From Sonmat to Honbap: Negotiating Identity and Spirituality at the Korean Kitchen Table

This paper examines the bahbsang—the Korean kitchen table—as a sacred cultural site where Korean and Korean American women navigate identity, spirituality, and heritage while resisting diasporic racism and sexism. Grounded in Song Nam Soon’s conceptualization of bahb (rice) as essential to Korean diasporic life, the bahbsang transcends mere nourishment to serve as a critical locus for cultural continuity, resistance, and transformation. Historically contextualizing the bahbsang, the study highlights Korean Christian grandmothers’ negotiation of patriarchal and Confucian norms through culinary practices encapsulated in sonmat, a repository of emotional and embodied wisdom. Extending into contemporary diasporic realities, it explores evolving culinary rituals, including honbap, as forms of personal empowerment and collective resilience. Ultimately, the paper reconceptualizes the bahbsang as a dynamic feminist theological space, framing everyday culinary labor as powerful, sacred acts that affirm women’s authority, agency, and integral roles in shaping cultural and theological discourse.