Interview Subject: Student Works

In 1971, Hi-Duk Lee and his wife opened Olympic Market located at 3122 W. Olympic Blvd.  The opening of this Korean market marked “the symbolic beginning of contemporary Koreatown in Los Angeles. …Before 1970 Korean American concentration was south of Pico Blvd., it shifted northward thereafter.” ((Nancy Abelmann and John Lie, Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots, (Harvard University Press, 1995), 100-1.))  As more Korean immigrant entrepreneurs began to open small businesses in this area in the early 1970’s, Olympic Blvd. became one of the main arteries of contemporary Koreatown.