Communication, Culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129 ORIGINAL ARTICLE “Until You Are Able”: South Korean Multiculturalism and Hierarchy in My Little Hero David C. Oh 1 & Chuyun Oh 2 1 Department of Communication Arts, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ 07430, USA 2 Department of Theatre & Dance, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA My Little Hero (2013) is the irst popular Korean ilm to focus on an immigrant narra- tive that features a non-Korean or biracial Korean-White lead. In the story of a young Filipino-Korean boy’s “Korean dream” to be accepted by his father/birth country and his reluctant and cynical teacher, the ilm reiies dominant Korean discourses of multicultural- ism that are situated within local and global hierarchies. Locally, Korean multiculturalism looks down, requiring the non-White multiethnic other to integrate into dominant culture. Globally, it looks up to seek the paternal acceptance of the United States. In the ilm, multi- cultural discourses work to support the instrumental assimilation of the multiethnic other for the purposes of assimilating Korea within the ranks of “advanced” countries. Keywords: My Little Hero, Global Hierarchy, South Korea, Multiculturalism. doi:10.1111/cccr.12104 “Until you are able” is a frequently repeated mantra in the South Korean (hereater, Korean) ilm My Little Hero, about a multiethnic Filipino Korean boy’s fulillment of his “Korean Dream.” he mantra works narratively and culturally to express views of multiculturalism that are rooted in assimilationist discourses, where the burden of integration is placed squarely on the multiethnic “other.” As the ideological terrain over the meaning of multiculturalism and nation is openly contested in Korea, the ilm reveals the complicated intersection of Korean monocultural myths (Chung & Kim, 2012), changing demographics (G.-S. Han, 2007; A. E. Kim, 2009), desire for global (Western) recognition (S. Cheng, 2011), local articulations of patriarchy and social hierarchy (N. H.-J. Kim, 2012), and its recent history as an emasculated former colony of Japan (K.-K. Han, 2007). Corresponding author: David C. Oh; e-mail: doh@ramapo.edu Communication, Culture & Critique (2015) © 2015 International Communication Association 1