Jasmine Bacurnay Lee (born Jasmine Bacurnay y Villanueva; January 6, 1977) is a South Korean television personality, actress and civil servant. Elected as a proportional representative in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

in 2012, she is the first non-ethnic Korean and naturalized South Korean to become a lawmaker.

Early life and education

Jasmine met South Korean mariner Lee Dong-ho in

Davao del Norte Davao del Norte ( ceb, Amihanang Dabaw; tl, Hilagang Davao), officially the Province of Davao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital and largest city is Tagum. The province also includes ...

when she was still a college student majoring in biology at

Ateneo de Davao University , mottoeng = Strong in Faith , type = Private Catholic Research Non-profit Coeducational Basic and Higher education institution , established = , founder = Society of Jesus , religious ...

in 1994. They got married and first visited South Korea in 1995 and finally united in 1996. They have two children, a son Lee Seung-geun and a daughter Lee Seung-yeon. She became a naturalized South Korean in 1998. Her husband died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 2010 while saving their daughter from drowning in a whirlpool in a mountain stream in

Okcheon Okcheon County (''Okcheon-gun'') is a county in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Climate Okcheon has a humid continental climate (Köppen: ''Dwa''), but can be considered a borderline humid subtropical climate (Köppen: ''Cwa'') using the ...

Gangwon Gangwon or Kangwŏn may refer to: * Gangwon Province (historical), the Goryeo, Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese Korean province * Gangwon Province (South Korea), a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Kore ...

while on a family vacation.

Career

Since 2006, she has been a panelist on the KBS program "Love in Asia" and has also appeared on a Korean language program on educational channel

EBS EBS may refer to: Broadcasting * EBS TV (Ethiopia) * Educational Broadband Service, US TV service * Educational Broadcasting System, South Korea ** EBS 1, a South Korean television channel * Emergency Broadcast System, former US Warning system ...

. As an actress, she played the role of the mother of lead actor

Yoo Ah-in Yoo may refer to: * Yoo (Korean surname), also spelled Ryu or Yu, a Korean family name * YOO, the IATA code for Oshawa Airport See also * You, a pronoun {{Disambig ...

in the highly acclaimed 2011 film ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' which drew 5.3 million viewers. She also appeared in the 2010 film ''

Secret Reunion ''Secret Reunion'' (; lit. "Sworn Brothers" or "Blood Brothers") is a 2010 South Korean action film directed by Jang Hoon, and one of the highest grossing Korean films of 2010. The story follows Song Kang-ho as Agent Lee Han-gyoo of the Nation ...

''. In January 2012, Lee became the first Filipino to receive the Korea Image Millstone Award from the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI). She was cited for her volunteer and charity works for foreign immigrants in South Korea. An advocate of

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

in South Korea, she regularly gives lectures about the subject to teachers and student leaders. She is the secretary general of Waterdrop, a charity formed by foreign spouses of South Koreans, and worked at the Foreign Residents Assistance Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On April 11, 2012, she was elected as a proportional representative in

election following her party's majority victory in the polls held. With her win, she made history in South Korea as the first

Filipina Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...

and naturalized South Korean to become a lawmaker. Lee's win was a result of the victory of the ruling

Saenuri Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Han ...

, to which she belongs. Lee was excluded from the party's list for the 2016 election and left office on May 29, 2016.

Criticism

Since the 2012 election, Lee has been hit by charges of misrepresenting her education, after claiming on national television to have attended medical school in the Philippines when in fact she had simply taken biology classes during college. Some South Koreans engaged in racist criticism of Lee, stating that she was not a "true" South Korean due to being from the Philippines. One South Korean spoke out against the racist behavior of Lee's critics, stating that South Koreans were more concerned about engaging in racist vitriol against politicians, whereas in other countries, people were more concerned about a politician's professional qualifications.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jasmine B 1977 births Visayan people Liberty Korea Party politicians Filipino television presenters Filipino women television presenters Filipino activists Filipino women activists People from Davao City Living people Members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Filipino emigrants to South Korea Naturalized citizens of South Korea South Korean activists South Korean women activists South Korean people of Filipino descent South Korean women television presenters South Korean television presenters Ateneo de Davao University alumni