bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

The Korea Times

By Lee Hyo-jin
Mary Bowers, a Korean adoptee to the United States, recently competed in the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York, representing Korea.
This was her ninth time taking part in the competition, held annually on July 4, and the second time representing Korea, following the restoration of her Korean citizenship in 2023.
Bowers, whose Korean name is Jung Nayoung, describes herself as a “messy eater” since childhood with an insatiable appetite – one that has led her to pursue a career as a competitive eater over the past decade.

Her impressive feats include eating 80 chicken wings in 10 minutes, 65 gyoza dumplings in 10 minutes, and 14 doughnuts in eight minutes.
She placed in the top 10 in the latest women’s hot dog eating competition by consuming seven and a quarter hot dogs in 10 minutes.
I thought I was an orphan up until about four years ago
Mary Bowers
“I wish that I had performed better, although obviously I had other priorities happening in my life, so I know that I was definitely not at peak performance,” Bowers says, noting that her record is 12 and a half hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Bowers, who was adopted by an American family in 1982 and raised in Colorado, has had a lot on her plate recently.
In 2020, she embarked on a journey to find her biological family, which prompted her to move to Seoul that year.
When asked what led her to try to find her biological family, Bowers says: “I thought I was an orphan up until about four years ago. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I had extra time on my hands due to social distancing regulations, so I started looking into some old records and started finding some interesting conflicts.”
Bowers’ quest to find answers has been riddled with misinformation and allegedly fabricated adoption documents.
We’re seeing similar patterns of [ …] adoptees being sent [abroad] under false identities
Mary Bowers
Her adoption, arranged through the Seoul-based Eastern Welfare Society, probably took place when she was one or two years old. In the adoption papers she was listed under three different Korean surnames – Jung, Chung and Baik.
In November 2019, Bowers came across an article revealing the alleged role played by another institution, Brothers Home, in Korea’s international adoption of children.
Brothers Home, a now-closed state-run welfare facility in Busan, was accused of kidnapping and mistreating hundreds of children and disabled individuals from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The report alleged the facility played a significant role in adoption procedures, acting as a “supply chain” for private adoption agencies in the process of sending babies abroad.
“It just happened to be towards the end of the article [that] I recognised familiar names who signed off my adoption documents. Initially, I thought I was imagining things, so I had to go back and check my documents,” Bowers says.
“But unfortunately, I was not.”
She then looked further into the history of Korea’s military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1980s, during which there were surges in international adoptions.
In December 2022, Bowers filed her case with Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission – which investigates historical incidents relating to human rights abuses – joining nearly 400 other Korean adoptees from 11 countries including Denmark, Norway, the US and Australia.
I’ve received so much help and support from Koreans, even strangers
Mary Bowers
These adoptees claim their adoptions were marred by falsified documents that obscured the status of children through local adoption agencies. They also speculate the Korean government was involved in the malpractice.
The commission plans to release preliminary results for the initial 100 cases filed by the end of this year, with the remainder expected in May 2025.
“We’re seeing similar patterns of children being declared as orphans when they still had living parents, and adoptees being sent [abroad] under false identities,” Bowers says. “Some of them are old enough to remember all this.
“You see these very similar patterns, which is why we submitted these claims together,” she adds.
In the summer of 2023, Bowers underwent seven DNA tests across both national and commercial databases in hopes of finding her biological family.

About a year later, those DNA samples led to her finding her younger brother, Chase Malmgren, who she had never known.
The 19-year-old, whose Korean name is Baik In-soo but was listed as In-ho on some documents, was also adopted by an American family at a young age.
Malmgren had also been desperately looking for his biological family, Bowers says. He submitted his DNA samples to Korean agencies in 2018.
The DNA tests showed a 100 per cent match, confirming Bowers and Malmgren were biological siblings.
The joy of finding each other was tainted, however, by speculation that their adoption documents had been forged.
Eastern Welfare Society confirmed that Bowers’ parents were a married couple, while Holt International, which arranged Malmgren’s adoption, claimed that his mother did not even know who his father was.

“But Chase and I have a 100 per cent DNA match, which means we have the same mother and same father. Now we know by our existence that those things are false. Then the question becomes, what else did the agency lie to us about?” Bowers says.
Now, together with her brother, Bowers will continue to search for their birth parents and strive to uncover the truth behind the murky adoption process they experienced.
“Every country has its good and bad aspects. Even after all of this, I believe that the majority of Korean people are good.
“I’ve received so much help and support from Koreans, even strangers. So I think that a few bad people or difficult truths don’t outweigh all of the good things that I have here,” Bowers says.
Read the original story at The Korea Times.


Hundreds of flights grounded as record-breaking November snow hits South Korea

Heavy snow blankets South Korea, grounding dozens of flights and killing 4

Life ban CFA imposed on South Korea’s Son rejected by Fifa, club boss calls China ‘unstable’

What is cica, or Centella asiatica, and is it beauty’s latest hero? Used in traditional medicine for centuries, the ingredient has become a staple of Korean skincare brands

South Korea

DNA test finds the brother adopted Korean competitive eater never knew. Birth parents next

Mary Bowers with her birth brother Chase Malmgren. Photo: Facebook/Eat! Be Mary!, inc.

Korean Mary Bowers at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York in July 2024. The competitive eater is on a mission to discover the truth about her adoption from Korea, having found her brother, also adopted, through DNA testing. Photo: X/@EatBeMary

It was Bowers’ second time representing Korea at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, following the restoration of her citizenship in 2023. Photo: Facebook / Eat! Be Mary!, Inc.

Bowers at six months old. She was one of many Korean adoptees sent abroad under false identities from the 1960s to the 1980s. Photo: courtesy of Mary Bowers

Bowers with her younger brother, Chase Malmgren, at Legoland, California, in June 2024. Photo: Facebook/Eat! Be Mary!, inc.

Malmgren on a video call with Bowers after DNA tests revealed them to be biological siblings. Photo: Instagram/@lmalmgren

How youth of Gen Z, hit by mental health issues, take charge and advocate for their peers

Generation Z was hit hard by the pandemic, with one in four Hong Kong children and adolescents experiencing a mental health issue. However, many young people are taking charge and becoming advocates for their peers. Illustration: Davies Christian Surya

Hyning Gan (top, left) joins a Peace of Mind gathering at the Chinese International School, in Hong Kong. Photo: Hyning Gan

Hyning Gan, 19, is the developer of Peace of Mind, a student-powered mental health advocacy group. Photo: Hyning Gan

On her Instagram account, Katie Eu presents a guide to loving yourself. Photo: instagram.com/katie.eu

Katie Eu’s advice is to talk more with your friends and community. “We thrive on connection, we thrive on community,” she says. Photo: Katie Eu

Are you grieving the loss of your partner alone? Experts explain why friends aren’t calling

When a partner dies, friends may behave differently, with some couples staying away or withdrawing from the bereaved. Experts explain this, and why it affects widows more. Photo: Shutterstock

Women especially tend to find themselves excluded by their couple friends after their partner’s death. Photo: Shutterstock

Men are more likely than women to be pitied and comforted by mutual friends after the loss of a partner. Photo: Shutterstock

Good friends will stand by their bereaved friend, says grief therapist and author Roland Kachler. Photo: Shutterstock

After your partner’s death, your circle of friends will inevitably change, often leaving you feeling isolated. Photo: Shutterstock

What is your ‘inner child’, why it can cause adults problems and how to begin healing

Trauma experienced in childhood, or parents’ trauma that impacted their behaviour towards their children, may leave an adult’s ‘inner child’ with unmet emotional needs.
Photo: Shutterstock


Trauma experienced in childhood, or parents’ trauma that affected their behaviour towards their children, may leave an adult’s “inner child” with unmet emotional needs, for which healing is vital. Photo: Shutterstock


Clinical psychologist Dr Julia Andre says adults often do not know what to say to their inner child because they never had a good role model. Photo: Dr Julia Andre

Fulfilling your inner child’s unmet emotional needs can make you feel happier and more fulfilled – and could make you a better parent. Photo: Shutterstock

Andre’s therapeutic approach often begins with “reparenting”. Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Family & Relationships

Adoptee Mary Bowers found her adoptee brother via DNA tests. Now they are trying to uncover the truth about their murky adoptions in Korea


Raised in America, Mary Bowers and the brother she recently met for the first time are on a mission to uncover the truth behind their adoptions in South Korea and track down their biological parents.


United States

Adoption

Korea Times

Norway