read
Explainer

The Korean words for family

Korean kinship terms encode exactly how a relative is related to you. A working glossary for people meeting these words as adults.

DOKADS editorial5 min read
Explainer

Feeling connected — or disconnected — from Korea

Some descendants feel pulled toward Korea their whole lives. Some feel nothing. Most move around between the two. All of it is normal.

DOKADS editorial5 min read

Tell us your story

You do not have to be
a writer.

Send four hundred words or four thousand. Send a poem, a voice memo, a scan of something from a box in your parents’ basement, or a question you have never asked out loud.

You choose how you are credited — full name, first name only, a pseudonym, or anonymous. You can change that later, and you can withdraw a piece after it runs.

If your piece names other people in your family, we will ask whether they know. Nothing about birth family, adoption records, or family relationships gets published without you saying so explicitly.

Ways to be credited

  • Full name — the whole thing
  • First name — “By Nari”
  • Pseudonym — pick anything
  • Anonymous — no byline at all
Pitch a storyemail us — a person reads it