Foreword
K-Moms:
Between Continuity and Change
by Pyo Jeonghun
© Waiting for Mom, Kim Dong-sung, Borim Press
What is the meaning of motherhood in Korean culture and society? And how have mothers
been represented in Korean literature? First of all, mothers in Korea represent sacrifice
and dedication. Korean mothers are beings that live wholly for their children and family,
completely suppressing their own desires. This kind of idea of motherhood originates, at least
partly, from the tumultuous experience of modern Korean history. Korea was a colony under
imperial Japan, achieved independence at the end of World War II, but was torn apart by
war shortly after. Korean mothers had to be bastions of sacrifice and dedication to protect
their children and families in the turmoil of a postwar society.
Literary critic Jung Hongsoo writes of Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom, “[This]
is a belated but ardent lament for all those mothers who, in the course of Korea’s turbulent
recent history, have had to bury their own existence.” This sentiment is upheld by numerous
Korean readers.
Secondly, Korean mothers are depicted as protecting their families at all costs, excluding
any consideration for society as a whole. Mothers in this sense are generals marshaling their
families to victory. All resources are used as they direct their children’s education as if they
were running a military operation. Mothers are in charge of the family’s finances as well,
including investing in real estate. Social responsibility is not the top priority in this process.
A Korean expression that refers to this zeal is that mothers rule with “the swish of a
skirt.” This is particularly relevant to the effort that goes into the education of their children,
a fervor that has achieved legendary status. The final aim of this uphill battle is to send their
children to elite universities. Many Korean mothers compete furiously against each other
towards this goal as if they were the ones studying for university, not their children.
Literary critic Jung Yeo-ul notes that in recent years, the representations of mothers in
Korean pop culture appear to be trapped between love and obsession. Much of what is done
in the name of love for their children, the critic says, is actually born out of obsession. This
dilemma between love and obsession is represented in Korean children’s books as well.
Children’s book critic Kim Ji-eun says that there has been a noticeable change in
the role of mothers in children’s books from the mid-2000s onwards. Once a symbol of
sacrifice, mothers in children’s books have begun to seek their own identity. Mothers in
recent children’s books are depicted in conflict over what extent they should meddle in their
children’s affairs even as they do so.
Poet Shim Bo-seon argues that Korean mothers have lived a life more accurately
described as consultants to their children. Based on his relationship with his mother, the
poet suggests that it is time for Korean mothers to build a new kind of relationship with
their children. The authors of this special issue all agree that the idea of Korean motherhood
is changing from the rigid standards once upheld by Korean society. How will K-Moms
adapt to this change? This question is tantamount to asking how Korean society and culture
will change in the years to come. It is also a question of the ways motherhood is evolving in
Korean literature.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
1
Contents
Winter 2013 Vol. 22
Reviews
42 Fiction
34
The Great Jungle
The Third House
Night Cello
What Is Baseball?
How a Murderer Remembers
Tragicomic Miss Teletubby
Sweet, Cold
Night Passes
Goodbye, My Everything
A Forest That No One Has Seen
The Proposal
64 Nonfiction
01
04
05
06
08
Foreword
Trade Report
News from LTI Korea
Bestsellers
Publishing Trends
Special Section
K-Moms
10
13
16
19
Between Love and Obsession: Mothers in Popular Culture
Dignity in the Face of History
Finding Mother Through Heidegger
The Changing Mother in Children’s Literature
Interviews
22 Poet Kim Hyesoon
28 Writer Lee Kiho
Excerpts
26 "Dear Choly, From Melan" by Kim Hyesoon
"Saturn’s Sleeping Pill" by Kim Hyesoon
32 "Prisoner" by Lee Kiho
The Place
34 Jeju Oreum
Theme Lounge
38 Korean Webtoons: Opening the Future
with Comics on the Web
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
Rivals in the History of Literature
The Romantic Future of Koh Jong-sok
How To Appreciate Korea’s Traditional Paintings
Wanderings Through Landscapes
Chaebols: The Transnational Capital That Rules Korea
Traces of Crimes Seen Through Scientific Investigation
A Variety Show of Parasites
Korean History Through Korean Food
Untamed Land of Nomads
Super Junior’s Experience Korea
The Years
72 Children’s Books
Pikaia
Uncle Is Here!
Spring in My Hometown
The Twenty Questions Detective and the Magician
There Was a Child
Let’s Play and Have Fun
More Red
Spotlight on Fiction
45 “Garuda” by Yi Mun-yol
Steady Sellers
61 Yi Sang’s short story “Jongsaeng-gi”
(Diary of a Lifetime)
Vol.22 Winter 2013
A Quarterly Magazine for Publishers
22
28
PUBLISHER
Kim Seong-Kon
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Kim Yoon-jin
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Jung Jin Kwon
EDITORIAL BOARD
Bok Dohoon Literary Critic
Kang Yu-jung Critic
Kim Ji-eun Children's Book Critic
Kim Mansu Professor, Inha University
Pyo Jeonghun Book Columnist
OVERSEAS
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
Choi Kyeonghee University of Chicago
Bruce Fulton University of British Columbia
Christopher P. Hanscom UCLA
Theodore Hughes Columbia University
Kim Yung-hee University of Hawai'i
David McCann Harvard University
Michael J. Pettid SUNY-Binghamton University
Janet Poole University of Toronto
Dafna Zur Stanford University
DOMESTIC
EDITORIAL ADVISORS
Brother Anthony Sogang University
Steven D. Capener Seoul Women's University
Horace J. Hodges Ewha Womans University
Charles Montgomery Dongguk University
Emanuel Pastreich Kyung Hee University
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Kim Sun-hye
MANAGING EDITORS
Cha Youngju
Park Mill
EDITORS
Krys Lee
Kim Stoker
ART DIRECTOR
Choi Woonglim
DESIGNERS
Jang Hyeju
Kim Mijin
PHOTOGRAPHER
Lee Kwa-yong
PRINTED BY
NAMSANPNP
64
Poetry
62 “Crow’s Eye View Poem No. I” by Yi Sang
New Books
77 Recommended by Publishers
Meet the Publishers
82 Munhaksasang
Overseas Angle
84 Hwang Sok-yong's Baridaegi Published in France
Afterword
86 So Far Yet So Close: Korea and Back Again
87 Contributors
88 Featured Authors
91 Index
Date of Publication December 3, 2013
list_ Books from Korea is a quarterly magazine
published by the Literature Translation
Institute of Korea.
All correspondence should be addressed to
the Literature Translation Institute of Korea
112 Gil-32, Yeongdong-daero (Samseong-dong)
Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-873, Korea
Telephone: 82-2-6919-7714
Fax: 82-2-3448-4247
E-mail: list_korea@klti.or.kr
www.klti.or.kr
www.list.or.kr
Cover Art © Cha So-Lim
Multi-reality, 130 x 162cm
oil on canvas, stickers, 2002
Copyright © 2013 by Literature
Translation Institute of Korea
ISSN 2005-2790
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
3
Trade Report
Super Junior's Experience
Korea Snapped Up by
Chinese Publishers
Super Junior’s Experience Korea (2 vols.)
Super Junior, Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
2013, 320p, ISBN 9788901158990 (Vol.1)
Foreign rights for Super Junior's Experience
Korea 1&2 have been sold to Chinese
publishers in both Taiwan and mainland
China for six-f igure deals. The book
combines a photo collection and travel
guide, featuring the idol music group
that has spearheaded the Hallyu (Korean
Wave) boom throughout Asia.
Even before forma l publ ic at ion,
the book attracted keen attention from
publishers in Southeast Asia.
During the Beijing International Book
Fair in August, Chinese and Taiwanese
publishers staged a fierce competition
to obt a i n r ig ht s for t he book . T he
final winners turned out to be Phoenix
Publishing & Media Group Qiangaoyuan
in mainland China and Kadokawa Media
Co. in Taiwan.
A publisher in Thailand also made an
offer, so negotiations are now under way.
The Korean publisher is actively pursuing
opportunities in the Latin American and
South American market, including Brazil
and Mexico, on the strength of Super
Junior’s growing popularity.
Super Junior's Experience Korea is the
third installment of the Travel Episode series
jointly developed by WoongjinThinkBig
Co., Ltd. and SM Entertainment, Super
Junior’s talent agency. Over the past three
years, Super Junior members traveled
the nation extensively: north (Gangwon
Province), east (Gyeongsang Province), west
(Chungcheong and Jeolla Provinces) and
south (Jeju Island), as well as metropolitan
Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province.
The book captures beautiful images of the
country, and comes with AR (augmented
reality), a technology that can take fans on
a virtual tour with Super Junior members.
The incorporation of AR into the book is the
first-ever attempt for a Korea travel book.
The first and second installments of
the Travel Episode series—Onew, Key,
and Taemin of SHINee in Barcelona,
Hong Kong, and Macau—have already
been sold to Chinese publishers, reflecting
the red-hot popularity of Hallyu-related
books in the Chinese market.
by Richard Hong
New Translations Set to Draw Keen Interest from Publishers
Jo Jung-rae’s new trilogy The Great Jungle,
which knocked Haruki Murakami’s latest
novel from the top slot on the bestseller
list in Korea, has sold its simplif ied
Chinese translation rights to a publisher
in mainland China. This development is
a positive sign for Korean publishers given
that Jo’s novel was previously expected to
draw unwelcome attention from Chinese
readers due to its critical depiction of
China. Additional foreign rights sales are
likely, as publishers in Taiwan are also
reviewing Jo’s novel.
Jeong You-jeong’s latest novel 28,
which showcases her distinctive talent
following the success of Seven Years of
Darkness, had its rights sold to a Chinese
publisher. A round t he sa me time, a
Taiwanese publisher bought the traditional
Chinese translation rights for Seven Years
of Darkness. This marks the fourth entry
into overseas markets for Jeong’s first novel
following Thailand, Switzerland, and
4 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
China.
Hw a n g S u n -m i 's T h e H e n W h o
Dreamed She Could Fly recently sold its
rights to publishers in Turkey, Romania,
Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the
Netherlands. As of early October, the
rights for The Hen Who Dreamed She
Could Fly has been sold to 18 countries.
Hwang’s previous works Into the Orchard
and Jangbal, the Blue Hairy Dog are also
beginning to attract attention from foreign
publishers, a sign of her solid position
in the international publishing market.
Translation rights sales are expected to
gain stronger momentum in late November
when U.S.-based publishing giant Penguin
publishes the English edition.
S h i n Ky u n g - s o o k , w h o g a i n e d
international recognition with the English
edition of Please Look After Mom, is poised
to publish I’ ll Be Right There for Englishspeaking readers in January 2014. Rights
for Shin’s new novel have already sold to 13
countries, including the Czech Republic.
by Joseph Lee
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
Hwang Sun-mi; Illustrator: Kim Hwan-young
Sakyejul Publishing Ltd., 2002, 200p, ISBN 9788971968710
News from LTI Korea
Korean Writers in France
From October 24 to 28, LTI Korea held Korean literature events in Aixen-Provence, in Portiragnes, and at the specialist foreign literature library
Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations (BULAC) and the
bookshop L'Ecume des Pages in Paris.
Writers Eun Hee-kyung and Apple Kim, whose books, A Trap in the
Woods One Fine Spring Day (Qui a tendu un piège dans la pinède par une
journee fleurie de printemps?) and Mina, respectively, have recently been
published in France, attended the forums. They were joined by
author Jung Young Moon, who published the French version
of Pierrot on the Moon (Pierrot en mal de lune) and is
currently living in Aix-en-Provence as part of LTI Korea's
Overseas Residency Program for Korean Writers.
1
1. Aix-en-Provence City Library
2. BULAC, Paris
2
Korean Literature
Tours Spain
A series of Korean literature events was also held by LTI Korea in Málaga,
Madrid and Salamanca, Spain, from October 26 to November 2. The
events were attended by author Cheon Un-yeong, currently living in Málaga
as part of the institute's Overseas Residency Program for Korean Writers.
Cheon and novelist Kim Insuk took part in a series of Korean literature
book review award ceremonies and seminars.
The Korean literature seminar held in Málaga on October 28 was
part of the 4th Korean Annual Festival, an event held by the University of
Málaga's Korean department. Lectures by the two authors were followed
by an award ceremony for the 2013 Spain Korean literature review
competition. Both authors also took part in a debate with Spanish author
Consuelo Triviño Anzola at the Korea Cultural Center in Spain (Centro
Cultural Coreano en España) in Madrid on October 30 and gave lectures at
a Far East Studies postgraduate seminar at the University of Salamanca the
following day.
1
2
1. the University of Málaga
2. Korea Cultural Center in Spain, Madrid
LTI Korea Joins the 1st China's Shanghai
International Children's Book Fair
1
2
1. Shanghai Mart
Exhibition Center
2. CCBF seminar
From November 7 to 9, LTI Korea took part in China's Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) at the Shanghai
Mart Exhibition Center. The fair was attended by 150 leading children's book publishers from around the world, introducing
children's books of various genres and holding meetings on foreign rights. The seminar on the current state of the Chinese
children's book publishing industry and the country's bestselling children's books offered plenty of thought regarding
opportunities for Korean children's books in the Chinese market.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
5
Bestsellers
What We’re Reading
The Ultimate Child
Give Them Lindy Hop
Fiction
Pottery Museum
Yun Dae-nyeong, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 318p, ISBN 9788954622165
The seventh collection of short stories since Yun Daenyeong’s debut, the book contains a number of works
that show us what it means to age nobly. There are
times when one can sense his gaze has grown colder.
"Just once in my life," "retrospection," "destiny,"
"apple groves," and "kites," are among the lyrical
images throughout the collection.
Nonfiction
Ultimate Child. The themes of secrets and murder
effortlessly carry the story and have caught the eye of
many readers.
Moonlight Tales
Shin Kyung-sook, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 212p, ISBN 9788954620666
28
Reading a book by Shin Kyung-sook is akin to
listening to the voice of a close friend. Moonlight Tales
is a perfect example. Shin's skills make her words
stand out, staying with her readers long after they have
turned the final page.
Jeong You-jeong, EunHaeng NaMu
2013, 496p, ISBN 9788956607030
Goodbye, My Everything
Jeong You-jeong's novel represents an exceptional
turn in Korean fiction. 28 is a novel about the spread
of an imaginary zoonotic epidemic but the boundary
between animal and human is not merely transgressed
by the disease. What does it mean to live like a
human?
How a Murderer Remembers
Kim Young Ha, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 176p, ISBN 9788954622035
Kim Young Ha's novel is stateless. The protagonist is
universal, as is the subject matter of murder. Kim's
polished writing fills the novel with impressive,
weighty reflections. Kim’s reinterpreting of time as
memory has created a stir among readers.
The Ultimate Child
Jang Yongmin, Elixir
2013, 552p, ISBN 9788954620680
Alice, Michel, and Korean Shin Gaya—three
characters that seem too far apart share a secret. The
process of unraveling that secret is the plot of The
6 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
I Want to Enjoy Life Till the Day I Die
I Want to Enjoy Life Till the Day I Die
Lee Geun-hoo, Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
2013, 319p, ISBN 9788901154091
The author spent 50 years as a doctor before retiring,
having lost the use of his left eye. He now lives day
to day with a range of ailments like diabetes, high
blood pressure, and disc problems. However, at 76
he graduated at top of his class as the oldest ever
graduate of Korea Cyber University. He said: “It's
important to find the joy that comes with the stage
of life you are at.”
Design Your Perspective
Jeong Yi-hyun has a special talent for recalling the
1990s. Two events are central to the novel. The first is
the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and the other is the
death of Kim Jung-il in 2011. Taking us back to the
1990s with the major events of the time and much
more minor details, the writer gives 1997 a whole new
meaning.
Park Yong-hu, Frombooks
2013, 334p, ISBN 9788993734300
The author, a PR consultant, calls his line of
work that of a “Perspective Designer.” Changing
perspectives creates the power of new thoughts and
encourages the formation of new ideas. To gain
a new perspective you must direct questions at
everything. A recommended exercise is to note down
words of importance and try to come up with your
own definitions.
Give Them Lindy Hop
The Power of Studying
Jeong Yi-hyun, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 252p, ISBN 9788936434052
Son Bomi, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 272p, ISBN 9788954621519
If you want to keep up with contemporary Korean
literature, Son Bomi is a name to remember. She has
a superb ability to knit together actual places and
the world of imagination while the strength of her
narrative holds her readers' curiosity to the very last
line. This collection of short stories contains her work
to date from her debut "Blanket" to "Ad Balloon"
written in 2012.
Hwang Nong-moon
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 288p, ISBN 9788960866140
Studying is not a means to something else. Study
itself is happiness, success, and self-realization. The
author calls this kind of study “immersion studying.”
Is there a way to study happily for long periods at a
time? How can you increase your level of immersion
while multi-tasking? How can studying make our
lives more fulfilling?
These totals are based on sales records from eight major bookstores
and three online bookstores from july to september 2013,
provided by the Korean Publishers Association.
The books are introduced in no particular order.
Design Your Perspective
My Cat Copies Only Me
What Kind of Seed Are You?
Children's Books
Parents Growing Up with Their Child
Seo Cheon-seok, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 320p, ISBN 9788936472269
There is no such thing as a perfect parent. One
can only accept their shortcomings and become
more mature in the process. Children of course are
naturally immature. Genuine love for your child
begins when you accept them exactly as they are. The
author, a child psychologist, says to give up trying to
make a problem-free environment.
Eight Questions
Park Woong-hyun, Bookhouse Publishers
2013, 237p, ISBN 9788956056531
The author uses eight words to find answers to
important questions about existence. The eight words
he has chosen are pride, essence, classic, seeing, now,
authority, communication, and life. Why do we
each need to set out our own criteria for life? Why
must we refrain from deferring the happiness of the
present and truly live in the moment?
If I Were to Raise My Children Again
Park Heran, Nasimsabooks
2013, 240p, ISBN 9791195030507
In order for a child to be happy first their parents
must be happy. Is there a way of educating that can
make both parents and children happy? Most parents
in Korea fuss over their children. The author advises
such parents to raise their children like guests, giving
them space to become happier.
Jiwon and Byeong-gwan Series Set
(8 vols.)
Ko Dae-young; Illustrator: Kim Young-jin
Gilbut Children's Publishing Co., Ltd.
2006, 32p, ISBN 9788955820461 (Vol. 1)
A picture book series that brings together all the
things kids get up to like taking the subway, getting
pocket money, and learning to ride a bike, through
the eyes of Jiwon and Byeong-gwan. Books in the
series have already sold 400,000 copies and now
have been packaged into an eight-volume set.
The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician
Heo Kyo-bum; Illustrator: Ko Sang-mi
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 184p, ISBN 9788949195193
This children's detective story recounts the suspense
and conflict that arise when the 20 questions
detective, who can solve any mystery with 20
questions and answers, meets a child magician. The
book received the grand prize in the first Story King
Literary Award, where the winner was chosen by a
jury of young readers.
My Cat Copies Only Me
Kwon Yoon-duck, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2005, 30p, ISBN 9788936454104
A picture book from leading Korean writer Kwon
Yoon-duck. A child used to being left home alone
becomes friends with a cat. This story follows how
she forgets her fears by copying the cat's light and
easy movements. Using attractive traditional patterns
and colors, the book succeeds in expressing a child's
inner thoughts.
What Kind of Seed Are You?
Choi Sook-hee, Bear Books
2013, 40p, ISBN 9788993242812
This picture book encourages readers to think about
what kind of person they could become in the
future. Presenting the process of how seeds grow into
different plants gets readers thinking about human
growth. The folk painting style illustrations bring a
nostalgic feel to the book.
Time Shop
Lee Na-young; Illustrator: Yoon Jeong-joo
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 204p, ISBN 9788954620260
The main character steps into a shop where she can
buy 10 minutes of time to use however she wants,
but she must pay with a happy past memory. It is
when she decides to sell one of her memories that
the trouble really begins. The book was awarded the
Munhakdongne Children's Literature Prize.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
7
Publishing Trends
tightly-woven plot, and terse, elegant prose. Yet something should
be kept in mind: the story is told from the first-person point of
view by an Alzheimer’s patient. The unreliable narrator is what
gives the story its charm and enables its plot twists. Intellectually,
the novel delivers a message and gives cause for reflection; but
more than that, it affects readers on a visceral level, with a
quickening pulse that keeps you up at night.
If Tradesman represents a kind of uniquely Korean literature,
How a Murderer Remembers demonstrates universality. For readers
who want to understand Korea through its literature, both of
these novels will be fascinating reads.
by Uh Soo-woong
1
Nonfiction
Understanding
Hostilities
1. Tradesman (10 vols.)
Kim Joo-young
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 344p, ISBN 9788954621083 (Vol.1)
2. How a Murderer Remembers
Kim Young Ha
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 176p, ISBN 9788954622035
2
Fiction
Novels with
International Appeal
We are always wondering how Korean literature can best reach an
international readership. Should a work targeting foreign readers
be essentially Korean, or should it deal with universal themes?
In the third quarter of 2013, novels have been released that
match each of the descriptions above: Tradesman by Kim Jooyoung and How a Murderer Remembers by Kim Young Ha.
With the issuance of the 10th and final installment, the
novel Tradesman is now complete. It took a total of 34 years to
finish what began in 1979 as a serialized novel in a newspaper.
Tradesman explores the formation of modern capitalism by
focusing on the lives of peddlers in the late Joseon era.
In terms of its literary significance, Tradesman can be read as
the first historical novel to shift its focus away from royalty and
feature common people as its protagonists and merchants as its
subject matter. The work is also a treasure of old Korean terms
and proverbs, and sometimes bursts with bawdy tales alive with
the spirit of folk romance.
On the other hand, anyone, regardless of nationality, will
find How a Murderer Remembers to be suspenseful. The main
character is Kim Byeong-su, a serial killer who has Alzheimer’s.
After committing murders continuously for 30 years, Kim, now
in his 70s, suffers a humiliating loss of memory. At this time, the
neighborhood where Kim has stopped killing is hit by a new wave
of murders, and he cannot help but feel it is an insult to his honor.
How a Murderer Remembers draws the reader in with its
8 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Perhaps overseas observers think tensions between North and
South Korea will come to a head at some point. In fact, they might
believe that occasional skirmishes actually break out in regular
intervals. But in the 60 years since the armistice was signed, these
have been exceedingly rare. One region has seen armed conflict,
however, and that region is the West Sea.
Why has conflict broken out in this one area? The Korean West
Sea War delves to the roots of the conflict and identifies problems
that occurred during the outbreaks. Kim Jong-dae, a military
analyst, reviews five instances of hostilities between North and
South over a 10-year period, from the first Yeonpyeong clash in
1999 to a recent attack on Yeonpyeong in 2010.
Kim states that until the second Yeonpyeong incident in
2002, economics was primarily responsible: blue crabs in the sea
meant war, while jellyfish meant peace. Rather than there being
particular grounds for a military clash, the worth of the West Sea
was reevaluated over time due to changes in the fishing industry.
At these times, parties seeking national profit came swarming into
the region from North and South alike, and contributed to the
crisis. Of course, hostilities wouldn’t ignite over this alone.
After establishing this as the backdrop, Kim then reviews the
factors in the South that caused tensions to escalate. He criticizes
the navy guarding the waters along the Northern Limit Line, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff that gave the orders, and the presidential Blue
House which gave final authorization, for incompetence, and
evasion of responsibility.
At the time of the sinking of the navy submarine Cheonan
in particular, inexperienced troops were participating in the joint
military exercises being held by South Korea and the United
States. And at the time of the bombardment of Yeonpyeong
Island, the President, Defense Minister, and Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff seemed to be exchanging meaningful
official communications when in reality they were confused as
to whether it was possible for the air force to provide support or
not. Using these examples, Kim warns us that if an organization
is not functioning smoothly, then it will not be able to respond
effectively when hostilities arise.
This interesting book contains interviews with over 30
generals, with much information that has never been announced
or reported, so its subtitle, “Secret Files” cannot be called an
The Korean West Sea War
Kim Jong-dae, Medici Media
2013, 348p, ISBN 9788994612751
young female heroine. Since 2008, Jung has been steadily writing
detective stories, and over time she has become very skilled at
depicting child protagonists who reach a new level of maturity by
solving mysteries.
Seong Wan’s Sherlock in the Attic is part fantasy and part
detective story. The detective hero visits a dokkaebi or goblin
village right out of an old folktale and solves mysteries there. And
Heo Kyo-bum's The Twenty Questions Detective and the Magician
was selected by a jury of children as the winner of the inaugural
Story King Literary Award. The Twenty questions detective,
who solves cases by asking himself 20 questions, and a magician
who says he can read people’s minds, provide readers with great
enjoyment.
by Shin Soojin
exaggeration. But more importantly, the author emphasizes that
by knowing the reality of what happened as is laid out in this
volume, we can prevent an outbreak of war or contain it. His
suggestions are as follows. We must have top leaders who are able
seek peace, stability, and cooperation in the West Sea, even if it
means sacrificing their own political popularity. Also, we need
competent officials and an efficient system in order to effectively
mobilize diplomatic and military intelligence in the interests of
the country.
1
6
2
by Kim Beomsoo
Children's Books
Compelling New
Mysteries
Detective stories have recently generated a lot of buzz in
children’s literature. Examples include Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing
a Ghost and Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a Monster by Ko Jaehyun; Audrey, the Great Sleuth and Detective Yeong-seo with the
Braided Hair by Jung Eunsuk; Sherlock in the Attic by Seong Wan
and The Twenty Questions Detective and the Magician by Heo Kyobum.
Traditionally, Korean children’s fiction tended to deal with
ordinary subject matter and real-life problems. Of course we
need children’s books that grapple with historical issues and
social troubles, but young readers also crave books from a wider
variety of genres. Until recently they slaked their thirst for fantasy,
mystery, or horror novels by reading foreign books, but now
stories with detective heroes that could be their own neighbors are
also being published.
In Ko Jae-hyun's Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a Ghost and
Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a Monster, four children, including the
detective, solve small cases in their neighborhood. They chase a
criminal who has stolen someone’s pet and catch someone stealing
farm produce in a village. The characters also face realistic school
issues such as theft and runaways.
Two mystery stories by Jung Eunsuk were published in quick
succession. Whereas Audrey, the Great Sleuth features an adorable
puppy detective, Detective Kim Yeong-seo with the Braided Hair
takes place during the Japanese occupation of Korea and features a
3
5
4
1. Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a Monster
Ko Jae-hyun; Illustrator: Cho Kyong-gyu
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 204p, ISBN 9788936442729
2. Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a Ghost
Ko Jae-hyun; Illustrator: Cho Kyong-gyu
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 236p, ISBN 9788936461324
3. Audrey, the Great Sleuth
Jung Eunsuk; Illustrator: Bae Hyeonjeong
Barambooks
2012, 140p, ISBN 9788994475271
5. The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician
Heo Kyo-bum; Illustrator: Ko Sang-mi
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 184p, ISBN 9788949195193
6. Sherlock in the Attic (2 vols.)
Seong Wan; Illustrator: So Yunkyoung
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 92p, ISBN 9788949161648 (Vol.1)
4. Detective Kim Yeong-seo
with the Braided Hair
Jung Eunsuk; Illustrator: Lee Young-rim
Danielstone Co., Ltd.
2013, 180p, ISBN 9788958074601
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
9
Special Section
K-Moms
Dae Jang Geum (2003)
Mother (2009)
Between Love and Obsession:
Mothers in Popular Culture
In the past mothers were depicted as self-sacrificing, nurturing characters,
and modern depictions still show them working hard to help their
children realize their dreams and goals.
“Don’t trust anybody. I will protect you.” This line from the
movie Mother reflects the role of mothers in modern society.
The protagonist Do-joon is a murder suspect under trial with
nowhere to turn for help. An impoverished young man who is
mocked by his neighbors for his learning disability, the only
person who can help him is his mother. With the wealth gap
growing wider and social security networks collapsing, the
socially marginalized have increasingly fewer places to turn.
Director Bong Joon-ho’s Mother is a movie about a man
that finds himself in a situation where only his mother can
10 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
come to his aid. It is also the story of a mother who believed
that she was the only one who could protect her son, only to
discover that her son had betrayed her. Do-joon (Won Bin) is a
mentally handicapped young man whose behavioral difficulties
have plagued his mother (Kim Hye-ja) all his life, but he is
now in danger of being convicted of a murder he did not
commit. His mother has no connections or power, but searches
desperately for anything that can prove her son’s innocence.
Everyone else, however, sees Do-joon as an easy scapegoat
because of his disability. The mother finally succeeds in
"The importance of a mother’s role is only
increasing as true independence from one’s
parents becomes more difficult in modern
Korean society."
proving Do-joon’s innocence at the risk of her own life, only to
discover that he really was a murderer who killed a schoolgirl
he was trying to rape.
It is not hard to see supermoms in TV dramas these days
who manage to be great mothers while also being successful
working women. In reality, however, many mothers struggle to
raise their children while juggling careers. This is not by choice
but out of financial necessity. At the same time there is an
increasing tendency for adults to remain chronically dependent
on their mothers. While most women dread meeting a mama’s
boy, the importance of a mother’s role is only increasing as
true independence from one’s parents becomes more difficult
in modern Korean society. Needless to say, mothers occupy an
extremely significant place in Korean pop culture.
In an episode of the television drama Dae Jang Geum,
one of the shows that sparked a global Korean culture craze
known as the Korean Wave, the main character comes up
with an interesting riddle. Jang Geum, a former cook in the
palace who becomes a physician to the royal family, faces
her toughest challenge ever when one of her patients refuses
treatment. As the patient in question is the king’s mother, the
entire palace goes into an uproar. Jang Geum is only a lowranking physician, but makes a daring proposal to the king’s
mother. The dare is that if the king’s mother cannot answer
Jang Geum’s riddle, then she must submit to treatment. The
king’s mother hardly wishes to bend to a lowly physician, but
is too proud not to take the dare. Jang Geum then asks her the
following riddle:
“This woman is the taster to the crown who tastes and
inspects all food consumed in the palace. Her post originated
in China when the Chinese emperor appointed a taster to
sample all his food. This woman was born a house slave,
but she is actually wiser than anybody in the house. Legend
has it that when she was alive the world was surrounded by
mountains, but after she died a great flood covered the entire
Marathon (2005)
world.” Who is this woman? The answer to this riddle is:
a mother. A mother takes care of her family without ever
stopping to rest like a house slave, but when there is a family
problem she is everyone’s wisest confidante. As long as she is
alive the family has nothing to fear, as if they were in a land
protected by mountains, but when she dies they will weep so
much that they will barely see through their tears. The king’s
mother in Dae Jang Geum finally guesses the answer to this
riddle but agrees to Jang Geum’s treatment, as the king wishes,
instead of punishing the insolent physician. Jang Geum’s
reasons for posing this riddle to the king’s mother was not
to win a dare, but in the hopes that the king’s mother would
remember what it truly means to be a mother and not cause
her children pain.
Dae Jang Geum is a period drama set in the Joseon era, yet
features a maternal character that is very progressive even for
modern standards. That character is Lady Han, a senior ladyin-waiting who becomes Jang Geum’s mentor. Lady Han is not
Jang Geum’s biological mother, but looks after her as warmly
as if she were. Her love for Jang Geum is more complex than
simple devotion, however. Lady Han is also an excellent teacher
who does not hesitate to reprimand Jang Geum at times, but
is the first person to recognize and encourage Jang Geum’s
talent. While waiting patiently for Jang Geum to realize her
own shortcomings and curtail her curiosity so as not to ruin
her chances at achieving something great, Lady Han displays a
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
11
Special Section
silent trust in Jang Geum rather than berate her. This patient,
understanding type of mother was the first representation of
its kind in a Korean drama. Sometimes chatting with Jang
Geum like a best friend, sometimes comforting her like a
lover, Lady Han’s motherly love plays a pivotal role in Jang
Geum becoming a good physician. Lady Han was a progressive
character that showed that maternal love was not restricted to
people related by blood, but could be applied to those who are
technically strangers.
The movie Marathon features the mother of a man named
Cho-won (Cho Seung-woo) who is 20 years old but has the
mental capacity of a five-year-old. Cho-won’s mother Kyungsook (Kim Mi-sook) knows that her autistic son is better at
running than most able-bodied people, and encourages him to
become a marathon runner. With the mental age of a five-yearold, Cho-won is an irrepressible troublemaker. He embarrasses
his mother by passing gas in front of crowds and dancing
wildly like a child anytime he hears music. But Kyung-sook
never gives up on Cho-won’s future. She believes that when
Cho-won is running, he is more admirable than anyone in the
world. However, Cho-won’s coach Jeong-wook does not share
Kyung-sook’s enthusiasm, and accuses her of forcing her own
dreams on her son. Kyung-sook begins to have her own doubts
as well. Cho-won cannot express himself as well as other
people; what if he was only running because she told him to?
Yet Cho-won truly does love running. It may have initially
been at his mother’s behest, but now it has become Cho-won’s
dream too. The movie, based on the true story of Bae Hyungjin, a man with autism, touched many people. In the end Chowon overcomes the doubts and concerns of well-wishers and
completes a full marathon in good time. By never doubting
Cho-won’s ability and believing in him to the end, his mother's
actions help many overcome the prejudices that they have
towards the differently-abled. As someone who must take care
of her son’s every need and never leave his side, Kyung-sook
has just one wish: “My wish is that Cho-won will die one day
before me.” She always trails her son like a shadow, and wishes
to continue to do so until Cho-won’s death.
Mothers have long been an important subject in pop
music as well. Korean boy band "god"’s song “To Mother,” for
instance, stole the hearts of many with its lyrics expressing the
regret of a man who belatedly realizes the depth of his mother’s
love. With its powerful message told like a story, the song
remains a favorite among many Koreans long after the group
disbanded.
"When I was young we were so poor/we never went
to a restaurant I swore/when mother went to work/
I ate instant ramen by myself, always./One day I was
so tired of instant ramen/I begged to eat something
more./Mother took out some money she had saved and
ordered jajjangmyeon from/a Chinese restaurant, I was
so happy./But mother didn’t eat any./Mother said she
didn’t like jajjangmyeon./Mother said she didn’t like
jajjangmyeon."
In the song, the ever self-sacrificing mother lies and says
that she does not like jajjangmeyon (a popular Korean-Chinese
dish of noodles in black bean sauce) so that her son can have
more. Few words can capture the collective guilt that Koreans
bear towards their mothers and how they miss them when they
are no longer there than the lyrics, “Mother said she didn’t like
jajjangmyeon.” The mother in the song finally opens a small
shop after a lifetime of worrying over her son who she raised as
a single parent, but passes away barely a day after her moment
of happiness. This song by a son who only realizes the depth of
his mother’s sacrifice after she dies brought many to tears back
in the day. “I loved you./I never told you so./But I do./Rest in
peace./In a world without me,/forever.”
by Jung Yeo-ul
12 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Special Section
K-Moms
Dignity in the
Face of History
Korean mothers demonstrate strength despite
harsh treatment throughout Korea's modern history.
In contemporary Korean fiction, the place of the father is
seriously at risk. In a work by Hwang Jeong-eun, a father
suddenly turns into a hat while lying in one corner of the room;
in one of Sohn Hong-gyu’s tales, the father becomes the subject
of a game called "invisible man" that the rest of the family
invents on a whim, a role that he gradually resigns himself to.
It has already been quite a while since not only the father who
devotes himself to nation seeking or discovering an ideal new
world, but also the emblematic father who boldly occupies a
position as domineering patriarch, have become hard to find in
Korean fiction. At present I am inclined to think that the socalled embodiment of fatherhood in life and in literature has
become a matter for archeological excavation.
Even though we might say that the trend in the Korean
fiction of previous decades—obliged as it was to focus on such
weighty social and historical topics as the division of Korea,
ideological conflicts, or democracy—inclined to highlight the
role of the father, in actuality tales about the absent father (very
often those wonderful fathers were guerilla fighters or in prison
or roaming the world or had died early) were at the same time
tales of the mother who stayed home and ran the family. Much
as earlier modern Korean fiction faithfully told tales of ideology
and history through the father, equally it did not forget the tale
of the mother who, in the father’s shadow, confronted suffering
with a maternal heart and the devotion of Mother Courage.
However, Korean fiction did not rush to construct a myth of
long-suffering, self-sacrificing motherhood out of such stories
about mothers. Instead it seems to have begun to ask questions:
what was the inner strength that sustained Korea’s mothers
amidst the double ordeal they were obliged to endure, both the
oppressions of a deeply-rooted patriarchal culture that did not
easily abate, and the pressures of poverty in real life? It might
be thought that Korean fiction answered this question in the
shape of the mother who was obsessed with family and blood
relations, and demonstrated virtually blind love to her children.
But on closer examination, within that blind, instinctive love,
Korea’s mothers discovered a wider ethical dimension which
we may term dignity and grace. In a masterpiece of Korean
fiction, we find the highest example of such a mother. If the
discovery of such a model was so extremely valuable, it may
be because modern Korean history has treated its mothers so
harshly.
In Korea, the pain caused by war and division is an ongoing
reality. Inspired by her true family history, Park Wan-suh’s
trilogy Mother’s Stake (part 1, 1980; part 2, 1981; part 3, 1991)
tells the story of a mother and daughter who were obliged to
lose their only son and brother, who reached maturity during
the Korean War. With a uniquely skillful style, the author tells
of the sad times when, in order to provide her son and daughter
with an education after her husband dies early, the mother
takes them from their home in Gaepung, Gyeonggi Province,
which lies to the north of the 38th parallel. She stakes out a
new home in a poor hillside neighborhood in Hyeonjeo-dong,
in the unfamiliar city Seoul. Despite experiencing poverty,
scraping a living together by sewing, and maintaining her selfrespect as a member of a high-class Gaeseong family while
providing her children with a decent education, the mother
looks strong and tenacious enough to overcome the storms of
history. But when the madness of an ideological war snatches
away her young son, she is found to be nothing but a helpless
woman. The son’s body is buried temporarily in the fields
beyond Muakjae pass, then after Seoul is liberated again, his
remains are cremated at her insistence and scattered in the sea
off Ganghwa Island, from where their former home now in
North Korea is visible. Parts 2 and 3 of Park's trilogy evoke
scenes prior to the death of the mother who has spent her
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
13
Special Section
whole life mourning her lost son.
Having broken her pelvis in a fall, the 80-year-old mother
asks her daughter: “If I die, you must do for me what we did
for your brother.” To her daughter, her mother seems to be “a
handful of dust and wind attempting to fight something huge.”
It seems as though, as her son had said when he was brimming
with vitality, this wish to be reduced to a handful of dust and
scattered in the sea off Ganghwa Island was “the only way of
opposing the monster called division, which had trampled over
mother, robbed her of everything, that she could absolutely not
understand.” At that point, the mother attains the dignity of a
human being standing up to the tyranny of history.
In part three of Mother’s Stake, the mother lives another
seven years while confined to the home because of her ill
health, before dying. When the nephew who was head of the
family insisted that they could not hold a funeral to satisfy her
longing, she was buried in a cemetery in Paju. Forty years had
passed since the war. When they return to the grave on the
third day after the funeral, instead of a proper gravestone they
find a wooden stake inscribed with the mother’s name marking
the grave. As she is reading the Chinese characters of her
mother’s name, the daughter who is the narrator of the story
seems to hear her mother’s voice whispering, “Daughter, it’s
alright, it’s alright. What difference does it make where a body
like mine is laid? Whatever place you prepare will do for me to
sleep in.” Her mother’s name is Gi-suk (㟛㹔 ). The character
for “suk,” one rarely used in women’s names, means “sleep,”
and combines with the “gi” meaning “body,” to yield the sense
of “the place where the body sleeps.” This scene may be the
moment when peace and happiness come at last to the Korean
mother who lived through the years of war and division, and
may be the most dramatic and sincere lament for that mother’s
generation in Korean literature. There is no monument to the
mother that shines with a dignity that any hero’s monument
can equal.
The short story “The Snowy Road” by Lee Chung-joon
that was published in 1977 tells of a woman whose poverty
prevented her from functioning fully as a mother. Yet when
that mother reveals a secret that had remained hidden through
years of destitution and contempt, and remorse and self-blame,
we realize that within her remains a world of self-respect and
dignity that the years of poverty had been unable to subdue.
The widespread poverty that reigned in Korea in the later
1950s after the war, when the country was struggling to rise
again, is a familiar topic.
The narrator of “The Snowy Road” lives with relatives
in town while he attends high school and the sole remaining
building of the family home in his native village passes into
other hands. But his mother, uncertain when her son might
come back home, goes every day to clean the now empty
house where she has left bedding and a chest for clothes in the
main room. When the narrator returns to the village during
winter vacation, his mother makes him sleep in their old home
that now belongs to someone else. The next morning she
accompanies her son to the bus stop at the marketplace on his
way back to town. All of this remains clear in the memories
of the son, who narrates the story. But he could not know
14 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
"What was the inner strength
that sustained Korea’s mothers
amidst the double ordeal they
were obliged to endure, both the
oppressions of a deeply-rooted
patriarchal culture that did not
easily abate, and the pressures of
poverty in real life?"
anything about the anguish of his mother, who was obliged to
walk back along the snowy road to the village where she had
no house to live in.
“The Snowy Road” tells how the son, now grown-up and
settled in Seoul, belatedly hears the tale in his mother’s singleroomed hut when he comes with his wife to visit her. As his
mother walked back to the village where she no longer had a
house, she could not help crying freely at the sight of her son’s
footprints still remaining clearly in the fresh snow. When she
reached the top of the hill above the hamlet, she says, she was
forced to sit down for a while. Why? The end of the story
reports her explanation: “Why I was unable to go straight back
down the hill to the village? It wasn’t that I had nowhere to go.
So long as I was alive, even in those times, I would surely be
able to find somewhere to lodge, even if it was just a tiny outer
room in a building. (. . .) But my eyes were sore and I wanted
to avoid the sunlight, so how could I go on down among the
houses? Since the bright sunlight made me feel ashamed, I
never so much as gave it a thought.” Indeed so. Her shame,
which she cannot bring to the light of day, was her last trace of
self-respect. Fighting off her looming sorrow, she is determined
to remain her son’s proud mother. This lofty-minded living
can be seen as a synonym for human dignity. Lee Chungjoon’s “The Snowy Road” testifies to the purity attained by the
mother.
Shin Kyung-sook's novel Please Look After Mom has
done much to raise the reputation of Korean literature in the
countries where it has been published. Shin does not forget the
dignity and grace of the mother found in Park Wan-suh and
Lee Chung-joon’s works, but attempts to discover a mother's
private existence and desires from a more modern point of
view. The sudden disappearance of the elderly mother forces
1
1. Mother’s Stake
Park Wan-suh, Segyesa Publishing Co., Ltd.
2012, 596p, ISBN 9788933801840
2
2. The Snowy Road
Lee Chung-joon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2012, 421p, ISBN 9788932020938
3
title that should rightly be restored to and accepted by all the
Korean mothers of the past. And above all, all those mothers
must have longed throughout their lives for their own “mom.”
In the last scene of chapter four, her spirit visits the house in
which she was born and grew up. There she sees herself as a
baby mother in her mom’s arms. Her mother is bandaging
her wounded feet. “Did Mother realize? That all my life I had
needed a mother?” Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom is
a belated but ardent lament for all those many mothers who, in
the course of Korea’s turbulent recent history, have had to bury
their own existence.
by Jung Hongsoo
© Choi Yeon-ju
her family to endure pain as they reconsider the existence of
the mother they had forgotten. Daughter, son, and husband
recall memories of the mother they now address as “you,” and
reach the miserable conclusion that before her disappearance
they had forgotten her. During that time, instead of being an
individual named “Bak So-nyeo,” behind the title “Mom” she
had been nothing but someone consigned to oblivion like a
shadow.
Yet she had not been born as “Mom.” She was not solely
a homemaker nor an unfailing source of love for the family.
Born in 1938 in a village near the unidentified Korean city
“J,” she lost her father when she was only three, and in order to
survive the chaos following the end of the Korean War, she had
become some man’s wife. She was just 17 at the time. Never
finding time to learn to read and write, she had lived in a dark
world, but this Bak So-nyeo had taken exceptional care of her
husband and children, staying in the kitchen and preparing
food for the six ancestral rites they celebrated every year. The
yard around the house had always been bright thanks to her
labors; she would raise and care for every kind of living thing.
She had to endure her husband’s indifference, his affairs and
desertions, and keep buried in her heart grief for a stillborn
child and the death of the brother-in-law she was so fond of.
Living as an emblem of silent devotion and endless affection,
her real name, Bak So-nyeo, was erased, and she was left with
the sole title of “Mom.”
Yet at times she experienced anger at her fate and resisted
it. And above all she found love. Not that she crossed certain
lines, but there had been a man she had cared about and
with whom she had experienced shared desires. Shin calls the
narrator of the fourth chapter, where this lifelong secret is
revealed from the mother’s point of view, “Another Woman,” a
3. Please Look After Mom
Shin Kyung-sook, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2008, 299p, ISBN 9788936433673
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
15
Special Section
K-Moms
Finding Mother
Through Heidegger
Poet Shim Bo-Seon reflects on his relationship with his
own mother and what it means to be a mother when they
no longer hold domain over the home as their children
seek public lives.
I recently made my mother a suggestion: Let’s read and discuss
Heidegger’s Being and Time together. I have never read this
book, and neither has she. I’d always wanted to read Being and
Time but it wasn’t in my field and it was infamous for being a
difficult text, so I’d been putting it off time after time. But this
time, I was resolved. So why read it with my mother? Frankly, I
wanted to do a sort of experiment with her.
My mother’s initial response to my suggestion was “What?”
She asked, “Heide-who?” “Being what?” and seemed befuddled.
“You’ve almost exclusively read fiction so far. How about
something different this time?” I tried to convince her. “Why
shouldn’t you read a philosophy text? If you read and discuss
the book with me, it’ll be easier to understand and fun. And
you’re already familiar with Buddhist books. There are some
overlaps between Buddhism and Heidegger. The translated
terms and theoretical concepts might be a little confusing, but
we should give it a go.”
“Okay, let’s give it a try,” my mother agreed reluctantly.
I am very much looking forward to this little “project”
of mine. Of course, mother could throw her arms in the air
midway crying, “Enough! This is no fun! It’s too hard!” but
there is also the possibility that something very interesting
might come of this. In Being and Time, there is a term called
“Das Man,” which a friend of mine explained to me as the
type of human being who lives as they are told. In other words,
these are people who only think about the image of themselves
as reflected in the eyes of others. This very concept is what I
16 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
© Choi Yeon-ju
most look forward to discussing with my mother. I would like
to see my mother discuss her existence through her own words,
and not through how other people portray her. I will also be
able to discuss my dilemmas about existence with her. We
could even establish common grounds as two contemplative
beings rather than as simply mother and son. Isn’t it enticing?
My mother is your typical Korean mother. I’ve recently
learned from Kim Hang of the Yonsei University Institute
for Korean Studies that in the past, there was an interesting
culture of collecting dishware sets among most middle class
Korean mothers. The mothers liked to buy expensive dishware
and display it, but never use it, instead hoping to pass it
down to their children as wedding gifts. It was conspicuous
consumption meeting traditional gift-giving culture. After
hearing this, I went home and asked my mother if she collected
dishware. She produced some crystal from the cupboards. I
asked her why she collected dishes she never used.
“Everyone collected dishware back in the day,” she said. “It
was a popular hobby. Married women liked to show off their
dishware, and they gave it to their children when they got
married. I would have given it to you if you got married, but
oh well,” she sighed. “I’ve no use for them now.” This was her
thinly veiled exasperation over her unmarried children.
One could say that Mother’s dishware collection is the
modern man’s pursuit of petit bonheur. According to Hannah
Arendt in The Human Condition, the modern man’s obsession
with “small things” signifies the collapse of the public realm:
"Since the decay of their once great and glorious public
realm, the French have become masters in the art of being
happy among 'small things,' within the space of their own four
walls, between chest and bed, table and chair, dog and cat and
flowerpot, extending to these things a care and tenderness…
This enlargement of the private, the enchantment, as it were, of
a whole people, does not make it public, does not constitute a
public realm, but, on the contrary, means only that the public
realm has almost completely receded, so that greatness has
given way to a charm everywhere."
Collecting dishware is a sort of conspicuous consumption
practiced by Korean mothers whose identities are confined
to the private—more specifically domestic—sphere. But the
dishware embodies something more than economic value.
Because it is collected and given away as wedding gifts, the
mothers’ dishware collection helps maintain and strengthen its
place in the family. Korean mothers have reconconfirmed the
value of their existence through dishware collections.
Then what about the present day when the figurative
dishware collection—the indicator of one’s economic status
and family relations—has disappeared? The collecting and
bequeathing of dishware served to build family relationships
and sense of belonging. In the past, mothers were curators
who collected, maintained, and displayed the dishware sets. It
wasn’t just dishes. Mothers were able to assert their leadership
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
17
Special Section
“I would like to see my mother discuss her
existence through her own words, and not
through how other people portray her.”
and authority in the house through household affairs and
chores. But in the contemporary Korean family, such activities
and intra-familial manifestations of power no longer exist.
Everything exists outside the house now. Chores have been
outsourced. Children are raised by after-school programs,
volunteer activities, vacation camps, family restaurants, PC
rooms, and smart phones. Mothers get to spend time with their
children in the years before the children start school and in the
early elementary school years, but as the children grow older,
the mothers’ problems become irrelevant to the lives of their
children because the children’s domains are gradually moving
to places outside the home. A mother’s worries are practical—
which neighborhood would most benefit my children? Which
school? Mothers are no longer curators or counselors. They’ve
become their children’s consultants.
But this does not mean that mothers today have it easier
than mothers of the past. I once asked my mother, “Mom, have
you ever been happy?”
“I’ve never thought about it,” she responded. “Think
about it. You children and your father were all there was to
my life. I didn’t have my own life.” The “small happiness” of
activities such as collecting dishware did not afford my mother
happiness. My mother, and the majority of mothers in Korea,
have never had the luxury of their own, palpable, unique
existence.
“What about now?” I asked.
“It’s too late now,” she said. “I’ve given up on things like
happiness.”
“That’s not true,” I answered, somewhat taken aback. “That
is entirely not true. What about your knitting?” I spotted
the half-finished vest and yarn and needles sitting next to
my mother and pointed at them as though I had found the
Messiah.
“The instructor in my knitting group says I have a talent for
it. She says other people take longer and need more guidance,
but I get it on the first try. Even the more difficult techniques.”
Mother knits hats, sweaters, and bags and gives them away
as gifts to her children and friends. Come to think of it, one
of them was sent to my poet friend who lives in New York.
Last winter, my friend sent me a hat she had knitted herself. In
return, I sent her a hat that my mother knitted. As I asked my
18 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
mother to knit this hat for me, I told her about my poet friend.
“She’s over 60, but she still writes poems, paints, and
devotes her time to helping the poor.”
Mother began to knit the hat as she listened. Through my
mother’s knitting, the friendship between me and the poet was
expanded to include my mother. In this case, is knitting just
another “small happiness?” Or is it a stepping stone to a greater
happiness that lies beyond the little pleasures?
I will read Being and Time with my mother. Mother and
I will engage in a serious debate on what it means to live as
a woman and a mother in Korea, and what it means to be a
man and a firstborn son in Korea. I will find another side to
my mother, and she will find another side to her son. We will
become friends. Not just friends who are fond of each other,
but friends who converse and challenge each other. I don’t care
if this project fails, as long as I am given the opportunity to
form a friendship with my mother.
by Shim Bo-seon
Special Section
K-Moms
The Changing Mother
in Children’s Literature
Beyond their identities as mothers, moms emerge as women
with complex lives of their own.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, a major work of Korean children’s
literature that has sold over 1.5 million copies, is a story about a mother.
Sprout, a hen who has spent her whole life laying eggs on a chicken farm,
escapes from the farm to brood an egg and see the birth of a chick. The
egg she hatches, however, is the egg of a mallard duck. Sprout raises the
duckling, Greentop, as she would her own offspring, caring for him with
her entire heart and soul until he can stand on his own two feet. In the end,
Sprout decides to sacrifice her own life to protect Greentop and his baby.
Facing death, Sprout looks back on her life and says, “My child, I was a hen
who could do nothing but lay eggs in a coop. I never got a chance to brood
my own egg. And when I could no longer lay eggs, I was taken out of the
coop. I was meant to die then. But then I met you, I became a mother at
last.”
“Being as happy as a mother” is a theme often found in Korean children’s
literature. A mother is content with everything because she is able to be a
mother. She gives everything she has to the child who has made motherhood
possible for her. For a mother, a child is not a burden but a purpose she must
defend to the end. Such mothers with instinctive love for their children,
mothers who take responsibility for their families and dedicate themselves
to raising their children, are typical in Korean children’s literature up to the
early 2000s.
A strong, self-sacrificing mother appears in Kwon Jeong-saeng’s The
Cotton Jacket and Mother as well. The mother, who raised seven children on
her own with her entire soul and will, is left with nothing but cobweb-like
wrinkles, hair like white threads, and thin arms with blue veins standing
out from working in the fields. But thinking of her son on the battlefield,
she never lets go of the hoe. The seven children come flying like a dream,
riding a rainbow, to the dying mother’s cotton jacket, and she makes her way
to heaven, rubbing her cheeks against theirs. Children instinctively know of
their mother’s love. Lee Tae-joon’s Waiting for Mom is a portrayal of a child
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
19
Special Section
"Mothers are strongly tied to their
children in a new way, different
from earlier representations in
children’s literature."
who stands all day at the train station, waiting for his mother to
come home from work. What gives the little child the strength to
stand all day in the snow is his longing for his mother.
The love between mother and child goes beyond blood
ties. In Korean children’s literature, “mother” is a sacred word
signifying powerful solidarity and sacrifice, as Sprout, the hen,
demonstrated. Patjui’s Mother in Lee Geumyi’s Keundori’s Place
in Bamti Village is a mother who embodies such values. The
nickname, “Patjui’s Mother,” comes from the wicked stepmother
of the old Korean tale, “Kongjui Patjui.” Patjui’s stepmother, who
is newly married and must take care of the Keundori siblings, is
at first met by strong resistance from the siblings. She was a lonely
woman who lost her mother when she was young, but wants to
raise the siblings so that they don’t grow up feeling as lonely as
she did. Patjui’s mother cares for the siblings with great love. The
siblings, who originally questioned her motives, finally open up
and accept the love of their new mother.
In the mid-2000s, mothers in Korean children’s literature,
symbols of sacrifice, began to change. Choi Namee’s My Mother’s
40th Birthday is where it all began. Gayeong’s mother, a stay-athome mom taking care of her children, announces on her 40th
birthday that she’s going to get a job of her own. The 13-year-old
Gayeong thinks her mom is being selfish. But as she works out her
conflict with her mom, Gayeong comes to understand that her
mom has a life of her own, more important than taking care of
the family and children, and decides to support her.
The story made headlines at the time of its publication by
dealing with a feminist issue through the topic, “mothers in the
workforce.”
The mothers in children’s literature who had adapted to the
patriarchal system, staying at home around their children, began
to come out into the world in search of their own identity. In
The Worrying Boys a mother appears who is unshaken in carrying
through with her beliefs. Generally, mothers in Korean children’s
literature become strong for their children, but in this work,
Sangwu’s mother becomes strong for herself. Regardless of what
her family thinks, she states clearly what she wants to do, and
20 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
carries through. The independence of mothers in children’s books
brings about changes in the children as well. They grow up to be
self-reliant, no longer depending entirely on their mothers.
In children’s literature since 2010, a new aspect of the
relationship between children and their mothers is being
emphasized. Mothers are strongly tied to their children in a new
way, different from earlier representations in children’s literature.
In Korea, where academic competition is fierce, mothers are
something like “academic managers” for their children. The
obsession of mothers to perfectly manage the learning and growth
of their children is embodied in the expression “helicopter moms.”
They show up whenever their children need help and resolve
difficult problems for them, but their actions are contradictory.
Their interference impedes their children’s growth, though it
begins with a desire to raise their children well. Above all, this
interference is met with violent resistance from the children, since
children, just like adults, dislike having their autonomy violated.
Such mothers control their children, wanting to be exemplary
mothers, but become confused to the extent of involvement they
should have in their children’s lives.
Choi Sook-hee's bestselling picture book, Mom’s Mad! is a
work that skillfully depicts the dilemma of mothers. San’s mother
scolds him in order to teach him table manners, how to clean
up, and how to focus. But San, who wants to try out different
things, leaves his mother’s side because he doesn’t like it when
she meddles in everything he does or gets mad at him. The book
received a great response from readers by speaking for children
who want to send a strong warning to their mothers who don’t
understand how they feel, and also by speaking for mothers who
feel wronged because their intentions are misunderstood. The
notion that mothers win only by raising their children to be smart
is a tremendous burden on Korean mothers. By almost losing her
son, San’s mother realizes that everything she had clung to was
meaningless. It’s been said that the book served as a source of
comfort more for mothers who were tired of the constant pressure
to be an exemplary mom than for children.
Kim Seong-jean’s How To Use Mom is even more provocative.
The story is set in a futuristic society where mothers are bought
and sold, and where mother-child relationships are reversed.
Hyeonsu, a boy who’s never had a mom, succeeds in getting his
dad to get him a “mom,” a living toy. He opens the box, reads the
instruction manual, and puts the toy together, anticipating his
first moment with his mom. This can be compared to a mother
waiting for the birth of her child. The mom, who is “born”
through Hyeonsu’s efforts, does what she has to do mechanically,
and doesn’t comfort or hug him as he wishes. Hyeonsu, flustered
at first, nurtures the little mom, as if raising a child. The work is a
signal for help from children who are tired of their mothers acting
like robots, and a message from children on how they want to be
raised.
There is also a greater questioning of feminist issues regarding
mothers. Song Mi-kyoung’s short story, “Daddy Comes Out of the
Bag” is a story about children raising their fathers in a bag because
their mothers have left them. In this way, young authors of late
have been questioning the meaning of the mother. It remains to
be seen where mothers of Korean children's literature are headed
in the future.
by Kim Ji-eun
4
1. Mom’s Mad!
Choi Sook-hee, Bear Books
2011, 40p, ISBN 9788993242447
2. Waiting for Mom
Lee Tae-joon; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung
Borim Press, 2013, 36p, ISBN 9788943309725
1
3. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
Hwang Sun-mi; Illustrator: Kim Hwan-young
Sakyejul Publishing Ltd.
2002, 200p, ISBN 9788971968710
4. How To Use Mom
Kim Seong-jean, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2012, 108p, ISBN 9788936451332
2
3
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
21
Interview
Poetry or Letter To the Other
of My Inside-Outside
An Interview with Poet Kim Hyesoon
Shin Hyoung-cheol: You have published 10 volumes of poetry since
your debut in 1979.
Kim Hyesoon: I never look at my previously published books.
Whenever I see my poems cited somewhere, I feel awkward and
embarrassed.
Shin: In something I came across published abroad, you are
introduced as “a prominent woman poet who has received two
awards named after poets Seo Jeong-ju and Kim Su-young, who are
representative of pure poetry and engaged poetry, respectively.” I was
thinking that it may come as a surprise to readers abroad that one
poet alone could traverse and dismantle these two opposing poetic
trends.
Kim: It feels embarrassing and awkward to receive awards, but
then it would be even more awkward to draw attention to myself by
refusing them, so I end up accepting them. I think the debate about
“pure poetry” vs. “engaged poetry” was inevitable and essential to
Korean poetry. I think Kim Su-young is a poet who went beyond
the confines of the structure that surrounded him. Who would have
known that his wailings, in everyday language, would amplify so
much? I may be someone who belongs to both sides, or I may be a
dual national who doesn’t belong anywhere.
Shin: This term “woman poet” shows up above. In your case, I
think that term has rarely been used negatively, but still you must be
tired of it. I wonder if your book of criticism, To Write as a Woman:
Lover, Patient, Poet, Me (2002), represents a koan, the endless
questions you ask and answer in your lifetime. I want to get your
take on this, and also do you think categorization of poets by gender
is meaningful or meaningless within contemporary poetry, and in
what way?
Kim: No one fails to ask me about the term “woman poet.” And
even if I’m not asked about it, I always insist that I’m a “woman
poet.” The consumer of poetry has categorized me as a woman,
differentiating me, and so I howl that the inside of that category is
the place of paradoxical poetry.
When I was younger, I was active in a feminist group called
Another Culture, and I observed then that the ideology of the
women’s liberation movement was in discord with my poetry. In
my everyday life and in my essay writing, I was engaged in feminist
thought and activism, but my poetry covered my contentious
22 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
2
1
3
4
5
1. Your First
Kim Hyesoon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2008, 176p, ISBN 9788932018492
2. Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream
Kim Hyesoon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2011, 186p, ISBN 9788932022413
3. To Write as a Woman: Lover, Patient, Poet, Me
Kim Hyesoon, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2002, 264p, ISBN 9788982814525
4. All the Garbage of the World, Unite!
Kim Hyesoon, Action Books
2011, 135p, ISBN 0983148015
5. Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers
Kim Hyesoon, Action Books
2008, 93p, ISBN 9780979975516
Interview
"I frequently imagine
civilization as a makeshift
stage or art installation,
and a scene in which it
all collapses."
critic Shin Hyoung-cheol and poet Kim Hyesoon
thoughts with a sheath that was bright and alive, like something
woven with vapor. Not only “woman” became blurry, but also
“me”—this blurry state of being is poetry. My poetry tells me to
bring the life-giving water that will save father’s life as the songs
of a woman heading to the afterworld, my poetry tells me to
become a ghost.
When I was writing To Write as a Woman, I wanted to say
that the ignition point of a genre called poetry is a feminine
position. I wanted to say, regardless of a poet’s gender, poetry is
where night is, where absence is, poetry begins where mother is
(who has lost herself to me), it’s where I “do poetry.”
Shin: Poetry differs from prose, so I think that in many
cases the subject matter, imagination, and speech may occur
simultaneously. I would like to ask about these three in the order
above. What is the main passage through which the things that
are perceived as poetic come to flow into your body?
Kim: The point of ignition for poetry is multiple, but the
material to ignite is one. My body has to be in a poetic state. No
matter how great my ethical or feminist rage may be, no matter
how much another text resonates with me, no matter if some
dream smacks me and takes off, unless my body, the material for
ignition, is in a poetic state, it is pointless. I am colored by the
poetic state like some kind of bodily sign. As if I’m about to cry,
as if my laughter is about to explode in giggles, I need to overlap
with a blank paper-thin girl. And while I write, the girl becomes a
witch or grandmother, but first I need to be in that state. I call it
the “the state of something yet nothing.”
Shin: Much of Korea’s poetry is neatly written, depicting
everyday experience along with an adequate message, yet your
poetic texts provide inspiration to critics who are trying to
theorize the role that imagination plays in poetry. In your poetry
there is fairy-tale-like imagination, grotesque imagination,
mythical imagination and so forth; in fact, there are multiple
imaginations at play.
Kim: When I began writing in my 20s, I just wrote down any
“poetic” thing that soared up in me. I wasn’t conscious of what I
was writing or why I was writing it. Back then I didn’t even have
24 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
friends or teachers. Meanwhile my imagination developed like the
muscles of someone who exercises. Imagination is the process of
moving muscle in sync with bone, to a place of freedom, poetry’s
vast outer side. It activates something to nothing. Perhaps I
should say it’s a cloud mill? The place where cloud (poetry)
knows but poet (me) doesn’t know. With bone and muscle, I
repeatedly call someone who disappears into the slippery crack
of time and space, someone who becomes more unfamiliar and
mysterious by the day. Lately I’ve been thinking that someone laid
up in an intensive care unit, or “me” the woman, a few seconds
before death, is dreaming for real “now, here, me.” You could say
it feels like the observed and the observer, before they perish, are
trying to move something together, inflating the muscle of the
ignition point.
Shin: In the past, as well as now, whenever I read your
poems, the first thing that strikes me is the sense of liveliness and
liberation of your speech. What kind of relationship is there for
you between what you will say and how you will say?
Kim: Language is conversation, so poetry also converses
with someone. Of course, that someone is not tangible or
definable, someone on other side of cognition. That someone is
preferably a poetic inspiration or poetic other. Naturally, speech
begins directed at the other. Like illness, which is a reply sent
by the body, poetry is also a reply in regard to inspiration or the
other. Therefore, language or speech changes according to the
one who is receiving the letter. And so each poem can only be
spoken in a particular way, while striving first for the impossible
communication with the other, rather than communication with
the reader.
Shin: In connection to the previous question, as a poet
who writes in Korean, what kind of freedom does Korean allow
for you, and, conversely, what structural aspects of Korean are
suffocating to you and when do they occur?
Kim: When I write, I start to feel through my body that
Korean has a “feminine language” and a “masculine language.”
When I begin to write, in whichever language, it feels as if I’m
tugging down on my skirt in an uncomfortable seat. It’s not just
the Korean language, for I also simultaneously feel the suffocation
and freedom in regards to Korean poetry. Adding an aphorism
after describing something is the way Korean poetry speaks,
something which has been continuously passed down from when
Korean poetry was written in the style of classical Chinese poetry
and traditional Korean sijo (three line poem). Maybe this is why
I have extreme reservations about any explanatory statements in
poetry. The Korean language has countless variations in adverb,
adjective word endings, multiple onomatopoeia and mimetic
words, and through them the Korean language is vibrant with
ironies and fluid in syntax. And it’s a phonetic language rich
in history, which allows for possibilities of rhyming through
countless homonyms that are closely or directly related. In
translation, it becomes difficult to reveal all these aspects of word
play in Korean.
Shin: You have two books that have been translated in
English. The selected poems, Mommy Must Be a Fountain of
Feathers came out in 2008 and the collection of recent work, All
the Garbage of the World, Unite! in 2011. Please introduce me to
any new criticism of your work that you haven’t encountered in
Korea.
Kim: Johannes Goransson has used the term “gurlesque” to
review my poetry. Perhaps he has heard my “grrl’s language.” I
found it interesting because I was wondering at times why a girl is
never absent from my poetry.
think about living out the rest of my life laughing meaninglessly a
rhythmical laugh.
Shin: I think certain exceptional poets are also exceptional
critics. I remember being deeply moved by a piece you wrote on
poet Lee Seong-bok. What kind of qualities should one cultivate
in order to reach an exceptional level of poetry criticism?
Kim: I think of criticism as something that reads the way
thin yet resilient fibrous strings are found inside a sponge gourd
after its flesh has been scooped out or something that reads the
habitual movement of muscle and bone in the space between the
hand and the handle of a broom after sweeping the courtyard of a
Buddhist temple a thousand times. Criticism lets you know how a
poem has tried to go against the destiny of poetry that is vast yet
narrow, and, conversely, it lets you know that the poem has tried
so hard to live inside the horizon of such destiny. I like it when a
critic’s hand enters my poem, touches the bone then leaves. I like
criticism that is written as though it’s completing another poem
upon meeting a poem in which the critic is also part of the poem.
I think everyone knows more or less what the sponge gourd is
used for after its flesh has been scooped out, why someone has to
sweep the temple’s courtyard.
Shin: Would you choose the life of a poet if you were to be
born again?
Shin: The poem, “All the Garbage of the World, Unite!” from
your ninth book, Your First (2008), which is also the title of the
book in translation, seems to have gotten a lot of attention from
readers abroad.
Kim: I don’t want to be born again. I have never thought
about being born again as a human who contains “me.” I have
written in a poem that, if I were to be born again, I would be
born without any borders, like certain adjectives. And if that is
the poetic condition then I have no choice in the matter.
Kim: I was trying to express that perhaps my muse is inside
the community of all things discarded after they’ve been used up.
I still remember writing it one afternoon in just one sitting.
Shin: For someone who has stepped into your world of poetry
for the first time, especially readers abroad, would you please
share several key words for your poetry?
Shin: Two poems, “Dear Choly, From Melan” and “Saturn's
Sleeping Pill” from your tenth book Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream
(2011) will be published with this interview, and it appears that
the subject matter in both poems is melancholy.
Kim: Death, Woman, [South] Korea, You, Seoul, Absence,
Illness, Rats, Poetry
by Shin Hyoung-cheol
Kim: I was trying to pick relatively easy poems, so I ended
up selecting those two about melancholy. And it may also
have turned out that way because the whole book is steeped in
melancholy.
Shin: Such melancholy shows up particularly well in
“Manhole Humanity,” but it also seems to organically embody a
critical message of civilization.
Kim: I didn’t seek out such subject matter, but rather it just
happened organically. I have a tendency to look first and think
about the ending of things. This applies to civilization as well.
I frequently imagine civilization as a makeshift stage or art
installation, and a scene in which it all collapses. But lately, I
Kim Hyesoon (b. 1955) began her poetry career in 1979 with the
quarterly journal Literature and Intelligence. Her poetry collections include
From Another Star; Hell Star; My Upanishad, Seoul; A Poor Love Machine;
To the Calendar Factory Manager; A Glass of Red Mirror; Your First; and
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream. She received the Kim Su-young Literary
Award, the Midang Award, and the Daesan Literary Award.
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
25
Excerpt
Dear Choly , From Melan
by Kim Hyesoon
In November I was sleepless
In November the stars on the ceiling all lit up
In November my heart was so bright that I couldn’t close my eyes
I was in a precarious state as the cold well rose above my head
Melan and Choly lay in a blue bucket, making fists
They clammed up like a cavity-ridden piano
Melan covered herself with a cloud, Choly with a shadow
Melan endured the wind, Choly clung to the sea
Melan said It's flesh-scented, Choly said It’s water-scented
Melan disliked sunlight, Choly’s feet were cold
Melan didn’t eat, Choly didn’t drink
I was absent when Melan ate, also when Choly drank water
Melan is a Frag, Choly is a Ment
Melan is a Dis, Choly is a Perse
My skin cracked like a jigsaw puzzle
Melan said Long ago, Choly wept ages ago
Melan ate soap, Choly became laundry
I swirled the wet laundry around my neck like one of Saturn’s rings
Melan has a tongue of ice, Choly has eyes of ice
My shoulders hurt from carrying ice
A woman appeared with a yoke loaded with
Melan on her left shoulder, Choly on her right
Heaven hell, heaven hell, continually binary
like a Tibetan grandma’s spinning prayer wheels
The woman poured beneath my skin a bucketful of Melan then Choly
and left
Kim Su-young is Kim Su-000
Kim Chun-su is Kim Chun-###
Kim Jong-sam is Kim Jong-333*
Step left then step right
After 0 is 1, after 2 is 3
After Melan is Choly
A night when all the mathematics of the world appear
The poets I admire are still clinging to death’s umbilical cord
Dear Melan, from Choly
Dear November, from December
Melan combed rain streaks, Choly plowed them
Melan put a white running shoe on her left foot
Choly put a white running shoe on her right foot
I covered up a pair of white birds, with strings cut, on my feet
I couldn’t come and go as such
26 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Saturn’s Sleeping Pill
by Kim Hyesoon
A place where my shadows visit when I close my eyes
There, I put on a belt made of smoke
When my soul buzzes like the mosquitoes at night
my shadows swarm like a pride of lions on the plains
A place where my ashes get up and dance after I’ve been burnt today
Saturn has 60 moons
therefore, I have 60 shadows
I have 120 eyes, of course
I don’t get to open all of my eyes
whether the sun rises or not
Therefore, how many bodies do I have?
How many more bodies can die?
The ground is soft-soft and my footsteps are limp-limp
The air is sticky-sticky and my heart heaves-heaves
A place where your ghost snatches my soul away like a spider web
I pray for my own soul
I sit on my dead bodies
and put to sleep a few remaining live bodies
Longings are asleep doubts are asleep
even the throats that have not yet opened are asleep all asleep
What do you want to be when you die?
I’m going to be something that has no borders
A place where the moons rise continuously continuously
A place where teeth poke-poke out
even if you press them down with a thick blanket
A place where the dark sooty lions perch on the faint horizon
their eyelids keep keep falling on the glowing rays from their eyes
When you part with the shadows there
you also part with the weight of my body here
translated by Don Mee Choi
* translator's note:
Kim Su-young, Kim Chun-su, and Kim Jong-sam are the names of prominent
contemporary male Korean poets who are all deceased. The last syllables of their
names “young,” “su,” and “sam” are treated as homonyms for numbers.
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream
Kim Hyesoon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2011, 186p, ISBN 9788932022413
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
27
Interview
Dear Reader, I Leave Us a Void,
Let Us Fill It Together!
An Interview with Writer Lee Kiho
Han Eun-hyeong: You’ve changed residences from Wonju to Seoul and
then again from Seoul to Gwangju. Do you feel a great difference? For
example, in your most recent short story collection Who Is Dr. Kim?,
which you wrote while living in Gwangju, you didn’t just write “To
Me, A Very Ethical Piece of Underwear” there, and you were actually
thinking of leaving that short story out.
Lee Kiho: I do really feel a difference. Since it’s a change of space,
the people you meet are different, and even my writing seems to have
changed. Whenever I publish a new book I see how I’m changing—
maybe as a kind of finishing of one stage and moving on to another.
“To Me, A Very Ethical Piece of Underwear” seemed like it really went
better with my second collection. I don’t think it was just a question of
where I wrote that story.
1
2
1
Han: It seems like it plays a transitional role between your second
collection, Fumbling, I Knew I’ d End Up Like This, and your third.
Lee: Yes, I was hoping it would have that effect. Actually, after
the second collection was published I was in a strange place. At the
time I was writing a novel, and there was always one thing or another
that interrupted the process. Since I kept trying to work on the novel I
wasn’t able to work on my short stories, and so it took about three years
for me to write one again. As I was putting this collection together it
really made me think about that time.
Han: In “Flagpole Romance,” the f lagpole gets reimagined
as a sexual allegory, and there’s this connection between Kim Ilsung’s death, undergarments, and boxers. As the reader encounters
these contradictions there’s an emotional reaction. This also seems a
manifestation of your creativity.
Lee: Also in “Prisoner” the process of reunification is haphazard.
It’s the result of a radioactive explosion. Political realities like division,
things that are sacred like a flagpole or the great leader (a figurative
father)… linking these things with the absurd, I think, can demystify
or emasculate them. Exposing their falsehoods or breaking down the
myths, I think, are acts of resistance.
Han: When reading a Lee Kiho novel, you get the image of a writer
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
3
4
1. Earnie
Lee Kiho, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2004, 334p, ISBN 8932015449
2. Fumbling, I Knew I’d End Up Like This
Lee Kiho, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2006, 325p, ISBN 9788954602280
3. Who Is Dr. Kim?
Lee Kiho, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 404p, ISBN 9788932023939
4. At Least We Can Apologize
Lee Kiho, Hyundae Munhak Publishing Co., Ltd.
2009, 224p, ISBN 9788972754503
Interview
"I began to wonder
if perhaps the core of
literature wasn’t somewhere
in the margins, in that
unwritten space."
writers Han Eun-hyeong and Lee Kiho
torn between the premodern and postmodern. The notion
behind the story is quite traditional, but the way in which
it’s dealt with is distinctly postmodern, and there’s a very
interesting reaction that takes place there. It even creates some
great humor.
has always been this question of “How do we get people to
write stories together?” I wanted to break out of this idea
that novels could only be written by particular people. There
comes a point where the division between reader and writer
disappears, and I’ve experienced that kind of writing myself.
Lee: I don’t consciously write that in. I mean, what is
modern? It’s the rational. I’m from the provinces, I was there
until high school. The people I’ve met over the course of
my life have either been rational or irrational. So I’ve been
influenced by those people. As all of these things come in
contact with this genre we call a story, you have this feeling
that things are bumping into each other, brushing up against
each other by chance. It’s hard to completely separate writer
and reader, and I think that since these are works I wrote while
I was young, that’s even more the case. Why do novels have to
be so rational and level-headed? There were also elements that
were just inexplicable. Because we’re talking about the canon,
I wanted to follow a path that would counter canonical works,
thereby resist the canon itself. I thought that that was the only
way I could maintain my identity as a writer. But after I wrote
At Least We Can Apologize—that is, before writing Who Is Dr.
Kim?—I went through this period of reflection regarding my
novels. I wondered: “Have all of my works just been fights
with the works that came before?” I was angry at my old books
and it felt like I was quarreling with them. It would have been
better if I’d been fighting with myself. This time I felt as
though I was examining myself as I wrote.
Han: It seems that with each of your books your style
of writing changes. In your first collection, Earnie, we saw
a style reminiscent of madangnori (folk theater), and your
second, Fumbling, I Knew I’ d End Up Like This, was quite
confessional. Your third, Who Is Dr. Kim? What kind of
writing style might you call that? Something to do with the
skeptical?
Han: The point at which that spirit of rebellion becomes
extreme is with “Bad Story,” which has the subtitle, “A story
someone reads for someone aloud.” Did you write your novel in
a spoken, colloquial form specifically to counter ideas that the
contemporary novel isn’t to be read aloud?
Lee: Oh certainly. I’ve never liked reading novels silently.
I’ve always thought that reading silently was the primary
offender in alienating novels from people. My primary concern
30 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Lee: You could call it that. I think such changes come
from changes in plot. Just as in poet Kim Su-young’s prose
in “Poetry, Spit!” I think I felt something similar to his
“pushing yourself, moving your body with your body.” It was
never my intent to polish it up so that it was perfect. Maybe I
would say I trusted my senses and was moved along by them?
As that happened I just ended up liking what came of it. I
really liked the way the characters talked, how they moved.
With these more recent works, only after I’d finished the
manuscripts did I feel like starting again. After some time
passed I just felt as though I was editing what I’d written.
Han: I can really sense the change. A former version
of Lee Kiho once said, “It’s ridiculous to force causal
relationships in novels, our lives are so serendipitous!” So,
whereas the relationships between characters and the story
were once more important than the plot, in Who Is Dr. Kim?
the importance of the plot seemed much greater.
Lee: I think that before, I felt as though I had to really
push to make the stories convincing. Maybe you could say
I was stubborn, mulish even. But then at some point I feel
as though I talked myself down from pushing these kinds
of causalities. I guess I might say that as these serendipities
accumulated, certain things just became inevitable. As writers
change, so do their novels, and of course that’s just how today’s
novels are. I started thinking that I needed to be more true to
life’s inevitabilities.
Han: Might you say that this crossing over from the world
of serendipity to the world of inevitability is due to having tried
everything you wanted to try?
Lee: I think maybe it’s something more akin to what I said
before about the people I met being different. I also have this
feeling: After 2008 the atmosphere in Korea seemed different.
It seemed as though this generation itself was more mulish. But
I wasn’t able to write mulish in a comical way, so that’s where
a lot of the dialogue came in. Emotionally, it was difficult,
and I think at some point my worldview turned tragic. Of
course, maybe that was just because I started working. (Laughs)
Paperwork is not a writer’s friend!
Han: So this tragic worldview was what brought you to
write a short story like “The Administrative Building?”
Lee: These days I have a regular job, a child, a car. I’ve
settled down in an apartment, but to say that my writing
went down the same path would be a bit disingenuous. That
was something that kept bothering me as I wrote this latest
collection. On one hand I had this feeling that I had to meet
the expectations of those who enjoyed my former books, and
part of me really did try to write that way, but I just wasn’t able
to. With this collection I really tried to put “that me” into it as
much as possible.
somewhere in the margins, in that unwritten space—if maybe
what literature can give the reader is the room to imagine the
possibilities. And yes, this imagination happens in the margins,
so to speak. If the reader can actively fill that space, I wonder if
that’s exactly what we mean by a collaborative text.
Han: The stories in your latest work, Who Is Dr. Kim? tend
to stop at the point at which these margins are discovered. The
meaning behind those margins isn’t explained, and you can
really sense that that was your intention.
Lee: If I’d written more at that point it would have made
the work more palatable to readers, but that would have only
limited their capacity to imagine. The breadth of emotion that a
story gives you grows larger the more you leave out. It’s not that
I wasn’t able to write more, it’s that I just didn’t, and I think
that’s kind of the ethics of writing.
Han: Do you feel that your writing changes your life, or
that as a writer your life changes what you write?
Lee: I think it’s the former. Granted, there are also a lot of
times when I worry that that’s not the case. And, if possible, I’d
like things to stay that way—that novels change who I am.
by Han Eun-hyeong
Han: You said yourself that your novel At Least We Can
Apologize stood at a kind of crossroads of change. The characters
Si-bong and Jin-man in At Least We Can Apologize are the result
of a sort of extreme, Lee Kiho-type obsession. For Choi Soondeok in Earnie, if the question “How did this woman get like
this?” is important, you don’t need to ask that for Si-bong and
Jin-man. Was this a conscious decision?
Lee: Actually, I did a lot of reworking. You know, it started
as a daily series. As such, the parts that explained the causes
and effects came out pretty boring. (Laughs) Even then I hadn’t
sorted out my thoughts on cause and effect and probability.
So I thought, how about a “strong causality?” I think I wanted
to use some extreme examples. I think I had a belief that there
were also new allegories and symbols that would come about
as situations grew increasingly extreme, things I hadn’t even
imagined.
I took this line of thinking as my motto as I was writing the
stories for Who Is Dr. Kim? I wanted to leave the causes in the
margins, someplace unwritten. When I tried to get an overall
impression of At Least We Can Apologize, all of these ways of
contemplating the reasons behind the events were different—
all sorts of reasons that I hadn’t even imagined came pouring
out. So I began to wonder if perhaps the core of literature wasn’t
Lee Kiho (b.1972) made his literary debut in 1999 in the monthly
magazine Hyundae Munhak with the short story “Bunny.” He is the author
of Earnie; Fumbling, I Knew I' d End Up Like This; Who Is Dr. Kim; and At
Least We Can Apologize. He is a Kim Seungok Literary Award winner.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
31
Excerpt
Prisoner
*
by Lee Kiho
[઎઎઎઎઎઎]
It hadn’t been two months since Su-young had gone to the
abandoned house when something terrible happened in the South.
Two nuclear reactors, one in the southeast, one in the southwest,
exploded, two hours apart. As with every human catastrophe, this
one came without warning, at random. Its cause was not the primary
issue of concern. Rather, the real problem was that the damage was
so great, it was beyond recovery.
As soon as the incident occurred, the majority of residents
within a 40-kilometer radius of the reactors died instantly. The
radiation spread more than 400 kilometers in every direction, the
fallout covering 70 percent of the country. Taken by fear, people hid
in basements. To escape the radioactivity, the flight North, North
for refuge, began.
The government was unable to implement emergency measures
in the face of the catastrophe. There were only empty statements. Do
not fear. We will quickly assemble a special relief task force. Illegal
actions will be sternly punished. But the government that once was,
had already been completely erased from the people’s minds. By that
point the only thing controlling them, the only thing commanding
them, was the gray fallout.
One week after the incident the Military Demarcation Line was
breeched. With no regard for fences, none for ideologies, people
made their ways to Cheorwon, Paju, and Hwajinpo, traversing
into the North. Countless people lost their lives when they trod
on landmines, but those were the smaller sacrifices. A system of
division that had lasted more than 50 years had been brought down
all but naturally—nihilistically—by radioactivity. No one, not the
government of the South, not the government of the North, could
stop those fleeing in their paths.
Countermeasures from the UN came a month after the
catastrophe. By that time, both the governments of the South and
North had fallen into a state of turmoil and dissolved. First, the
United Nations decided to dissolve the government of the South,
sort its citizens, and relocate around the globe. Countries around
the world made decisions regarding how many and whom to take
with great speed China decided to take the largest number of
refugees, and Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Australia followed. The UN
immediately dispatched hundreds of examiners to sort the refugees.
Those dispatched spent 17 hours a day interviewing examinees in
the bunker below the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan.
After nearly nine months, close to 35 million South Koreans had
been selected by countries around the globe according to profession,
education, and sex to be scattered across the globe.
Each day at Incheon and Gimpo international airports and
at Incheon and Pyeongtaek harbors, tens of thousands spat on a
homeland to which they didn’t know if they would ever return
and loaded themselves onto planes and transport vessels. Those
who failed their examinations ran through the dilapidated city
screaming, howling.
And then there was Su-young. He was completely unaware of all
of this, sitting in an abandoned house halfway up Mt. Taegi. There,
there were no people fleeing to be seen, no UN broadcasts to be
32 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
heard, and no fallout covering the sky like spring pollen. (Although
a fact he would only learn later, the reason the fallout did not reach
Mt. Taegi was due to the peculiar Föhn phenomenon of the area
around Daegwallyeong.)
Su-young would sit in front of his laptop day in and day out,
thinking about writing. His plan: Let’s just write one, one novel and
we can go back down. I’ll step out of reality for that long—just that
long—then we can look for a job… He had no thoughts of earning
money by writing. He didn’t think of making a living out of it.
Instead, he swore to himself: Just one year, I’ve done so well over the
past two, if I can just trudge through and manage for one more …
With those thoughts he sat in front of his laptop day in and day out.
“So what is this amazing novel you’ve written?” The clerk spoke
with one hand under his chin.
The examiner pulled a cigarette from his desk drawer. After
lighting it, he switched on the air purifier atop his desk. The glow of
the lighter lit the examiner’s face for a moment. He was a man in his
early thirties, with gold-rimmed glasses.
“Ah, yes...” Su-young took an HD diskette from his bag and
approached the clerk’s desk.
“What’s this?”
“Uh, well … it’s the novel I’ve written.”
The clerk looked at him blankly for a moment, then accepted
the diskette. He took a good look at the front and back, then handed
it back to Su-young. At a loss, Su-young took the disk back with one
hand and stood in front of the clerk.
“Have a seat.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I said have a seat. We don’t have much time.”
“Oh, yes…”
Su-young returned to the steel chair and sat down. Rather than
place the diskette back in his bag, he placed it on his knee.
“Good. So we understand your basic situation … Let’s start off
by going over some of the other details,” said the clerk, looking at
the monitor. “First off, I’d like you to keep in mind that due to your
late registration for the examination process your range of options
will not be as wide as others’. Also understand that this is according
to the details of the international convention.”
Su-young nodded slightly.
“Okay. First: There’s a country looking for people who have a
commercial driver’s licenses. It’s Chile. Does this apply to you?”
“No, I don’t have one.”
“A lright. The Republic of Georgia is looking for a data
processing specialist. Can you do that?”
“No, I can’t.”
“The Vatican is looking for someone with a small motor vehicle
driver’s license. However, it’s restricted to baptized followers.”
“I’m not a believer.”
“Okay. The Ghanaian government is looking for five plumbing
experts.”
“I can’t do that, either.”
“Hmm… The United Arab Emirates says that if you have a
chicken sexing certificate they’ll help you settle in Dubai.”
Su-young didn’t speak, only shaking his head.
“Looks as though this may be difficult. In that case, let’s do it a
different way: Why don’t you tell me what countries you’d like to go
to and what kind of certifications you have, then we’ll try to figure
something out. Let’s start there. Is there any country in particular
you were hoping for?”
The clerk’s question gave Su-young pause. Then, he said in a
low voice, “Um … is there any chance there might be a place in …
France?”
“France? Hm … France … France … Here it is. France has
already staffed the positions it was looking to fill. And they’ve
already taken 800 people extra.”
The clerk fiddled mechanically with the keyboard as he spoke.
As he did, he let out a short yawn. Su-young’s head lowered and
silence filled the examination room. The tapping of the clerk’s
keyboard, the motor of the air purifier, and the generator were the
only sounds.
“May I have a look at that novel?”
It was the examiner. He had a low, deep voice so perfect it
brought Su-young to shrink further in his chair. Su-young, his head
down, handed the examiner the diskette.
“Is there any particular reason you’d like to go to France? If
there’s something they might find particularly appealing, we could
put in a request.” He placed the diskette in his desk drawer as he
spoke.
“I mean—There isn’t any particular reason, I don’t really care
what country. It’s just …”
“Just what?”
“If there were a place where I could keep writing … somewhere
I could keep doing that … If it were that kind of place it would be
nice.”
Su-young fumbled for words. He was being honest. After
coming down from Mt. Taegi, despite having seen the grim
aftermath of the catastrophe for himself, despite having experienced
the weight of seeing the entirety of his country disappear with his
own two eyes, the more he thought about it, the more entrenched
he became in the novel he had spent the last eleven months writing.
How could he get that out in a diskette? How could he put that
into print, get others to read it? Those were the thoughts he had as
he wandered the deserted streets of Seoul. How could this novel be
made into a book…?
“Interesting. So even if you go abroad you’d like to keep writing
novels?”
“Yes …”
As Su-young said that, the corner of the clerk’s mouth turned
up. The examiner put out the cigarette he had been smoking. The
smoke wafted from him, lingered under the light of the lamp, then
disappeared over Su-young’s shoulder. The examiner placed another
cigarette in his mouth.
“Do you … speak French?” he asked.
“No, I don’t.”
“What about any other languages? English is fine, too.”
“…”
“So you’re saying that you’re going to keep writing novels in
Korean … Won’t that be a bit … counterproductive?”
“No matter where I get placed, I’ll make the effort to learn the
language as quickly as possible.”
“Well, really it’s a question of who will take you—if there is a
country that could offer such a possibility. Might that not be … a
waste of an investment?”
Su-young rubbed his hands on his thighs.
“Well, that’s just it … Novels, they’re an art … I mean, what I’m
saying is …”
“You’re saying that because novels are an art, even if the
investment doesn’t pan out, there’s still some value there?”
“Yes …”
“Is that so…?”
The examiner opened the drawer to the desk once more and
took out Su-young’s diskette. Su-young felt uneasy. It seemed to him
he’d said something wrong, as though he’d stirred the examiner’s
temper. The clerk was absorbed in picking his earwax.
“Isn’t that also a kind of invention?”
“I beg your pardon?” Su-young responded.
“What I mean is, this novel that you’re writing, if you think
about it, isn’t it an invention, like a light bulb or a radio?”
“Nn … no, well, it’s a little different…”
“It is? Really?” He laughed. “Well you certainly think highly of
your work. Still—” the examiner paused and put out his cigarette.
Su-young stared down at the smoke coming out of the examiner’s
mouth.
“This novel you’ve handed me … here, now, it has no meaning,
does it not?”
“…”
“Why do you think that is?”
“That’s …”
“It’s that it’s just a pipe dream, isn’t it?”
“…”
“A m I not correct? In a place with no work, novels are
meaningless as well, aren’t they?”
“…”
There was nothing Su-young could say. The examiner’s words
seemed steeped in logic. He wanted to get out. But he’d been hurt.
He was unable to contemplate his situation, all he could think about
was this hurt feeling. Whatever it would take, all he wanted to do
was heal that wound.
“That’s not … completely the case.” Su-young opened his mouth
with difficulty.
“Really? In what sense?” The examiner folded his arms as he
asked.
“Well, because the novel that I already wrote is still in
bookstores. It came out four years ago, and even though it didn’t
sell all that well … Still, it’s at least still on the shelves … that’s
something that would be unimaginable with other first inventions
…”
“You’re saying that a novel that you wrote four years ago is still
on the shelves? It didn’t sell very well but it’s still there? Are you
certain?”
“Yes.”
The examiner laughed. “Really? Alright, if that’s true, then I
guess you do have a talent for novels.”
translated by Chris Dykas
Fumbling, I Knew I'd End Up Like This
Lee Kiho, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2006, 325p, ISBN 9788954602280
*A short story excerpt from Fumbling, I Knew I’d End Up Like This,
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2006
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
33
The Place
Jeju Oreum
Jeju is a volcanic island located 90 km off the southwestern tip of the Korean
peninsula. Mount Halla stands in the center of the island at an elevation of 1,950
meters, and Baengnokdam (White-deer Lake), a crater lake, sits at the summit. One
could say that the entire island of Jeju is one large mountain.
The Face of Jeju Island
Jeju Island was internationally recognized when it was
registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and
UNESCO Global Geopark and Biosphere Reserve. The
oreum represents the beauty and wonder of Jeju Island.
Three hundred sixty scoria cones, or oreum, as they are
referred to in the Jeju dialect, of varying sizes are strewn
across the slope from the top of Mount Halla down to
the island’s coasts. The sight of Mount Halla sitting in
the midst of 360 peaks is reminiscent of a mother hen
embracing her brood of chicks.
There are as many shapes and sizes of oreum as there
are numbers of them. They differ in height depending on
their elevation. True to the characteristics of scoria cones,
they come in various shapes including the horseshoe,
conic, spherical, and compound forms. Enchanted by the
unique scenery and feeling of each oreum, many “oreum
wanderers” go on a pilgrimage to the oreum in all corners
of the island.
Oreum are present everywhere you go in Jeju. Jeju
people are born at the foot of an oreum, rely on the oreum
for their livelihood, and return to a spot of an oreum when
they die. As lives are built and souls are laid to rest on the
oreum, it is no wonder that the myths, legends, and history
of Jeju were conceived and preserved in these hills.
According to the creation myth of Jeju, there was a
spirit called the Seolmundae Halmang, or the Grandma
Seolmundae. She was so enormous that when she lay
down with Mount Halla as her pillow, her toes would end
up in the sea. People of Jeju had difficulty traveling back
and forth between the island and the mainland, and so
asked Grandma Seolmundae for a bridge. She agreed on
the condition that they make her a dress. They needed
100 dong (50,000 meters) of silk to make her clothes.
While the people of Jeju procured the silk for her clothes,
Grandma Seolmundae carried dirt in her skirt to make a
bridge across the sea. The dirt that fell through a ripped
seam in her skirt became the oreum. But in the end, they
were short one dong so the bridge was never completed.
Yongnuni Oreum:
The Curves of Mother Earth
I can’t very well mention all 360 oreum here, so I’ll
introduce just a few.
In the eastern side of Jeju Island, oreum big and small
grace the expansive fields with their splendor. Yongnuni
(Dragon-lying) Oreum, 248 meters tall, is undoubtedly
the most exceptional among them. The Yongnuni Oreum
is the most special oreum both in terms of its shape and
beauty. Most oreum are conical with one crater, but the
Yongnuni Oreum has three overlapping craters that were
formed by multiple eruptions. Its ridge is low and shaped
like undulating waves, and its peaks and craters are
difficult to distinguish. The name Yongnuni comes from
the shape of the ridge that looks like a lying dragon. From
a distance, the oreum covered with grass and shrubbery is
reminiscent of the curves of a woman.
Unlike with other oreum, you will not find yourself
out of breath as you climb the Yongnuni Oreum. Its paths
are smooth and easy to hike. Stroll up along the hill and
you will arrive at the top where three ridges come together
to form a horseshoe-shaped summit. To the east, you will
see the Seongsan Ilchulbong, or Sunrise Peak, and the blue
ocean beyond, and Udo (Cow-lying) Island.
The Yongnuni Oreum can be appreciated all yearround. In the spring, wildflowers adorn the fields of the
oreum, and in the fall, the waves of silver reeds form a
breathtaking sight. Photographer Kim Young-gap, who
frequently took pictures of the Yongnuni Oreum and let
its various charms be known far and wide, describes the
reed fields in his travelogue, I Was There On the Island:
"You can see silver grass all year in the Jungsangan
Meadow. Its red flowers bloom in October and turn white
in November. In December, the flowers are carried off in
the wind and only the scrawny stems remain. Even as they
suffer through the snow and wind in the winter months,
they do not remain bent in the direction of the wind. The
wind teases the silver grass in the meadows until spring
returns again."
When wind beats down hard on the silver grass, they
dance ever more ecstatically. Strong winds may disturb
the silver grass, but they never change. The grass remains
the way it was. As large trees are uprooted in the wind and
shrubs big and small fall in the direction of the wind, the
silver grass is left unharmed.
Nokkome Oreum:
Where Deer Once Played
On the western side of the island, Nokkome (Deer-playing)
Oreum (834 meters) is worth seeing. Located in Aewol,
this oreum is your typical scoria cone and the counterpart
of the Darangshi (Moon-lightening) Oreum on the east
side of the island. As you can tell from its name, deer once
lived on this oreum.
From a distance, the ridge that connects the two peaks
The Place
and the crater that
looks like it burst
on one side a re
quite striking. While
Yo n g nu n i O r e u m
boasts a feminine
beauty, the Nokkome
Oreum has striking
masculine lines. There is a
horse ranch on the way to the
trailhead from the parking lot. Ponies
roaming freely graze in the fields and often
look up to greet hikers. The friendly sight of ponies reminds me
of a scene from Hyun Kiyoung’s “The Last Horse Herder”:
"The farm at the end of the season was undulating with the
light of early winter. As the clouds moved, casting shadows on the
ground, the beauty emanating from a fading life—the brilliant
fields and oreum of gold, and the colonies of white silver grass
shining like frost—brightened and dimmed as though it was
taking its last few breaths. The old man turned his gaze to the
bottom of the crater where two lone oxen were grazing."
The gaze of the old man in this story is connected to the “April
3rd Incident” that covered Jeju Island with blood 65 years ago.
Oreum are thus the present and past of the Jeju people.
Once you are on the hiking trail, you will be greeted with a
forest so thick you can hardly see the sky. Thanks to the shade
from the trees, the path can be chilly even in summer. The path
will sometimes lead you to a passageway so steep that your back
will be drenched with sweat. Continue your trek through the
woods, and you will suddenly find yourself at the end of the
36 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
forest. The wide open view means you’ve arrived at the ridge.
Struggle up the mountain path with joritdae (sasaborealis)
everywhere, and you’ll be greeted by a dizzying panoramic view.
At the summit, there is a rest area. As I sat there to look
around and cool off, I got the sensation of sinking into a
boundless scenery, followed by a peculiar feeling wrapping around
me, like sleep. My eyes are taking in the view, but it feels as if my
brain has been bleached white or just somehow emptied. I am one
with nature, without a thought in my head. Maybe the reason
monks and priests are able to withstand long periods of training is
that they experience the ecstasy of this brief moment.
Saebyeol Oreum:
Festival of Fire
Saebyeol (Morning-star) Oreum cannot be left out in the
discussion of the great oreum of Jeju. At 519 meters, Saebyeol
Oreum is located 5 km west of the Nokkome Oreum. Its pretty
name comes from its isolated location, which makes it look
like a lonely morning star in the early evening. Driving down
Pyeonghwa (Peace) Road from Jeju City to Seogwipo, you can
see the Saebyeol Oreum standing in all its majesty on your right.
The oreum is steeper than it seems and hard to climb, but when
you finally make it to the top, you cannot help but cry out in
awe. The magnificent Mount Halla sits far off to the east. The
northwestern field is known as the battlefield where General
Choe Yeong fought the Mongolian army in 1374. It was such a
bloody battle that “swords and shields covered the sea and livers
and brains covered the land.”
Saebyeol Oreum is famous today because each March, the
Jeju Fire Festival takes place here. The festival, the largest in Jeju,
is a ritual where the entire southern slope of the Saebyeol Oreum
is set on fire to pray for peace and a good harvest for the year. The
festival is a modern revival of Jeju’s farming culture that dates
back to the ancient days.
Until about half a century ago, every mountain village
in Jeju had a few horses and oxen for plowing the fields and
transporting goods. When farming season ended, the horses
and cattle were sent to communal ranches where they lived on
the range. Maintaining feeding fields was important for such an
arrangement, and villagers started a tradition of setting the fields
on fire between February and March to get rid of the dead grass
and pests.
The Jeju Fire Festival is a revival of this custom. Visitors come
from all over the world to attend and enjoy the festival. They say
the greatest spectacle is fire and the most entertaining mischief
is playing with fire. Thus, setting a whole oreum on fire creates a
thrilling spectacle akin to an erupting volcano.
Oreum are thus inextricably connected to the lives of Jeju
people. As the true representation of Jeju, oreum are the face and
the heart of the island.
As lives are built and souls are
laid to rest on the oreum, it is no
wonder that the myths, legends,
and history of Jeju were conceived
and preserved in these hills.
by Kim Seokhee
I Was There On the Island
Kim Young-gap, Human & Books
2004, 254p, ISBN 9788990287335
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
37
Theme Lounge
Korean Webtoons:
Opening
the Future
with Comics
on the Web
Webtoons have swiftly become everyone’s favorite pop culture medium, thanks
to the freewheeling imagination of its creators, its prompt updates, and real time
feedback, and has emerged as the source material of movies, dramas, and musicals.
The history of modern comics goes back some 120 years when they first
appeared as fillers for the Sunday papers. Then comics became regular fixtures
in magazines, followed by stand-alone comic books, often numbering dozens
of volumes in a series, growing to occupy a major place in 20th century
narrative art. Comics have changed enormously both in form and in content
according to the medium where they are published. The next comics revolution
is happening right now. The future is comics on the web.
The past decade has seen the entire world participating in this change. Few
countries have made such a successful transition online as Korea, however.
In the late 20th century, both Korean pop culture and technology were
undergoing radical change. Comic books and animated films, long dismissed
as not being serious art forms, were lauded as the future of the cultural content
industry, while the Internet revolution swept up newspapers, books, TV, and
records in one go.
Webtoons, or comics that one reads on the web, were born at this turning
point. Webtoons quickly became the mainstream of Korean comics and a
fixture in the daily lives of Koreans. It is no exaggeration to say that in Korea,
reading webtoons on portable media devices while commuting on the bus or
subway, going between classes at school, or simply hanging out at a café, has
become the starting point of conversation for many people.
With print comics struggling to stay afloat amidst the tidal onslaught of
the Internet and computer games, webtoons have become the medium of choice
for most comic book artists. While some have a hard time adapting to this new
platform, numerous artists working exclusively with webtoons have emerged as
38 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
stars such as Kang Full, Kang Do-ha, and Jo Seok. The following
is a look at the major trends that have driven Korean webtoons
for the past decade, and their potential as one of the most exciting
narrative art forms of the 21st century.
Webtoons as a Diary
Around the year 1998 online comics began cropping up on the
web, before the name webtoons had become common parlance.
The artists were often not professional comic book artists but
illustrators or graphic designers posting diary-like comic strips
on their personal blogs or websites. Some of these amateur
artists gained an immense following, scoring book deals and
product lines like character toys and stationery. Kwon Yoonjoo’s
Snowcat, Jeong Chul-yeon’s Marine Blues, Jung Oo-yol’s Old
Dog and Nanda’s Acoustic Life were early webtoons from this era,
pioneering the diary style that still dominates webtoons today.
One of the earliest webtoons, and one of the most popular
characters to this day, is the Snowcat series created by Kwon
Yoonjoo. Snowcat is the artist’s avatar, a cat character that enjoys
a solitary life outside the in-crowds or the rigid hierarchy of the
workplace, as evinced in the title of the first volume of the series,
Snowcat: Playing Alone. This is the confessional of an introvert,
about a character that actually enjoys spending time alone and is
perfectly happy to be unmarried. Snowcat just wants to run away
from the withering gaze of suit-clad job interviewers, and from
parents that constantly nag Snowcat to get a job. What’s wrong
about staying at home all the time, watching reruns and pretending
to be characters from "The X-files"? Snowcat’s overwhelming
apathy is encapsulated in a word coined by the artist, “gwichanism,”
a combination of the Korean word for listlessness and the suffixism that quickly entered the zeitgeist of the young generation.
1
1. Snowcat – Playing Alone
Kwon Yoonjoo, The Open Books Co.
2009, 115p, ISBN 9788932908632
2
2. The One! And Only! Jilpoong Advertising! (5 vols.)
Mollaginsaeng, Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
2012, 332p, ISBN 9788901134758 (Vol.1)
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
39
Theme Lounge
The Great Catsby
Webtoons About Work: Satire and Remorse
In the early 2000s, the long form of serialized comics lost their
platform as many of the magazines that published comics went
out of print. Artists turned to sports newspapers that ran funny,
sometimes one or two-page comics that quickly gained popularity.
This paved the way for creators of such comics to make the
transition to the web. Comics poking fun at or exposing the
often absurd demands of office life gained a wide following such
as Kwak Baek-su’s Gaus Electronics, Kim Kyu-sam’s Always Low
Prices Cheollima Mart, Mollaginsaeng (Lee Hyun-min)’s The One!
And Only! Jilpoong Advertising! Of course, not all workplaces are
hellish, and some people have fairly undemanding jobs where they
can show up at nine and leave at six on the dot. A considerable
number of office workers, however, work like they are battling in
the trenches every day. Advertising agencies, in particular, are one
of the toughest companies to work for. The stars of The One! And
Only! Jilpoong Advertising! are from Creative Team No.3, whose
advertising battles resemble marital arts or action movies.
Office-themed comics work because everybody can relate
to the exaggerated characters that represent every rung on the
office hierarchy, or the “Oh, I know someone like that at my
office” effect. The One! And Only! Jilpoong Advertising! falls in
this category. There is Deputy Yi Ilsoon, a smiling young woman
who, under crisis, solves problems with superhuman strength;
Division Head Cho Hyuncheol, an excellent leader at most times
but given to epic sulks when rubbed the wrong way; Deputy
Song Chisam, a hot-tempered character easily provoked by the
smallest mistake; Vice Division Head Park Palman, a usually
silent character with a mischievous side…and Kim Byeong-cheol,
the most junior character who, despite having a low-ranking job
title, does not hesitate to make mistakes. Together the team forges
through a variety of advertising adventures. While full of overthe-top exaggeration and jokes, the comic is also a compelling
satire of the loss of fundamental human values in today’s fiercely
competitive society.
A Nostalgic Sensibility
An unexpected model of commercial success lifted its head in the
early 2000s. The winning formula proved to be a combination of
40 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
light, sketch-like drawings and short, sentimental essays, like Sim
Seung-hyeon’s Papepopo series and Jung Hun-jae’s Poemtoon. The
success of these artists was all the more surprising because they
were close to amateurs when they started, and not established
comic artists. The sentimentality of these comics crossed over to
webtoons with longer stories. Kang Full’s Love Story and Kang
Do-ha’s The Great Catsby are representative examples of this
genre.
Kang Full’s Love Story appealed to readers with a nostalgic
sensibility reminiscent of romance stories from 20 years ago.
The story revolves around two couples, a painfully shy and
awkward office worker and a high school girl, and a woman
with a broken heart and a high school boy who falls in love with
her when he sees her sitting on a bench. Both couples overcome
age and generational differences, not to mention overwhelming
disapproval from everyone that knows them, to love and heal
each other. In a world where people are matched by matchmaking
companies that divide them into grades like pieces of meat, is it
possible that this kind of old-fashioned love still exists? Clearly
readers of Love Story still want to believe it does.
Kang Do-ha’s The Great Catsby starts with the first date
of a couple set up by one of Korea’s ubiquitous matchmaking
services, both classified as a grade C (grade A being the best). The
protagonist Catsby, a cat-like character, meets with a woman who
is not even given a name but is only referred to as grade C, and
goes to a motel with her on that very same night. Is this love at
first sight or a one night stand? The other protagonist, Hound,
goes to a mansion to tutor a student, only to find himself kissing
the student’s mother. Even more bizarrely, however, the aged
husband of the mother hands him an envelope full of money,
asking him to become his wife’s paramour. While experiences
of modern love don't quite carry the weight of the past, both
protagonists experience some extremely charged moments that
threaten to alter their lives completely.
Rediscovering Long Form and Genre Comics
Comics serialized in magazines used to be published for months,
sometimes years, before their conclusion, a storytelling tradition
that both reader and creators are eager to keep alive. While it
is easy to laugh and relate to typically brief webtoon episodes,
it would be a shame to give up the most unique quality of the
comics genre: the unlimited freedom to tell whatever the creator
imagines in pictures. In the early days of the Internet, technical
limitations made it difficult to upload and view large image files.
The dazzling advances of technology since then, however, has
opened up new possibilities for long form webtoons.
It is worth noting that as webtoons become longer, certain
genres stand out. Webtoons are not like the comic books of yore
in that it is not necessary to turn pages from left to right. Most
webtoons make use of the scrollbar instead, with each panel
stacked vertically in a long column. This form is very useful for
building tension, and therefore lends itself particularly well to the
thriller, mystery, and horror genres. Kang Full’s Apartment, Joo
Ho-min’s With Gods, and kkomabi.nomabi’s Murderer’s DIEary
are all webtoons that made use of this form to realize their visions
of horror to great acclaim.
The action of clicking on a webtoon while surfing the web
is completely different from picking up a comic book to read for
fun. In this kind of unstable environment, webtoon readers want
to be instantly gratified as well as to learn something useful. As a
result, another genre making a strong showing is the kind related
to a profession. Webtoons like Choi Hoon’s MLB Cartoon are
updated with real-time results and commentary on professional
sports like baseball or soccer, creating an instant rapport with
sports fans. Of course, sport is only one subgenre, with other
genres taking a completely different approach. Ho-yeon’s Pottery,
Vessel of the Heart shares the artist’s knowledge and love of
traditional Korean crafts in simple line drawings, while Neon.
B (Lee Joo-hee) and Caramel (Oh Hyeon-dong)’s Dieter take a
humorous approach to weight loss, that perennial question of
modern living.
The future of the webtoon is undeniably surrounded by
debate. While traditional print artists like Yoon Tae-ho have
successfully crossed over to the web, serializing long stories like
Moss and Incomplete Life to great success, there are few comics on
the web with such ambitious, complex storylines. The fact that
most webtoons are offered for free also comes with a plethora of
problems, with attempts to introduce a pay wall to the benefit
of webtoon creators currently in progress. The accessibility of
the web, on the other hand, is an enormous boon to new artists
bursting with ideas and looking for a platform.
It is also predictable that webtoons will change as e-book
readers and tablets become more popular. These devices that
allow readers to swipe pages with a tap of the finger are perfect
for comics. Technological developments like mobile applications
have huge potential for webtoon creators looking to self-publish,
by passing big publishers or portal sites. The technical and artistic
potential of Korean webtoons is already attracting considerable
attention in the U.S. and Europe. Will Korea carve out a new
place for itself in the cultural contents industry with webtoons,
making full use of its advanced environment? That is the next
challenge.
Moss
by Yi Myung-suk
3
4
3. Incomplete Life (9
9 vols.)
Yoon Tae-ho
ishing Co., Ltd.
Wisdomhouse Publishing
2012, 300p, ISBN 9788960865563 (Vol.1)
4. The Great Catsby (4 vols.)
DoHa, Wisdomhouse
se Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 367p, ISBN 9788959137459(Set)
5
5. Moss (5 vols.)
Yoon Tae-ho
Incomplete Life
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
41
Reviews
Fiction
Reviews Fiction
Welcome to the Jungle
The Great Jungle (3 vols.)
Jo Jung-rae, Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 420p, ISBN 9788965744023 (Vol.1)
Korea has recently shown a heightened
interest in China. Books that examine
the past, present, and foresee the future
of China have been published, and the
media treats the questions related to
China with great importance. Just as
the U.S. had once established its global
supremac y, will China surpass the
U.S. in a power struggle 30 years later
and dominate the world with Chinese
values? If a new Chinese order actually
becomes established in the middle of
the 21st century, what will happen to
Korea? However, there has yet to be a
single work that portrays China with a
detailed, dynamic narrative of characters
that come to life.
The writer Jo Jung-rae is a novelist
that has been dealing with modern and
contemporary Korean history head on.
He has built a large readership with what
is commonly referred to as the 20th
century Korean modern history trilogy:
Taebaek Mountain Range, which deals
with the tragedy of ideological conflict
and division; Han Kang, which portrays
the miracle of the Han River; and now
Jo has rendered the giant, complicated
question called China in a three volume
novel, The Great Jungle. In contrast,
Korean novels have lately dealt more
with descriptions of humble everyday
life; Jo has instantly eliminated the crisis
of narrative by raising the significant
question of “What does China mean to
us?”
In The Great Jungle, Jo offers a
profound understanding and insight
of China based on his wide knowledge
of Chinese history: the turbulence that
China experienced in the 20th century,
the intuition of the current Chinese
circumstances as a rising global power,
and the ever yday life, culture, and
mindset of Chinese people. His in-depth
reasoning, along with an exciting plot
and various characters, tells us this work
is perfectly capable of being read as a
living and breathing Chinese Studies
textbook.
As the title of the work indicates,
present-day China is compared to a kind
of jungle. For instance, Shanghai, the
main setting of this novel, is depicted
as a densely packed, almost suffocating
jungle of skyscrapers, higher than the sky
itself. In other words, current Chinese
society is like a thick jungle consisting
of entangled human desires. Everyone
struggles and competes against everyone
else, or has a quid pro quo relationship
for profit depending on the situation,
a ll of which occur in t hat jungle.
In addition, the jungle, in which all
kinds of trees are intricately entwined,
symbolizes the incomprehensible and
disorderly nature of Chinese society. A
group of various characters appearing
in this novel show that China is, in fact,
not easy to understand even though
many people say that they know the
country.
Jo c o ol l y e x a m i ne s a C h i ne s e
society that is prevalent with all kinds
of capitalist desires, but at the same
time, he asserts that China should be
considered objectively with genuine
interest and affection, not simply as a
business partner or a means of making
money. In order to do that, an extensive
understanding of Chinese history and
culture is necessary before one can reach
the fundamental question, “What does a
true neighbor mean?”
China and Korea, which are so near
and yet so far, have been maintaining
a relationship for a long time. It should
go without saying that the two should
acquire a deeper mutual understanding
to strengthen the foundation of their
relationship. In this context, the campus
couple in this novel, Song Jaehyung,
who is Korean, and Li Yeling, who is
Chinese, carries particular significance.
B e c au se t he c onc lu sion h a s g re at
implications relating to the future
of China and Korea, the couple goes
beyond the barriers of nationality and
culture, overcoming biases against each
other, and plans for the future with love.
We can at last proudly say that we have
a profound novel that deals with China
head on in Jo Jung-rae’s The Great
Jungle.
by Park Sungchang
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
43
Reviews Fiction
From North to South
The Third House
Lee Kyung-ja, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 260p, ISBN 9788954622219
The Third House starts with the journey of
Sung-ok, who is a North Korean refugee
settled in Seoul, visiting her father’s
hometown of Port Moji in Japan. Through
her journey, readers face an unfortunate
family history that comes down from her
grandfather, who was requisitioned to Japan,
all the way to her father. The person who
leads her through her journey is Inho, “the
house builder,” with whom she falls in love
in Seoul. Inho plays a role like a lighthouse.
He carries her life out of the fetters of
a painful histor y where ever ything is
connected—from the Japanese colonization
when her grandfather lived through the
Cold War era to when her father lived—as
he helps her towards the future.
Born and raised in North Korea, Sungok had two different fathers: her biological
father, Kim Dae-gon, and the father of the
people, Kim Il-sung. She grew up being
thoroughly brainwashed with the idea that
Kim Il-sung was the leader of the people,
but her father who was discriminated
against in every case for being a “returnee,”
Whispering Into the Night
Night Cello
Lee Eung-Jun, Minumsa Publishing Group
2013, 276p, ISBN9788937487309
Lee Eung-Jun writes dark stories. Or
rather, he used to write dark stories. For
a while, however, for instance in The
Private Life of the Nation or All About My
Romance, he wrote in a lighter, or at least
more accessible style.
Night Cello is a collection of short
stories that breaks a long silence for Lee.
The world that emerges in these deeply
intimate stories is a throwback to a classic
Lee Eung-Jun darkness. Its characters
listen to the sounds of the night cello.
They live in the night, not the day, and
their lives are governed not by lightness
but by darkness. What shape does life take
on for these characters, trapped deeply
within a vortex of darkness? The pages
of Night Cello are filled with this kind of
inquiry, such as what darkness means in
life or what makes people turn to God.
The thematic centerpiece of the book
44 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
is the short story “Cherry Tree Grove.” All
the stories in Night Cello go through or
are connected to “Cherry Tree Grove” in
some way. It is also symbolic that Cherry
Tree Grove is the religious retreat of choice
for terminal cancer patients. The range of
characters and places in the collection is
wide and varied, from an artist that paints
only self-portraits to the dusty plains of
Inner Mongolia. The characters meet and
part fleetingly, like pieces of a puzzle.
According to the poet Heine, death is
the great equalizer. While death may be
equal, the vortex that leads towards death
is pain. Lee says to us that writing fiction
is like a confession that comes from gazing
into the depths of this vortex. To Lee
Eung-Jun fiction is a kind of philosophy,
a conviction. Night Cello is the kind of
fiction that whispers solemn confessions
about what fiction is into your ear.
by Kang Yu-jung
came to have a deep desire to revolt against
the system. The young Sung-ok did not
understand her father and thought he was
an obstacle to her life.
However, as the North Korean economic
condition dramatically declines, and people
continuously die from famine, and as she
experiences for herself extreme torment,
escaping from North Korea for food several
times only to be caught, she comes to
understand the life of her father. Inho, an
architect, is the only person who warmly
embraces Sung-ok’s life, a life that has been
torn into pieces because she is discriminated
against as a child of a returnee in North
Korea and is a poorly treated North Korean
refugee living in South Korea. Inho, who
thinks of her “neither as a traitor of his
country nor as a commie,” wants to build for
her a third house: “where all the same people
live” in neither the North nor the South.
by Park Hyekyung
Spotlight on Fiction
Garuda
(Excerpt)
a story by Yi Mun-yol
translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé
Garuda
Yi Mun-yol, Achimnara
2001, 392p, ISBN 9788988959947
Garuda
Gojuk opened his eyes, feeling as if a powerful beam of light had
suddenly swept over him. It seemed only a short while since he had
heard the nearby church bell ringing for dawn prayers, yet now it
was morning. The sun was shining directly onto the white paper
covering the eastward-facing lattice door, and the wooden frame
looked exceptionally black this morning. He turned his head to
look about him and perhaps that little gesture stirred the air in
the room, for a faint fragrance of ink crept into his nostrils. Was
it Old Plum Orchard? No, it was surely Dragon Flying Phoenix
Dancing, an ink from Taiwan that Professor Bak had brought
back after a visit to South-East Asia last spring. The professor so
valued the privilege of having been allowed into Gojuk’s studio
several times a few years back that he had designated himself his
special student. Since Gojuk was by then already confined to his
sickbed, unable to wield a brush, the gift had inspired feelings of
melancholy rather than of gratitude. The rather tactless Professor
Bak had remarked:
“At least, you can grind a little, place it beside your bed and
savor the fragrance…” The words had been spoken quite sincerely
yet he had scolded him, “What! For goodness sake! Am I already
a ghost, to be offered incense?” but in the end that was what he
had done. Taking as a pretext the colleagues or students coming
to visit him, and not wishing to change the atmosphere that had
surrounded him for nearly sixty years, Jusu ground the ink each
morning at his bedside, and he enjoyed the fragrance of the ink as
well as the admirable devotion of Jusu.
Judging by the smell of ink, Jusu had undoubtedly already
been and gone. So the strong ray of light that had awoken him
just before must have been the sunlight shining through the door
she had opened on her way out. With those thoughts, Gojuk
cautiously tried to raise himself. It was not easy, with one side of
his body paralyzed. He was about to call someone, but changed
his mind and lay back again. He had no wish to disturb the
morning’s peace and quiet, and the solitude that was by now not
in the least disagreeable, by formal greetings and unnecessary fuss.
Truly—Gojuk thought, staring absently up at the patterns of
the plywood ceiling—how often have I experienced a morning
like this in my life? With nobody, really nobody… He recalled
countless such days, from far back in his now hazy childhood.
One morning when he had been five or six, lying all alone, he had
found the sunlight shining fully on the door. Outside there had
been a faint sound of muffled keening… then his mother, dressed
in white, her hair disheveled, had embraced him before collapsing
in an apparent swoon. She came in just at the moment when he
46 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
was about to burst into a noisy storm of tears, feeling he had been
abandoned for far too long. There was another such day. He must
have been seven or eight; he had gone to sleep with his mother
the previous night, but he found himself greeting the morning all
alone. There he grew afraid of the silence reigning in the room
and was about to go outside when his grandmother came in and
began to cry, embracing him.
“Alas, my little child. What will become of this poor child?
That wicked woman! Unwilling to wait even until the three years
of mourning are over.”
After that, once he had moved into his uncle’s house he usually
awoke alone in the morning. His aunt was constantly ailing, lying
in another room. His uncle spent more nights out than at home.
Inevitably, then, having fallen asleep alone in the room full of the
smell of his uncle’s books, he likewise awoke alone each morning.
Once his thoughts turned toward his childhood, Gojuk
could not help remembering the first day he had found himself
projected, still a child, into a life like that which he lived now.
It must have been fifty years ago, or was it sixty? Anyway, it had
been the day his uncle had dragged him off at the age of ten to
Master Seokdam’s old mansion.
How strange! Was this unexpected recollection, clear and
vivid, of long-gone, completely forgotten times in the distant
past another sign of old age? Increasingly in recent years, Gojuk
had been able to recall Master Seokdam as he had been that day,
clearly and vividly. At the time he would have been in his early
forties, but in appearance he already looked like a near-destitute,
aging scholar-gentleman.
“What’s to be done? Seokdam, I reckon I’m going to have to
entrust him to you. If I were to go on living here, I’d take care of
him, sharing the same gruel or rice. But as it is…”
Such were the words his uncle spoke. Under some kind of
pressure, he had decided to go into exile abroad.
“I don’t want this child to be another burden on my wife’s
family; I’ve asked them to look after my ailing wife as it is. You
take charge of him. He’s my elder brother’s only flesh and blood,
after all.”
Ma ster Seokd a m, howe ver, who had been l isten i ng
expressionlessly, instead of replying, asked:
“You keep saying Shanghai, Shanghai, but do you have any
idea of what’s really going on there? They call it the Provisional
Government, but people say they’re at their wits’ end, unable to
pay the rent, all the time fighting among themselves over trivial
things. In addition, there’s no guarantee that Master Chungang is
still there, is there?”
“Is there anything so wonderful about what’s here? Anyway,
will you take him? Or will you not?”
At that, Master Seokdam looked at him in silence for a while,
then replied with a slight sigh:
“His food and clothing... I’ll take care of that, somehow. But
that’s not all there is to raising a child…”
“Thank you, Seokdam, that will be all that’s needed. Don’t
worry about teaching him. There’s no knowing where this
wretched world is headed, so what kind of teaching can you give
him? He’s already mastered the three characters of his name, that’s
enough.”
After saying that, his uncle turned to him:
“Pay your respects to this gentleman. He is Master Seokdam.
You must behave toward him like a father until I come to collect
you again.”
In the end, his uncle never came back to reclaim him. Later,
well over twenty years after, he heard a report that his aged uncle
was among the members of the Provisional Government returning
home but at that moment he was occupied away from Seoul and
when he went up to Seoul the following year there was no trace of
him.
Master Seokdam, a classmate and long-time friend of his
uncle, was descended from a renowned Confucian scholar of
the southeastern region who was reputed to have inherited the
mantle of Toegye. Seokdam was counted as one of the three great
masters of the closing years of the Joseon dynasty on account of
his vigorous calligraphy and elegant literati-style painting, but
in actual fact he was more of a scholar than an artist, like the
calligrapher Chusa, whom his teacher Chungang had admired all
his life long.
“Have you learned your letters?”
Once his uncle had left, that was Master Seokdam’s first
question.
“I have finished the Dongmong-seonseup primer.”
“In that case, read the Sohak. If you don’t read that, you’ll
never be any good at anything”
And that was all. After that, for several years he read the
Sohak sitting among the master’s small number of pupils, but
he never took any notice of him. Finally, in the year he turned
thirteen, the master took him without warning to the nearby
elementary school.
“The times are changing. You’re not too late; study this new
learning.”
As a result, his only formal education came from that primary
school. No matter what happened later, looking back, it was
obvious that from the outset the Master had never intended to
include him among his pupils.
Whenever Gojuk remembered his deceased teacher, his gaze
would habitually linger over the specimen of Master Seokdam’s
calligraphy that hung in a corner of his sickroom. Written
at a time when life was far from easy, it had long been stored
unmounted, so that the paper was discolored and the red ink of
the seal had faded to a pale orange color, but the power of the
master’s brushwork lived on, sinuous as ever.
Gold-Wing cleaves oceans, Fragrant Elephant crosses rivers.
Unfortunately, Seokdam had lost his only son to cholera,
and he had never chosen any of his pupils to be his designated
successor; as a result, Gojuk, having looked after Seokdam’s house
after his death, had inherited relatively many of his possessions.
But while he was roaming around freely in the prime of life
he had taken no care of them, there had been the upheavals of
the war, and now he only had a few pieces of calligraphy left.
Recently he had found himself lamenting: Soon I shall meet my
master and what excuse am I going to offer for my blunders and
unworthiness? Hidden within that there might also have been
some repentance for his negligence of the Master’s works. But
this framed piece of writing was one major exception. For the
Master’s teaching, that all his life long he had disliked yet feared,
had wanted to attain yet move beyond, was contained within
it. Even now, when he could no longer wield a brush, he could
feel Seokdam’s stern glare lurking between the strokes of the
characters in the frame.
When he was twenty-seven, having grown impatient for
achievement, he left the Master’s home without informing
him. Putting it positively, it was in order to affirm himself, or
putting it negatively, he was looking for opportunities to show
off. And at least to himself the three months that followed were
a successful grand tour. He was awarded the top prize in the
Jeokpa calligraphy contest, received a warm welcome in the few
remaining Confucian schools of the southeastern region, including
those of Naeryeong, Cheongha, or Dusan and occasionally lodged
in the homes of the rich where he was regaled with every kind of
delicacy. As he made his way back home after three months away,
loaded down with all the grain he had received in lieu of payment
for his works, having left pages of calligraphy or painting behind
him at each departure, his self-assurance was soaring sky-high.
Master Seokdam’s reaction was completely unexpected.
“Put all that down.”
Blocking the gate, Master Seokdam first made the porter put
down all the things he was carrying. Then he addressed him.
“Take off your brush-bag and put it on top.”
It was a voice there could be absolutely no question of
disobeying. Without understanding the reason, he took off his
brush-bag and laid it on top of the packages of paper and grain.
Next, the Master drew from his sleeve a match and set fire to it
all.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
47
“Master, what do you think you are doing?”
At that, Master Seokdam replied sternly to his agitated
question.
“Since your uncle made the request, I will let you remain as a
member of my household. But henceforth you are not to address
me by the name of Master. I have never had as disciple a daubster
who begins to hold the brush one morning then boasts of his skill
the same evening.”
After that, a full two years passed before he received his
offended teacher’s pardon. That was a testing time far harsher
and harder to endure than when he had first been admitted as
the lowest-ranking of his pupils. And the piece of calligraphy he
was now gazing up at had been written and handed to him by
Master Seokdam on the day he had finally received his moving
forgiveness.
In writing, let your spirit be like that of Garuda who cleaves
the blue ocean to grab at a dragon and soars with it in his
clutch, let your intelligence be as thorough and solid as that of
Gandhahastin who splits a stream from below, then crosses it…
When he looked back on it, even after a whole lifetime had
passed, in Gojuk’s memory the immensely difficult period of
apprenticeship was still enveloped in a light that closely resembled
an indelible grief and regret.
Perhaps on account of some kind of premonition, Master
Seokdam had treated him with icy precaution from the moment
his uncle had entrusted him to him. Despite the distinction of
his family line, after several generations of scholars, the Master’s
inherited income had not been very great, and at that time he was
mainly relying on the sacks of rice that his small number of pupils
offered each spring and autumn, but nonetheless accepting this
child had not represented such a financial burden that it could
tax Master Seokdam’s mind unduly. Moreover, later, even when
he was grown up and had taken charge of providing for Master
Seokdam, unable to support himself, the Master’s attitude had
not changed, suggesting that there was some kind of intrinsic
problem.
The way Master Seokdam had obliged him to keep reading
year after year the Sohak that other pupils finished in a couple of
years and moved beyond, then had put him into the fourth grade
of primary school at the age of thirteen firmly removing him to a
place far distant from his own kind of learning, was surely linked
with that attitude.
Yet equally incomprehensible had been his own feelings
toward Master Seokdam. Throughout the Master’s lifetime, he
had kept being entangled in contradictory emotions, inexpressible
admiration and equally intense hatred toward him. On looking
back calmly, such feelings were far removed from any kind of
inevitable logicality, but he could locate more or less exactly
48 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
the moment when they had begun to form clearly. It had been
between the age of sixteen, after he had graduated from primary
school and remained in Master Seokdam’s home, and the age of
eighteen, when he had formally begun studies with him. In that
period he had refused a relative’s kind offer to help with school
fees, so turning his back on the rapidly changing world and
any aspiration for the new learning that corresponded to it, had
taken over the management of Master Seokdam’s unpromising
household affairs. Since the sacks of rice brought by the pupils no
longer provided enough food, he supplemented that by cultivating
a few fields previously let out to a tenant, while sometimes
walking twenty or thirty li to gather a load of firewood.
People found him laudable for doing so much, but in reality
from that time onward an intense flame of love-hate had burned
within him. Like the shade of a cloud passing over a spring
hillside, like fields freshly washed by a summer day’s shower,
like a stream in an autumn valley, like a winter sky clearing after
a snowfall, Master Seokdam’s life had been calm, fresh, pure
and quiet yet also tedious, forlorn and desolate, and had always
inspired in him simultaneously an inexplicable admiration and
an ominous premonition. When the Master was seated at his desk
smiling vaguely and seemingly half-asleep, and his soul seemed to
wander through some fluid world illumined solely by the twilight
of past glories, or when, eyes flashing with surreal vitality, he
wielded the large brush like a typhoon, or when in the shade of
a musk-rose bush in the backyard with an unworldly dignity, far
from any uproar, he fingered the geomungo, or painted orchids,
he seemed to be the very model of a dedicated life; but when he
reflected on the housekeeping, on how, unless he looked after
him, within six months they would have a starved corpse on their
hands, or on the dilapidated house that nowadays nobody visited
in the course of a year except for a few old men and the pupils
who were now less numerous than his ten fingers, or on seeing the
helpless expression with which Master Seokdam greeted him on
his return from hard work in the fields, he had the impression that
it was all a kind of cursed fate he had to escape from at all costs.
Yet what had finally dominated Gojuk ’s life had been
the admiration and the veneration. As if it had already been
predetermined when he had suppressed the powerful temptations
of the new world and renounced the new learning, he had finally
set about imitating Master Seokdam with a fervor that he himself
could not account for. Calligraphy models written by the Master
and left behind by departing pupils, spoiled pages of writing or
paintings the Master had thrown aside, literati drawings scrawled
for exchange with fellow calligraphers then left behind, such were
his main models, although sometimes he made bold to take things
directly from the Master’s collection.
The paper and brushes he had used at first were such that
they stirred a chill wind in his breast when he recalled them even
many years later. Smaller characters he practiced in a sand box
or on a plank coated with oiled dust, using stubby brushes the
Master’s pupils had discarded after use, large characters he used
to write with a broom made of hair from a dog’s tail on the large
stone tables for offerings lying in front of tombs, that he would
then wash clean with water. The first time he obtained paper and
brushes of his own was after he had given a bundle of pine-needle
branches to the brush merchant and the paper seller, unknown to
his master…
Later, Master Seokdam is said to have censured that as
Gojuk’s cockiness, yet, in the light of their relationship, it is hard
to believe that in the course of that difficult apprenticeship he not
only never requested Master Seokdam to accept him as a pupil,
but did not so much as give any indication of his ardent desire.
But perhaps that was his artistic pride, the instinctive arrogance
found in certain kinds of great souls.
Then a day came when Master Seokdam left home early in
the morning and he was left alone in charge; after tidying up the
Master’s study, he suddenly experienced a strange urge. It was the
urge to see clearly in a single glance how far he had developed.
The place where Master Seokdam had gone was a Confucian
poetry gathering more than a hundred li away, he would surely be
unable to return within the day.
He prepared the writing table, started to grind ink in the
Master’s Duanxi ink stone. Following the Master’s instructions, he
did not splash so much as a drop of ink; then once the hollowed
space in the stone was full of ink he took up some brushes his
master had left aside when preparing his bag, and some precious
Chinese paper.
First he copied the Twin Cranes Inscription in the Yan style
in square characters. Whereas the great calligrapher Chusa had
considered Oh-Yang Sheun’s Inscription on the Sweet Spring at
Chiu-ch'eng Palace to be the best model for learning the square
characters, that was the model Master Seokdam encouraged his
pupils to master. As he grew accustomed to the brush and paper,
his brush strokes came closer to the original. Next he turned to
writing, also in Yan style, the Monument to Good Etiquette... it
was an ever more arduous task, yet slowly he fell into a state of
high rapture.
He was finally brought down to earth by the sound of an
unexpected shout just as he had finished writing, the opening
lines of Wáng Xīzhī’s “Preface to the Poems Composed at the
Orchid Pavilion” which he had been practicing on his own.
“You scoundrel! Stop that!”
Lifting astonished eyes, he saw Master Seokdam standing
there, looking down at him, in the room that had grown dark
without his noticing. The shout had been loud, but his face
expressed inexplicable apprehension and resignation rather than
wrath. At his side was Master Choi, known by the pen name
Ungok but also by the nickname ‘Sevenfold Gentleman’ because
of his all-round skills in poetry, calligraphy, painting, baduk,
divination, medicine and music; he was looking mystified.
Covered in confusion, he scurried around gathering up
the pages he had written, that lay scattered all over the room.
Contrary to what he had expected, Master Seokdam merely
watched him absently. Ungok spoke.
“Leave what you’ve written.”
His words were addressed to Gojuk as he was about to go
out carrying the pages he had written, after rushing madly about
tidying up the room. Gojuk obeyed almost automatically. Driven
by curiosity and excitement, he came back close to the men’s
quarters and listened to the voices filtering from the room.
For a while the only sound to be heard in the room, where
lights had been lit, was the rustling of paper, then Ungok spoke.
“So, Seokdam, did you really not teach him anything?”
“Maybe he studied by looking over my shoulder, I have never
taught him anything.”
For some reason Seokdam’s reply sounded dejected and
subdued.
“If that’s the case, it’s truly amazing. He must have the gift of
heaven.
Seokdam said nothing.
“Why have you not accepted him as a pupil?”
“Transmission should not be made to one who is not yet a
person—have you forgotten what Wang Youjun said?”
“Do you mean to say you reckon this young man so far from
being a person that you are unable to teach him?”
“First of all, that youth has too much talent. He knows
nothing of points and stokes, yet he can form characters; he has
never learned the twelve principles of calligraphy, yet he knows
harmonization and spacing and turning. He’s a born penman
whose talent blocks the root of the Way.”
“Such words are unexpected from so mild a person. Surely you
can open up the root of the Way for him?”
“You think that’s an easy task? Besides, the boy is hardly likely
to appreciate the fragrance of characters and the vigor of writings.
Yet I must say, this orchid is certainly composed with quite
charming elegance.”
“Don’t you think he’ll develop those qualities after he becomes
your pupil? Go on, accept him!”
“At the outset the only things I agreed to provide were his food
and clothing. I’d hoped that he would acquire the new learning
and find a way to support himself on his own...”
“Seokdam, why on earth are you being like this? Even
someone with whom you have no relationship, if he comes asking
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
49
for instruction, you can’t just send him away, you know. So
what makes you treat so coolly this youth who has eaten at your
table these last seven or eight years? I have heard that for several
years past he has taken charge of supporting you. Don’t you feel
touched by pity at such devotion?”
At that point, Ungok’s voice filled with indignation. It seemed
that he had already heard talk of his strange relationship with
Seokdam.
“Don’t blame me too harshly. To tell the truth, I myself do not
know why that child troubles me. Every time I see him, my only
feeling is that some evil fate has brought us together.
Master Seokdam’s voice trembled slightly.
“Then what about this? If he’s a burden to you, send him to
me at least once every three days. It looks as though it would be
wrong for him to abandon this path now.”
“There’s no need for that. I’ll train him.”
What could Master Seokdam have meant by evil fate? And
what made him suddenly decide to accept him despite saying such
a thing?
The next day, Gojuk’s name was formally included among the
pupils of Master Seokdam. That is not to say that there was some
kind of solemn admission ceremony. That day Gojuk was going
out of the front gate with an A-frame on his back as usual when
Master Seokdam called out to him.
“From today you are not to go working in the fields.”
He spoke as if making some kind of passing remark. Then,
casting a sidelong glance at Gojuk who was bewildered by the
sudden command, he insisted in a louder voice:
“I’m telling you to take off that frame and go into my study.”
Such had been the ceremony marking the start of their
destined relationship as master and pupil.
At the sudden sound of the door opening, Gojuk’s thoughts
returned to present realities from the hazy past in which they
had been roaming. Looking in the direction of the door with
unfocussed eyes, he saw Maehyang coming in. He felt his back
grow strangely cold as his sight cleared. How much resentment she
must have felt, to come all this way... Gojuk, filled with a feeling
similar to remorse, gazed at Maehyang as she approached. No, it
was not her.
“Father, are you awake?”
It was Jusu. She approached silently to examine his complexion
and her face, devoid of makeup, betrayed intense concern.
Summoning all his strength he tried to raise himself. Perhaps
prepared for such a move, Jusu calmly helped him lean back. He
could feel that raising himself was becoming more difficult with
each passing day.
“Shall I bring you some fruit juice?”
50 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
She addressed him again but, instead of replying, he dumbly
scrutinized her face then abruptly asked in a weak, hoarse voice:
“Do you remember your mother?”
Hearing his question, Jusu looked at him with a look of
surprise. It might have been because, although she had been
caring for him for more than seven years now, ever since the
previous old woman had died, she had never once heard him ask
such a question. In fact it had been longer still since his lips had
last spoken Maehyang’s name.
“Only from photos...”
Of course, poor child, entrusting the newly born baby to her
family and going back to the gisaeng house, then, less than two
years later, committing that foolish deed...
“But father, why do you ask?”
“Just now I thought you were your mother coming in.”
Jusu said nothing.
“She was not the kind to make old bones, yet, there was no
need for her to hasten things like that...”
Seeing her father’s face fill with grief as he spoke, Jusu’s face,
that had unusually tightened for a moment, softened again to its
normal state.
“Shall I bring you some fruit juice?”
She repeated her question as if she wanted to change the
mood. He replied, shaking off the thought of Maehyang:
“If you have some green tea ready, give me a sip of that.”
Jusu opened a window briefly to change the air in the room,
then went out quietly.
What was that passion that spurred me on so violently... as he
drank the cool tea Jusu had brought, Gojuk recalled the first time
he had met Maehyang. At thirty-five he had left Master Seokdam
for the second time and spent the next ten years wandering from
place to place.
It was during the years just preceding the beginning of the war
between Japan and China in 1931, a time when there were still
Confucian scholars, traditional schools were still a living reality,
and regular poetry gatherings, literary contests and competitions
were regularly held. Perhaps because he had been formed by
Master Seokdam, who was even known as the Triple Master, being
equally outstanding in poetry, calligraphy and painting, or on
account of the fact that he had, despite the Master’s scoldings, had
works accepted at several National Art Exhibitions, his travels had
been relatively luxurious for such a depressed and impoverished
period. Once a month or so, somewhere around the country he
would find himself invited to take the seat of honor at a gathering,
and in every county there remained at least one worthy prepared
to pay him enough for a single work to cover a whole month’s
journeying.
It was during the same period that he had paid a visit to
Reviews Fiction
Coming Home
What Is Baseball?
Kim Kyung-wook, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 256p, ISBN9788954622042
Baseball is one of many games that involve
identical starting and ending points. In
order to leave the home plate, batters must
strike the ball with great force, and to
return to home plate, base runners must
run as if their lives depend on it. Although
leaving home plate is in the hands of
the batter, returning to home plate is an
endeavor that requires one's teammates
to do well at bat. Ultimately, leaving and
returning to home plate is no simple affair
because it requires both skill and luck.
Ac c ord ing to K i m Ky u ng-wook,
What Is Baseball? is not a novel about
baseball but rather a tale of revenge. The
protagonist lost his younger brother 30
years ago during the brutal suppression
of the Gwangju Democratic Movement.
The troops sent to Gwangju to enforce
martial law under the military dictatorship
played dice games to determine whether
their prisoners were communist partisans
or not. The protagonist’s younger brother
became a victim of the soldiers' cruel
game. His family has trouble coping with
the brother’s death and slides toward ruin.
When his mother finally passes away, he
vows revenge on those who caused his
brother's death. Armed only with an old
knife, a pair of dice, and a vial of cyanide,
he goes in search of the soldier who beat
his brother to death. He discovers the
perpetrator in a hospital, but the soldier
is brain dead as the result of an accident.
Although the protagonist has dreamed of
vengeance for the past 30 years, now he
realizes that the time for vengeance has
passed and decides to return home and live
his life. It's unclear, however, where home
is. Is it even possible for him to return to a
normal life?
What Is Baseball? A variet y of
inexplicable coincidences catches the
protagonist off-guard, highlighting the
unexpected nature of life. The author has
purposely written the entire novel in the
present tense to avoid a style of exposition
akin to a personal chronicle. Just like the
protagonist, all of us are struggling in the
seas of life, somewhere between departure
and arrival. Baseball uncannily resembles
life in this respect.
by Cho Yeon-jung
A Master of Murder
How a Murderer Remembers
Kim Young Ha, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 176p, ISBN 9788954622035
A serial killer retired after his last murder
25 years ago. He buried dead bodies in the
forest of bamboo he bought, and adopted
Eunhee as his daughter, who is actually
the daughter of his last victim. Now he
is about to kill again. A series of murders
occur in a regional district and near the
region, a suspicious man driving a jeep
approaches Eunhee. Can this former serial
killer save his daughter from a new serial
killer?
Kim Young Ha’s latest novel, How
a Murderer Remembers, reminds us of
his first bestseller, I Have the Right to
Destroy Myself. In I Have the Right to
Destroy Myself, Kim has listed the “suicide
instructor” who plans and assists with
the suicide of clients as a new face in the
history of Korean fiction. How a Murderer
Remembers, which is based on the record
of a person who presides over death, also
shows the protagonist who proudly recalls
his past, at least, until after the first several
pages. It makes sense because his poem “A
Knife and Bones,” is not a metaphor, but
literally as it is.
However, the writer asks again: who
presides over death? After it is revealed that
the protagonist has Alzheimer’s disease,
readers meet more often a typical 70-yearold man who desperately fights against his
collapsing memories. This novel, consisting
of a series of chapters abruptly cut off like
the protagonist’s own memories, sends the
readers into chaos by turning everything
back to the beginning in the end. The last
part of the story creates a gripping scene
when the perilous castle of memories he
has built is swallowed up into oblivion and
illusions.
Not only is this kind of miserable
serial killer story unusual, but this level
of introspection in a serial killer is also
rare. What makes him endlessly small?
Kim, who has been skeptical about all of
humankind and history, now tries to put
himself on the stage of doubt.
by Cha Mi-ryeong
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
57
Reviews Fiction
Dreams of the Downtrodden
Tragicomic Miss Teletubby
Kang Youngsook, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 246p, ISBN 9788932024189
Tr a g i c o m i c Mi s s Te l e t u bb y i s K a n g
Youngsook’s seventh published book and
third novel; it is another excellent example
of the author’s hardboiled point of view of
the anxiety present in everyday city life.
In this work Kang depicts the romance
of a man named Dong-seok, manager
of the Korean branch of a multinational
electronics company, and a 16-year-old
girl named Hana, who carries a Teletubby
doll everywhere. These two are not an
ordinary couple, however, but locked in
a material relationship based on money
that is doomed to fail from the beginning.
While their relationship may look like
a destructive coupling of the upper and
lower classes of the urban society they live
in, there is too much to it to be dismissed
as an unethical, antisocial crime.
On the surface level Dong-seok and
Hana are unquestionably engaged in
underage prostitution, but between the
two of them they create a private space
that is invisible from the viewpoint of
society. Needless to say, this relationship
Reciprocating One’s Hell
Sweet, Cold
Oh Hyun-jong, Minumsa Publishing Group
2013, 202p, ISBN 9788937473029
In Oh Hyun-jong’s Sweet, Cold, the world
is basically hell; as Shinhye says to Jiyong:
“Everyone says ‘I’m in hell.’ Everyone says
that they’re in hell because of you, but you
also cry out that you’re in hell.”
The bizarre relationship in this story
portrays a place that has become a hell
because it only operates according to the
logic of exchange. Shinhye tells Jiyong,
“There’s no such thing as free of charge.
Not even for a friend.” This comment
echoes what Shinhye’s mother spits out
when she makes her 11-year-old daughter
prostitute herself for the first time.
Jiyong’s mother torturously steps into
his life because she wants reciprocation
for having provided excessive economic
aid for her son. His mother neither asks
nor is interested in what he wants. As a
result Jiyong, touting it like it’s a natural
conclusion, says: “The only way to punish
58 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
evil is with evil itself,” which is also solely
based on the logic of exchange.
In this novel, what is offered always
requ ires compensation. Jiyong feels
“sweet, cold” mellowness from Shinhye’s
lips, but he soon turns into a murderer.
Shinhye, who helps turn him into one, is
also miserably betrayed by her stepfather.
To begin with, the murder that Jiyong
supposedly commits for Shinhye comes to
light as an act that also benefitted him.
In the hell that Oh Hyun-jong creates,
giving without wanting compensation
makes no sense at all. Thus, “the person
who has been truly used, the one who
has been deserted” is everyone after all. If
there is any truth left, it is solely the fact
that “We’ll live in the same hell until the
day we die.”
by Lee Kyungjae
is not a sustainable one. It can only end
in disaster, but rather than investigate
the knotty ethics of this relationship the
author chooses to focus on Hana’s coping
mechanism, namely her desire to write.
As the story traces Hana’s footsteps,
it is revealed that writing helps her bear
the crushing loneliness and deprivation
in her life. She desires to imagine a world
beyond her reality. Of course, the desire to
write does not solve the problems of reality
in one swoop. It does, however, hold a
mirror up to the dehumanization of city
living that makes up our everyday life, and
forces us to reflect on the downtrodden
dreams of those brutally excluded from the
establishment.
Is it possible to imagine a different
kind of future for mankind under this
system of capitalism that shows no sign of
change? Kang Youngsook’s novel dreams
of a different kind of life beyond this
reality, a vision driven by the celebration of
female solidarity and a belief in the power
of writing to connect and comfort.
by Kang Dongho
Reviews Fiction
On Night and Waiting
Night Passes
Pyun Hye-young, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 247p, ISBN 9788936437268
Some writers reveal the secrets of the
world, while others create a world filled
with secrets. If there are only two kinds
of writers, Pyun Hye-young definitely
belongs to the latter. She leaves a signature
of authority on the world of her creation.
AOI Garden (2005), the author’s first
collection of short stories, revolves around
diseases banished by rationality, death,
and the return of ghosts. She arrived at
Night Passes after examining the crumbling
of everyday life in To the Kennels (2007)
and civilization built on the “hell of
uniformity” in Evening Courtship (2011).
For the author, “night” refers to the demise
of rationality, a silence from the stagnation
of life, and the end of a civilization
in which creation and destruction no
longer exist. The old man in “Night
Journey” awaits the end of the world
by himself in an apartment about to be
torn down. Locked in a bunker designed
for emergency use, the protagonist in
"Blackout" waits to grow accustomed to
the darkness.
In “Waiting,” crouching amid the
darkness, a man waits for morning to
come. There is nothing that the man can
do to bring forward the morning or block
out the darkness. All that remains for
the man to do is to wait for the night to
pass. “Waiting” is about having faith that
morning will come, to put up with the
barbarism and violence triggered in the
dark, and to have something else replace
the anxiety. “Waiting” is not an act of
passive evasion but an active process taken
up by those who have not given up hope.
In the words of the author, night has fallen
on the world, and it is passing. Man has to
continue waiting for a long time.
by Suh Heewon
Reality Bites
Goodbye, My Everything
Jeong Yi-hyun, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 252p, ISBN 9788936434052
This book tells the story of a girl growing
up in the 1990s when capitalism was at
a new height in Korea. It is set in the
middle of Gangnam, which is seeing a
surge of capital, sex, authority, and desire.
Sampoong Department Store collapses as
explosively as the growth of capitalism. A
teenage girl and boy experience pagers, CD
players, self-study after school, Chungking
Express and video rooms, studying abroad,
and family conflicts over real estate. The
author reports the growth of the 1990s
generation amid the reality and culture of
capitalism.
Sae-mi is a female high school student
who l ive s w it h her g ra nd mot her i n
Hannam-dong. Her grandmother uses
her wealth to help Sae-mi’s aunt marry
a prosecutor. Sae-mi is left in the care
of her grandmother after her father's
second marriage. The story ends with her
grandmother’s sudden death. Sae-mi’s
father and aunt, who have been eyeing
the family property, sell the house after
reporting their mother as missing.
Keeping everything a secret, Sae-mi
says goodbye to her days as a teenager.
Realizing that everyone is alone in the end,
she slowly becomes an adult.
The death of Sae-mi’s grandmother
s y mb ol i z e s t he c ol l a p s e of K ore a’s
capitalism. Sae-mi and her friends go
their separate ways as adults. This book
is a cheery yet dismal portrait of the third
generation growing up under capitalism
who had to share abundance, desire, and
hypocrisy in their teens.
by Kim Yonghee
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
59
Reviews Fiction
Sibling Survival
A Forest That No One Has Seen
Cho Hae-jin, Minumsa Publishing Group
2013, 192p, ISBN 9788937473012
A boy named Shin Hyun-su is declared
dead because of his mother’s debts. When
a large explosion occurs at a subway station
in K city, the moneylenders try to get
compensation by claiming that Hyunsu is one of the victims. Mi-su, who is
seven years older than Hyun-su, is kept
in the dark and saddened by the sudden
death of her brother. Mi-su spends a lonely
childhood and becomes a desk clerk at a
building. She begins a relationship with
Yun, a security guard, but it is not enough
to make up for her loneliness.
Meanwhile, Hyun-su becomes a broker
for forging documents. Having turned 18,
he is almost an adult. But he cannot get
employment since he is officially dead to
society. Even so, he does not turn into a
vengeful monster. He looks up his sister in
her studio apartment and quietly watches
over her. Hyun-su is engaged in an act
of ultimate good will. This is when the
reversal of roles begins. It is the abandoned
brother who protects his sister. In the final
scene, the siblings find each other at long
last in the forest.
The forest is a place of good will. The
Confession from Afar
The Proposal
Bae Myung-hoon, Munyejoongang (Joongang Books)
2013, 260p, ISBN 9788927804550
A love letter arrives from afar. The letter
ends with “I will be your star from across
the universe.” This sentence will allow
readers to imagine letters f illed with
romantic, beautiful metaphors. But here,
the author is not speaking metaphorically
when he mentions the “universe” and
“star.” The Proposal by Bae Myung-hoon
takes the form of a sci-fi romance novel.
In space, distance is represented by
time. The protagonist, an operations
officer of the United Earth Surface, is
battling an unk nown opponent. His
girlfriend is still living on planet Earth,
separated from him by 170 hours. He
travels 170 hours to pay his girlfriend a
short visit. His happiest memory is the
moment when he says “I miss you” and it
takes less than one second to hear her say,
“Me too.”
60 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
It is miraculous for two people to exist
in the same space and time, and to feel the
same way about each other. In this age, we
can exchange our thoughts and emotions
at any time with anyone. But are we
sharing how we truly feel? Why is this not
possible even when we are not eons apart
and free from the threat of war?
The Proposal is filled with complex
a st ronom ic a l t he or ie s a nd m i l it a r y
knowledge. But the author shines most
in his ref lections on authentic love and
communication.
by Choi Sungmin
siblings have discovered a secret storage for
the abandoned and the left behind. They
do all they can to look after each other.
Their pure intentions are what help to keep
the forest together. The author reminds
us to think of the forest when our lives are
threatened by the evil forces of the cruel
world.
by Yang Yun-eui
Steady Sellers
Yi Sang’s short story
“Jongsaeng-gi”
(Diary of a Lifetime)
13ChildrenRushdownaStreet.
(AdeadendalleyisSuitable.)
© Munhaksasang
This is the opening of “Ogamdo (Crow’s Eye
View) Poem No. I” which Yi Sang published
in 1934. Eighty years have passed since then
and it is still not clear what the significance
of the “13” is. He is the most abstruse writer
in the histor y of early modern Korean
literature. He is at the same time the most
popular writer. Among Koreans with the
slightest interest in literature, there is scarcely
anyone who does not know two quotables
from Yi Sang: the line about “13 children”
from “Ogamdo” and the “genius turned
into a stuffed specimen” from “Wings.” The
fascination surrounding Yi Sang’s writings
continues today.
Overlapping shadows of modernity and
colonialism hang over Yi's life and work. He
was born in 1910 in the city then known
as Gyeongseong (Seoul). That was the year
Korea became a Japanese colony. He grew
up directly experiencing the transformation
of Gyeongseong into a modern city; after
entering Gyeongseong Technica l High
School he studied architecture. His urban
sensitivity and architectural studies combine
with texts referring to cinema, advertising,
art, and music, as well as symbols and
geometrical diagrams to form a freely used
background to his works.
Generally his works are considered to be
surrealistic. He certainly felt an affinity with
the films of Jean Renoir and the paintings of
Salvador Dalí. However, his works are not
the result of studying and imitating Western
Surrealism. Yi Sang’s works originate at
the point where he found his fear of death
in geometry and treated it by playing with
symbols.
Yi Sang twice experienced being seized
by death. The first time was when he was
adopted by his uncle at the age of two. Like
Salvador Dalí who was forced to take the
name of his dead elder brother, He was
deprived of his own identity without regard
for his own wishes. The second was when he
contracted tuberculosis at age 20. It was from
that point that he began to write in earnest.
The image of children running up a blind
alley pale with dread can be seen as a literary
self-portrait.
What options could allow him to escape
from a life in the grasp of fear? One was to
pursue love affairs as a kind of game; another
was to transform the fear of death into
symbols. Transforming a fear of death into
symbols and into games is the fundamental
basis of Yi Sang’s work. As a result, he found
himself obliged to change his own death into
a symbol. "Diary of a Lifetime" is written as
a fictionalized account of his own death. Yi
Sang died on April 17, 1937, in Tokyo. The
story "Diary of a Lifetime" was completed
one month prior. Thus it may be called the
ghost of writing or the writing of a ghost:
“Aged twenty-six and thirty months,
Master Yi Sang! Scarecrow! You are so old.
You are a skeleton with knees higher than
your ears. No, no. You are your distant
ancestor.”
the writer Yi Sang (1910-1937)
So far, the complete works of Yi Sang
have undergone f ive updated revisions.
Today, research on Yi is being undertaken
not only by practitioners of traditional
literary studies but by mathematicians,
psychoanalysts, media studies scholars, and
art historians among others. This is because
the games played with the ghost of an
endlessly fascinating body of work known as
Yi Sang have not ended, and because they are
so fascinating.
by Kim Dongshik
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
61
Poetry
Crow’s Eye View*
Poem No. I
by Yi Sang
13ChildrenRushdownaStreet.
13Childrenwerejustgatheredtogetherlikethataseither
(AdeadendalleyisSuitable.)
frighteningorfrightenedChildren(Theabsenceofanyother
Conditionwashighlypreferable.)
The1stChildsaysit’sfrightening.
The2ndChildsaysit’sfrightening.
IfAmongstthem1ChildisafrighteningChildit’sfine.
The3rdChildsaysit’sfrightening.
IfAmongstthem2ChildrenarefrighteningChildrenit’sfine.
The4thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
IfAmongstthem2ChildrenarefrightenedChildrenit’sfine.
The5thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
IfAmongstthem1ChildisafrightenedChildit’sfine.
The6thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
The7thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
(AsfortheroadevenanopenalleyisSuitable.)
The8thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
Evenif13ChildrendonotRushdowntheStreetit’sfine
The9thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
The10thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
translated by Walter K. Lew
The11thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
The12thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
The13thChildsaysit’sfrightening.
*The work entitled "Crow’s Eye View" consists of Poems 1 to 15, which were originally published in separate
installments. The Chinese character for “crow” in the title "Crow’s Eye View" is widely known to be an altered version
of the character for “bird.” A bird’s eye view (䎊㖧㣭) is an expression referring to a representation of a building viewed
from above, usually a blueprint. Yi removed a single stroke from the first character “bird 䎊㓫 to make “crow (䁓)”
giving the phrase a new meaning with darker connotations. The poems were published in the Joseon Joongang Ilbo
over the period from July 24th until August 8th, 1934. With the aim of deconstructing poetic meaning and creating
it anew, Yi departed from poetic convention, bringing symbols and diagrams into play, and using terse, repetitive
statements.
62 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
overseas publications by Yi Sang
Yi Sang (1910-1937) is a well-known author of the Japanese
occupation period. He was active in every genre, writing poetry,
fiction, and essays. His poems and stories, in particular, exhibit
the characteristics of modernism in the 1930s. In his poems, he
showed us the desolate landscape of the modern human mind, and
with the use of anti-realist techniques in works such as “Crow’s Eye
View, Poem No.I,” he gave us a stark view of his subject matter:
pure anxiety and horror. In his stories, as well, he deconstructed the
formal conventions of fiction and laid bare the modern condition.
For example, in the short story “Wings,” he used stream-ofconsciousness to express the alienation of modern human beings,
who are fragmented, commodified, and unable to function in their
daily lives. All 80 or so of his works are compiled together in the
collected works by Yi Sang.
The Complete Works of Yi Sang: Poetry (Vol.1) and Fiction (Vol.2)
Yi Sang, edited by Kim Ju-hyeon
Somyong Publishing Co., 2009, 407p, ISBN 9788956264400 (Vol.1)
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
63
Reviews
Nonfiction
Reviews Nonfiction
Rivalry Enriches Literature
Rivals in the History of Literature
Kim Yun-sik, Greenbee Publishing Company
2013, 367p, ISBN 9788976821560
The author Kim Yun-sik (1936- ) is a
leading Korean researcher in the history
of literature. His achievements, especially
in the study of literary criticism, have
set a high standard. In fact, he is part of
the history of Korean literature himself.
In addition, he has written reviews
for major literary works published in
Korea. The depth and spectrum that he
demonstrated in his literary criticism
and reviews are reflected in this book.
But why does the title have to be
“rivals in the history of literature?”
A writer is also a human being; he
cannot escape from the logic of his
surroundings. In this conflict, the fight
for acknowledgment and for status—
Prestigekampf—is inevitable. The author
mentions the aspect of Hegelian insight,
and suggests that writers find themselves
in the same situation.
The topic of rivalry in the history
of literature may invoke crude interest.
A rivalry in any field draws attention.
However, the author’s interest does not
lie in the writers’ dramas or any literary
scandal. His interest resides in how the
sense of rivalry inspires competitors
a nd how it h a s e n r ic he d K or e a n
contemporary literature.
The author’s attention focuses on five
different rivalries. First, he focuses on
the rivalry between Yang Ju-dong (19031977) and Jo Yun-jae (1904-1976), who
both fought against the academicism of
Kyungsung Imperial University under
Japanese colonization. Secondly, he
writes about the argument between the
poet Kim Su-young of the 1960s (19211968) and the literary critic Lee O-young
(1934- ) on so-called disturbing poetry.
Next he explores the rivalry between
himself and Kim Hyeon (1942-1990),
with whom he co-authored The History
of Korean Literature (1973), and whose
intellectual paths have since then taken
different directions. Fourth, he covers
the atmosphere of rivalry between the
two leading Korean literary magazines
Literature and Intelligence and Changbi
Quarterly. Fifth, the writers Lee Mun-ku
and Park Sang-ryung, as disciples of the
giant in modern Korean literature, Kim
Dong-ni (1913-1995), tried to overcome
their teachers’ way. These five different
riva lries ca me to form the critica l
questions surrounding Korean literature
and diversified and enriched the map of
Korean literature ever since.
The most interesting relationship
he writes about is between the author
himself and Kim Hyeon. In the preface
to The History of Korean Literature
(1972), a book they co-authored, Kim
Hyeon assessed that his “existential
psychoanalysis” and K im Yun-sik ’s
“positivist spirit” complemented each
other. Nevertheless, he sharply criticized
Kim Yun-sik. He even points out, that
“He [Kim Yun-sik] expresses what can
be written in one line in 10 lines. Such
expansion is banal and boring because
there is no surprise, which is the subtlety
of riddle.”
Kim Yun-sik admits that he could
understand his true self at last through
such criticism; he could understand that
his “positivist spirit” was the product
of an existential crisis from dilemma.
He says that Kim Hyeon’s method of
analyzing Kim Yun-sik's inner self is
not a form of psychoanalysis, but an
expression of his love for him. This book
is compulsory reading in order not to
miss important periods of contemporary
Korean literature.
by Pyo Jeonghun
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
65
Reviews Nonfiction
Liberalism in Korea
The Romantic Future of Koh Jong-sok
Koh Jong-sok, Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
2013, 246p, ISBN 9788901159904
If the word “intellectual” still has any
validity in the 21st century, then Koh
Jong-sok occupies a unique position as a
Korean intellectual.
Koh majored in linguistics at École
des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
(EHESS) and has written elegant critical
essays on linguistics. He has worked as a
newspaper reporter for close to 30 years
and has had several novels published. His
multi-genre writings are equivalent to the
output of intellectuals who lived half a
century ago.
Koh Jong-sok considers himself and
is k nown by others as a libera l. The
reason why I view him as a truly unique
intellectual is because of the weak hold
of liberalism in Korea. During the Cold
War, South Korea, trumpeting a liberal
Korea, was the complete antithesis of
communism; therefore, liberalism could
not possibly exist in a time of such intense
confrontation.
In the past, military dictators were at
the vanguard of a liberal Korea; those who
fought against them to achieve democracy
were closer to warriors than freedom
f ig hters or libera ls. T herefore bot h
diametrically opposed groups contributed
to the demise of liberalism.
From the perspective of so-called
de veloped nations, Koh Jong-seok 's
assertion on many issues in South Korea
such as North Korea, patriotism, and
ideological conflict may seem self-evident
and non-debatable. This is because of
the peculiar ideological circumstances in
Korea. However, it is important to note
that such views are held by relatively few
people in Korea.
Only after one discerns that liberalism
(which is arguably closer to a consensus
or a commonly held view rather than an
ideology) is still a minority viewpoint, can
one have an accurate understanding of the
nature of conflicts in Korean society.
by Bae No-pil
Understanding Painting
How To Appreciate Korea’s Traditional Paintings
Heo Gyun, Dolbegae Publishers
2013, 352p, ISBN 9788971995600
To understand Joseon era (1392-1910)
paintings, one must know Confucian
philosophy. The old paintings of East Asia
are not simply landscapes or portraits but
contain the essence of a philosophy. Yet,
a philosophy is not merely a conceptual
framework. Philosophy absorbs countless
historica l experiences, growing ever
deeper; in the process of developing these
experiences, it adapts an aesthetic.
In order to fully appreciate East Asian
paintings, which are the culmination of
Confucian philosophy, one needs to have
a basic knowledge of the Nine Chinese
Classics that consists of the Four Books,
including the Analects by Confucius and
the writings of Mencius; and the Five
Classics, including the I Ching; the Classic
of Poetry; the Book of Documents; the
Book of Rites; and the Spring and Autumn
Annals. In particular, two texts are said
to be very helpful: the Book of Documents,
66 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
which records the political history of
ancient China and the Classic of Poetry,
an essential source of East Asian literature
and poetry.
Ju s t a s it i s n e c e s s a r y t o k n o w
C h r i s t i a n ic ono g r a phy i n ord e r to
properly understand Western art, it is a
prerequisite to be informed of what can be
characterized as Confucian iconography to
understand the art of the Joseon era, which
was a reflection of a state that sought to
embody a purist neo-Confucian ideology.
It would be wiser to view this book
as a means to understand the Confucian
system of thought, possibly through a
single idealized representative picture,
instead of being over whelmed in
thinking one has to have a comprehensive
knowledge of the entire Confucian canon.
It is a book that serves as an excellent aid
in showing how East Asian philosophy is
visually manifested. From the poetry of
Su Dong Po, which says, “Within a poem
there is the picture and within a picture
is the poetry,” one simply needs to replace
“poetry” with “Confucianism” to achieve a
more complete understanding.
by Bae No-pil
Reviews Nonfiction
The Familiar in the Unfamiliar
Wanderings Through Landscapes
Baek Jin, Hyohyung Publishing Co.
2013, 224p, ISBN 9788958721215
Many people say life is a journey. This
is true in that we are constantly moving
from one place to another, and that the
memories of previous places continuously
overlap with those of current places.
A rc h itec t Baek Ji n su m m a r i z e s t he
common characteristics of life and travel
as “wanderings through landscapes” and
has published a beautiful book with the
same title. We move constantly from one
landscape to another. This is what life is
and what the book conveys.
The author calmly scrutinizes ideas
and thoughts that arise as he travels
through cities such as Athens, Paris,
Rome, Varanasi, Jerusalem, Philadelphia,
Tokyo, and Osaka. These unfamiliar
landscapes of foreign lands overlap with
familiar scenery from his hometown. Jin
says, “Looking back, I’ve been wandering
between landscapes throughout my life.”
Therefore, the endless scenery included in
this book represents the nature and façade
of artificial culture on the one hand, and
the inner thoughts of an individual who
continues life through travel, on the other.
Suc h w a nder i ng bet we en spac e s
expands happily to temporal wandering
between the present and the past, and
t hen to intel lectu a l wa ndering t hat
crosses boundaries between architecture,
philosophy, and art. In this sense, Jin’s
travels are written differently from the
views of an indifferent traveler and the
views of a first-time traveler whose long
reports are based mostly on curiosity. He
wanders slowly between the “I” and “the
Other” and between home and foreign
lands with affection, which is what makes
reading this book and following his travels
such a joy.
by Kim Su-yeong
What Power Means Today
Chaebols: The Transnational Capital
That Rules Korea
Park Hyeng-joon, Chaeksesang
2013, 445p, ISBN 9788970138503
One of the fundamental questions in
the field of political economy is how the
mutual relationship between politics and
the economy has unfolded throughout
h istor y. T here a re ma ny compet ing
theories that try to explain why politics
and economics have developed in their
present direction.
Today many scholars are beginning to
acknowledge the theory of capital as power
as a compelling hypothesis. This theory
was developed by professors Jonathan
Nitzan and Shimson Bichler. According
to their theory, in capitalism, money is the
measure of power and companies represent
the premier power institutions in this
system.
The author became familiar with
the theory of capital as power through
the works of Nitzan, and has written
the meticulously-researched Chaebols:
the Transnational Capital That Rules
Korea t h rou g h t h is t heoret ic a l lens
while analyzing the history of Korean
capitalism. According to author Park,
“For the past half-century, the direction
of change in Korean society has followed
the principles of capital as power." Viewed
in t his context, t he major trends in
Korea's modern history have reflected the
evolution of capital and power.
T he big gest milestones in t his
evolution were the 1987 transfer of power
from a military to a civilian government
and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The
former marks the beginning of modern
Korean society and politics, while the
latter marks the most important economic
turning point in modern Korea. Park
uses the theory of capital as power like
a magnif ying glass to illuminate the
meaning of these two milestones through
meticulous analysis and a compelling
narrative.
This reviewer would like to
congratulate Chaeksesang for this latest
addition to its Global Political Economy
(GPE) series, which further broadens
the horizons of political economy books
available to Korean readers.
by Kim Su-yeong
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
67
Reviews Nonfiction
Crimes, Criminals, & Detectives
Traces of Crimes Seen Through Scientific
Investigation
Yoo Young-kyu, Alma Publishing Corp.
2013, 260p, ISBN 9788994963853
Books on “crime” occupy large sections in
overseas bookstores. Many popular foreign
television dramas such as CSI (Crime
Scene Investigation), are also mostly about
crime. Their stories are formed by the
criminal, the people who chase after the
criminal, and the crime itself.
Yo o Yo u n g - k y u , t h e a u t h o r o f
Traces of Crimes Seen Through Scientific
Investigation, is a print journalist who
reports on murder cases. After consulting
forensic profe ssiona ls a nd f ront line
detectives, a nd a na ly zing records of
criminal investigations, he serialized a
famous newspaper column on scientific
investigation titled “Crime Leaves Clues.”
His writings have been viewed online more
than 40 million times.
In contemporar y Korea n societ y,
people have been murdered for insurance
money and killed by drug addiction. As
well, serial killers who commit ghoulish
deeds have become a phenomenon. The
sophistication of recent crimes has long
since outpaced the crimes of the past
Hosting Parasites
A Variety Show of Parasites
Seo Min, Eulyoo Publishing Co.
2013, 329p, ISBN 9788932472133
The number of Koreans infected with
parasites still hovers around 2.6 percent;
therefore, it is important to be on the alert
for parasites. But Seo Min, a research
professor of parasites at a university,
emph a si z e s how t he se pa ra site s a re
sneaky but not greedy. Seo believes that
parasites can serve a positive function; for
example, the number of people that have
been infected by parasites is noticeably
low regarding skin diseases, asthma, and
other allergic ailments. Moreover, he says
that parasites can also be used to treat
obesity. The author thereby applies the
hypothesis of hygiene to the relationship of
parasites to humans, with a reminder that
an obsession with hygiene weakens the
immune system.
Seo ha s rec ent ly made va riou s
television appearances, and has now
become a popular regular on one show.
68 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
I find the author as storyteller, however,
much funnier than the one seen on TV.
If one were to ascertain the behavioral
patterns of humans that overlap with
parasites, then this book would provide
double the enjoyment. Articles in the book
were at one time the most popular series
on the Naver portal site.
It was quite shocking to f ind out
that some parasite specialists, given the
opportunity, would not hesitate to host a
rare parasite in their own bodies. And it is
equally astounding that the author of this
book has had such an experience.
by Kim Mansu
that were usua lly caused by extreme
poverty. The methods of Korean scientific
investigation have gone through amazing
developments as well, and technology such
as DNA testing in Korea are now on par
with the world's best.
Yoo Young-kyu's book investigates the
reality of Korean society's hidden side,
where extreme competition for survival is
on-going. His book deals with the stories
of victims and suspects, the increasingly
soph ist ic ated a spec t s of crime, a nd
the legal order in Korea that is having
difficulty keeping up with criminals.
by Kim Mansu
Reviews Nonfiction
Food’s Hidden Stories
Korean History Through Korean Food
Joo Youngha, Humanist Publishing Group
2013, 572p, ISBN 9788958626541
In general, certain dishes come to mind
when one think s of Korea n cuisine:
bulgogi, bibimbap, samgyetang, gujeolpan
(platter of nine delicacies), and shinseonro
(roya l hot pot d ish). B ibimbap a nd
samgyetang, which are traditional Korean
dishes, are very popular with foreigners.
But do these foods offer truly indigenous
f lavors and when were they first made?
Korean History Through Korean Food
prov ide s a n s wer s to t he s e k i nd s of
questions. Professor Joo Youngha, who
has worked on unraveling the story of
food from the perspective of history and
the humanities, sets straight the history of
20th century Korean food.
Beef-bone soups like seolleongtang,
a nd gomtang, chueotang (f ish ste w),
and manduguk (dumpling soup), that
one can easily find anywhere in Korea,
represent the Koreans’ proclivity toward
the combination of rice and soup. Soup
and rice eateries became very widespread
in the latter half of the 19th century, and
thus were popular among urban laborers
seeking a simple meal. Only in the 20th
century did Koreans begin mixing red hot
pepper paste (gochujang) into bibimbap,
a rice dish with a va riet y of cooked
vegetables along with meat and an egg.
This coincides with the time period when
the mass production of pepper was possible
with the development of various different
species through pepper cultivation.
So-called traditional food, which
21st century Koreans enjoy eating, was
in actuality set in its present form only
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
These foods were influenced by Japanese,
Chinese, and other foreign foods in
the process of evolving to their current
state. In other words, even “traditional”
food did not appear out of the blue but
rather, reflect the social culture and the
vicissitudes of the history of the times.
Therefore, 21st century Korean food can
only contain the past hundred years or so
of Korean history. In short, history is very
much alive on our tables.
by Han Mihwa
A Remote Beauty Unveiled
Untamed Land of Nomads
Seo Jun, MID
2013, 318p, ISBN 9791185104034
Vast meadows and deserts without a single
soul in sight for days. The Central Asian
region is made up of mysterious rocky
mountains and sandy hills that make you
feel as if you’re on another planet. The
region, yet unfamiliar to the people of the
world, is beautiful for its harsh natural
environment and extreme bleakness. It’s
a remote area untouched by outsiders, so
unfamiliar that no materials can be found
on it in books or the Internet.
Seo Jun, a producer who specializes
in documentaries about remote areas and
captures their beauty with his camera in
works such as Mongolia, a Land of Ancient
Times (2006), The Himalayas (2009), and
The Steppes of Asia (2010), guides readers to
unknown regions of Central Asia through
his latest work. In it, he tells the stories
that were left untold in his documentaries.
Stories about deserts where
temperatures range from 40 degrees below
zero Celsius to 40 degrees above, steppes
of Asia surrounded by the Himalayas, “the
roof of the world,” and the dramatic reallife survival of nomads who have lived
for thousands of years with wild animals
in t hat ha rsh nat u ra l env ironment,
are filled with emotion and curiosity.
Above all, vivid photographs of the wild,
differentiates this book from all others.
Untamed Land of Nomads, full of
descriptions of the surreal beauty of the
bleak desert, the pure sound of the wind
on the meadows, extreme cold and heat,
mountain sickness, and the author’s battle
with mosquitoes that tormented him more
than the unpalatable food, and other
valuable experiences teach, once again, of
nature's greatness.
by Richard Hong
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
69
Reviews Nonfiction
Travels with an Idol Group
Super Junior’s Experience Korea (2 vols.)
Super Junior, Woongjin Think Big Co.,Ltd.
2013, 320p, ISBN 9788901158990 (Vol.1)
Depending on who you’re wit h, t he
same place can touch you in different
ways. Depending on who introduces
you to somewhere, the same place can
feel different. Super Junior, one of the
main players of the Korean Wave, stir up
attention wherever they go. They tour
all around the world—China, Thailand,
France, Mexico—but traveling around
the world has made them see just how
attractive their home country Korea is.
In this book, Super Junior take readers
to beautiful places all over Korea. The
10 members of Super Junior teamed up
in pairs to travel to the north (Gangwon
Province), the east (Gyeongsang Province),
the west (Chungcheong Province and Jeolla
Province), the south (Jeju Island), and
the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions. Major
sights, food, and attractions in each region
are introduced in the book generously
illustrated with vivid photographs.
T he t wo -volu me book beg ins in
Seoul, the capital of Korea. Kangin and
Sungmin, members of Super Junior, walk
Survival Games
The Years (2 vols.)
Park Heung-yong, GimmYoung Publishers, Inc.
2013, 256p, ISBN 9788934964148 (Vol.1)
Park Heung-yong who has combined
historical reality and the appeal of the
graphic novel with solid artistry for a long
time is a well-known graphic novelist in
Korea. In My Blue Saber, he describes the
life peasants that have passed through
the raging waves of modern history by
the medium of the bicycle, and reflected
people seeking to survive the ruins when
the state order has completely collapsed
in His Country. His recent work The Years
links the two themes.
Seokjeon-ri is a small village divided
into North and South. When people living
in other villages have a feast with music
and food, the residents of Seokjeon-ri
play an unusual game. They tie a stone to
the end of a leather strap and throw it at
each other. The slingshot fight continues
without stopping even if someone’s head
bleeds or a leg is broken. This fight has
70 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
around Hongdae with its youthful energy,
the quiet and peaceful Bukchon, and
Gangnam, the stage for PSY’s “Gangnam
Style,” as well as other hot spots of Seoul.
Siwon and Donghae invite you to areas
in Gangwon Province, such as Jeongseon,
Gangneung, and Pyeongchang, where
you can experience nature in all its glory.
Shindong and Eunhyuk wax poetic about
the food and arts in Jeolla Province and
Chungcheong Province. Jeju Isla nd,
designated a UNESCO’s World Heritage
site, and Gyeongsang Province, are also
presented with their different attractions
for all four seasons.
The book is a special gift from Super
Junior to people around the world, as well
as an invitation to come to Korea.
by Richard Hong
die one by one. When a traitor is discovered,
nobody trusts a nybody. The Years is a
historical graphic novel, and at the same
time, a survival graphic novel that skillfully
weaves the two themes together.
by Yi Myung-suk
continued over time like a custom because
the villagers believe that the winning
side can have a good harvest even though
some might get injured. The two villages
represent the Korean peninsula divided
into the North and South of today.
Ideological conflict that nobody wants
divides them after the village is engulfed
by the Korean War. Meanwhile, rumor
spreads that military provisions are being
hidden on an island located somewhere
in the South. In times of scarcity, the
provisions must become food that satisfies
hunger, and at the same time, a treasure
that creates life change.
The main character Kyung-hee, who
was told where the island is, departs for
the island with another group of people,
and another group chases them to take
the provisions. The two groups begin
throwing stones at the enemy, and people
list meets the tablet
list_Books from Korea app (iPad only)
now available for download
Reviews
Children's
Books
Dog-eared Stories
Pikaia
Kwon Yoon-duck, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 148p, ISBN 9788936454449
72 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Pikaia? What could it be? Many readers
might be perplexed. But once they open
the cover of the book, their hearts will be
warmed by the delicate palette of the East
Asian painting-like sketches. Then there
is the subtitle, “Meeting the Children.” A
large dog with a bright smile named Kiss
runs with his white fur flying in the wind.
Wait, how could there be dogs in a library?
Readers will once again be thrown off.
What kind of a story is this book about?
There was actually a program at a
Suncheon City library in South Jeolla
Province where the neighborhood kids
were assigned to read a book to a dog
named Kiss. The author has adapted this
real incident into the plot of the book.
“What could be stored in the heart of
these children’s hearts?” Kiss asks.
Kiss hears stories from six different
children: Seong-min, who lives with his
grandfather in a half-basement room
and is often scolded or mocked by his
friends for not being good at anything in
“Human Beings and Cockroaches”; Mijeong, who is dragged from one cram
school to another by her mother who is
only interested in her daughter getting
good grades in school, in “Living Together
With People”; Yun-y, who lacks self-esteem
and therefore feels more and more insecure
about herself because of her parents who
are always quarreling and are too busy to
take interest in her, and her lewd older
brother, who is only interested in her body,
in “People Mature as They Heal”; Chaerim, who lives an unstable life because
she has to look after both herself and her
younger sister after their father gets laid
off and goes on strike, in “People Build
a Society”; Gang-an, who recalls the pigs
that were buried alive because of foot and
mouth disease when he goes to have pork
at a restaurant, in “Humans and Animals
Are A ll Part of Nature;” and Hyeokju, who comes to the conclusion that all
human beings are survivors after learning
of Pikaia. Pikaia was not any more superior
to other species but became an early
ancestor of humans after surviving the
Cambrian Period in “An Early Ancestor of
Human Beings: Pikaia.”
There are some terrifying moments in
these stories but the overall tone is warm,
helped by the uplifting images that appear
on the last page of each story. These
images emphasize the theme of hope that
runs through the book. In other words,
human beings, especially socially deprived
ones, are inclined to feel lonely and
powerless. But what makes humans truly
worthy is not the competition against each
other but their harmonious co-existence.
Yet, bear in mind that human beings
are a part of nature and therefore have
an ability to heal themselves. Moreover,
just as Pikaia survived eons ago, the story
optimistically conveys that in nature there
must be another principle besides the law
of the jungle or the survival of the fittest,
that ensures the continuity of existence.
by Kim Kyung-yun
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
73
Reviews Children's Books
Making a New Friend
Uncle Is Here!
Kim Jae-hee, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd.
2013, 40p, ISBN 9788958286868
Children in Korea are busy going from
home to school, school to cram schools,
and back home. When school vacation
begins, they think that they can enjoy
themselves to their heart’s content, but
things usually don’t turn out the way
they want. In most cases, there aren’t any
friends to play with or there are even more
cram schools to attend.
The same is true for Dong-hui, the
main character of this picture book.
Though the summer vacation has begun,
Mom monitors Dong-hui’s daily schedule
by phone. Dong-hui’s cousin, who is
staying with her family for the summer,
won’t even play with her. Will the entire
summer pass like this? No, it won’t because
Dong-hui’s uncle who she doesn’t even
remember has come to visit.
At first Dong-hui thinks her uncle is
a monster. No matter how affectionate he
is, she doesn’t want any interaction with
him. But as she becomes more interested
after seeing him shaving, they play jokes
on each other and finally become friends.
Small Town Sentiment
Spring in My Hometown
Lee Won-su; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung
Bluebird Publishing Co.
2013, 36p, ISBN 9788961553957
Events of the past usually remain as
happy, beautiful memories. With time,
even painful and difficult experiences can
become beautiful. Childhood experiences,
in particular, are a source of memories
that never dry out. If such is the case with
ordinary people, imagine how a poet with
a heightened sensitivity would feel about
childhood.
To a poet, childhood memories must
be like an eternally cool spring water that
quenches one’s thirst and a warm ray of
light that never fades. In the same vein,
one’s hometown must not be just a place
but a perfect world from a perfect time.
To author Lee Won-su, his hometown
Changwon is such a place.
This picture book, Spring in My
Hometown, which combines Lee’s text and
74 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Kim Dong-sung’s illustrations, restores
the images of hometowns that live deep
in Koreans’ hearts though they have long
disappeared. The hometown is a village
where pink azaleas and peach and apricot
f lowers bloom; a village where green
weeping willows dance; a village where
adults work hard in one corner of the yard
while children play in the other; a village
where chickens and chicks roam while
dogs and puppies play with children; and
a village where children come outside in
spring to run around and play on village
paths.
Spring in My Hometown is a favorite
song for Koreans. This book might also
become a favorite picture book. The last
scene where Lee Won-su is standing with
his back turned, looking at a faint image
of his childhood village, will remain in
readers’ minds for a long time.
by Eom Hye-suk
Now her uncle is her best friend.
While looking at the stars in the sky,
her uncle promises Dong-hui that he will
take her with him when he travels to the
stars. When he leaves, he tells her that he
has left her a present. But Dong-hui can’t
find it no matter where she looks. At last,
she finds it: fluorescent star-shaped stickers
that she can only see when she turns out
the light at night. It was her uncle who
stuck the stickers on the ceiling of Donghui’s room.
Dong-hui’s unconventional and funny
uncle takes her along on a series of comical
adventures that are complemented by
humorous drawings. Fluorescent starshaped stickers are included in the book as
a present to readers.
by Eom Hye-suk
Reviews Children's Books
Ask the Right Questions
The Twenty Questions Detective and the Magician
Heo Kyo-bum; Illustrator: Ko Sang-mi
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2013, 184p
ISBN 9788949195193
The greatest virtue of a detective novel is
to keep the readers curious until the end.
Who is the suspect? How and why do the
events occur? Following a story full of
puzzles, we bury ourselves while reading
with bated breath. Therefore, it is natural
that children, natural-born enthusiasts of
puzzles, love to read detective stories. It
is very enjoyable to chase after a criminal
who is having a battle of wits with the
writer. Detective novels for children are
always welcome, if provocative scenes of
violence are excluded.
The Twenty Questions Detective and
the Magician is a story about the exploits
of a brilliant 12-year-old detective. It is
interesting enough to play a game of 20
questions in order to get closer to the
correct answer. Moreover, the questions
become a means of finding a solution to
an event, as well as a means of adding
interest. The detective and his client Munyang try to expose the secrets of a magician
who wins his classmates’ money in a card
trick. As befitting a book for children,
this novel doesn’t have any complicated
conspiracy theories or unpleasant truths
hidden behind the scenes. Instead, tiny,
sweet desires such as wanting to have a
limited edition toy or win a bet, set events
in motion, and the ensuing challenges,
force children to reflect on themselves in
the process, solving problems with the
detective of 20 questions. The scene when
the magician appears before a villain and
becomes a victim himself is a worthy
moment as well.
The Twenty Questions Detective and the
Magician won the first Story King Literary
Award, a competition that gained attention
by introducing child judges during the
selection process, who overturned the
decision made by grown-up judges. This
book is especially welcome by children.
by Kim Min-ryoung
Worlds Waiting To Be Seen
There Was a Child
Song Mi-kyoung; Illustrator: Seo Young-a
Sigongsa Co., Ltd., 2013, 124p
ISBN 9788952769787
This book includes five strange, sad, and
hair-raising children’s stories, through
which author Song Mi-kyoung makes
things exist that cannot be seen.
In “There Was a Child,” one day
a child leaves a note and disappears.
Through the clues he leaves behind, his
family members realize that they have been
living with the child for a year without
being aware of his existence.
“Adult Younger Brother” tells the story
of a five-year-old younger brother Miru
who turns out to be a 34-year-old adult. It
goes on to share the stories of people who
are born as adults.
“Non-existent Me” vividly expresses
the powerful existence of a child who was
born as a “non-existent child.”
In “Laura Who Was Cute,” Laura,
who has to maintain her small build as a
model for her mother’s online shopping
mall, is jealous of a bunny rabbit doll that
will never get bigger. During a shoot one
day, both Mother and Laura suddenly turn
into bunny rabbit dolls.
In “Father Comes Out of His Bag,” all
the fathers in the narrator’s village live in
their own bags. After meeting an adult one
day, the children of the village decide to
bring their fathers out of the bags in order
to have caring and reliable dads.
These unique stories all have different
themes and messages but repeatedly pose
questions concerning existence. Is there
more to what meets the eye? By crossing
the boundar y bet ween what can and
cannot be seen, these wonderful stories
widen our view of the world.
by Yoon So-hee
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
75
Reviews Children's Books
A Tale of Two Soccer Balls
Let’s Play and Have Fun
Hwang Sun-mi; Illustrator: Jeong Jin-hui
Better Books, 2013, 136p
ISBN 9788984887671
Let’s Play and Have Fun is a children’s
book by Hwang Sun-mi, the author of
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly,
whose foreign rights have been sold in 12
different countries, including the United
States and Japan. Hwang’s new book poses
questions on the basic rights of children to
play, to be happy, and to be educated.
The book provides parallel stories
of two children who live in Korea and
Pakistan. Gyeong-ju, who lives in Korea,
has no time to play because of his mother
who is always nagging him to study. By
chance, he meets a football player on
his school grounds and ends up running
around the field like a wild child. After
this, he begins harboring a secret wish
to buy a football. His mind is filled with
a passionate desire to play to his heart’s
content.
Rahim is a nine-year-old boy who
lives in a remote village in Pakistan. In
contrast to Gyeong-ju, Rahim has had to
work since the age of six sewing footballs
to support his family because his mother
went blind after his father disappeared.
In order to make a football, it takes 1,601
stitches, and Rahim can only manage
to make three balls each day. He is able
to buy only a small amount of rice with
the money he makes. However, one day
foreigners show up at his work place,
protesting that the children are illegal
child laborers. All Rahim can do is worry
about how he is going to make a living if
he's not allowed to work.
The circumstances of the two boys,
who live far apart yet whose fates are tied
to football, are considerably different. Yet
they share the same dream. They want to
play to their hearts’ content and be happy.
However, this wish remains only a wish in
the book because Gyeong-ju and Rahim
have little control over their lives. The
book tells readers how taking an interest in
these children, one who just wants to play
football, and another who just wants to
attend school instead of sewing footballs,
is a step toward protecting their right to be
happy.
by Han Mihwa
Family, Reconstructed
More Red
Kim Sun-hee, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd.
2013, 212p, ISBN 9788958286875
K im Sun-hee's novel More Red is the
winner of the Sa k yejul Young Adult
L it e r a t u r e Aw a r d . G i l - d on g i s t he
protagonist of the story. His father injures
his head in an accident, and as a result,
his mental state becomes that of a sevenyear-old. Gil-dong's father, who once
lorded over his family, starts to call his
wife “mother” and speaks in honorifics
to the same sons that he used to beat,
speaking to them as though they were his
older brothers. The macho father, having
become a child after the accident, begins a
new relationship with his family.
Meanwhile Gil-dong, obsessed with
Internet porn, stricken with loneliness,
and charged with sexual desires, develops
a crush on Mi-ryung, the writer of a blog
called More Red, which chronicles her
hunt for spicy food. Even though he has
76 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
no stomach for anything spicy, Gil-dong
forces himself to eat spicy food so that he
can get closer to Mi-ryung. As he does
so, Gil-dong begins to understand Miryung's wounded psyche that obsesses over
spiciness.
Gil-dong's older brother, whom Gildong has admired since childhood, and
whom his family expected so much from,
becomes like their violent tyrant of a father
once his life does not turn out the way he
had hoped. This son beats up the father,
and then runs away from his family after
stealing money from his mother to invest
in a stock that fails, forcing the family into
bankruptcy, then leaves behind a letter
seeking their forgiveness. Soon afterwards,
the father runs away, too. Only Gil-dong
stays, not knowing what to do as his
family is destroyed in front of him.
What will happen to 18-year-old Gildong, as he experiences his first love and
sees his family in ruins? The greatest virtue
of Kim Sun-hee's book is in how it shows,
through one family's destruction, the
meaning of family.
by Yu Youngjin
New Books
Fiction
© Hummingbird Moth
Jang Keoung-hwe, Sakyejul Publishing
Recommended
by Publishers
Korean editors have handpicked their favorite titles
from their own publishing houses. The following list
contains hidden gems in Korea’s publishing industry.
For further information, please contact the agents
directly.
A Son's Father
Yellow House
Kim Won-il, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 386p, ISBN 9788932024486
Park Wan-suh, Yolimwon Publishing Co.
2013, 300p, ISBN 9788970637778
Kim Won-il has spent the past 50
years as a leading force in exposing the
tragedies of the Korean War and national
division. This is the first time he has
made an all-out attempt to retrace the
path of his father's life, a revolutionary
who dreamt of building a new world in
East Asia. He defected to North Korea
when Kim was eight years old.
This anthology of fiction by the late Park
Wan-suh covers a period from the early
2000s during which she lived and wrote
in a yellow house in Achiul Village. The
collection includes work first published
in the quarterly journal Disaejip from
2001 to 2002, as well as previously
unpublished works.
Copyright Agent: Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Copyright Agent: Angela Koh
angela.koh@yolimwon.com
82-2-3144-3700
www.yolimwon.com
Damaged Fruit
Some Countries Are Too Big
Koo Byung-mo, Jaeum & Moeum Publishing Co.
2013, 336p, ISBN 9788957077740
Yum Seoung-suk, Hyundae Munhak
Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 248p, ISBN 9788972756767
Enter the life of a woman with a soul
crushed like a badly damaged piece of
fruit. Though she looks like a normal
sexagenarian from the outside, she was
in fact a hit woman named “Clawhorn.”
Now, though, change has come to her life
of solitude. She has begun to notice others.
Copyright Agent: Yoo So-young
jamoglobal@jamobook.com
82-70-8656-9583
www.jamo21.net
Eternal Moonlight:
Sin Saimdang
Ahn Young, Wis & Vis
2013, 384p, ISBN 9788992825733
Eternal Moonlight portrays the journey of
Hee-soo, who searches for her abandoned
sister Yu-ran. Her dying stepmother asks
her to track down Yu-ran, who turns
out to be living in a border town. Heesoo, however, finds that her sister has
already disappeared. Living in the empty
house used by Yu-ran, Hee-soo begins to
retrace her long-forgotten sister’s life.
Copyright Agent: Ha Seung Jin
wisnvis@naver.com
82-2-324-5677
The protagonist manages workers
known as bingos, individuals such as
the homeless, long-term convicts, and
orphans that are assembled by the state
and used for purposes like publicizing
government projects and appearing in
positively-spun news stories. This novel
depicts the asymmetrical relationship
between the state and individuals.
Copyright Agent: Kim Hyun-jee
laputa79@chol.com
82-2-2017-0295
www.hdmh.co.kr
A Modern Heart
Jeong A Eun
Hankyoreh Publishing Company
2013, 296p, ISBN 9788984317154
This novel of manners vividly
portrays the lives of lovers and the
cultural landscape of the workplace in
a megacity. A 37-year-old headhunter
struggles through life in Korea's
class-based society, where nobody
is free from the various glories and
stigmas attached to an educational
background.
Copyright Agent: Lee ji-eun
editorlee@hanibook.co.kr
82-2-6373-6710
www.hanibook.co.kr
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Vol.22 Winter 2013
77
Poetry
Children’s Books
Snowman Hotel
Adventurous Summer Days
Know-it-all
Lee Byungryul, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
2013, 153p, ISBN 9788932024509
Kim Seon-jeong; Illustrator: Kim Min-jun
Munhakdongne, 2013, 200p
ISBN 9788954622004
Choi Seokyung
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
2013, 180p, ISBN 9788954622578
This book won the 14th Munhakdongne
Children’s Literature Award, with the
judges calling it “a true adventure in an
era of no adventure” and “the paragon
of a fairy tale.” The highlight of the
book is an adventure to an island called
Chilgeum-do, with cheerful, optimistic
characters.
This book, which won the third
Munhakdongne Youth Literature Award,
portrays 19-year-old students who tackle
the way of the older generations. The
author wrote this work of the tender age
lively and realistic dialogue, everyday
routines, and thoughts, at the tender age
of 18.
Copyright Agent: Won Sun-hwa
kids@munhak.com
82-2-3144-3238
www.munhak.com
Copyright Agent: Won Sun-hwa
kids@munhak.com
82-2-3144-3238
www.munhak.com
I’m Going to Lala Land
Hummingbird Moth
Why Do We Need Rules?
Kim Young-li, Prooni Books, Inc.
2012, 216p, ISBN 9788957983287
Kim Ki-jung; Illustrator: Jang Keoung-hwe
Sakyejul Publishing, 2013
68p, ISBN 9788958286837
Seo Ji-weon; Illustrator: Lee Young-rim,
Park Sunhee, Kwon Ohjune
Hollym Corporation; Publishers
2013, 112p, ISBN 9788970943923
Poet Lee Byungryul has published three
volumes of poetry since his 1995 debut.
Now, he embarks in search of a place
where the particular brand of desperation
exists at a level more fundamental than
emotion or sentiment. This is about
observing the entities that emerge from
the vibrations when you gently pluck
one of the strings hidden deep in your
heart.
Copyright Agent: Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Ahn Yong-ha has narcolepsy. He suddenly
falls into a deep sleep at any time without
warning, especially when he comes under
a lot of stress. The book shows how
Yong-ha and his family try to defend the
guesthouse inherited from his great-aunt.
Copyright Agent: Choi Jin-woo
agency@prooni.com
82-2-581-0334 (Ext.117)
www.prooni.com
Kim Ki-jung has written a beautiful tale
based on Baik Suk’s poem “The Evening
When a Hummingbird Moth Comes.”
The story revolves around a young
grandson, who visits the house where
his late grandmother used to live. This
fantastic story will be a pleasant surprise
for many readers largely due to the heartwarming illustrations by painter Jang
Keoung-hwe.
Copyright Agent: Kang Hyun-joo
kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr
82-31-955-8600
www.sakyejul.co.kr
78 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
This book is the seventh installment of
the Question Mania series, which contains
interesting stories and questions on seven
topics: death, friendship, lies, fear, greed,
dreams, and rules. The latest topic is
essential rules in society. Informal and
lively stories explain rules while cute
cartoons, customized for younger readers,
and colorful illustrations grace the four
chapters.
Copyright Agent: Lee Hyojin
gohj@hollym.co.kr
82-2-735-7554
www.hollym.co.kr
The Secret of Ttolmang
Ttolmang Kingdom
Kim Mi-suk; Illustrator: Yun Ji-Young
UriKyoyuk Publishing Co., 2013, 208p
ISBN 9788980408696
A boy with poor eyesight sees all the
things in the world when he puts on
special glasses. One day his older brother
dies and he tries to hide his sadness by
pretending he’s fine and nothing has
changed. But when he jumps into the
Ttolmang Ttolmang Kingdom with his
special glasses, he can express his emotions
and face the sadness he is trying to avoid.
Copyright Agent: Joe Myung-suk
msjoe@uriedu.co.kr
82-2-3142-6770 (Ext.323)
www.uriedu.co.kr
Exploring the National Folk
Museum of Korea
Shim Jaeseok
Hollym Corporation; Publishers
2012, 92p, ISBN 9788970943671
The seventh installment of the world’s
famous museum series, this book offers
insight into the lives of ancient Koreans
on various topics through the artefacts
displayed at the National Folk Museum
of Korea. The book reveals the wisdom of
Koreans as well as their comic sensibility.
A nice combination of exhibit items and
pictures is also helpful.
Copyright Agent: Lee Hyojin
gohj@hollym.co.kr
82-2-735-7554
www.hollym.co.kr
Wonderful Adventures
of Doremi
Lee Ban-di, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 156p, ISBN 9788936451400
Doremi is slow-witted but courageous
and energetic. One night, a dreamcollector shows up and gives Doremi a
special head—a head that never forgets.
With the new head, he falls into a strange
world crowded with paper-people and
animal-humans.
Copyright Agent: Choi Koeun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com
A Boy Who Wants
to Become Money
Cho Sung-ja; Illustrator: Ju Seunghee
Sigongsa Co., Ltd., 2013, 72p
ISBN 9788952770103
Se-ji wants to be a happy man, just like
his father. He doesn’t understand why
his classmate Un-bo is so obsessed about
collecting money. In the book, Un-bo
is yearning to become “money” itself.
His clashes with Se-ji offer fodder for
exploring what it means to be truly happy.
Copyright Agent: Amelie Choi
amelie@sigongsa.com
82-2-2046-2855
www.sigongjunior.com
Long May You Live!
Yi Hyeon, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2013, 224p, ISBN 9788936442736
Hye-soo dies because of a mistake by
the angel of death. In the netherworld,
she realizes she’s dead on behalf of her
brother. She also learns that her brother,
a top student, is thinking about killing
himself. She returns to the world of
the living for a week to try to keep her
brother from committing suicide. The
book deals with a heavy topic through
cheerful storytelling.
In the Bathroom for
Three Years
Cho Sung-ja; Illustrator: Lee Young-rim
Mirae N Co., Ltd., 2010, 108p
ISBN 9788937845819
Sang-a, a young girl, rarely speaks because
her parents frequently fight. She just weeps
and cries when she wants to see her father.
One day, she gets trapped in a bathroom.
For four hours in the bathroom, she
remembers the past and heals the wounds
deep inside her heart, setting off to a new
path for growth.
In the Library for Three Years
Cho Sung-ja; Illustrator: Lee Young-rim
Mirae N Co., Ltd., 2013, 104p
ISBN 9788937886164
The girl from In the Bathroom for Three
Years, is now meeting new characters and
marching towards her dreams. This time
Sang-a gets trapped in the library and
stays overnight. The library, with all the
lights turned off, is scary, but she gets
to have a wonderful experience as she
encounters all the characters from the
books she has read.
Copyright Agent: Choi Koeun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com
Copyright Agent: Park Jiyoung
rights@mirae-n.com
82-2-3475-3870
www.mirae-n.com
Copyright Agent: Park Jiyoung
rights@mirae-n.com
82-2-3475-3870
www.mirae-n.com
The Diet School
Why Boys Are…?
Why Girls Are…?
Kim Hye-jung, Jaeum & Moeum Publishing Co.
2012, 272p, ISBN 9788954427142
Won You-soon; Illustrator: An Kyoung-hee
Truebook Sinsago Co., Ltd., 2013, 68p
ISBN 9788928307685
Won You-soon, Illustrator: Kang Yun-jeong
Truebook Sinsago Co., Ltd., 2013, 64p
ISBN 9788928307692
Boys always get hurt while trying to
mimic characters from comics. They also
go out to the playground and get sweaty
whenever they get the chance. This book
takes up the perspective of girls and shows
how they respond to boys, a unique
approach that will appeal to young girls
and also help broaden their horizons to
accept others as they are.
The central character in the book is a boy.
He never understands girls who often cry
over small things and always move around
in groups. But he learns something
important when a girl helps him out of
a crisis. He realizes that men and women
are essentially different. Yet the book
suggests that, regardless of sex, men and
women can after all, be friends.
Copyright Agent: Park Hye-jung
hjpark@sinsago.co.kr
82-2-3480-4163
www.sinsago.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Park Hye-jung
hjpark@sinsago.co.kr
82-2-3480-4163
www.sinsago.co.kr
A girl wants to lose weight so much that
she gets enrolled in a Diet School. But the
15-year-old finds herself abused by the
school authorities and attempts to escape.
The motif of this initiation story is said to
be based on the author’s own childhood
experience.
Copyright Agent: Yoo So-young
jamoglobal@jamobook.com
82-70-8656-9583
www.jamo21.net
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
79
Children’s Books
Children Crossing the Border
Aliens Live in Our House
The Sea's Lullaby for a Boy
The Elephant Has Escaped!
Park Hyeon-suk; Illustrator: Han Soo-jin
Sallim Publishing Co., Ltd., 2013, 208p
ISBN 9788952221612
Kim Hyeyoung; Illustrator: Oh Jung-taek
Sallim Publishing Co., Ltd., 2013, 172p
ISBN 9788952226969
Lee Sang-kyo; Illustrator: Kim Jae-hong
Bombom Publishing Co., 2013, 32p
ISBN 9788991742475
Shim Sang-woo; Illustrator: Jo Tae-gyeom
Bombom Publishing Co., 2013, 88p
ISBN 9788991742482
There are people who dream of freedom
and happiness across the border: North
Koreans. This book details stories of
North Korean youth. They risk their lives
to cross the fortified border to reunite
with their family members, and seek
freedom to choose the jobs they want
and pursue peace.
The Barua tribe lost its own planet and
settled on Earth. The peace between
the Barua tribe and humans dissolves
when the virus Transtree Syndrome hits
Earth. Those who get infected develop a
fast-spreading tree in their navels. False
rumors about the cause, namely the Barua
tribe, pit humans against aliens. The story
is a refreshing take on discrimination and
outcasts.
This picture book takes its motif from the
children’s song, “Baby on Island House,”
about a scenic seaside village. In early
spring with the icy cold still lingering,
Dong-i’s father goes out to the sea to
catch fish and his mother also leaves home
to harvest oysters. The boy’s red cheeks
and his mother’s beads of sweat are drawn
in a way that pulls at readers' heartstrings.
This story draws its theme from a real
incident: a few years ago, an elephant
broke out of a zoo. The story depicts the
elephant’s journey from the zoo to its
turbulent life afterward through charming
illustrations and entertaining writing.
The book takes readers to the very life of
elephants and offers a chance to ponder
why and how they have ended up in
Korea.
Copyright Agent: Jina Park
jina@sallimbooks.com
82-31-955-4668
www.sallimbooks.com
Copyright Agent: Jina Park
jina@sallimbooks.com
82-31-955-4668
www.sallimbooks.com
Copyright Agent: Heo Sun-young
bbsun@bombombook.com
82-2-2212-7088
http://cafe.daum.net/bbpub
Copyright Agent: Heo Sun-young
bbsun@bombombook.com
82-2-2212-7088
http://cafe.daum.net/bbpub
Nonfiction
Who Should I Be When
I Grow Up?
Across the Tumen (A North
Korean Kkotjebi Boy's Quest)
Hwang Siwon; Illustrator: Lee Yuna
Book21 Publishing Group, 2013, 256p
ISBN 9788950951245
Moon Young-sook, Seoul Selection, 2013
260p, ISBN 9788997639328
Can a child readily say what they want
to be when they grow up? Not what
everybody else wants, or what will give
them success, or what their parents want?
The book illustrates knowledge that helps
children draw up their future plans. It also
introduces a wide range of occupations
from children’s favorites to promising jobs
in the future.
As North Korea undergoes a devastating
famine, Yeong-dae loses both his parents
and is forced to beg on the streets. This
young boy sets off on a journey to China
to find his sister—his last living relative.
Captured, he is sent back to the North,
thrown in jail, and tortured. Once
released, he crosses the Tumen River
again, more determined than ever to find
a place where he can live a decent life.
Copyright Agent: Kim Younghee
youngheekim@book21.co.kr
82-31-955-2117
www.book21.com
Copyright Agent: Park Shin-hyung
sales@seoulselection.com
82-70-4060-3950
www.seoulselection.com
80 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Drawing Morocco
Eom Yujeong, Hyohyung Publishing Co.
2013, 244p, ISBN 9788993277067
Author and artist Eom Yujeong has
published five books of her own drawings
since 2008. Eom spent time in Morocco
observing the country and recording
what she saw in her sketchbook. Her use
of natural Moroccan paints renders her
Moroccan encounters and memories still
more powerful and vivid.
Copyright Agent: Uhm Cho-long
info@hyohyung.co.kr
82-31-955-7600
www.hyohyung.co.kr
The Story of Eight Korean
Film Masters
Ju Sungchul, Youlhwadang Publishers
2013, 228p, ISBN 9788930104456
This book introduces eight film
technicians who have played a leading
role in the current Korean film
renaissance. As such, it introduces the
life stories, philosophies, and professional
knowhow of these masters in the art of
cinematography, lighting, editing, sound,
martial arts, special effects, and makeup.
Copyright Agent: Yi Soojung
ysj0710@youlhwadang.co.kr
82-31-955-7006
www.youlhwadang.co.kr
Mum: Epilogue
What I Will Become
Things I Wish I Knew Then
The Courage To Let Go
Shim Jae-myung, Maumsanchaek
2013, 149p, ISBN 9788960901636
Goo Bonhyung, Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc.
2013, 304p, ISBN 9788934964315
Jung Yeoul, Book21 Publishing Group
2012, 367p, ISBN 9788950949112
Simon Lee, Sam & Parkers Co., Ltd.
2013, 264p, ISBN 9788965701712
Mum Epilogue is the first book by Shim
Jae-myung, head of Myung Films, the
company that produced such milestones
in Korean film as The Contact, Joint
Security Area, Forever the Moment and,
most recently, Architecture 101. Shim
uses the story of her mother to examine
her own life and begins to overcome her
sense of loss through writing.
Goo Bonhyung, who passed away
last year, was known as a preacher of
change management. This posthumous
anthology is a selection of 60 of the best
columns he penned in his lifetime. It is
a collection of ways of building personal
dignity based on advice that encourages
readers to trust and know themselves.
This book suggests 20 keywords that those
in their twenties should hold to heart,
such as “wandering,” “travel,” “learning,”
“happiness,” “indulgence,” “mentor,” and
“death.” Based on the author's personal
experience, these lessons provide time to
consider the meaning of life.
The things you think you need to be
happy are actually the things causing you
pain. Let go of the things you cling to.
Only then can you discover the real you,
not the you as defined by other things.
This is a psychological journey of loving
yourself, acknowledging yourself and
discovering the real you by letting go of
the desires that others have thrust upon
you.
Copyright Agent: Jung Inhye
threshold@maumsan.com
82-2-362-1451
www.maumsan.com
Copyright Agent: Cha Jinhee
jinhee@gimmyoung.com
82-2-3668-3203
www.gimmyoung.com
Copyright Agent: Kim Younghee
youngheekim@book21.co.kr
82-31-955-2117
www.book21.com
Copyright Agent: Kwon Junghee
myrobin93@gmail.com
82-31-960-4853
www.smpk.co.kr
Graphic Novels
The First Question
Ryu Lang-do, Eight Point
2013, 300p, ISBN 9788996947431
The author’s philosophy of success holds
that those who achieve results have one
thing in common: beginning everything
with the question: Why? He emphasizes
that whether or not you begin your
endeavors with this question is the
difference that determines their outcome
and changes people's lives.
Copyright Agent: Heo Yun-jung
314yj@naver.com
82-2-6332-8082
www.eightpoint.co.kr
Why Has Mr. Square Gone
to the Round Mountain?
Kim Jun-beom, Bookgoodcome
2013, 288p, ISBN 9788997728350
Well-known cartoonist Kim Jun-beom,
who honed his skills at the famed comic
artist Hur Young-man’s studio, has finally
come back with a meditative piece. Kim
explores values that can be found in life
in a thought-provoking yet entertaining
style.
Copyright Agent: Lee Soonyoung
bookgoodcome@gmail.com
82-2-3144-3238
www.bookgoodcome.com
Mr. Kimchi (2 vols.)
Lung Fish (2 vols.)
Che Jung-taek; Illustrator: Kim Euyjung
Gobooky Books Co., Ltd.
2013, 180p, ISBN 9788966070947 (Vol.1)
Choi Min-ho, Gobooky Books Co., Ltd.
2013, 179p, ISBN 9788966070916 (Vol.1)
In this delicious food-based comic,
kimchi is the motif behind the highly
individual characters and compelling
storytelling. Through kimchi, the fates
of otherwise unconnected characters
become entwined in a tumultuous
kimchi-based game of survival in the
wild.
The lung fish uses lungs to breathe. It
can breathe both in water and on land,
but cannot live completely in either. The
author uses this theme to tell a story
of tragic love between wounded souls.
The virtue of this comic lies in bold
storytelling and a mysterious color palate
with a meticulous portrayal of even the
smallest details.
Copyright Agent: Jung Sun-woo
pinksunwoo@hanmail.net
82-32-323-8895
www.gobook2.com
Copyright Agent: Jung sun-woo
pinksunwoo@hanmail.net
82-32-323-8895
www.gobook2.com
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
81
Meet the Publishers
Monthly Literature and Thought
inaugural issue, 1972
Munhaksasang
For over 40 years Munhaksasang has broken new ground in the
world of literary publishing. It continues to evolve with its sights set
on the humanities.
Monthly Literature and Thought
October 2013
1
1. Library Nomad
Eun Seung-wan, Munhaksasang Co. Ltd.
2013, 268p, ISBN 9788970128917
3
2. Eve Bares All
Gu Kyung-mi et al., Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
2012, 254p, ISBN 9788970128757
3. You Have no Idea
Kim Do-eon et al., Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
2011, 280p, ISBN 9788970128658
2
82
list_ Books from Korea Vol.22 Winter 2013
There are old bookshelves lightly covered
with dust in a corner of an editorial office
at Munhaksasang. Those are for storing
the monthly literary magazine Monthly
Literature and Thought , wh ic h t he
company started publishing in 1972, the
same time the company was founded. The
shelves are packed with 492 issues of the
magazine, beginning with the first issue
to the October 2013 issue.
L ee O-young, who wa s the f irst
editor-in-chief and later served as Minister
of Culture, must have been determined
to revolt against the dominant current of
the literary world at the time through the
magazine. Monthly Literature and Thought
was exceptional from its first issue. It
featured on the cover a distinctive portrait
of the poet Yi Sang, (1910-1937), who is
considered the foremost modernist in the
Korean literary world. The painting done
by the artist Koo Bon-woong (19061953), a friend of Yi's, came to see the
light after being kept in the dark for
several decades. The company also sent
their correspondents abroad to introduce
the latest trends in literature and publish
articles attempting to communicate with
related genres, such as art and philosophy.
The company’s experimental mindset
shifted when it decided to meet readers
more directly by establishing on-going
literary awards to honor renowned Korean
writers, such as the Yi Sang Literary Award
in 1977, the Sowol Poetry Award in 1987,
and the Kim Hwan-tae Literary Criticism
Award. The Yi Sang Literary Award
Anthology, which publishes around 10
outstanding works out of a few hundred
works of short fiction each year in a single
volume, has been especially lauded. This
anthology is starting to be seen as a record
that evaluates the achievements of Korean
literature throughout the year. The books
of writers that have been featured in the
anthology, including bestsellers such as
Yi Mun-yol’s Our Twisted Hero, gained
considerable interest, so much so that
the printing house became quite busy in
order to meet the amount of book orders.
Renowned writers in Korea, such as Kim
Sung-ok, Lee Chung-joon, Park Wansuh, Choi In-ho, and Shin Kyung-sook,
have been awardees. Although the Korean
literature publishing market has noticeably
slowed these days, this award anthology
continues to be a steady seller at 100,000
copies.
Munhaksasang encountered another
turning point when its owner changed
hands to its current president, Yim Hongbin, in 1985. Japanese writer Haruki
M u r a k a m i ’s N o r w e g i a n Wo o d w a s
published in 1989, well-matched with
the tendency towards de-politicization
in the 90s, and attracted the market’s
attention. The company is now known
as “Murakami's publisher,” holding 28
of his foreign rights, the lion’s share of
publication rights to Murakami’s works in
Korea except for a few most recent works.
It has also brought attention to European
writers and has published the novels of
British writer Nick Hornby, who is known
for his soccer-based memoir Fever Pitch:
A Long Way Down and the novel About a
Boy, which was made into a movie.
T he publ i sher’s ed itor ia l boa rd,
t he members of which a re highly
knowledgeable in both literature and
marketing, have turned their eyes back
to Korean literature in the last few years.
The company published the short story
anthology, Eve Bares All, where six women
writers discuss secret stories about sex, as
well as its men writers’ version, Walk in My
Shoes; were both well received. Eun Seungwan’s short fiction collection, Library
Nomad, exposing the social pathology of
modern Korea, such as the nonexistence
of communication and the alienation of
humans, has recently attracted attention.
Eun also made his debut as a winner of the
Munhaksasang New Writer’s Award.
Munhaksasang has recently attempted
to change by updating the book design and
style for its famous Yi Sang Literary Award
Anthology and the Sowol Poetry Award
Antholog y. Young writer Kim Ae-ran’s
"The Future of Silence" in the literature
anthology and the Sowol Poetry winner,
poet Lee Jae-mu’s anthology of poetry,
Meal on the Road, have been attracting the
attention of readers.
The company’s publishing list also
includes the humanities. A collection of
essays on Korean culture titled In This
Earth & In That Wind by scholar Lee
O-young, the company’s first editor-inchief, is celebrating its 50th anniversary
this year. The book that analyzes the
current state of Korean society through
keywords symbolizing Korea’s culture,
s u c h a s w e e p i n g (u l e o m ), h u n g e r
(gumjurim), and the game yut has been
a steady seller over the years, having sold
over two million copies. To celebrate this,
Munhaksasang is planning on publishing
an anthology of essays portraying changes
in Korea since 50 years after the book’s
publication.
by Shin Junebong
4
5
7
4. “The Corn and I”
(2012 Yi Sang Literary Award Anthology)
Kim Young Ha, Munhaksasang Co. Ltd.
2012, 383p, ISBN 9788970128719
5. “The Future of Silence”
(2013 Yi Sang Literary Award Anthology)
Kim Ae-ran, Munhaksasang Co. Ltd.
2013, 352p, ISBN 9788970128849
6. “Meal on the Road”
(Sowol Poetry Award Anthology)
Lee Jae-mu, Munhaksasang Co. Ltd.
2012, 318p, ISBN 9788970128788
7. In This Earth & In That Wind
Lee O Young, Munhaksasang Co. Ltd.
2008, 290p, ISBN 9788970128207
6
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
83
Overseas
Ov
verseass Ang
Angle
gle
Hwang Sok-yong's
Baridaegi
Published in France
Th
The
he French
Fr
edition
edi
d tion
on ooff Hwan
Hwang
angg So
SokSok-yong's
k yo
yong's Baridaegi
Bari
Ba
rida
daeggi (Princesse
(Pr
Prin
nce
cesse Ba
B
Bari)
ri)) ha
ri
has
been published
be
pub
bliish
shed
ed by
by Philippe
Philip
Ph
ippe
pe Pic
icqu
quie
ier,
r ap
ubli
ub
lish
shingg ho
hous
use th
that sspecializes
peecializes
Picquier,
publishing
house
in F
a Eas
ar
astt li
lite
teratu
ure
r . Following
F lllow
Fo
owin
ng the
the release
releas
re
a e of Sh
Shim
im Chong
Cho
h ngg ((Shimcheong,
Shhim
mch
cheong
ng,
Far
East
literature.
fille etendu)
fi
e endu
et
du) byy Z
ulma
m in 201
010,
0, Baridaegi
Barida
Ba
daeg
e i iss Hwang’s
H ang’
Hw
g s eighth
th pub
u lication
Zulmain
2010,
publication
i F
in
ranc
n e, which
whi
hich
ch m
akes
es h
im thee m
osst tr
ran
nslatted Korean au
aauthor
thor in the
France,
makes
him
most
translated
countr
r y. H
wang
n ’s prominent
promine
nent
nt works
wor
orks A Chronicle
Chro
r nicle of Mr. H
an (Monsieur
u
country.
Hwang’s
Han
Han), The Sh
Shad
adow
w of Arms
ms ((À
À l'om
mbr
b e des
d s ar
de
arme
m s), Thee Ol
O
Shadow
l'ombre
armes),
Oldd Garden (Le
vieux jardin),
jarddin), aand
nd Thee Gu
Guestt ((L'
L in
L'
iinvité)
vité
té)
é have
v all been translated into
F
Fr
e ch. The French
en
h aaudience’s
udienc
ud
nce’
e s positive
p siitiive reception
po
recep
ption of his works
work
r s has
French.
prompt
ted reprinting
repri
r ntin
ng of
o the short
shoort
r story collection
col
o lection Road
a to Sampo (La
prompted
ro
out
u e de
d Sampo)
Sam
a po
po)) an
aand
d A Ch
Chro
oniclee of Mr. Han as a p
ocket edition by
route
Chronicle
pocket
10
0/1
/ 8.
8 Th
The Gu
Guestt and
nd Sh
SShim
i Chong
im
Chongg were also rep
e rinted in pocket size
10/18.
reprinted
by tthe
he p
roomine
nentt publish
her Seu
u il. Their portable size ensures wider
prominent
publisher
Seuil.
d
di
s ribution
st
o , es
eespecially
p ciallyy amo
pe
ong
n a young readership.
distribution,
among
In
n a recent
rec
ecent interview,
interv
rview,
w Hwang Sok-yong
Sok-yon
n g revealed his personal
conn
nneccti
tion
o too France.
Fran
Fr
ance. As a student
student he read major French classics by
connection
Zo
ola
l , Stendh
hal, Ba
Balzac, Gi
G
dee, Saint-Exupéry, Malraux, Camus, and
Zola,
Stendhal,
Gide,
Sartre. He
H was
a fascinated
fasci
c na
n ted by the French language and took French
h
cour
u ses at Allia
a nce Française. Hwang has visited France a number of
courses
Alliance
times since he
h bec
e ame a writer, usually when his works were translated
became
aand
an
d published
p blished in France. He loves to meet his Fren
pu
e ch audience and
French
p
pa
r icularlyy app
rt
preciates
e their questions. They reveal a different way
waay
particularly
appreciates
of readi
d ng that is
i more
more profound and perhaps closer
close
ser to the essence of
reading
what
a he wants to convey in
i his writing. He also notes that having his
book
bo
o s translated into
into French opens the door for translation into other
books
Europe
e an
n languages. Understanding that literature is universal, he
European
decided to stay in Paris in 2006 and 2007 after spending the previous
previou
o s
year in London. It was during this stay in Paris that he wrote Baridaegi.
I is iron
It
o ic tthat
hatt this preeminently Korean work, inspired by the Korean
ironic
llegend
le
g nd
ge
d of Bari, was written during his voluntary exile
l in Paris.
writer Hwang Sok-yong
84 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Baridaegi
Princesse Bari
Hwang Sok-yong, Changbi Publishers, Inc.
2007, 301p, ISBN 9788936433581
Editions Philippe Picquier
2013, 251p, ISBN 9782809709322
The f irst pa rt of the novel portrays North
Korea during the mid-1990s as it struggles with
intense economic failure. Many families like Bari’s
try to escape the famine by crossing the border to
China. This theme of migration became very urgent
for Hwang after he discovered the prevalence of
immigrant communities in London. During his stay
in Paris, daily he encountered images of violent riots in
the suburbs of major French cities where large Muslim
communities had formed.
Since Hwang’s works are inspired by his political
and social commitment, it was only natural that he
became vocal about migration, so pervasive in today’s
world. Migration, Hwang says, disrupts cultural
harmony. It is never easy to accept the other. As a
broken race, Koreans understand this best of all.
Hwang uses the legend of Bari to address these
Korean and universal issues of migration so deeply
rooted in contempora r y societ y. Ba sed on the
reactions during Korean culture week at Université
Paris-Dauphine this October, the book’s unfamiliar
legends and shamanistic worldview were not culturally
exclusive. Hwang is skilled at integrating his clear,
poetic writing with a deeper meaning of the work.
As Bari bravely confronts a violent world in stubborn
pursuit of the elixir of life, she reveals the importance
of the trivialities that comprise our daily lives. As in
Shim Chong, Hwang speaks through the voice of a
female protagonist.
It has been barely a month since the book was
published, but Philippe Picquier Publishing attests to the
positive reception of Baridaegi. Le Monde diplomatique,
Télérama, and L'Express have featured the book in their
columns. Libération devoted an entire page to Hwang
in its review section. Philippe Pons of Le Monde wrote:
“Baridaegi is an unsettling book, the fruit of the novelist’s
extensive investigation along the border between North
Korea and China, meeting refugees […]The journey
through hell gives those who endure it an understanding
of life’s suffering and the ability to guide wandering souls
through the underworld.” Le Figaro, too, will address
Baridaegi in its literature column. Let us conclude
with the review in Psychologies magazine: “Hwang Sokyong’s harsh and poetic book reveals the spiritual in the
mundane. He converts the supernatural into the norm.
The story of Bari is like that of thousands of hopeful
illegal immigrants arriving in the West every day.”
by Jean-Noël Juttet
Jean-Noël Juttet is a former
diplomat who has worked in Japan and
Korea. He won the Daesan Grand Prize for
translation (1999), Korea France Cultural
Award (2006), and the Grand Prize for the
10th Korean Literature Translation Awards
in 2011. He teaches at the LTI Korea
Translation Academy.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
85
Afterword
So Far Yet So Close:
Korea and Back Again
Distance is deception—truth is hidden and revealed
in its illusion. Before I visited Korea for the first time
in June 2013, all I knew about the country was a bit of
politics, a couple of pop songs, and some films by Park
Chan-wook. I also remember my former roommate
explaining that manhwa is different from manga. That
was it. Almost nothing.
The problem is that in France I am considered
something of a Korean literature expert. Like the
innocent imposter that I am, allow me to carefully
denounce and excuse myself. All I did was admire
Hwa ng Sok-yong’s novels a nd t hen express t hat
admiration. I wrote several articles in the literary column
of Le Monde. I devoured other Korean novels including
those of Kim Young Ha and Shin Kyung-sook, to whom
I gave an award in 2009. But nothing more. In the end,
I am a usurper—but to what extent? Were my critiques
unjust because I didn’t understand everything? Or was it
because of the distance that I was able to write something
that the French audience deems worth reading? Was I an
ignoramus, a charlatan, or the Persian of Montesquieu?
The nature of my naïve deception became apparent to me
at the airport in France after returning from my 10-day
trip in Korea. The distance came into view like Henry
James’s “figure in the Persian carpet.”
I met many writers in Korea. I spent most of the ten
days talking with them, their translators, interpreters,
and publishers, not to mention many other Koreans with
whom I didn’t have any connection whatsoever. I also
met foreigners living in Seoul. For several days I was
immersed in the language and history and anecdotes of
Korea. But I couldn’t become Korean. I was still an old
European. A Dane living in Paris, smitten with love for
the cities of central Europe. A patron of Berlin nights
and southern Italy. Nonetheless, I found something in
common with Korean literature—or perhaps with the
Korean people: an ability to reconcile opposites, a taste
for mixture and curiosity. Koreans have an attachment to
history, and a strong, complex identity. For a European,
the history of Korean literature, which is Asian in nature,
is irreducibly distant, and yet it is irresistibly close to the
same gluttonous modernity found in Western societies.
For many Korean writers I met, Kaf ka, Flaubert,
Dickens, or Faulkner are as crucial as they are for the
readers and writers in Europe.
86 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Despite the reputation of Hwang Sok-yong and Kim
Young Ha, Korean literature is unjustly neglected in
France and Europe. This is not due to the translators,
although in some languages there are not enough of
them. Nor is it the fault of the publishers. Public interest
in Korea does exist, as evident in the success of some
Korean musicians and filmmakers. On the way back to
Paris, I realized that perhaps the reason is at least partially
somewhere else. It’s because I myself didn’t find Henry
James’s figure in the carpet. A guide across borders, a
secret agent of literature, a traveler and an ignoramus—a
mediator of foreign literature. China and Japan have long
enjoyed the enthusiasm of these mediators in Europe.
There certainly are publishers, students, and journalists
who are enthusiastic about Korea in Europe, especially in
France. However, the number is quite small. Literature
requires more time than music or film. Today, few of
these mediators of words visit Korea. They don’t have
time. Nonetheless, they are the ones who must remove
the deception of distance and cover over any bee stings
they acquired during their beautiful journey. Still, there
aren’t many strangers and devotees who face this from a
distance. As Henry James said, the figure in the carpet is
“describable only for…lovers.”
by Nils C. Ahl
Nils C. Ahl lectures at the ISCPA
College of Journalism. At present he writes
articles about literature for Le Monde and
translates from Danish to French. He helped
create the award Prix de l'Inaperçu for the
l'Académie des Gérard, and wrote the young
adult novel Les carnets souterrains de Zénon
that was published by l’ecole des loisirs in
2009.
Contributors
Bae No-pil is a reporter with the
Park Sungchang is a literary critic
Yoon So-hee is a children’s book
Cha Mi-ryeong is a literary critic
and assistant professor of education at
GIST College.
Kim Dongshik is a literary critic
and a Professor of Korean Language
and Literature at Inha University. His
collections of essays include Cynicism
and Fascination and Memory and
Vestige.
and professor of Korean literature at
Seoul National University. His works
include Rhetoric, Korean Literature
in the Glocal Age, and Challenges in
Comparative Literature.
writer. She has written Prejudice,
Aram’s Secret, and 7 Stories To Help You
Study. She is the winner of 13th MBC
Children’s Writing Prize.
Cho Yeon-jung is a literary critic. She
Kim Ji-eun is a children’s book
Pyo Jeonghun is a book reviewer,
debuted in 2006 when she won the
Seoul Shinmun New Critics Award.
Her collections of essays include Time
for Touching.
writer and children’s literature critic.
She currently lectures on theories
of children's fiction writing in the
Department of Creative Writing at
Hanshin University. She is on the
editorial board of list_Books from
Korea.
columnist, translator, and freelance
writer. He has translated 10 books into
Korean and written Books Have Their
Own Destiny, A Short Introduction to
Chinese Philosophy, and An Interview
with My Teacher: What Is Philosophy?
He is on the editorial board of list_
Books from Korea.
JoongAng Ilbo.
Yu Youngjin is a children’s literature
Choi Sungmin is a literary critic. His
works include Modern Narrative Text
and Media Technologies.
Kim Kyung-yun is a critic of
Eom Hye-suk conducts research
in children’s literature and is an
illustrated book critic who also works
as a translator. Her best-known work
is Reading My Delightful Illustrated
Books.
Han Eun-hyeong is a writer and
literary editor.
Han Miwha is a book columnist. Her
works include Bestsellers of Our Time
and This Is How Bestsellers Are Made.
Joseph Lee is a literary agent and
President of KL Management. His
main interest lies in selling Korean
literature to overseas markets. He is the
author of A Man Selling Novels.
children’s and young adult literature
and a translator. She is the author of
a collection of essays Our Portraits of
Others and a number of translations.
Kim Mansu is a professor with the
Department of Culture and Contents
at Inha University. His works include
Plot and Character in the Age of
Storytelling. He is on the editorial
board of list_Books from Korea.
Kim Min-ryoung is a children’s
storywriter who also studies children’s
literature. She debuted in 2006 when
her children’s story won the Munwha
Ilbo New Writer’s Contest. She is the
author of My Cousin Sera.
He has published such works as The
Loneliness of the Novel.
Jung Yeo-ul is a literary critic. Jung
teaches at Seoul National University
and the Korean National University of
Arts. She is the author of a collection
of critical essays, A Small Antenna in
My Study.
Shim Bo-seon is a poet and
sociologist. He published the essay
collection Blackened Art and the poetry
collections 15 Seconds Without Sorrows
and Man Out of Sight.
Shin Hyoung-cheol is a literary
critic, and author of a collection of
essays Ethica Falling.
Shin Junebong is a reporter with the
Kim Seokhee is a novelist and
Jung Hongsoo is a literary critic.
Richard Hong is a book columnist
and the head of BC Agency. He
translated 13: The Story of the World’s
Most Notorious Superstitions. He has
appeared on KBS 1 Radio’s “Global
Today,” and writes columns for The
Korea Economic Daily and Posco News.
translator. He translated Nanami
Shiono’s The Stories of the Romans
s e r i e s , John Fowles’ T h e Fre n c h
Li e u t e n a n t ' s Wo m a n , Alexandre
Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, and the
collected works of Jules Verne.
Kim Su-yeong is President of Rhodus
Publishing Company and an instructor
in philosophy.
JoongAng Ilbo.
Shin Soojin is a freelance children's
book editor.
Suh Heewon is a literary critic. He
made his debut in 2009 when he won
the New Writer’s Contest in the critic
division sponsored by the Munhwa
Ilbo and Segye Ilbo.
Uh Soo-woong is Editor-in-Chief of
Kang Dongho is a literary critic. He
Kim Yonghee is a literary critic
won the 5th Daesan Daehak Literary
Award in the critic division. He made
his debut in 2009 when he won the
New Writer’s Contest sponsored by the
Chosun Ilbo.
and professor of Korean Literature
at Pyeongtaek University. Her works
include Penelope’s Loom: Modern
Women Poets and Going to Heaven.
Lee Kyungjae is a literary critic and
Kang Yu-jung is a literary and film
critic, and the author of Oedipus’
Forest, a collection of essays. She is on
the editorial board of list_Books from
Korea.
Kim Beomsoo is a reporter with the
Hankook Ilbo.
professor at Soongsil University. He
wrote the essay collections Museum
of Singularity and The Meaning of
Literature.
Park Hyekyung is a literary critic.
Her works include A Man Hiding
Behind Ideology, The Wound and the
Gaze, The Mysterious and Melancholy
of Literature, and Within Orpheus's
Eyes.
the Chosun Ilbo Weekly Magazine.
Yang Yun-eui is a literary critic. She
critic and an elementar y school
teacher. He is the author of The Body’s
Imagination and Fairytale.
Translators
Ally Hwang holds a doctorate
in Comparative Literature from
B i n g h a m t o n Un i v e r s i t y a n d i s
currently translating the short story
collection, Myoungrang by Cheon
Un-yeong. She was a fellow of the
International Translation Foundation
and has recently published a short
story translation of Seo Hajin's “At the
Gunwale.”
B a h k J - h u h n s t u d i e d Ko r e a n
Language & Literature in Hansung
University.
Ben Jackson worked for the Englishlanguage magazine SEOUL for three
years and is now a freelance writer and
translator in Korea. He has a master's
degree in Korean Literature from the
School of Oriental and African Studies
in London.
Brother Anthony of Taizé has been
translating Korean literature for over
20 years, and has published some 30
volumes, mostly of modern poetry.
Currently, he is Distinguished Professor
at Dankook University, Professor
Emeritus at Sogang University, and
President of the Royal Asiatic Society
Korea Branch.
Cho Yoonna is a freelance interpreter
and translator.
won the 2006 Joongang New Writer’s
Award in the literary criticism category.
She has written a book of literary
criticism called Pose and Propose.
Choi Inyoung is an artist and
Yi Myung-suk is a columnist. He
Christopher Dykas studied German
Studies and Politics at Oberlin College.
He is a graduate student at UCLA. He
has translated Lee Kiho's At Least We
Can Apologzie, published by Dalkey
Archive Press.
has published Yi Myung-suk’s Japanese
Comics, Manhwa; Finding the Critical
Point; and A Cafe for Every Day.
translator specializing in Korean
literature and the arts. She has been
translating for over 20 years.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
87
Featured Authors
Don Mee Choi is the author of
The Morning News Is Exciting, which
won the 2011 Whiting Award. She is
also a recipient of Lucien Stryk Asian
Translation Prize for her translation of
Kim Hyesoon’s All the Garbage of the
World, Unite! (Action Books, 2011).
E. K. DuBois is a freelance translator.
She received the LTI Korea Translation
Gr a n t i n 2 0 1 0 a n d t h e Da e s a n
Foundation Translation Grant in 2012.
H. Jamie Chang studied drama at
Tufts. She lives in Copenhagen with
her wife.
Jack Saebyok Jung studied English
and American poetry at Harvard as
an undergraduate. He is working on
his Master's thesis on modern Korean
literature at Seoul National University,
and is currently translating Yi Sang's
poetry into English.
Jung Yewon is a freelance interpreter
and translator. She received the Daesan
Foundation Translation Grant in 2009,
the LTI Korea Translation Grant in
2010, and the Korea Times Translation
Award in 2011. She is currently
working on the translation of Vaseline
Buddha, a novel by Jung Young Moon.
Kari Schenk was the co-recipient of
the commendation award in the 2006
Korea Times Literature Translation
Awards, and in 2010 she attended a
special course in translation at LTI
Korea. She teaches at Korea University.
Walter K. Lew is based in New York
and Miami. He has published seven
books, including the award-winning
Treadwinds: Poems and Intermedia
Texts, Excerpts from DIKTE / ΔIKTH,
and Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple:
The Poems of Frances Chung. Formerly
a documentary producer, his film and
literary scholarship and translations of
poetry have been widely anthologized.
Park Kyoung-lee is a graduate
student at Hankuk University of
Foreign Studies. She won the 9th
Korean Literature Translation Contest
for New Translators in 2010.
Peter J. Koh is a freelance translator
and interpreter who completed LTI
Korea's Special Workshop in 2009 and
Intensive Workshop in 2010.
Sophie Bowman completed the
intensive course at the LTI Korea
Translation Academy and is now living
and working in Seoul.
88 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
pp. 42-44, 57-60
Yang Sung-jin is a staff reporter and
editor at The Korea Herald. Yang wrote
a Korean history book in English, Click
Into the Hermit Kingdom, and a newsbased English vocabulary book, News
English Power Dictionary.
Yi Jeong-hyeon is a freelance
translator. She has translated several
books and papers, including Korean
Traditional Landscape Architecture and
Atlas of Korean History.
Editors
Kim Stoker is an editor and lecturer
a t Ew h a Wo m a n s Un i v e r s i t y ' s
Graduate School of Translation and
Interpretation.
Jo Jung-rae (b.1948) made his
literary debut in 1970 with the short
story “False Charge,” which appeared
in the monthly magazine Hyundae
Munhak. His childhood experiences of
the Korean War and Yeosu-Suncheon
Rebellion inspired numerous literary
works like Taebaek Mountain Range
(10 vols.) and Arirang (12 vols.).
The Great Jungle (3 vols.) is Jo’s most
recent publication. His works have
been translated into English, French,
German, Japanese, Chinese, and
Swedish, and adapted into movies,
manhwa, TV dramas, and musicals. He
received the Hyundae Literary Award
and Korea Literary Award.
Krys Lee is a writer and Professor of
Creative Writing at Yonsei University's
Underwood International College. Her
short story collection Drifting House
was published by Viking/Penguin in
the U.S. and Faber and Faber in the
U.K., in 2012.
Nathan A. DuBois is a translator/
editor of literature, business, and
politics. He is currently pursing a
master's degree at the KDI School of
Public Policy and Management.
Fiction
Cover Art
Cha So-Lim earned her Master’s
and Bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts
from Hongik University. She has had
several solo exhibitions in Korea and
participated in group exhibitions in
both Korea and abroad.
slcha@korea.com
L e e Ky u n g - j a ( b. 1 9 4 8 ) m a d e
her literary debut in 1973 when
she won the Seoul Shinmun New
Writer’s Contest with the short story
“Confirmation.” Lee sensationalized
contemporary society by addressing
women’s issues in her short story
collection Failure of the Half. Her
writings contemplate woman as
independent individuals. Her
preeminent works are the short story
collections Failure of the Half and
Hunchback’s Love, along with the
novels Suni and The Third House. She
is a Han Moo-sook Literary Award
recipient.
Black Flower, Your Republic Is Calling
You, Quiz Show, I Hear Your Voice, and
How a Murderer Remembers. He is an
op-ed writer for The New York Times
and has won the Hyundae Literary
Award, the Dong-in Literary Award,
and the Yi Sang Literary Award.
Lee Eung-jun (b.1970) is a poet and
novelist. He first published a poem
in the quarterly journal Literature &
Criticism in 1990, and debuted as a
novelist in 1994 when his short story
appeared in the quarterly magazine
Imagination. His published works
include the poetry collection The
Trees Rejected the Forest; a short
story collection titled My Girlfriend’s
Funeral; the novels Private Life of the
Nation and All About My Romance; and
the serialized novel Night Cello. Lemon
Tree is a 40-minute long film written
and directed by Lee that screened
at the New York Asian American
International Film Festival and at the
Paris International Short Film Festival
in 2008.
Jeong Yi-hyun (b.1972) debuted in
Kang Youngsook (b.1967) debuted
in 1998 when she won the Seoul
Shinmun New Writer’s Contest with
the short story “Dinner in August.”
Her published works include the short
story collection A Night of Dumbbell
Exercises; and the novels Rina, Writing
Club, and Tragicomic Miss Teletubby.
She received the Hankook Ilbo Literary
Award.
Kim Kyung-wook (b.1970)
Oh Hyun-jong made (b.1973) her
debuted in 1993 with the novella
Outsider published in the quarterly
review Writer’s World. His short story
collections are Is Leslie Cheung Really
Dead? and Risky Reading. His novels
are Like a Fairytale and What Is
Baseball? He won both the Hyundae
Literary Award and the Dong-in
Literary Award.
literary debut in 1999 when her short
story “Addiction” won the New Writer’s
Award after appearing in the monthly
magazine Literature and Thought. Her
major works include the short story
collection Seiren, and the novels The
Sacred Materialists and Sweet, Cold.
Pyun Hye-young (b.1972) debuted
Kim Young Ha (b.1968) debuted in
the quarterly magazine Review in 1995
with the short story “Reflections in
the Mirror.” His short story collections
include What Happened to the Guy
Stuck in the Elevator? and He’s Back,
None the Wiser. His novels are I Have
the Right to Destroy Myself, Why Arang,
Ilbo Literary Award and the Dong-in
Literary Award.
when she won the Seoul Shinmun
New Writer’s Contest in 2000 with
the short story “Shaking of Dew.” Her
major works include the short story
collections AOI Garden, Heading for
a Breeding Farm, Evening Courtship,
and Night Passes and novels such as
They Went to the Forest in the West and
Ashes and Red. She won the Hankook
2002 when her short story Romantic
Love and Society was published by the
quarterly review Literature and Society
and won the New Writer’s Award. Her
short story collections are Today’s Lie
and Romantic Love and Society. My
Sweet Seoul, What You Never Know,
Goodbye, My Everything are her most
well-known novels. She was a recipient
of the Hyundae Literary Award.
Cho Hae-jin (b.1976) debuted when
she won the New Writer’s Awards
and was published by the quarterly
magazine Munye Joongang in 2006.
She authored the short story collection
City of Angels and the novels I Met Lo
Gi-wan and A Forest That No One Has
Seen.
Nonfiction
pp. 64-70
Kim Yun-sik (b.1936) is a researcher
o f Ko re a n l i t e r a r y h i s t o r y. Hi s
contribution to modern literature
is unrivaled in regard to academic
and literary achievement. He has
published more than 70 books—
excluding collaborations, compilations,
and translations. His major works
are Research and Criticism on Korea’s
Modern Literary Works, Understanding
Korean Modern Literature, The History
of Korean Literature, New Realms
in Literary History and Rivals in the
History of Literature. He received the
Korea Literary Award and the Daesan
Literary Award.
Koh Jong-sok is a journalist, essayist,
linguist, and novelist. Koh is a veteran
journalist with 30 years of experience
and several published novels. His
written works include The Journalists,
Ko Jong-sok’s European News, Words of
Love, Love of Words, and The Romantic
Future of Koh Jong-sok.
Bae Myung-hoon (b.1978) began his
literary career with the Daehak Literary
Award in 2004 and the Science
Technology Creative Writing Award
in 2005 for his short story “Smart D.”
His short story collections include
Tower and Hello, The Artificial Being!
His novels are Define Orbit, Decoy, Sir
Chancellor, and The Proposal.
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
89
Beijing during the late 1990s, and
investigated Buddhist and colored
paintings during the late-2000s. Kwon
wrote and illustrated Man-hee’s House,
There Dangles a Spider, My Cat Copies
Only Me, and Pikaia.
at the Global Political Economy
Institute and author of Chaebols: the
Transnational Capital That Rules
Korea.
Heo Gyun studied Korean art history
and was editor-in-chief at the Academy
of Korean Studies. He was a cultural
heritage committee member, a cultural
heritage appraiser, and a member
of the evaluation committee for the
Cultural Heritage Administration.
He is currently the president of the
Korea Folk Art Research Center.
His publications include Temple
Decorations: The Shining World of
Symbols, Korean Gardens: The World
of Scholars, 100 Korean Buddhist
Temples, and How To Appreciate Korea’s
Traditional Paintings.
Yoo Young-kyu (b.1972) is a 13year staff journalist for Seoul Shinmun
where he worked in the society,
economy, online news, and industry
departments. He was also a police
reporter for six years and half years. He
is the author of Traces of Crimes Seen
Through Scientific Investigation.
Se o Ju n i s a p r o d u c e r f o r t h e
education documentary department
at Educational Broadcasting System
(EBS). He has spent most of his
career in the wild, both in Korea and
abroad. His major works include the
nature documentary The Shadow of
Coexistence; and the EBS Docuprimes
Mongolia, a Land of Ancient Times,
The Age of God and Darwin, The
Himalayas, In Search of Disappearing
Wildlife, and The Steppes of Asia. He
is a three-time recipient of “The Good
Programs Award of The Month.”
Kim Jae-hee is a children’s writer and
illustrator. She illustrated 1000 Won Is
Too Little! and Raccoon Goes to School.
Uncle Is Here was her first book.
Lee Won-su (1911-1981) is one of
Baek Jin is a professor of architecture.
He is currently an assistant professor
in the Department of Architecture
at Seoul National University. He is
interested in phenomenology and its
significance on architecture, urbanism,
and the environment. His published
works include Nothingness: Tadao
Ando’s Christian Sacred Space and
Wanderings Through Landscapes, in
addition to numerous international
journal articles.
Seo Min is a professor and columnist
Pa r k H e u n g - y o n g ( b . 1 9 6 1 )
who became interested in parasites
while studying at the Seoul National
University College of Medicine.
He devoted himself to the study of
parasites and received a doctorate from
SNU. He is currently a lecturer on
parasitology at Dankook University. He
writes online and daily news columns
to make parasitology a popular field.
He is the author of A Variety Show of
Parasites.
delivers a touching story marked
by Korean sentimentality, unique
characters, memorable lines, and an
unconventional composition. He is
the leading manhwa auteur, and is
known for realizing the full potential
of manhwa. His major works include
My Blue Saber, His Country, The Years,
and Like the Moon Escaping from the
Clouds, which was published in France
by Casterman in 2007.
the most renowned Korean children’s
book writers. Throughout his life he
wrote hundreds of children’s stories,
poems, and songs—including Korea’s
most popular children’s song “Spring
in My Hometown.” He was founder
and president of the Korean Children’s
Writer Association, and laid the
foundation for children’s literature
in Korea. His most renowned works
include the Forest Kingdom, Ok-i, A
Day Without Mom, and Spring in My
Hometown. He received the Korea
Culture and Arts Award and the Korea
Literary Award.
Children's Books
pp. 72-76
Park Hyeng-joon studied civil and
environmental engineering at Seoul
National University. He received a
master’s degree from the University
of Sussex with a focus on Marx’s
theory of alienation from social and
political thought. He learned Jonathan
Nitzan’s “capital as power” theory and
expanded his understanding of capital,
states, markets, and the global political
economy. He is currently a researcher
90 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
Joo Youngha is a professor of folklore
at the Academy of Korean Studies.
His key research areas include folklore
and food studies. He is an avid field
researcher and writer on Korean,
Chinese, and Japanese culinary culture.
He is the author of Food Studies as
Humanities, Delicious World History,
Setting the Table, and Korean History
Through Korean Food.
Heo Kyo-bum (b.1985) is a children’s
Kwon Yoon-duck (b.1960) is a
leading first generation children’s
writer and illustrator who pursues her
own worldview. She studied landscape
painting and fine brush painting in
book writer and a student of sociology
at Seoul National University. His first
book, The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician won the Story King
Award.
INDEX
Title
Original Title
Publishers/Agent
Copyright Agent
E-mail
Phone
Homepage
4p
Song Mi-kyoung wrote the children’s
books The Goddess of Revenge, Journal
Eating Journal, School for Kids Who
Hate to Go to School, and There Was a
Child. She won the Woongjin Junior
Literary Award.
Super Junior’s Experience Korea
Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
Kim Yun-kyung
ykkim0702@wjbooks.co.kr
82-2-3670-1016
www.wjbooks.co.kr
The Hen Who Dreamed
She Could Fly
(Madangeul Naon Amtak)
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
6p
Pottery Museum
(Dojagi Bangmulgwan)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
Hwang Sun-mi (b.1963) wrote
the children’s books The Hen Who
Dreamed She Could Fly, Capture the
Orchard, The Bad Boy Stickers, and
Let’s Play and Have Fun. Foreign
copyrights for The Hen Who Dreamed
She Could Fly (2000) have been sold in
12 countries. The English version has
been released by Penguin Publishing.
28
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
How a Murderer Remembers
(Sarinjaui Gieokbeop)
Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Kent D. Wolf
1-212-352-2055
kent@lmqlit.com
The Ultimate Child
(Gunggeugui Ai)
Elixir
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
Moonlight Tales
(Darege Deullyeojugo Sipeun
Iyagi)
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
Kim Sun-hee (b.1964) is the author
of numerous children’s books including
The Sun Came Out which won the
2001 Golden Goblin Award, and
Eighteen Souls, Confucius Bakery, and
More Red, which won the Sakyejul
Literary Award.
Goodbye, My Everything
(Annyeong, Nae Modeun Geot)
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Sarah Lee
copyright@changbi.com
82-31-955-3369
www.changbi.com/english
Give Them Lindy Hop
(Geudeurege Rindihabeul)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
I Want to Enjoy Life Till the Day I
Die
(Naneun Jugeul Ttaekkaji
Jaemiitge Salgo Sipda)
Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
Kim Yun-kyung
ykkim0702@wjbooks.co.kr
82-2-3670-1016
www.wjbooks.co.kr
Design Your Perspective
(Gwanjeomeul Dijainhara)
Eric Yang Agency Inc.
Jung Yeon
eya-china@eyagency.com
82-2-592-3358
The Power of Studying
(Gongbuhaneun Him)
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd.
Kwon Minkyung
ohappyday@wisdomhouse.co.kr
82-31-936-4199
www.wisdomhouse.co.kr
7p
Parents Growing Up with Their
Child
(Aiwa Hamkke Jaraneun Bumo)
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-eun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
If I Were to Raise My Children
Again
(Dasi Aireul Kiundamyeon)
Nasimsabooks
Kim Youn-hee
nasimsabooks@naver.com
82-2-3141-2233
Jiwon and Byeong-gwan Series
(Jiwoniwa Byeonggwani Series)
Gilbut Children Publishing Co.,Ltd.
Yie Ho-gyun
webmaster@gilbutkid.co.kr
82-31-955-3270
www.gilbutkid.co.kr
The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician
(Seumu Gogae Tamjeonggwa
Masulsa)
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
Sujin Lena Park
sujinpark@bir.co.kr
82-2-515-2000 (Ext.350)
www.bir.co.kr
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Bokee Lee
kids@munhak.com
82-2-3144-3237
www.munhak.com
My Cat Copies Only Me
(Goyangineun Naman Ttarahae)
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-eun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
Detective Kim Yeong-seo with the
Braided Hair
(Daenggimeori Tamjeong
Gimnyeongseo)
Danielstone Co. Ltd.
Eun Sun Jang
oz@ddstone.com
82-2-337-5252
www.ddstone.com
The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician
(Seumu Gogae Tamjeonggwa
Masulsa)
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
Sujin Lena Park
sujinpark@bir.co.kr
82-2-515-2000 (Ext.350)
www.bir.co.kr
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
Sujin Lena Park
sujinpark@bir.co.kr
82-2-515-2000 (Ext.350)
www.bir.co.kr
15p
Mother's Stake
(Eommaui Malttuk)
Segyesa Publishing Co., Ltd.
Heo, Yunjung
314yj@naver.com
82-2-6332-8082
www.segyesa.co.kr
The Snowy Road
(Nungil)
What Kind of Seed Are You?
(Neoneun Eotteon Ssiannini)
Bear Books
Choi Hyun-Kyoung
bearbooks@naver.com
82-2-332-2672
www.bearbooks.co.kr
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Please Look After Mom
(Eommareul Butakhae)
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
8p
Tradesman
(Gaekju)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
How a Murderer Remembers
(Sarinjaui Gieokbeop)
Medici Media
Hyoung-suk, Moon
moonstar05@nate.com
82-2-735-3308
barambooks
Lee min young
windchild04@hanmail.net
82-2-3142-0495
http://cafe.daum.net/barampub
Sherlock in the Attic
(Darakbang Myeongtamjeong)
Time Shop
(Sigangage)
The Korean West Sea War
(Seohaejeonjaeng)
Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a
Ghost
(Gwisin Jamneun Banggu
Tamjeong)
Audrey, the Great Sleuth
(Myeongtamgyeon Odeuri)
Bookhouse Publishers
Kim Sujin
ggageha@gmail.com
82-2-3144-2702
www.bookhouse.co.kr
9p
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-euna
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-eun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
Eight Questions
(Yeodeol Daneo)
Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Kent D. Wolf
1-212-352-2055
kent@lmqlit.com
Bang-Gu Detectives Chasing a
Monster
(Goemul Jjonneun Banggu
Tamjeong)
21p
Mom's Mad!
(Eommaga Hwanatda)
Bear Books
Choi Hyun-kyoung
bearbooks@naver.com
82-2-332-2672
www.bearbooks.co.kr
Waiting for Mom
(Eomma Majung)
Borim Press
Jeong, Keeyun
edit@borimpress.com
jebi@borimpress.com
031-955-3456(Ext.153)
www.borimpress.com
list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
91
The Hen Who Dreamed
She Could Fly
(Madangeul Naon Amtak)
37p
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
Human&Books
Ha Eung Bag
hbooks@empal.com
82-2-6327-3535
www.humanb.co.kr
I Was There On the Island
(Geu Seome Naega Iseonne)
How To Use Mom
(Eomma Sayongbeop)
39p
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-eun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
Snowcat – Playing Alone
(Seunoukaesui Honja Nolgi)
The Open Books Co.
Gregory Limpens
gregory@openbooks.co.kr
82-31-955-4040
www.openbooks.co.kr
22p
Your First
(Dangsinui Cheot)
The One! And Only! Jilpoong
Advertising!
(Deureoneun Boanna!
Jilpunggihoek!)
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream
(Seulpeumchiyak Geoulkeurim)
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
Kim Yun-kyung
ykkim0702@wjbooks.co.kr
82-2-3670-1016
www.wjbooks.co.kr
41p
Incomplete Life
(Misaeng)
To Write as a Woman: Lover,
Patient, Poet, Me
(Yeoseongi Geureul Sseundaneun
Geoseun)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd
Kwon Minkyung
ohappyday@wisdomhouse.co.kr
82-31-936-4199
www.wisdomhouse.co.kr
The Great Catsby
(Widaehan Kaetcheubi)
Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd
Kwon Minkyung
ohappyday@wisdomhouse.co.kr
82-31-936-4199
www.wisdomhouse.co.kr
27p
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream
(Seulpeumchiyak Geoulkeurim)
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Moss
(Ikki)
Nulook media
Jeeon Lee
nulook@hanmail.net
82-2-517-3886
www.nulookmedia.co.kr
28p
Earnie
(Choesundeok
Seongnyeongchungmangi)
43p
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd.
Park Eun-young
ridges9@naver.com
82-2-326-1600(Ext.119)
www.hainaim.com
Fumbling, I Knew I’d End Up
Like This
(Galpangjilpanghadaga Nae Ireol
Jul Aratji)
44p
The Great Jungle
(Jeonggeulmalli)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
Night Cello
(Bamui Chello)
Who Is Dr. Kim?
(Gim Baksaneun Nuguinga?)
Minumsa Publishing Group
Michelle Nam
michellenam@minumsa.com
82-2-515-2000(Ext.206)
www.minumsa.com
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
45p
At Least We Can Apologize
(Sagwaneun Jalhaeyo)
Garuda
(Geumsijo)
Hyundae Munhak Publishing Co.,
Ltd.
Kim Hyunjee
laputa79@chol.com
82-2-2017-0295
www.hdmh.co.kr
33p
Fumbling, I Knew I’d End Up Like
This
(Galpangjilpanghadaga Nae Ireol
Jul Aratji)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
The Third House
(Sebeonjjae Jip)
Achimnara
The Wylie Agency
Jin Auh (U.S.A)
212-246-0069
jauh@wylieagency.com
Stephanie Derbyshire (other regions
except the U.S.A, China, and Japan)
020-7908-5900
sderbyshire@wylieagency.co.uk
(China, Japan)
Literature Translation Institute of
Korea
info@klti.or.kr
57p
What Is Baseball?
(Yaguran Mueonninga)
Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
Kate Han
mshan@munhak.com
82-31-955-2635
www.munhak.com
92 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.22 Winter 2013
How a Murderer Remembers
(Sarinjaui Gieokbeop)
Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
Kent D. Wolf
1-212-352-2055
kent@lmqlit.com
58p
Tragicomic Miss Teletubby
(Seulpeugo Yukwaehan Telletobi
Sonyeo)
Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.
Moon Jeongmin
jmoon@moonji.com
82-2-338-7224 (Ext.7129)
www.moonji.com
Sweet, Cold
(Dalgo Chagaun)
Minumsa Publishing Group
Michelle Nam
michellenam@minumsa.com
82-2-515-2000(Ext.206)
www.minumsa.com
59p
Night Passes
(Bami Jinaganda)
KL Management
Joseph Lee
josephlee705@gmail.com
82-10-6239-9154
Goodbye, My Everything
(Annyeong, Nae Modeun Geot)
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Sarah Lee
copyright@changbi.com
82-31-955-3369
www.changbi.com/english
60p
A Forest That No One Has Seen
(Amudo Boji Mothan Sup)
Minumsa Publishing Group
Michelle Nam
michellenam@minumsa.com
82-2-515-2000(Ext.206)
www.minumsa.com
The Proposal
(Cheonghon)
Munyejoongang(Joongang Books)
Rachel Ahn
rachel_ahn@joongang.co.kr
82-2-2031-1322
http://jbooks.joins.com
63p
The Complete Works of Yi Sang:
Poetry and Fiction
(Isangmunhakjeonjip)
Somyong Publishing Co.
Kong Hong
somyoun@korea.com
82-2-585-7840
www.somyong.co.kr
65p
Rivals in the History of Literature
(Munhaksaui Raibeol Uisik)
Greenbee Publishing Company
Park Teha
tehada@greenbee.co.kr
82-2-702-2717
www.greenbee.co.kr
66p
The Romantic Future of
Koh Jong-sok
(Gojongseogui Nangman Mirae)
Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
Kim Yun Kyung
ykkim0702@wjbooks.co.kr
82-2-3670-1016
www.wjbooks.co.kr
How To Appreciate Korea’s
Traditional Paintings
(Yetgeurimeul Boneun Beop)
Dolbegae Publishers
Kwon Young-min
inboil@dolbegae.co.kr
82-31-955-5038
www.dolbegae.co.kr
67p
Wanderings Through Landscapes
(Punggyeongnyuhaeng)
Hyohyung Publishing co.
Uhm Cho-long
cholong@hyohyung.co.kr
82 31-955-7606
www.hyohyung.co.kr
Chaebols: the Transnational
Capital That Rules Korea
(Jaebeol, Hangugeul Jibaehaneun
Chogukjeok Jabon)
Chaeksesang
Kim Mi-jeong
bkworld@empas.com
82-2-3273-1333
www.bkworld.co.kr
There Was a Child
(Eotteon Aiga)
Sigongsa Co., Ltd.
Amelie Choi
amelie@sigongsa.com
82-2-2046-2855
www.sigongjunior.com
www.sigongsa.com
76p
68p
Traces of Crimes Seen Through
Scientific Investigation
(Gwahaksusaro Boneun
Beomjoeui Heunjeok)
Alma Publishing Corp.
Cheun Kyeong-ho
ckh1196@daum.net
82-2-324-2845
A Variety Show of Parasites
(Seominui Gisaengchung
Yeoljeon)
Eulyoo Publishing Co., Ltd
Kim Kyoung-mean
meantop@naver.com
82-2-733-8151
www.eulyoo.co.kr
69p
Korean History Through
Korean Food
(Siktak Wiui Hanguksa)
Humanist Publishing Group
Choe In-young
iy2001@humanistbooks.com
82-70-7842-9409
www.humanistbooks.com
Untamed Land of Nomads
(Asia Daepyeongwon)
MID
Pahk Dong-joon
mid2@live.co.kr
82-2-704-3448
www.bookmid.com
70p
Super Junior’s Experience Korea
Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
Kim Yun-kyung
ykkim0702@wjbooks.co.kr
82-2-3670-1016
www.wjbooks.co.kr
The Years
(Yeongnyeon)
GimmYoung Publishers, Inc.
Kim Soyeon
syk@gimmyoung.com
82-31-955-3115
www.gimmyoung.com/english
72p
Pikaia
Changbi Publishers, Inc.
Choi Ko-eun
copyright2@changbi.com
82-31-955-4359
www.changbi.com/english
74p
Uncle Is Here!
(Samchoni Watda)
Sakyejul Publishing Ltd
Kang Hyun-joo
kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr
82-31-955-8600
www.sakyejul.co.kr
Spring in My Hometown
(Gohyangui Bom)
Bluebird Publishing Co.
Angela Koh
angela.koh@yolimwon.com
82-2-3144-3700
www.bbchild.co.kr
75p
The Twenty Questions Detective
and the Magician
(Seumu Gogae Tamjeonggwa
Masulsa)
BIR Publishing Co., Ltd.
Sujin Lena Park
sujinpark@bir.co.kr
82-2-515-2000 (Ext.350)
www.bir.co.kr
Let’s Play and Have Fun
(Sinnage Jayuropge Ppeong)
Better Books
Kim Sangmee
rights@betterbooks.co.kr
82-2-2192-2313
www.betterbooks.co.kr
More Red
(Deo Ppalgang)
Sakyejul Publishing Ltd.
Kang Hyun-joo
kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr
82-31-955-8600
www.sakyejul.co.kr
82p
Monthy Literature & Thought
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
Library Nomad
(Doseogwan Nomad)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
Eve Bares All
(Ibeudeurui Ajjilhan Suda)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
You Have No Idea
(Namui Sokdo Moreumyeonseo)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
83p
“The Corn and I” (2012 Yi Sang
Literary Award Anthology)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
“The Future of Silence” (2013 Yi
Sang Literary Award Anthology)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
“Meal on the Road” (Sowol
Poetry Award Anthology)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
In This Earth & In That Wind
(Heuk Soge Jeo Baram Soge)
Munhaksasang Co., Ltd.
Jung Sara
munsa@munsa.co.kr
82-2-3401-8543
www.munsa.co.kr
85p
Baridaegi
Literature Translation Institute of
Korea
info@klti.or.kr