The Asian Shoji Screen

            There are people from Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, and Vietnam that use their distinct but similar indoor folding screens. Shoji is Japanese while Koreans call itë³ 'í'. Personally, I feel as if Shoji screens accentuate its surroundings with unseen flows of energy and feeling of warmth. My ë³ 'í' is 6 feet high and has a ebony black background with asymmetrical plot of flowers centered in the middle of the scenery. Therefore, my shoji screen gives me meaningful existence and cultural connection to the old traditional ways of pre-colonial Asia.
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             First, my Shoji folding screen is in my bedroom placed at the corner of the far right side of the wall. I use it as decoration, although others might use it as cloth rack and to maintain privacy. Usually, when I have free time, I will stare at my Shoji screen because I sometimes imagine and recall past memories in which my mother, father, and relatives from both sides could actually bond and breathe together. For example, I remember myself as a six year old in Daegu, a metropolitan city, and capital of Gyeongsang province, South Korea visiting my grandparents in person. I then see both my grandfather and grandmother each sitting under a Japanese tatami mat parallel to each other with a bit of space in between the two. Behind them stood the most beautiful nature-themed sceneries that I had ever seen, since it was my first seeing of its kind. The next thing I saw was that I was no longer in Daegu but in Pusan, a seaport, known for its beaches; in addition, it is where my third youngest uncle resides. In Pusan, my uncle allowed me to drink makkoli for the very first time with pajeon, a Korean pancake to mix it down with. I began to wonder if we would ever be able to share these moments again as we ate Dokkuk together dressed up in our best traditional Korean clothes called Solbim.
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             Additionally, as I continued to glare into the shoji screen, I saw myself in Cheju-do island, South Korea's Hawaii.