Sung-ok Tigay, 92, sings herself old Korean folk songs to fall asleep. Many of these songs were sung in the desertic Kazakh steppe while growing rice, where she worked until her hands were fractured. She remembers over a hundred songs by heart, many of which have not been written down and are not presently known in modern Korea. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Bastobe hill. Now a cemetery for ethnic Koreans, Bastobe hill was one of the first Korean settlements in Kazakhstan. The deported Koreans spent two harsh winters in holes dug in the ground for shelter as they did not receive building materials, help, or compensation they had been promised by the state. As a consequence, many died of hunger, illness, and cold. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Man receiving acupuncture treatment at a Korean church in Ushtobe, Kazakhstan. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Sung-ok Tigay, 92, mourning the death of her son with a South Korean missionary. Sung-ok was deported from Vladivostok at the age of 13 and lost her parents soon after. While living in the holes that Kazakhs helped them dig, up to five people per dugout could die overnight due to the cold weather, illness, or starvation. Like many of the deported Koreans she was later hosted by Kazakhs. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Alek Yun, 56, has never learnt Korean, but remembers his grandparents speaking it at home. His parents spoke mostly Russian, with the belief that assimilation was the key to social mobility and financial success. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Deportee's home in Kazakhstan. The tiger is one of the most important animals in Korean folklore. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
The skeleton frame of an ex-Soviet building in Ushtobe. Ushtobe was the first stop of deported Koreans and is now known as the Korean District of Kazakhstan. Most Koreans, however, moved to bigger cities in search of social mobility. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Mikhail Danelevich Ten, 90, was deported from Vladivostok, Russia at the age of 12. Koreans were transported in precarious cattle trains during the month-long journey. Wagons were overcrowded, and often families were separated in different trains without being told their destination. Out of 180,000 people deported, 40,000 passed away due to illness, starvation, and exposure during the harsh winters. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Ushtobe, Kazakhstan, the first destination to which the Koreans of the Russian Far East were deported. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Korean Theatre of Almaty. Founded in Vladivostok, Russia in 1932, the Korean theatre was moved to Kazakhstan along with the rest of the population. Korean-language schools were banned, but the Soviet government did not enforce the closure of the theatre. However, its productions were strictly controlled by the government, allowing only ten percent of the plays to refer to Korean culture. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Nastya and Sveta Nam, 17 and 15. Both their parents are half-Korean and half-Russian. They learn Korean at a Korean church in Ushtobe and dream of studying language and traditional dance in South Korea. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Kazakh soldiers in the Ushtobe train station during a military parade. The group is welcoming soldiers returning from training in China. When Koreans were deported, the Soviet government ordered Kazakhs not to make contact with Koreans. Nevertheless, Kazakhs helped Koreans dig holes in the ground for shelter, gave them food, and some hosted them so they could survive the first two harsh winters following their relocation. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Kazakhstani Korean food differs from traditional Korean food. Their cuisine has been influenced by ingredients used in Russian and Kazakh cuisine. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Ethnic Korean teenagers wearing traditional Korean dresses after a rehearsal in the first Korean-language school of Kazakhstan. Decades ago, nine out of ten students were Korean. Today, only one out of ten students is Korean—Russian is the main language used in the school. Still, students can take optional classes in Korean language, music, and dance. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Korean boy in a kindergarten in Ushtobe, Kazakhstan. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Sung-ok Tigay, 92, sings herself old Korean folk songs to sleep. Many of these songs were sung in the desertic Kazakh steppe while growing rice, where she worked until her hands got fractured. She remembers over a hundred songs by hard, many of which have not been written down and are not presently known in modern Korea. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Kazakh children playing on a frozen river in Ushtobe, Kazakhstan. Ushtobe was the first destination of the deported Koreans. They were forced to grow rice in the desertic Kazakh steppe. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Bastobe hill, first area of Korean settlement in Kazakhstan, now a cemetery. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Sisters Anna and Aliona Kim singing a Korean folk song. As a Korean living in the Russian Far East, their father was forced to relocate to Kazakhstan. Their mother was Russian and thus free to stay, but unwilling to be separated from her husband. So, she decided to board the train with him. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.
Lyrics of a Korean song titled "Seoul Forever," written phonetically in Cyrillic. Less than 3 percent of the Koreans of Kazakhstan speak their Russified dialect, Koryo-mar, which has ties to an ancient version of the language and thus which South Koreans are no longer able to understand. Those who can still speak the dialect write it phonetically, in Cyrillic, in order to preserve old folk songs as well as new ones brought from the Korean Peninsula. © Michael Vince Kim / INSTITUTE. Student Spotlight, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.