Vol.11 Spring 2011
Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books Interviews Picture Book Artist Baek Heena Novelist Eun Hee-kyung The Place
Suwon, the City of Hwaseong Fortress Theme Lounge
Gut, Korean Shaman Ritual
ISSN 2005-2790
FAQ What is list_Books from Korea, and where can I find it? list is a quarterly magazine packed with information about Korean books. Register online at www.list.or.kr to receive a free subscription.
Can I get it in English? The printed edition of list is available in English and Chinese. The webzine (www.list.or.kr) is available in English, Chinese, and Korean.
What if I want information about Korean books more often? We offer a bi-weekly online newsletter. Simply email list_korea @ klti.or.kr to begin receiving your free copy.
Who publishes list_Books from Korea? list is published by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, which is affiliated with the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. LTI Korea’s mission is to contribute to global culture by expanding Korean literature and culture abroad. Visit www.klti.or.kr to learn about our many translation, publication, cultural exchange, and education programs. Contact : list_korea @ klti.or.kr
Foreword
“You have to see even what you can’t see.” There is a place called Goseong Unification Observatory near the demilitarized zone in South Korea. With a diverse amount of information about the division of Korea on display, it allows us to peer into North Korea, which we cannot visit. Through the telescopes that operate on 500 won coins, you can take an even closer look at the North Korean landscape. During my visit there on a cloudy evening, I overheard a conversation between a young child and his mother. He was nagging his mother to let him look through the telescope. She scolded him, telling him he would only be wasting money since he would not be able to see anything anyway. Then the child declared authoritatively, “You have to see even what you can’t see.” The child is right. What I want to discuss now is fantasy. Fantasy is making visible the invisible. It requires the curiosity and ability to see the invisible, and children are readily capable of doing so. Adults give no thought to the invisible, which they cannot think of any reason or need to see. Children, however, are different. They believe that certain things are invisible and yearn to see them, assuming that the invisible can be seen; they therefore also invent invisible things. This is what constitutes imagination and creativity. It is the most fundamental basis and ultimate goal of literature. Herein lies the importance of children’s literature, especially the value of fantasy as a literary genre. The young child’s insistence on seeing the invisible that I mentioned above struck me as very meaningful. On the one hand, it captures the basic spirit of fantasy; and on the other hand, it seemed like the teaching of a sage on how to overcome the division of the country. The message I heard was: We should sustain our efforts to see North Korea, tightly sealed off and invisible, using our curiosity, imagination, and devotion. For people around the world, the first image that comes to mind when they think of Korea is that of a divided country. There is so much that is out of sight, hidden behind this image. One such example is children’s literature. The fact that children’s literature in Korea has seen many remarkable writers and books during its century long history is unknown to most people. In this issue of list, we introduce children’s fantasy books from Korea. The magazine surveys the basic fantasies of Koreans through books that contain Korean myths, legends, and folktales. This will serve as an introduction to the reception of Western fantasies in Korea as well as uniquely Korean fantasies, and into the imaginative games that unfold in some lovely picture books. I hope you will also see the diverse imagination and curiosity with which Korean children’s book writers have been making visible the invisible. By Kim Inae
Copyright © Kim Dong-sung, Jumong, the Heroic Founder of Goguryeo, Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd.
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Vol.11 Spring 2011
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2011 KLTI U.S.Forum The 3rd Korea Literature Translation Institute U.S. Forum (KLTI U.S. Forum) will be held from April 27th through May 2nd in Los Angeles and Berkeley. In Los Angeles, the 2011 KLTI U.S. Forum will feature three themes through a series of three events: “Korean Society in Korean Literature,” “Korean Literature and Film,” and “Korean Authors vs. Korean American Authors” for the period of April 27-29. Some of the participating Korean authors will be available to meet audiences at UC Berkeley on May 2nd.
Forum 1 “Looking to Prosperity from Within the Ruins: Korea in Korean Literature” Date & Place: Wednesday, April 27th at UCLA In a panel discussion with scholars from UCLA, Korean authors Kim Joo-young and Choe Yun will discuss how Korea overcame past hardships and grew into a country that has now hosted the G-20, and how this past is being interpreted in their works.
KLTI Overseas Publication Grants Applicant Qualifications - Any publisher who has signed contracts for the publication rights of a Korean book and can publish the book by December 2011 (The book should be published by then.) - Or any publishers who have already published a translated Korean book in year 2011 based on the contracts for the publication rights of a Korean book
Grant Amount - Part of the total publication expenses - The amount varies depending on the publication cost and genre of the book - The grant will be awarded after publication
How to apply - Register as a member on the website (www.klti.or.kr) and complete the online application form
Application documents
“Korean Literature and Cinema in a Time of Globalization” Date & Place: Thursday, April 28th at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles A Korean literary critic and an American film specialist will talk about Korean movies that have been adapted for the screen from their original texts. Three popular Korean movies will be screened, one each evening, starting Wednesday, April 27th.
1. Publisher’s profile, including its history and major achievements (e.g., its previous publications related to Korea (if any), the total number of books it has published so far, etc.) 2. Publication plan including the dates and budget for translation and publication in detail 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder 5. The translator’s resume
Forum 3
Application Schedule
“Korean Writers vs. Korean American Writers” Date & Place: Friday, April 29th at USC Korean writers including Choe Yun and Korean American writers including Leonard Chang will discuss and read excerpts from their work.
Submission period: 2011. 1. 1 ~ 2011. 9. 30 Grant notification: April, July, and October
Forum 2
The program is subject to change. For updated information, please contact Ms. Yoonie Lee at yoonie@klti.or.kr
Contact Name: Jiyoung Ko Email: grants@klti.or.kr
Contents Spring 2011 Vol. 11 01 06 07 08 10
Foreword Trade Report News from LTI Korea Bestsellers Publishing Trends
Special Section
Korean Children's Fantasy Books
12 Mining Tradition, Forging New Enclaves 15 Tapping into Mythology, Legends, and Folklore 18 Animal Fantasy Fiction Dives into a New Decade 21 Child's Play Gets In Touch With Reality
Interviews
24 Picture Book Artist Baek Heena 30 Novelist Eun Hee-kyung
Excerpts
28 The Moon Sorbet by Baek Heena 34 Let Boys Cry by Eun Hee-kyung
Overseas Angle
38 41 42
A Literary Dialogue with Korean novelist Yi In-seong and Chinese poet Yan Li MerwinAsia Emerges on the Translation Scene Introducing Professor Chung Moon-gil, Founder of Contemporary Marxist Studies in Korea
36 Book Lover's Angle: Jean Bellemin-NoĂŤl 75 Writer's Note: Moon Chung-hee
The Place
44 Suwon, the City of Hwaseong Fortress
Theme Lounge
48 Gut, Korean Shaman Ritual
Reviews
52 Fiction 70 Nonfiction 76 Children's Books
Spotlight on Fiction
57 A Dance with Grandma by Oh Chae Illustration by Oh Seung-min
Steady Sellers
69 The Poet 81 Into the Orchard!
Meet the Publishers
82 Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd.
New Books
84 Recommended by Publishers 90 Index 92 Afterword
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Vol.11 Spring 2011
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Contributors Antonio J. Doménech del Río is Director of the Korean Program at the University of Málaga. He has translated such works as Yulgok’s Compendio Básico de Educación Confuciana en la Corea del Siglo XVI, Kim Yolgyu’s 15 Códigos de la Cultura Coreana and Gyeongju Namsan, Esculturas Budistas en la Tierra Pura del Reino Coreano de Silla by Kim Wonryong and Kang Woobang. Bae No-pil is a reporter with the
JoongAng Ilbo and a nonfiction writer for the online newsletter plus list_Books from Korea.
Cho Eunsook is a professor of Korean Education at Chuncheon National University of Education and a critic of children’s literature. Her published works include The Formation of Korean Children's Literature. She is also an editor of the quarterly Changbi Children.
Jeong Sooja is a poet of Korean sijo.
Pyo Jeonghun is a book reviewer,
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?
Yu Gina is a film critic and professor
She has written many works including The Empty Well and is the recipient of the JoongAng Sijo Award. She is currently working on a book about the history, life, and culture of Suwon and Gyeonggi-do (province).
Kang Yu-jung is a literary critic.
Pyun Hye-young has published the
Zhang Yibing is vice-president of
In 2 0 0 7 , s h e p u b l i s h e d Oe d i p u s’ Forest. Currently, she teaches at Korea University and is a member of the literature editorial committee for the quarterly publication Segyeui Munhak.
Kim Inae is a children’s writer, critic,
and translator. Among her works are The Cat with Two Feet and Across the River Tumen and Yalu. She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.
Kim Ji-eun is a writer of children’s
Cho Yeon-jung is a literary critic. She made her debut in 2006 winning the Seoul Shinmun New Critic’s Award.
stories and a critic of children’s literature. She currently lectures on theories of writing fiction for children in the Department of Creative Writing at Hanshin University.
Choi Jae-bong is a reporter on
Kim Yeran is a professor of media art
the Culture Desk of The Hankyoreh newspaper.
Choi Yoon-jung is a critic of children’s
literature and director of Baram Books, a publishing company specializing in children’s and young adult’s books. She graduated from Yonsei University in French literature, and earned her MA at the University of Strasbourg and postgraduate DEA degree at the University of Paris. Her written works include the Sad Giant; she has translated over 100 works including L’oeil du Loup.
Doug Merwin is the founding editor
of East Gate Books imprint at M.E. Sharpe, which has published numerous books related to Asia for many years. He has published such works as the Korean Cultural and Arts Foundation Literature Translation Award-winning Peace Under Heaven, My Very Last Possession and Other Stories, a collection that received glowing praise from The New York Times, and the winner of the 2002 Daesan Prize for Outstanding Literary Translation for Everlasting Empire.
Eom Hye-suk is a researcher in
children’s literature and a critic of illustrated books. She also works as a translator. Her major written work is Reading My Delightful Illustrated Books.
Han Mihwa writes on the subject of
publishing. Her written works include Bestsellers of Our Time and This Is How Bestsellers Are Made, Vols. 1, 2.
Jang Sungkyu is a literary critic. He currently lectures at Kwangwoon University.
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Vol.11 Spring 2011
short story collections Aoi Garden and To the Cages and the novel Ashes and Red. She won the Hanguk Ilbo Literature Award in 2007 and the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award in 2007. She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.
Richard Hong is a book columnist and the head of BC Agency. He translated 13: The Stor y of the World’s Most Notorious Superstitions, appeared on KBS 1 Radio’s “Global Today,” and writes columns for The Korea Economic Daily and Posco News.
Rosa Han is an editor of foreign
at Kwangwoon University and on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.
literature at Yolimwon Publishing Co., where she also manages overseas sales of Bluebird Publishing Co. She is the CEO of Toc Publishing Co., a publishing house specializing in YA and children’s fiction and nonfiction.
Kwak Aram is a reporter at the Culture
Shin Hye-eun is a full-time lecturer
Department of the Chosun Ilbo. Her series introducing masterpieces of art, “The Masterpiece Files by Kwak Aram,” was serialized in Chosun Ilbo’s weekend supplement “Why” in the first half of 2008. Her works include Said the Picture to Her: Working Women in Their Thirties and When I Have to Wait, I Read.
Lee Jaebok is a children’s literary
critic. He is the author of such works as Children Gobble Stories.
Lee Jiyoo is a science writer and a writer
and translator of children’s literature. Her works include Mrs. Shooting Star’s Space Tales, Volcanoes, Star Shooters, and many more. She is an editor of the quarterly Changbi Children.
Oh Yunhyun writes children’s books.
Currently, he is editor-in-chief of the culture and science section of SisaIN, a weekly magazine, and is a member of the World of Children’s Story Society. His books include Tori Is Escaping from Game Land and The Amazing Mystery of Our Body.
Park Sungchang is a literary critic and
professor of Korean literature at Seoul National University. His works include Rhetoric, Korean Literature in the Glocal Age, and Challenges in Comparative Literature. He is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.
of primary education at Soong Eui Women’s College.
Shin Junebong is a journalist at the
Culture Desk of the JoongAng Ilbo. He received his MA from Goldmiths, University of London in 2008, and is interested in theoretical analyses of literature, cultural phenomena, and customs.
Shin Soojeong is a literary critic. She is
currently a professor in the Department o f C r e a t i v e Wr i t i n g a t My o n g j i University, and is also a member of the editorial committee for the quarterly publication Munhakdongne. Her written works include the critical anthologies Meat Hanging in the Butcher’s Shop and How Do We See the Literature of the 1990s? (co-author).
Wang Yanli received an MA in Korean
Studies at Inha University and is preparing a doctoral dissertation at the same university.
Yi Soo-hyung is a literary critic and a
senior researcher at the Seoul National University Academic Writing Lab. He studied contemporary literature, and has taught at Hongik University, Seoul Institute of the Arts, and Korea National University of Arts.
of film and digital media at Dongguk University. Her works include Yu Gina’s Women’s Cine-Promenade and Find Yourself Through Film (co-authored with Im Kwon-taek). She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea. Nanjing University and one of the foremost Marxist scholars of China. He has published such works as Back to Marx: The Philosophical Discourse in the Context of Economics, The Impossible Truth of Being: Imago of Lacanian Philosophy, and Back to Lenin-A Posttextological Reading on Philosophical Notes.
Translators Ann Isaac has a BA and MA in Classics
and English Literature from Cambridge University, and an MA in Japanese Studies specializing in translation from the University of Sheffield. After moving to Korea in 2001, she studied Korean at various institutions and currently translates from Korean to English, with a special interest in literary translation.
Cho Yoonna studied English literature
at Yonsei University and earned her MA in conference interpretation at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She is a freelance interpreter and translator.
C h o i In yo u n g i s a n a r t i s t a n d
translator. She has been translating for over 20 years. She specializes in Korean literature and the arts.
Christopher Dykas studied German
Studies and Politics at Oberlin College. After a journey through language that brought him to learn French, Spanish, and Korean, he now resides in Seoul where he works as a freelance translator and broadcaster.
H . Ja m i e C h a n g r e c e i v e d h e r undergraduate degree from Tufts University. She is a Bostonian/Busanian freelance translator.
Jaewon E. Chung is working on
several translation projects under the guidance and suppor t of the International Communication Foundation and LTI Korea. For his translation of Hwang Jung-eun’s “The Door,” Chung received the 38th Korea Times Modern Literature Translation Commendation Award.
Julie Min is a Korean-Canadian who
studied English Literature at University of British Columbia. She has translated several Korean short stories and children's books into English.
Yi Jeong-hyeon is a freelance translator.
She has translated several books and papers on Korean Studies including Korean Traditional Landscape Architecture (2007), and Atlas of Korean History (2008).
Jung Yewon studied interpretation and
translation at GSIT, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Jung has worked for Bain & Company, Korea and various other organizations, and is currently working as a freelance interpreter/translator. Jung received the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant in 2009. She is currently working on No One Writes Back, a novel by Jang Eunjin.
Kari Schenk was the co-recipient of the
commendation award in the 2006 Korea Times contest for new translators, and in 2010 she attended a special course in translation at LTI Korea. Her graduate studies in English Literature and Applied Linguistics have been of assistance to her during the seven years she has spent lecturing in English at Korea University.
Kim Hee-young is a freelance translator.
She is currently working on the translation of a collection of the experiences of comfort women titled Histories Behind History.
Kim Ungsan graduated in German
Literature from Seoul National University and also studied at the Free University of Berlin. He earned an MA degree in Comparative Literature. And currently, he is working on a PhD in English Literature.
Park Jinna is a freelance translator based
in Seoul with a special interest in education and environmental issues.
Park Sang-yon is a PhD candidate in
Editors Kim Stoker earned a MA in Asian Studies
Vol.11 Spring 2011 A Quarterly Magazine for Publishers
PUBLISHER _ Kim Joo-youn
at the University of Hawaii. She is currently a full-time lecturer at Duksung Women’s University.
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR _ Kim Yoonjin
Krys Lee is an editor, translator, and fiction
EDITORIAL BOARD Kim Inae Kim Yeran Park Sungchang Pyun Hye-young Yu Gina
writer. Her short story collection will be published by Viking/Penguin in the U.S.A. and Faber and Faber in the U.K., in 2012.
Cover Art Choi Jung-in studied printmaking at
Hongik University. She also illustrated Princess Bari, Gyun-woo and Jick-nyo, and Magic Red Lipstick.
MANAGING DIRECTOR _ Lee Jung-keun
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Kim Sun-hye MANAGING EDITORS Cha Youngju Kong Min-sung EDITORS Kim Stoker Krys Lee ART DIRECTOR Choi Woonglim DESIGNERS Kim Mijin Lee Jaehyun Jang Hyeju
Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is currently helping North Korean refugees settle in the UK. She has translated a number of books and papers on Korean Studies including Suwon Hwaseong: The New City of the Joseon Dynasty Built on the Spirit of Practical Learning.
PHOTOGRAPHER Lee Kwa-yong
Peter J. Koh is a freelance translator/
All correspondences should be addressed to the Korea Literature Translation Institute at 108-5 Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea 135-873 Telephone: 82-2-6919-7700 Fax: 82-2-3448-4247 E-mail: list_korea@klti.or.kr www.klti.or.kr www.list.or.kr
interpreter. He is currently participating in KLTI’s 2010 Intensive Workshop in Literary Translation.
Sue Y. Kim received her BA in English
Literature and International Studies from Ewha Womans University. She currently resides in Los Angeles, and is working on a novel in the Creative Writing program at the University of Southern California.
Yang Sung-jin is currently a staff reporter
at The Korea Herald, covering new media and books. Yang wrote a Korean history book in English titled Click into the Hermit Kingdom and a news-based English vocabulary book, News English Power Dictionary. He runs a homepage at web. me.com/sungjin.
PRINTED IN _ EAP
list_ Books from Korea is a quarterly magazine published by the Korea Literature Translation Institute.
Copyright © 2011 by Korea Literature Translation Institute ISSN 2005-2790
Cover art © Choi Jung-in
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Trade Report
Korean Children’s Books Make Inroads in France
Notably, French publishers’ keen attention to Korean books is helping Korean publishers think beyond the domestic market in a way that broadens their perspective and pushes them to publish more diverse children’s books for overseas markets. By Rosa Han
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Korea n children’s picture books began to gain public a t t e nt i o n o n t h e Fr e n c h market in 2004 when Editions Philippe Picquier published Kim Jin-kyung’s multi-volume Cat School. Cat School sold more than 20,000 copies in the shortest period ever right after its publication, defying the negative expectations about Asian children’s titles—a fringe market at best. French publishers duly took notice, diverting their eyes from Japanese books toward Korean ones, albeit at a slow pace. French publishers favored not only contemporary novels mixed with an element of fantasy such as Cat School, but also picture books that bring to life traditional Korean sensibilities and traditions, particularly visually sophisticated titles by Kim Jae-hong and Kim Dong-sung. For instance, titles such as Waiting for Mom (Lee Tae-joon; Hangilsa Publishing Co., Ltd.) and The Life of Buddhist Monks of the Past (Kim Jong-sang; Bluebird Publishing Co.) secured not only positive reviews but also impressive sales in the French market. More important momentum came when Flammarion Group took over Chanok. Once Chanok joined the Flammarion brand, it quickly pushed for contracts with Korean illustrators via agents, playing a greater role in the overseas sales of Korean books in general and actively promoting the potential of Korean picture books in particular. Other publishers in France which continue to publish Korean books in various categories include L'ecole des Loisirs, Bayard Jeunesse, Didier Jeunesse, Mango Jeunesse, Memo, and Pommier. The publishers in question opted for quality titles in various genres and topics that include I Died One Day (Lee Kyunghye; Barambooks), Yujin and Yujin (Lee Geumyi; Prooni Books), The House Where Books Dwell (Lee Young-seo; Munhakdongnae), Sun and Moon (folktale), and Surprising World: The World Cultural Heritage (Yu Soon-hye; Izzlebooks). This selection suggests that French publishers tend to favor Korean books that have not only a solid structure but also a universal appeal that goes beyond geographic and cultural boundaries. 6 list_ Books from Korea
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1. Cat School, a multi-volume series Kim Jin-kyung; Illustrator: Kim Jae-hong Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.
5. Surprising World: The World Cultural Heritage Yu Soon-hye, Izzlebooks 2006, 56p, ISBN 8937856034
2. The Life of Buddhist Monks of the Past Kim Jong-sang; Illustrator: Kim Jae-hong Bluebird Publishing Co. 2003, 32p, ISBN 8970576649
6. Yujin and Yujin Lee Geumyi, Prooni Books, Inc. 2008, 286p, ISBN 9788957980132
3. Waiting for Mom Lee Tae-joon; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung Hangilsa Publishing Co., Ltd. 2007, 38p, ISBN 8935657123 4. The House Where Books Dwell Lee Young-seo; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2009, 192p, ISBN 9788954607347
7. I Died One Day Lee Kyunghye, Baram Books 2004, 192p, ISBN 8990878055
News from LTI Korea
Korean Literature Events at the Guadalajara International Book Fair
Last November, KLTI took part in the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico, the largest book fair in the Spanish-speaking world. Throughout the event, KLTI ran a booth exhibiting Korean books
that have been published in English and Spanish, as well as publicizing KLTI overseas activities. The participation of novelist Eun Hee-kyung, whose work A Gift from a Bird has been published in Spanish, and novelist Park Min-gyu, author of Korean Standards, attracted the most attention. In addition, it was possible to provide Mexican readers with a deeper introduction to Korean literature, thanks to the participation of literary critic Kim Dongshik. KLTI held a total of three events on Korean literature during the book fair. The first was as part of the Guadalajara Book Fair literature program on November 28th, in which novelists Eun Hee-kyung and Park Min-gyu and critic Kim Dongshik all participated, talking to Mexican readers about Korean literature and their own works, and meeting Mexican literary figures for an exchange of ideas. Further events were held outside the main book fair venue. On November 29th, the atmosphere was one of enthusiasm as over 100 Mexican students attended a lecture meeting on Korean Literature held at the University of Guadalajara. A rather special event was the “Ecos de la FIL” program at a local high school, where novelist Eun Hee-kyung and Mexican high school students held a relaxed discussion on Korean literature. During the period of the book fair, the participating Korean authors were interviewed a number of times by the local media, which is a measure of the heightened interest in Korean literature in Central and South America.
KLTI Contest for Up and Coming Translators Hoping to revitalize Korean literary translation and unearth promising new translators to introduce Korean literature abroad, KLTI invited entries for the 9th Korean Literature Translation Contest for New Translators in 2010. The designated texts were “What Makes Up The City?” by Park Seong-won and “The Rosewood Cupboard” by Lee Hyun-soo. There were 110 entries altogether this time, the most popular languages being English and Japanese with 39 and 30 entries, respectively. In all, seven translators were awarded prizes in the 9th Contest for New Translators: Park Kyung-lee for translation into English, Lee Ja-ho for French, Stierand Gunhild for German, Kim Joohyun for Spanish, Elena Kim for Russian, Wu Yumei for Chinese, and Moon Kwang-ja for Japanese. Elena Kim and Moon Kwang-ja attracted particular attention as graduates of the Translation Academy run by KLTI. The birth of a new generation of translators was celebrated at an award ceremony held on November 18, an occasion made all the more meaningful as there was the opportunity for prize winners to meet the original authors of the works which they had translated.
Korean Literature Essay Contest Held Worldwide in 16 Countries Every year KLTI holds a “Korean Literature Essay Contest” with the aims of raising the level of recognition of translated Korean works published abroad and of securing a potential readership for Korean literature. The essay contest, which started in 2005, is held in around 15 different countries, and in 2010 a total of 16 countries took part, including Jordan, Italy, Germany, Vietnam, Poland, the U.K.,
KLTI is now inviting applications for the 2011 10th Korean Literature Translation Contest for New Translators. Like last year, entries will be accepted in seven languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese). The stories selected for translation are Park Min-gyu’s “The Door of the Morning” for Western languages and Kim In-suk’s “Bye, Elena” for Asian languages. Entries should be sent either by email or post to reach us no later than Monday, April 11, 2011. (enquiries and entries to: newtranslators@klti.or.kr)
France, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Taiwan, China, Mongolia, Japan, and Mexico. In 2011, it is scheduled to take place in 16 countries worldwide, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Japan, Russia, Vietnam, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, and Thailand. By reading works of Korean literature and writing about their impressions for this competition, overseas readers are able to experience Korean literature more profoundly. In particular, it is anticipated that the high level of participation among younger readers in the various countries will contribute greatly to strengthening the footing of Korean literature abroad in the future.
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Bestsellers
What We’re Reading
The Scarecrow’s Dance
The Forest of My Young Days
Fiction
Nonfiction
Brida
The Forest of My Young Days
Paulo Coelho, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 351p, ISBN 9788954612999 Brida is a 20-year-old girl who is seeking her destiny. This novel tells the moving story of how her life is transformed as she finds love and goes on to discover her true self. Based on the real experiences of an Irish girl called Brida O’Fern whom Coelho met on a pilgrimage, the book was a household legend for a long time, after the author himself discontinued publication for an undisclosed reason.
Kim Hoon, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788954613392 This is the most recent work by Kim Hoon, author of Song of the Sword and Song of Strings. The main character, the miniaturist Jo Yeon-ju, explores the themes of the secret meaning of life and awakening insight through her experiences. As the paths of the characters keep crossing and they form connections, the books surveys, in Kim Hoon’s inimitable exquisite style the minute details of life that cannot be spoken or painted.
The Scarecrow’s Dance
La Fille de Papier
Jo Jung-rae, The Literature of Literature 2010, 440p, ISBN 9788943103767 This work is a scathing investigation into the corruption of large enterprises and pariah capitalism. Jo’s previous works have been concerned with Korean modern history, problems of partition and ideology, unconverted longterm political prisoners, and human rights issues regarding prisoners of war that have been ignored by history. By contrast, in this book Jo deals with the present for the first time, illustrating clearly the real paradoxes of the current age and attacking head-on the shameless conduct of the wealthy.
Guillaume Musso, Balgeun Sesang 2010, 488p, ISBN 9788984371071 This work gives full play to the author’s characteristic qualities of arousing suspense instinctively without recourse to intricate embellishments or special rhetoric, and of consistently synthesizing a complex and eventful plot at a buoyant pace. The framework of the book is the story of the love that develops between a bestselling writer and the heroine of his novel.
Le Miroir de Cassandre Bernard Werber, Open Books 2010, 472p, ISBN 9788932910680 This work denounces the “curse” that is heaped on the heads of dreamers who imagine the future. One of the major settings of the novel is a garbage dump, and making this a metaphor for modern civilization, the author does not skimp in portraying the stench of reality that permeates from it. The framework of the story is a 17-yearold girl who can foretell the future but knows nothing at all of her own past, and the course of her struggle with a real world that is full of falseness.
8 list_ Books from Korea
Vol.11 Spring 2011
Youth, Because It’s Painful
Sweet Little Lies Ekuni Kaori, Sodam Publishing House 2010, 232p, ISBN 9788973816170 A work that deals with marriage and lies, with love and sincere relationships, this book tells the story of the married life of Ruriko and Satoshi that is maintained by secrets and lies. It dryly depicts the loneliness of a reality that you can feel but don’t want to face, when a relationship that started from love ends at the terminal station of “marriage” and can even be described by the word “starvation.”
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism Chang Ha-Joon, Boo-kie 2010, 368p, ISBN 9788954613392 World-renowned progressive economist Chang HaJoon explains the problems of modern-day capitalism in a simple and clear style that will enlighten even the ordinary reader.
Practice Emptying Your Mind Koike Ryunosuke; Translator: Yu Yun-han Book21 Publishing Group 2010, 244p, ISBN 9788950926298 Buddhist monk Koike Ryunosuke, who guides ordinary people in the practice of Zen in Japan, introduces in this book a “way to rest your brain.” He shows how one can understand worldly thoughts and so free oneself from them by following eight daily practices from “speaking” to “nurture.”
Youth, Because It’s Painful Kim Rando, Sam & Parkers 2010, 320p, ISBN 9788965700036 This book is an anthology of advice from professor Kim Nan-do for young Koreans who are struggling with an uncertain future and the loneliness of youth. Already famous through his lectures at Seoul National University and his Internet site, with warm and sincere words the author implants in young people the courage to overcome their loneliness and anxiety.
These totals are based on sales records from eight major bookstores and three online bookstores from November 2010 to January 2011, provided by the Korean Publishers Association. The books are introduced in no particular order.
An Invisible Difference
Story+Origami: Insects
The Fool Who Only Reads Books
Children's Books Wedding Speeches by a Monk
Story+Origami: Insects
Venerable Pomnyun Sunim, Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2010, 271p, ISBN 9788984314207 The author is the Venerable Pomnyun Sunim, who has vowed to live the life of a bodhisattva (Buddhist saint) to help his neighbors and the world, and has set up the Jungto Society. In this book he imparts words of wisdom on marriage, affection, and love for those dreaming of a happy marriage.
Polliwog; Illustrator: Jung Seung, Izzlebooks 2007, 100p, ISBN 9788937856778 As readers read these stories and fold the paper, they can get to know various insects. The book is structured so that after reading a story about an insect, one can then fold the paper inside the book to make that particular insect. The paper is patterned and colored so that the shape made by folding is extremely lifelike. This is the sixth book in the Story+Origami series. Other books in the series include airplanes, dinosaurs, houses, and around-the-world travels.
2020 War of Wealth in Asia Choi Yoonsik and Bae Dong-chul Knowledge Nomad 2010, 400p, ISBN 9788993322316 This book predicts Korea 10 years in the future, and offers strategies for coping with that future. The prospect presented through abundant simulations is that 10 years from now a war of wealth will break out between the great world powers with the Asian market at center stage, and that Korea may be faced with a limit to its growth.
An Invisible Difference Han Sang-bok and Yeon Jun-hyug Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 368p, ISBN 9788960511194 By looking at a vast range of topics including philosophy, history, and current management theory, this book sheds light on the mechanisms which lead to good luck and bad luck and presents a golden rule for happiness based on examples of lucky people.
Learning from World-Famous Paintings Writing Factory, Beautiful People 2010, 152p, ISBN 9788994212401 From Botticelli to Chagall, this book introduces over 60 important painters from Western art history. It provides a brief outline of the artists’ lives and shows us their major works, along with a commentary on the content and background of the work. The pictures are arranged according to period, and as we look at them, we can understand how art reflects the changes in society.
Survival in a Tidal Flat Gomdori Co.; Illustrator: Han Hyun-dong, I-Seum 2010, 200p, ISBN 9788937848377 This is the latest book in the ever-popular Comic Survival Science series. Set on Korea’s west coast sandbar, one of the world’s five largest sandbars, it tells the adventures of three children. An exciting story unfolds as the children, shrunk to only an inch in size, get into scrapes such as being imprisoned in a clam shell and fighting with a lugworm. As they follow the story, readers are able to learn about the ecology of a sandbar and about the lives of the creatures that live there.
Gram Gram English Grammar Expedition Jang Youngjun; Illustrator: Appeal Project Sahoi Pyoungnon Publishing Co., Inc. 2010, 172p, ISBN 9788964351109 This English grammar book presents basic English grammar at a level suitable for elementary school students in fun comic book form. There are 15 books in the complete series. It is said that the author, who has a PhD in Linguistics at Harvard University and is currently a professor in the English department at Chung-Ang University, wrote these books for his own son who hates English grammar. From nouns to the present perfect tense, readers can learn from a wide range of English grammar.
It’s OK to Make a Mistake Makita Shinji; Illustrator: Hasegawa Tomoko Toto Book Publishing Co., 2006, 30p, ISBN 9788990611260 This book inspires with courage new students starting elementary school. Children who are relaxed and open at home may be unable to say a word when they start school. The message of encouragement to children afraid of school life is that the teacher will not mind even if you make a mistake, so relax and speak freely. This book always climbs to the bestseller lists as the start of the new school term in March approaches.
The Fool Who Only Reads Books Ahn So-young; Illustrator: Kang Nammi Borim Press, 2005, 288p ISBN 9788943305840 This book tells the story of Yi Deok-mu, a man famous as a great reader in the Joseon era. The author became interested in Yi Deok-mu when he came across a brief reference to him in a book, and after gathering material about him and adding some imaginative details, he has brought Yi to life again. Yi’s passion for books is depicted with wonderful vividness. It is amazing that someone can love books that much!
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Publishing Trends
Fiction
Puppets Dance to the Tune of Greed and Corruption In 2010, Korean readers rediscovered their passion for political and economic justice as well as the value of thinking based on humanities. Lawyer Kim Yong-cheol, who had ignited a heated debate by exposing the corruption of the Samsung Group where he used to work in 2007, wrote out a book titled Reflections on Samsung in February, asking Koreans to face what Samsung really represents in society. In October, Jo Jung-rae’s latest novel titled The Scarecrow’s Dance hit the local bookstores, encouraging readers to ponder the issues surrounding Korea’s problem-laden economic democratization. In t he novel, Ilg wa ng Group executives at Cu lture Cultivation Center, a unit under the direct control of the chairman, stage a massive lobbying campaign targeting decision makers at the prosecution, the anti-spy agency, the national tax office, government agencies, and the media. The plot revolves around the group’s scheme to pull off a managerial succession and transfer of wealth. The chairman and executives feel satisfied with the lobbying campaign whose total budget is set at 300 billion won for some 2,000 leaders in society—a tiny sum compared with the huge slush funds they get away with. Prosecutors find themselves dragged into the dark waters of corruption and injustice as they have to follow any order, even unlawful ones, from their superiors to survive in the organization. Reporters frequently knock the back doors of the conglomerate to beg for a bribe of 500,000 won, which is at the far end of the corrupt lobbying spectrum. The corporation in question exacts revenge on newspapers which carried not-sofriendly articles, and a high-ranking official at the labor union, who has grabbed the clandestine offer from the firm, offers a false testimony in court, another sign of corruption festering at every level of society.
The Scarecrow’s Dance Jo Jung-rae, The Literature of Literature 2010, 440p, ISBN 9788943103767
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Many characters are depicted as mere puppets who dance to the tune of corruption. On the other hand, some characters offer a glimmer of hope. For instance, Professor Huh Min continues to push for economic democratization through his newspaper column, even though he gets fired from his post at a university. Lawyer Jeon In-wook, who bolted from the corrupt prosecution, helps civic groups f ight aga inst t he conglomerate. A lso encouraging are the brave civic organizations which venture out to stage a boycott campaign against the products of the conglomerate in question. Jo Jung-rae is no ordinary writer. He published several trilogies of multi-volume novels on Korea’s modern history: Taebaek Mountain Range, Arirang, and Han Kang. He has sold a record 13 million copies. In the author’s introduction of the novel, he writes: “I wrote this novel while yearning for a world where I don’t have to write this kind of novel.” By Choi Jaebong
Nonfiction
Seeking Answers in Tough Times 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism continued to top the bestseller list, outsmarting its rivals by a wide margin. In just two months since its debut, the book sold 300,000 copies. For eight straight months, it ranked No. 1 on the bestseller list of major online bookstores in Korea. The title, written by Professor Chang Ha-joon, who teaches economics at the University of Cambridge, extends the humanities craze sparked last year by the surprising popularity of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Harvard lecturer in philosophy, Professor Michael Sandel. While Sandel calls on readers to ponder the definition of ‘justice’ from a center-right position, Chang Ha-joon’s book has taken a centerleft stance, offering a implementation guideline for those who seek ‘better justice’ in a capitalist society. Practice Not Thinking by Koike Ryunoske, a monk who graduated from the University of Tokyo, extended its popularity that started last year. Another self-ref lection essay collection that gained attention was Kim Rando’s Youth, Because It’s Painful, which climbed rapidly on the bestseller lists right after its publication late last year. E Jisung’s Leading by Reading also secured a spot on the major bestseller lists. The book, subtitled “Reading Techniques for the World’s 0.1 Percent Elite,” appeals to readers interested in self-help and education by arguing that reading classics in the humanities will open up a door to victory in the capitalist system.
Kim Joong-mi’s Children of Gwaeniburimal (Changbi). With the landmark 100th printing, Ignoramus Samdigi, which is currently on the major bestseller lists, solidified its position as a steady seller as well. The book’s central character named Samdigi, who is ridiculed by his classmates because he is illiterate, yet gets to learn how to read with the help of his friend. This charming children’s book has sold 500,000 copies. In December, Hwang Sun-mi published The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays (Sakyejul), her first young adult novel. Hwang is a recognized author of bestsellers including Leafie, a Hen into the Wild, which sold more than 900,000 copies. In the new title, Hwang gets an 11-year-old girl to narrate stories about marginalized people in a small village near the U.S. army base in Pyeongtaek while the entire country is preoccupied with the ‘Saemaeul Movement.’ The book generated great buzz because it is based on Hwang’s childhood experiences. In the category of preschoolers, Woongjin ThinkBig put out a Korean translation of Anthony Browne’s Bear’s Magic Pencil in November. The book includes not only the author’s own pictures but also various paintings submitted by children who participated in a picture book contest held in Britain. Browne is one of the most popular picture book writers favored by mothers. Other translated titles that drew attention were David Wiesner’s Art & Max (BetterBooks) and Marcus Pfister’s Questions, Questions (BetterBooks).
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1. Youth, Because It's Painful Kim Rando, Sam&Parkers 2010, 320p, ISBN 9788965700036 2. Gong Jiyoung’s Jirisan School of Happiness Gong Jiyoung, Open House 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788993824469
By Kwak Aram
3. Just Stories Kolleen Park, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 333p, ISBN 9788993928259
Gong Jiyoung’s Jirisan School of Happiness is a collection of 11 essays that touches on life in a rural area, a serene and refreshing setting that is tempting for people under constant stress from hectic urban living. The book’s instant popularity also proved that Gong, one of the most popular novelists in Korea, has a solid base of enthusiastic fans. In a similar vein, Kolleen Park, a top musical director, published her memoir titled Just Stories. Park demonstrated her charisma by successfully leading an amateur chorus composed of celebrities in a popular reality TV show last year, touching off a syndrome dubbed “Kolleen Park Leadership.” By Bae No-pil 4
Children's Books
Ignoramus Samdigi Reaches the Milestone 100th Printing In the fourth quarter of 2010, a host of heavyweight writers made big strides. At the end of November, for instance, Won You-soon’s bestseller Ignoramus Samdigi (Woongjin ThinkBig) went to its 100th printing, a 10-year milestone since its first publication. The 100-printing club members in the children’s book category include Hwang Sun-mi’s The Bad Boy Stickers (Woongjin ThinkBig) and Leafie, a Hen into the Wild (Sakyejul), the late Kwon Jeong-saeng’s Puppy Poo (Gilbut Children), My Sister, Mongsil (Changbi), and
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4. Ignoramus Samdigi Won You-soon, Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd. 2010, 95p, ISBN 9788901114705 5. The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays Hwang Sun-mi, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2010, 184p, ISBN 9788958285205
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Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books
Mining Tradition, Forging New Enclaves While the children’s book genre in Korea has long been influenced by Western fantasy, an exciting wave of new styles continues to emerge.
The very first Korean children’s story was a fantasy book called The Lily Star and The Little Star written by Ma Hae-song in 1923. Bawinari, a plant with five-colored flowers that lives on the beach, dreams of being recognized and loved in the world. Baby Star up in the sky makes his dreams come true. But the King of the Sky, Baby Star’s father, forbids their reunion. Bawinari withers and dies of a broken heart and Baby Star loses her light and falls into the ocean. Since then, Bawinari comes back to life every year on the beach, and bright light emanates from under the ocean where Baby Star fell. The story has a tragic world view in that the fragile flower and the young star search for their identity and dream of being recognized and loved for who they are, only to have their dreams be crushed. This ref lects the grim realities of Korea under occupation and works as an allegory for the oppressed rights of children and teenagers during the Japanese colonial period. But the flower blooms again and the star continues to shine under the ocean, embodying the idea of hope for a new world, rebirth, and everlasting life. Such a tragic worldview and religious hope went on to become the most important motifs in Korean fantasy books for children. The works of Kwon Jeong-saeng, the most important since Ma Hae-song’s works, prove this theory. The protagonist of Puppy Poo (1969) is Dog Poo shunned by all for being dirty. Dejected by his own hideous form and uselessness, Dog Poo is broken down in the spring rain and turned into fertilizer that nurtures a dandelion. The story of sacrifice from a lowly being to a lovely flower is one of the most famous and beloved tales in Korea. Children’s literature in Korea started with improbable stories, and fantasy became a characteristic of the genre. However, the earlier works were too short and allegorical in nature to qualify as proper fantasy fiction. It wasn’t until the 20th century that Korean writers producing the latter. Democracy brought stability and economic advancement Korean society in the late 1980s, and a new wave of foreign children’s literature was introduced in Korea, heightening children’s literature writers and readers’ 12 list_ Books from Korea
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1. The Lily Star and The Little Star Ma Hae-song, Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. 2005, 207p, ISBN 8974313545 2. Puppy Poo Kwon Jeong-saeng; Illustrator: Jeong Seung-gak Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. 1996, 34p, ISBN 8986621134
3. Conclave Oh Jin-won; Illustrator: Yang Kyung-hee Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2009, 459p, ISBN 9788932019963 4. The Secret of Flora Oh Jin-won; Illustrator: Park Hae-nam Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2007, 260p, ISBN 9788932017484
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interest in fantasy novels from the west. The catalyst of this new interest was, needless to say, the Harry Potter series that came out in the late 1990s. Fantasy fiction such as the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Earthsea Cycle, and Tom’s Midnight Garden had a great influence on Korean children’s book writers. Oh Jin-won and Kim Hye-jin are prime examples. Oh Jin-won changed the landscape of Korean fantasy fiction with her novel, The Secret of Flora, set in the vast universe and its myriad, new and dying planets where different tribes fight to survive. Conclave a story of children traveling through a mysterious world in search of lost memories, healing wounds from the real world, and maturing from the experience, is also considered a grand fantasy. Kim Hyejin created a unique fantasy world through her trilogy, Aro and the Perfect World, The Cane Race, and A Color No One Knows. She draws engaging, diverse narratives from motifs such as the struggle between a perfect and imperfect world and the competition for the cane that symbolizes absolute power. The influence of western fantasy fiction is evident in these writers’ works, but there are also distinctive elements. The novels start out with devices often found in western fantasy fiction, but the story does not end with a clearly dichotomous worldview, a fierce battle between good and evil, or a definite victory or loss. The conclusion of these works is often harmonious, bringing up themes of self-sacrifice, trust, understanding, compromise, forgiveness, and acceptance. Kim Jin-kyung is a good example of a writer who is keen on creating a Korean-style fantasy fiction. He has penned an 11-volume saga called Cat School in which he uses mythology to hold a mirror up to society and solve today’s problems. His works contain in-depth research on East Asian mythology. The pacifist view of harmony and peace over conflict and violence and the incorporation of East Asian mythology have earned the series due recognition abroad. Kang Sook-in, who draws her topics from Korean folklore and history, calls for “a recovery of godliness within us” in The Divine Empire of the World Beyond.
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5. Cat School, a multi-volume series Kim Jin-kyung; Illustrator: Kim Jae-hong Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 6. The Cane Race Kim Hye-jin, Baram Books 2007, 599p, ISBN 9788990878441 7. A Color No One Knows Kim Hye-jin, Baram Books 2008, 560p, ISBN 9788990878601 8. Aro and the Perfect World Kim Hye-jin, Baram Books 2004, 528p, ISBN 9788990878113
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Special Section
The description of heaven, where the story takes place, and the four animal characters, are distinctive features that can’t be found in western fantasy. Yi Hyeon’s Hurray for Jangsu, diverges from the majestic depictions of alternate universes in its comic portrayal of ghosts and the messenger of death from Korean folklore. The comic depictions offset the heavy themes of the novel: children today struggling to survive the cutthroat competition at school and war-generation children trying to put their lives back together in the aftermath of the Korean War. The role of fantasy in this novel is self-evident as the two generations of children meet and work together to restore happiness for children of the present. Korean children’s literature is in its heyday, thanks to young, distinctive fantasy writers. Kang Jeongyeon pokes fun at the empty life of a family too busy to look after their own shadows in A Busy Family, but brings the family back together in the end. Park Hyo-mi’s Diary Library satirizes the strange Korean custom of checking children’s diaries every day in school. The most common theme of Korean fantasy for children is the crushing oppression of the education system and the dream of escape and freedom. Lee Seoung-sook’s Miru from Mars is narrated from the perspective of an alien from outer space who humorously depicts the greed, selfishness, helplessness, and vanity of a family. Korean literature has taken in a century-long legacy of western fantasy fiction all at once and produced an explosive number of its own fantasy fiction in the past decade. These works will go on to form a new strand in the fabric of children’s world literature. The joy of watching its dynamic development awaits. By Kim Inae
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1. Miru from Mars Lee Seoung-sook; Illustrator: Yoon Mi-sook Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2006, 211p, ISBN 8932017425 2. Hurray for Jangsu Yi Hyeon; Illustrator: Oh Seung-min Urikyoyuk Co., Ltd. 2007, 220p, ISBN 9788980408542 3. Diary Library Park Hyo-mi, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2006, 123p, ISBN 8958281413
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4. The Divine Empire of the World Beyond Kang Sook-In, Prooni Books, Inc. 2003, 286p, ISBN 8988578945 5. A Busy Family Kang Jeongyeon, Baram Books 2006, 139p, ISBN 8990878314
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Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books
Tapping into Mythology, Legends, and Folklore Mythology and folklore reveal the universal hopes, fears, and trials that all living and non-living things share. Incorporated into modern stories, these culturally timeless tales have enchanted children over the ages. Life is at the core of all Korean mythology and folklore. The thread that runs through all Korean fantasy is the hope of life where humans and nature coexist and are profoundly connected to each other. This thread connects humans to gods and nature to humans. It bridges the gap between fantasy and reality, and helps move life along from past to present, and to the future. The Myth of Baekdusan is based on the myth surrounding the birth of Mt. Baekdu, the most famous mountain in the Korean peninsula. The story begins with the birth of the universe and describes the dynamic process that brings us to the birth of Mt. Baekdu. In The Myth of Baekdusan, Mt. Baekdu is a giant with a “white head” (baekdu). The personification of Mt. Baekdu conveys the animistic fantasy of human perceptions of nature, and the idea that the Baekdu Giant exists to protect the Han race demonstrates
a primitive teleological fantasy that nature exists for humans. While The Myth of Baekdusan deals with a supernatural being in nature, Jumong, the Heroic Founder of Goguryeo is about a heroic figure that connects man to gods. Jumong is a being born of the energy of the Earth and the Heavens and is at the same time the founding king of Goguryeo. Jumong’s life, which starts when he hatches from an egg, is an endless string of woe and suffering. But Jumong doesn’t give up his godliness through all the jealousy and banishment. Rather, he gets in touch with his inner god to solve problems every time he is faced with an obstacle. All of nature comes to his aid along the way. Jumong’s quest to establish the kingdom of Goguryeo is one man’s journey to realize his dreams and at the same time to discover his inner sacred being and energy. The epic shaman song Princess Bari starts with a dichotomous divide, as do most myths. Princess Bari is the seventh daughter of a king who is abandoned at birth and raised by an old couple. When her biological parents fall ill, the princesses raised in the palace refuse to go to the land of death to find the elixir of life but Princess Bari gladly takes on the task. Instead of rejecting the paradox of life imposed on her or seeing it as a setback, she sees her life as a process of reconciling the paradoxes of life. What she gains in the process is an ability to overcome death and restore life. The gravity of the Princess Bari myth lies therein. Half a Loaf is born with half of everything—eyes, ears, arms, and legs. But he rises above the taunting and being ostracized to marry a pretty woman and create a happy home. Half a Loaf may appear to be a Korean version of “Beauty and the Beast” but unlike the beast who confines himself to the castle and awaits his fate, Halfie is a go-getter who lives among people regardless of their reaction to his appearance. Nothing can bring him down or create hatred in him. He uses his misfortune for the good of others. We learn through Halfie’s life what it is to overcome one’s fate and limitations to become a truly whole human list_ Books from Korea
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Special Section
The Myth of Baekdusan Liu Jae-soo, Borim Press, 2009, 88p, ISBN 9788943307769
A Mud Snail Bride Han Sung-ok, Borim Press, 1998, 50p, ISBN 8943302606
Jumong, the Heroic Founder of Goguryeo Kim Hyangeum; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung, Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd., 2009, 48p, ISBN 9788901101194
being. The beast transforms back into a handsome prince at the end of “Beauty and the Beast,” but there is no magic in Half a Loaf. Halfie finds a woman who accepts and loves him despite his grotesque appearance. This implies that Halfie is already a whole person inside and reaffirms one of the fundamental truths in life—that two incomplete beings come together to complete each other. Half a Loaf confirms that Korean folklore is able to create fantasy without entirely departing from this universe. A Mud Snail Bride is a famous example of Korean folklore that involves an animal bride. A bachelor farmer weeding alone in the field bemoans his lonely state, “All this food and no one to share it with!” The empty field answers back, “Share it with me.” The bachelor looks around and finds a snail. The bachelor brings the snail home, and strange things begin to happen. The house is clean, and meals are prepared. When the bachelor discovers that 16 list_ Books from Korea
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the snail turns into a maiden to take care of him, he takes her as his wife, but an evil king passing by falls in love with the snail bride at first sight. The king tries everything to take the snail bride away from him, but the snail bride uses magic every time to fend the king off. In the end, the king is banished from the country and they live happily ever after. A Mud Snail Bride is to some extent the western equivalent of “The Frog Prince,” but the man the snail bride chooses as her companion is nothing more than a farmer, unlike the frog prince who marries a princess. The plot in which a common farmer finds a lifelong partner in a snail bride from the Dragon Palace under the sea is another distinguishing factor of a Korean fantasy. The Seven Friends in a Lady’s Chamber is a folk tale that personifies the seven tools women in the past used to make clothes—measuring tape, scissors, needles, thread, thimble, hand
Princess Bari Kim Seung-hee; Illustrator: Choi Jung-in, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2006, 30p, ISBN 8949101203
The Seven Friends in a Lady's Chamber Lee Young-kyoung, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 1998, 31p, ISBN 8949100207
Half a Loaf Lee Miae, Borim Press, 1997, 32p, ISBN 8943302630
iron, and coal iron. This story shares its structure with “The Shoemaker and the Fairy” by the Grimm Brothers, but the theme and plot are different. When the lady falls asleep while sewing, the seven friends come to life and say they’re the most indispensable tool for making clothes. The lady who lies awake listening to their debate sits up and says that she is the most indispensable. In the end, of course, the seven tools and the lady all acknowledge each other’s worth and admit that none of them can work alone. The moral of the story is that life is complete only when all things living and non-living are connected to each other and live peacefully with one another. By Shin Hye-eun
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Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books
Animal Fantasy Fiction Dives into a New Decade Animal fantasy has a long tradition in Korean children’s literature. Since the turn of the century, it has evolved through the efforts of a new generation of writers who have begun to discard past depictions of animals as merely human mirrors. In these tales all living creatures work together towards achieving harmony.
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Into the Orchard!
Dream of the Oxen
Save the Small Bear
Hwang Sun-mi, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2003, 224p, ISBN 9788971969526
Kim Nam-jung; Illustrator: Oh Seung-min Little Mountain Publishing Co. 2006, 196p, ISBN 8989646243
Kim Nam-jung; Illustrator: Kim Jung-seok Urikyoyuk Co., Ltd. 2007, 188p, ISBN 9788980408504
Animal fantasy takes up the greatest percentage of children’s books. Animal fantasy has had a long tradition in Korean children’s literature as well, and it has been going through a transition from allegorical animal fantasy to stories about animals themselves. Many of these works were written in response to the anthropocentric view of previous works, criticizing the objectification and literary exploitation of animals. Such trends are considered to be a consequence of postmodern thought. Humans are not the only beings on this planet. No matter how advanced our technology, we cannot gain full control over the world, even if we were to build a city of skyscrapers and asphalt roads with the most cutting-edge technology. Hwang Sunmi’s Into the Orchard! is a story about various creatures living in a metropolis. No matter where we are, if we look a little closer and listen a little harder, we can always find a great number of creatures living among humans. This book consists of many chapters, each featuring an animal protagonist who draws a vivid picture of the world seen through its eyes. For example, the way a duck’s webbed feet feel against the asphalt, the starling’s-eyeview of a village, and the smell of a market through the nose of a hungry rat, are described so uncannily as to be almost tangible. The animals’ stories are interwoven in such a way that reflects their harmonious ecology. Kim Nam-jung criticizes the various forms of violence that exist in contemporary society. Dream of the Oxen has an allegorical setting of a fight between the land of oxen and humans over gold. In both the land of oxen and the world of humans, the greed of the ruling class and tribalism send the powerless off to the battlefield. The author points out with anger and sadness that those who suffer most in a war are the weak and the powerless. The fight between humans and oxen is, of course, imaginary, but the mechanism of war in the novel is very realistic. Save the Small Bear is a story of bears who are born the size of fists from the trauma of war and the children who fight to protect them from Nature’s Friend, a multinational conglomerate that mass produces pets by cloning them. Unlike their environmentally friendly campaigning, the company has no qualms about destroying or altering nature for profit. The children’s plot against the company unfolds like a spy mission and captivates
readers as the children try to save the bears from systematic violence on living things. Kang Jeongyeon’s Cocky the Arrogant Dog and The Green-Eyed Elephant feature animals as self-assertive beings. Cocky the Arrogant Dog is about an audacious pet dog named Dodo who is thrown out of its owner’s house because it has gotten fat. Dodo is surprised and hurt, but the audacious Dodo decides to believe that he has never been abandoned. Only those who belong to someone can be abandoned, but Dodo has never accepted anyone as its owner. Dodo refuses to live the life of a comfortable house pet. Instead, he decides to choose the person he would like to live with and become his or her family, friend, and companion. The story of this spunky, adorable puppy will bring courage to children who want to lead more independent lives. Bumbuck the elephant from The Green-Eyed Elephant is also content with living at the zoo. Born after 1,000 days in his mother’s womb, Bumbuck is different from any other elephant. Bumbuck can understand the human language, and is much more intelligent and exceptional than other elephants. He can even communicate with his human friend Hwanee who was born on the same day. He has these sacred powers because he is destined to be the green-eyed navigator of his tribe. But as long as
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Special Section
The Green-Eyed Elephant
Cocky the Arrogant Dog
A Mouse Without a Tail
Kang Jeongyeon; Illustrator: Baik Dae-seoung Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 208p, ISBN 9788971846520
Kang Jeongyeon, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2007, 197p, ISBN 9788949121062
Kwon Yeong-poom; Illustrator: Lee Kwang-ick Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 124p, ISBN 9788936451257
he is trapped in the zoo performing circus tricks, his sacred ability is nothing more than a tourist attraction or a research project. Then one day, Bumbuck sees visions of his long-suffering tribe in Africa and the history of ruthless poaching and confinement. Bumbuck makes up his mind to escape from the inhumane display of the zoo and return to his hometown. His human but true friend Hwanee helps him escape. Quickfoot the mouse who got her tail cut off in a scuffle appears in Kwon Yeong-poom’s A Mouse Without a Tail. Is it hard living with a short tail? Of course. It’s difficult to climb up high without a tail, and she can’t wrap herself with the tail when she sleeps. The brave, optimistic Quickfoot goes to school with a pretty ribbon on her tail instead of despairing about her deformity, but the elitist “pretty mice” bring up the “schoolmouse law” to banish Quickfoot from school: an “ugly mouse” with her tail cut off has no right to live at the school. Quickfoot leads the “ugly mice” to victory in the fight against the tyranny of the “pretty mice.” Quickfoot, mistaken for a hamster thanks to her short tail and pretty ribbon, has the good fortune of being placed in a classroom. Is that a relief? Of course. Quickfoot was happy to be able to live in the classroom surrounded by children. Living with humans was another fun activity and an adventure for her. The smarter, bolder animal characters of the 21st century think of humans as partners, not masters. The young Korean writers of the 21st century are reexamining the relationship between humans and animals through animal fantasy. Kang Jeongyeon writes in her afterword, “Humans may think they have tamed nature, but they’re powerless before what nature can do. Even so, humans have not learned to be humble before nature. Humans are busy digging through mountains, overturning rivers, and remodeling the world to make it more convenient. Little do they know that nature will strike back with a catastrophe a hundred, or a thousand times more frightning than what humans are capable of. How dare they?” Korean writers are starting to portray animals for what they are, untainted by human reasoning and stratification, to dream of a world where all living creatures live in peace and harmony. By Cho Eunsook
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Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books
Child’s Play Gets In Touch With Reality When children look with their imaginations instead of their eyes, they see worlds long lost to adults. Books loved by children and parents alike continue to explore the limitless creativity of children. A small fight breaks out in the neighborhood playground. “My dinosaur turns purple in the face that fumes at the nose!” “My dinosaur turns red all over and breathes fire when it talks! My dinosaur is scarier than yours!” The children are having a screaming match over how their toy dinosaurs changed when angry. Watching the children’s adorable argument, it occurred to me that they weren’t talking about their toys. They were talking about real dinosaurs, and their dinosaurs were standing tall behind them, backing up their arguments. We adults couldn’t see the dinosaurs, but to the children, the dinosaurs were really there. It’s hard to believe, but children’s lives are full of such magical moments. To them, fantasy is how they live and play. Hanuri in The Story of Hanuri is a lion hunter. To hunt a lion, one must be as fast and brave as a lion. Hanuri dashes through the African plains and finally catches a lion! But Mommy has no idea what it takes to hunt a lion as she yells, “There are no lions in our house!” Tsk, poor Mommy. What is that creature struggling in the pillowcase if not a lion? Adults are only interested in the end result of things. They have no clue why something happened. The protagonist of How I Caught a Cold, well, caught a cold. Why did she catch a cold? It was the ducks. A whole flock of ducks missing feathers came to her last night. The child pulled out the down from her parka and planted each feather into the ducks. Naturally, her parka became thin and the child caught a cold. But Mommy says, “You caught a cold because you kicked off the covers.” Mommy will never guess in a million years how much fun the child had playing with the ducks all night. Adults are blind even to the things right before their eyes. What they can’t see, they can’t play with. The main character of A Subway to an Aquarium sees a beautiful ocean outside the subway window. The train goes underwater. There are fish swimming outside the window. If you want to, you can always open the subway window and go swim with the fish. You can even meet a whale! But what’s the child’s father doing? Hey, mister! Your child just went after that whale. Daddy doesn’t know that his child went off to see the whale. He doesn’t even know he’s riding the train through the ocean. But not all adults are fools. Look at the wise adults in Cloud
Bread and The Moon Sorbet! Mama Cat makes bread out of the cloud that her kittens brought home, and the children who eat the bread float through the sky. After eating Mama’s cloud bread, Daddy doesn’t have to be stuck in traffic anymore. He can fly to work! Mama deserves a pat on the back for baking cloud bread. What about the old lady who made sorbet out of moon drops on a hot, hot summer night? The neighborhood had a cool summer, thanks to the old lady’s moon sorbet. The moon sorbet was delicious and refreshing, but what to do with the moon that’s gone? No worries. If the old lady knows how to make moon sorbet, she’ll of course know how to restore it back in the sky. Thanks to these smart adults, there is hope for adults all over the world yet. Whether or not adults notice, the fantasy in a child’s life goes on. In I Like You Just As You Are, Mimi and Otto get into an argument over Mimi’s ribbon. She’s wearing a pretty ribbon in her hair, but Otto doesn’t notice. Mimi becomes upset and wishes Otto’s eyes were larger so he could see her ribbon better. As soon as she says that, Otto’s eyes really become huge! Mimi proceeds to fix Otto. “Your nose is too flat!” “Your voice is too soft!” Otto changes with each incantation. In the end, Otto turns into an enormous monster. Does Mimi like the monstrous Otto? What would be Mimi’s last wish? The characters of Hare, Wolf, Tiger, and Dammi don’t take orders from adults anymore. Going out to run errands, Mama Rabbit tells Baby Rabbit not to open the door “if the wolf comes a-knocking.” The Baby Rabbit braces herself for the scary wolf ’s visit. She waits all day for the wolf with the fabled sharp fangs. But he won’t come. Where is he? So instead, the baby rabbit sets out to find the wolf. The baby rabbit goes to the wolf ’s house to find
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Special Section
How I Caught a Cold Kim Dongsoo, Borim Press, 2002, 28p, ISBN 9788943304799
A Subway to an Aquarium Hwang Eun-ah, Marubol Publications, 2001, 40p, ISBN 8985675877
Cloud Bread Baek Heena, Hansol Education, 2004, 38p, ISBN 8953527058
there’s no scary wolf. Instead, there’s a frightened little wolf waiting for the scary tiger. The baby wolf and the baby rabbit set out in search of the scary tiger. At the tiger’s house, they find a baby tiger waiting for the scary hunter. So the baby rabbit, the baby wolf, and the baby tiger go to meet the hunter who turns out to be a child. Their adventure brings them new friendships. It would have been so boring if they’d listened to their mothers and stayed home! No genetic mutation is required for children to turn into animals. If a child meows, his friend believes he has transformed into a cat. No computers or virtual reality are necessary for a child to see his friend as a cat, like the children in The Cats. Children can turn into various animals such as tigers, turtles, and chameleons like the child in Ouch! It Stings! The child turns into a different animal because he doesn’t want to get his flu shot—a 22 list_ Books from Korea
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truly important reason to morph into another animal. I visited the playground again. This time, two girls were discussing their angry mothers. “My mommy has steam rising from her head!” “My mommy turns into a very, very strong monster!” Next to the girls was a small group of children chasing a puppy. To the children, the puppy is no different from a lion. If it happened in their heads, it really happened in real life. For a child, fantasy is where they play and it is real to them. Therefore, I have no doubt the girls’ mothers don’t just look like monsters when they’re angry—they actually turn into monsters! By Lee Jiyoo
I Like You Just As You Are Kook Jiseung, Sigongjunior, 2008, 207p, ISBN 9788952753045
Hare, Wolf, Tiger, and Dammi Han Byoung-ho; Illustrator: Chae Insun, Sigongjunior, 2000, 20p, ISBN 8952709063
The Cats Hyeon Deok; Illustrator: Lee Hyoung-jin, Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. 2000, 28p, ISBN 9788986621730
Ouch! It Stings! Kook Jiseung, Sigongjunior, 2009, 36p, ISBN 9788952756633
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Interview
Kneading, Baking, Freezing, and Thawing Worlds of Imagination Picture Book Artist Baek Heena
Baek Heena creates picture books that are delicate, fanciful, and entirely readable. Her artistry is matched by a perfectionism and a lavish attention to detail in her quest to make memorable stories. In one of the alleys around Ewha Womans University in Shinchon, Seoul, there is a small children’s bookstore called Chobang. A hidden gem for children’s book enthusiasts, it’s a cozy little nook where readers can discuss new books and authors. I came here a while back to see a small exhibit and saw the original illustrations for the storybook, Cloud Bread, for the first time. It was a story about a family of cats baking and eating cloud bread from clouds that descend from the sky on a rainy day. It was simple yet captivating. The most surprising part of it was the vivid reality of the world created by the artist by mixing two-dimensional and three-dimensional media. I could almost smell the cloud bread baking in the cat family’s kitchen. The children sitting in a corner of the gallery reading Cloud Bread pressed their noses against the pictures to smell the bread. They spread their arms to imitate the cats flying like clouds in the sky. They seemed ready to go home to their mothers and beg for cloud bread. Cloud Bread put author Baek Heena on the map worldwide in 2004. Baek started working on Cloud Bread after the birth of her first child in 2004, and received the honor of “The Illustrator of the Year” at the Bologna Children’s Book Festival in 2005. In Korea, Cloud Bread is known to be one of the best picture books published in the first decade of the 21st century, not to mention its impressive sales record of 450,000 copies. It has been translated and published in France, Japan, Taiwan, China, Germany, and Iran. The book was turned into an animated film, a musical, and an art installation, solidifying its place among Korean children as a beloved new classic. Baek Heena has since written and illustrated The Red Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger, The Moon Sorbet, and Last Evening, sharing her inventive visual art with the world. Baek is known for her uncompromising, meticulous works. At her studio by the Han River, art supplies and tools of various shapes and sizes fill the shelves, reminiscent of the workshop of a craftsman. She is an artist who creates the most dazzling stories with the most honest, persistent effort, which means a huge time investment. If she has to light every room on the set the size of her palm, she finds a dozen light bulbs barely 0.5mm in length and finds a way to wire them all. She makes every balcony by hand using wire, and installs tiny air conditioners. In the rooms
of her characters, she puts up hand-drawn wallpaper. The result generates something new besides a replication of reality. I met with Baek Heena to find out her secret. Kim Ji-eun: How did you first get into storybook making? Baek Heena: I’ve enjoyed drawing and making up stories since I was a child. I studied educational engineering in college and learned about audiovisual education. My first job out of college was at an advertisement agency, but I quit shortly after I realized that commercial art was not for me. I wanted to make something pretty for children, whatever it was. I found the traditional themes of rewarding good and punishing bad limiting, and I wanted to explore something new. Then I became acquainted with Hansol Education while doing background illustration for their educational CD-ROMs. When you work for a company, the staff tends to be keen on bonding with each other, but I always holed up and worked on my own. My co-workers seemed to find this peculiar and asked me, “What’s more important to you, work or people?” I said, “The children who’ll see my work are the most important.” If I don’t produce something good, children will not want to look at it. I have a tendency to change my trajectory dramatically when I’m cornered. I wanted to be better at creating things, and so I decided to study abroad. Kim: How did your experience studying abroad affect your art? Baek: I studied animation at the California Institute of Arts. I worked on one Disney-style full animation, one plot-driven cutout animation, one stop-motion 3-D animation on 16mm film, and one drawing animation while I was in school. Through this experience, I learned about space perception and overall visual production. The Korean economy was in a rut and receiving financial relief from the IMF at the time. A meal cost about five dollars, which was 10,000 won at the time. I worked every hard. I was determined not to waste a single cent. I tried very hard to unearth the potential I had in me. Looking back, I feel I’d been too obsessive about it. Personal growth comes from interpersonal relationships, too, and I feel I didn’t have the presence of mind to reach out. A professor I worked with who has since passed away list_ Books from Korea
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Interview
picture book artist Baek Heena and critic Kim Ji-eun
“I’d always wanted to make three-dimensional things. I think that fantasy worlds are multi-dimensional stories because it involves many different time and space realms.” once told me, “You produce good work, but they’re all outdated.” But I think animation or the picture book genre is inherently evocative of the past. I had a soft spot for picture books with a classic style. Kim: Did you ever consider a career as an animator? Baek: It did occur to me, but it’s difficult to work alone as an animator. Picture book projects are more primitive, but I liked the craft involved and the fact that a child can own a copy. I also found it appealing that I had to work within a set format and two-dimensional space. Kim: Let’s talk about your first book, Cloud Bread. The cats have a loving family that everyone dreams of. Is this based on your childhood? Baek: I made this book while recuperating after I had my first child. I finished the story in one sitting. Looking back on my childhood makes me happy and comforts me. It’s all thanks to my mother who made our clothes by hand and bought an oven in the 1970s to bake us bread. My sisters and I played with dolls, and we still do. I spent many days in another world, engrossed in drawing pictures or making up stories. I’m the third daughter, and I especially loved to sew. My maternal grandmother often made us red bean bread leavened with yeast. This gave me the idea for Cloud Bread. I was watching the clouds come down the mountain ridge one day and thought that maybe if clouds contained too much water, they would get heavy and get closer to the ground, and if I baked the cloud, it would dry and become crunchy. I thought that if I ate that bread, my body would become lighter and I would float up into the sky. Kim: The idea of making bread out of clouds is whimsical, but the thought behind it is rather scientific. What about The Moon Sorbet? Baek: The Moon Sorbet also contains memories of my mother 26 list_ Books from Korea
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making me and my siblings red bean or orange sorbet when we were kids. The Moon Sorbet did not start out as a story to raise awareness on environmental pollution. I finished the story in 2007 and made the pieces between March and April of 2009. It was published in August the same year. If Cloud Bread is based on my childhood memories, The Moon Sorbet is about children today. I wanted to tell a story that starts with something very small and closer to the lives of children today. I started with the idea of the earth heating up so that the moon melts, and people making sorbet out of moondrops. The characters in all of my stories are animals. With Cloud Bread, I also thought that human characters would take away from the charm of the story. It was a story about baking, so I chose an animal with a keen sense of smell—a cat. The protagonist of The Moon Sorbet is an old lady wolf because wolves are most likely to notice if anything has happened to the moon. The story, of course, couldn’t end with the moon sorbet consumed and gone, so I borrowed the idea of moon rabbits from Eastern mythology. The moon rabbits will be the most affected if the moon were to disappear, and I wondered what would happen if the rabbits in distress were to show up at the wolf village to ask for help. Wolves and rabbits aren’t exactly famous for their cordial relationship in literature, but they help each other out in the story when the moon is gone. They work together to get the moon back. One thing I always keep in mind as I work is that I should be good to others. I am a mother, and my maternal instincts make their way into the stories. Mothers have to be good people for the sake of their children. I think being a picture book writer is similar to being a mother. When I watch stories spooling out from within me, I am reminded that picture book writers can’t fool anyone or be bad people. Kim: Your stories always take place in three-dimensional spaces. Why is that?
Baek: I’d always wanted to make three-dimensional things. I think that fantasy worlds are multi-dimensional stories because it involves many different time and space realms. When I first started working on Cloud Bread, the space was two-dimensional. I had trouble trying to capture the special smell of a cloudy, rainy day. I made foggy windows and set up indirect lighting and took pictures of the set to express that feeling. I made dolls out of paper and placed them in perspective. I don’t use 3-D for everything. I think it over many times over the course of the project. A perfectly three-dimensional space detracts from creating a mis-en-scene, but 3-D space can also appear mediocre without careful attention to detail. I think that each artist has her own way of expressing three-dimensionality. Although I make things and take pictures of them, the thought involved is very much like expressing my own style in a two-dimensional medium. Kim: Did you design and set up lighting yourself for The Moon Sorbet? Baek: Yes. Depending on the story, I decided whether lighting is necessary. I ponder on the relationship between my lighting and the story. Same goes for the decision between 2-D and 3-D. I compared the feel of the two. I made the apartment verandas in The Moon Sorbet so that it’s possible to see inside the apartment through the windows. I live in an apartment building, too. If I look through the veranda window of other apartments, I can see what’s going on in other people’s homes. I can see a girl grabbing a sweater or someone watching TV. There’s a Hitchcock film called Rear Window. I used the point of view of the film, of looking into other people’s homes, as the main POV of The Moon Sorbet. I needed lighting to create the feeling of looking in from the outside. I used very small LED light bulbs of about 0.5 millimeters. I used a relatively big lighting fixture for the watering can that holds the moondrops. The watering can is about big enough for a Barbie doll. My new book, Last Evening, which took eight years to finish, also features little set pieces I agonized over. I went through dozens of watering cans before I decided on the perfect one. Kim: It seems you dealt with a production process where all the elements are intricately connected to each other. What is the message you’d most like to get across through your books? Baek: That we’re neighbors, and that
a neighborhood is an organic, living entity. We all touch each other’s lives. There are days when someone’s mistake becomes my hardship, and then there are days when someone’s joy becomes my happiness. That’s the main message of the new book, Last Evening. I’m planning on developing each of the characters and turning the story into a series. I’ll slowly reveal how we are all connected to each other. The book will also be available as a smartphone and iPad application. By Kim Ji-eun
The Red Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger Park Yoonkyu; Illustrator: Baek Heena, Sigongjunior 2006, 40p, ISBN 8952745795
Last Evening Baek Heena, StoryBowl 2011, 14p, ISBN 9788996478218
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Excerpt
The Moon Sorbet Baek Heena, StoryBowl 2010, 32p, ISBN 9788996478201
All the windows were shut tight wth the air conditioner on full blast and the fan whirring on full speed as the neighborhood tried to go to sleep.
Outside the window the big moon was drip drip dripping.
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Hard-working granny rushed outside with a big rubber tub to collect the moondrops.
It was the most amazing thing. A bite of the moon sorbet, and the horrible heat was all gone!
She opened the door to find two moon rabbits. “The moon is gone. We have no place to live now.”
“Oh dear, we have a serious problem…” Granny sat at the kitchen table in deep thought. Translated by H. Jamie Chang
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Interview
Boys, Be Yourselves Eun Hee-kyung
By shedding conventional expectations of age-appropriate behavior, author Eun Hee-kyung explores individualism and acceptance in her recent works. Eun Hee-kyung has written 10 books since her literary debut 16 years ago. Her body of work includes four novels and six short story collections. From A Gift from a Bird (Munhakdongne, 1996), which depicts the adult world seen through the suspicious eyes of the precocious 12-year-old narrator, to Secrets and Lies (Munhakdongne, 2005), the story of two intricately interwoven families over the course of three generations, Eun has excited her readers by always experimenting and trying something new. While each new work betrays her past work, it is possible to identify certain unchanging principles in Eun’s fiction. She is more committed to conveying the circumstances or atmosphere than the plot itself; she focuses on the individual more than the group; and she is more interested in examining the dark side of the world than its surface. One could conclude that Eun has preferred raising doubts to asserting her worldview. These characteristics, which she has exhibited through her elegant and sophisticated writing, attracted much attention in the Korean literary world in the context of the 1990s, a decade characterized by the collapse of meta-ideologies and increasing individualization. It would be no exaggeration to state that many of the writers who have debuted since 2000 dreamed of becoming writers as they grew up reading Eun’s novels. The literary critic Shin Hyeong-cheol once declared that “Eun Hee-kyung is her own genre.” Similarly, the novelist Kim Junghyuk has remarked that “The name Eun Hee-kyung represents a brand.” At some point, Eun had become a writer whose name alone made you pick up her book without hesitation. Eun has recently published her fourth novel, Let Boys Cry (Munhakdongne, 2010). The 17-year-old protagonist Yeon-wu, who lives with his freelance fashion columnist mother, meets Taesu, who has just moved into the neighborhood; hip hop through his new friend, Yeon-wu becomes enamored with the hiphop music of a high school-age rapper by the name of G-Griffin. And he falls in love with a girl named Chae-yeong. Writing deliberately without a clear narrative, Eun has focused instead on delicately portraying the inner world of her lonely teenage characters. A mother of two adult children, Eun has managed to eliminate all adult viewpoints from her portrayal of 17-year-old students. Although Yeon-wu, who possesses a delicate, sensitive soul, might be a little different from the 17-year-olds that we are used to seeing in real life, we cannot consider him an unrealistic character. Why did Eun decide to write a story about a boy who is so unlike other
boys his age? “I have long been very interested in people who have broken away from social conventions and particular ideologies that are implicitly accepted by everyone. As I have grown older and more aware, I started rebelling strongly against expressions like womanlike, man-like, child-like, and adult-like, all of which demand someone to act a certain way. I wanted to put these thoughts into a novel, so in my latest work, I created characters that were divorced from the semantic definitions of our society. Yeon-wu’s mother Shin Min-a, for instance, is a mother who has nothing to do with adultness, and Yeon-wu is a young man who has nothing to do with manliness. I didn’t set out to revise semantic definitions but rather just wanted to overturn all existing conventions. I tried to show that a mother who isn’t conventionally motherly could still be a good mother, and a young man who isn’t at all manly could be so by choice,” she responded during our interview. Indeed, Let Boys Cry features an unmotherly mother and an unfilial son. The relationship between the mother and the son is easygoing and natural like that between a brother and a sister. The mother does not demand anything from the son, and when she expresses her opinion, she usually just tries to plead her case and make suggestions. The son therefore does not really have any reason to rebel or hide anything. In fact, the son sometimes ends up silently comforting his immature, weak-hearted mother. There is nothing in their relationship that causes problems in their relationship. But when they are exposed to the opinions of others, problems begin to arise because they find themselves in situations where they have to act in a way that is unnatural for them like putting on ill-fitting clothes. Consciously or subconsciously, we all often have to resist our innate tendencies and act like other people. Let Boys Cry is a kind of small consolation offered by the author to people living in such ill-fitting clothes. Thus, the boy in the title can be expanded to signify “the inner world of all ‘incomplete’ people as marginal people and outsiders.” Eun explains the meaning of boy as “the anxiety, the soft, vulnerable heart and the sensitivity we all possess regardless of age or gender.” In many ways, Let Boys Cry has reawakened interest in A Gift from a Bird, Eun’s first full-length breakthrough novel. The latter’s protagonist Jin-hee, who was raised by her grandmother, without her parents, trains herself relentlessly to protect herself from the disapproval or pity of others. On the other hand, Yeonlist_ Books from Korea
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Interview
“Lately, there has been a shift in my thinking, no, more precisely, in my attitude. I was 35 at the time of my literary debut—not a young age— and all I cared about was finding myself while denying the world. I think I was determined not to trust the world which was shrouded in secrets.”
critic Cho Yeon-jung
wu, who lives with his mother, grows up into a lonely but honest and sensitive person. Instead of squeezing himself into the mold of the world, Yeon-wu takes a step back and laments the mold itself. Compared to Jin-hee, he is not a strong figure that actively confronts the world. He prefers to relieve his loneliness by listening to hip hop or going for a run. Could we understand such a departure from her earlier work as a transformation in the writer’s mind? Eun responded as follows: “Lately, there has been a shift in my thinking, no, more precisely, in my attitude. I was 35 at the time of my literary debut—not a young age—and all I cared about was finding myself while denying the world. I think I was determined not to trust the world which was shrouded in secrets. The character Jin-hee reflected my thinking at the time. Although many of my readers asked me ‘How is one supposed to live?’ I didn’t really have an answer for them because I was only focused on finding myself back then. Each novel I wrote was filled with aspects of myself that even I hadn’t known. As time passed, I began to grow tired of denying and mistrusting everything. I think I have since become relatively free of these obsessions, and the way I view the younger generation has changed as a result. Now I don’t want them to be judged by a certain standard. And I believe it’s not right for the older generation to criticize them by their standards. I hope the youth will be able to express what they possess more naturally using their own criteria.” Perhaps this is why Eun’s story of a boy pleasantly defies our prejudice against young adult fiction written by adults, which we tend to assume are anachronistic and marked by the authors’ efforts to enlighten the reader. Not only in terms of content but also of form, one can hardly find the sophisticated sentences and abstract language characteristic of Eun’s other novels. According 32 list_ Books from Korea
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1. Le cadeau de l`oiseau Eun Hee-kyung, Kailash, 2002 2. 汉城兄弟 Eun Hee-kyung, 作家出版社, 2004 3.
鸟的礼物
Eun Hee-kyung, 人民文学出版社, 2007
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novelist Eun Hee-kyung
to her, she took great pains to use simple expressions throughout the book, in order to recreate the tone and speech of a 17-yearold boy. Eun added that while searching for the right expressions was difficult, assuming the character of Yeon-wu was not. Her explanation was that Let Boys Cry is not intended to be a story aimed at teenage readers and written at their level; rather, it is a truly honest work of fiction that freely expresses the author’s longheld critical attitudes. Eun also shared that discovering hip hop gave her a great deal of courage. Because the novel reads more like small conversations between the author and the reader rather than one grand tale told by just the author to the reader, it in fact resembles hip hop music in that sense. Many of Eun’s other novels have been translated into other languages. Taking into consideration the author’s opinion that “We should first show the readers abroad how far Korean culture has evolved and then introduce our unique culture,” I think Let Boys Cry should be published abroad before others. This is because all individuals, surrounded by prejudice, can be lonely at any time, whoever and wherever they are.
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By Cho Yeon-jung
4. El regalo del ave Eun Hee-kyung, Emecé, 2009 5. La stanza di mia moglie Eun Hee-kyung, Cafoscarina, 2004 6. Ein Geschenk des Vogels Eun Hee-kyung, Pendragon, 2005
8. Secrets and Lies Eun Hee-kyung, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2005, 318p, ISBN 8982819401
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9. A Gift from a Bird Eun Hee-kyung, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 1995, 435p, ISBN 9788954613651 (reprinted in 2010)
7. Les Boîtes de ma femme Eun Hee-kyung, Zulma, 2009
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Excerpt
2
Let Boys Cry Eun Hee-kyung, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 520p, ISBN 9788954613507
Love is formed, deformed, and then cooled in my heart several times a day. I like it best when it wanes. That’s the stage that awakens me and allows me to write. I like it even more when the chilled heart is warmed again, because that gives me the strength to write. I wrote this novel as though it was the only book of my life. I’m relieved that my heart has since cooled. We carry on the next cycle of life with the strength drawn from our waning love. I have written about this in my novel. from the author’s preface to Let Boys Cry
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One late fall, I saw the whole sky go dark with a flock of birds. We were on a bridge overlooking a river. Mom parked the car on the shoulder. The birds looked like an enormous mesh curtain covering the sky. And like a curtain, they fluttered every which way as they drifted in the wind. The birds looked like something imprinted. How could they keep their place in the sky like that? Mom studied the birds with narrowed eyes and mumbled to herself, Now that’s an example of collective living. Once you’re no longer part of it, you’re dead. I’m not sure why I was reminded of those birds. It just occurred to me the moment I was in a line of countless people, before the race kicked off. Someone would reach the finish line in an hour and a half. Someone else in three. Someone would give up along the way. What would happen to me? I wondered if I’d even be able to finish. I could feel pressure in my chest. My legs were growing heavy. And we were off. It’s noisy for some time. Quite a few people run while carrying on a conversation. But as time goes by, the distance between people grows, and you begin to hear heavy breathing instead of words. Some people form teams and stay together for the whole race. Some pair up, forming a line and even breathing in sync. But most people run alone. Some use their wristwatch to maintain a steady speed. Some run fast, and when they get tired, they’ll trod along for a bit until they regain their strength, and they’ll run faster, as if the thought of catching up to the others excites them. It’s like dancing without rules. For example, like Taesu, who would run as fast as he could and wait at a bench until I appeared. Then he’d stand up to run again. Maybe he was mocking Jae-wook’s training method. Jae-wook’s problem is that he knows too much and wants to share. He’s not necessarily wrong. When you start getting tired, parts of your body become egotistical. Your legs don’t want to move any more. Your heart complains of being over-pumped. Your brain tells you not to do anything hard. If you insist on continuing, then the business of running is deferred to some other part of the body, as if to say, Why don’t you take it up with that guy? I’m out of here! At the slightest hint of an incline, your legs say, tell the arms to do the work. I can’t push much harder. This is the first stage, when you don’t want to run any more. But once your body realizes it has to keep going, it changes its mentality. It cleans out your respiratory organs by expelling phlegm, softens your muscles and repairs your body. You can
feel your body optimizing. This is when your body’s “warmed up.” Even then, the body will complain every chance it gets. It’ll be fussy, like a crybaby. Can’t we stop? I’m so weak. Go easy on me… That’s how your body is. It’ll avoid whatever it can, and listen to you only when it’s got no choice. It’s kind of human, isn’t it? No, not kind of. It is human. Anyway. I wonder at which point the body realizes it has no choice, that it must do what it doesn’t want, and goes along. Jae-wook’s answer was simple. It’s the moment when your body has to survive. That’s why life is such an amazing force. Every human being is a universe in its own right. Haven’t you heard of that saying? Staying alive. I’m not exactly sure, because I haven’t given the matter serious thought. But every time I run, I come to an understanding about my body. It’s egotistical and fickle, but it’s also thoughtful and resolute. It might be feeble, but when it finds something it wants, it knows how to be strong. It knows itself to be imperfect, so it can give up too easily sometimes, but in the end, it will follow my lead. Since my body, perhaps more than anything else, is ultimately mine. Of course, its final objective is survival. Once I’ve passed the half-way mark, I grab a cup from the water station and drink. I grab the banana next to it. I squeeze the wet sponge over my head to cool down and continue running. There are three reasons why people don’t finish. One, leg pains. Two, you’re out of breath. Three—and this is a fatal one—because you don’t feel like running any more. It’s exactly as Jae-wook says. After fifteen kilometers, you don’t want to run any more. My body can’t seem to remember anything beyond that point. After that I get the signal. The message is firm. My body doesn’t want to run any more. I never realized how heavy a cell phone could feel. I wipe my palms dry against my shirt and pass it back and forth between my hands. I’m too tired to pump my arms. If Chaeyoung texts, I’m not sure I’ll have the strength to check it. How can I describe it? Like my whole body is stiffening slowly? I know I’m putting one foot before the other, but it feels like I’m running in place. Every time my foot touches the ground, the pain in my soles shoots up to my head. My muscles bunch up and tear, and an awful dread passes through me. Yet I don’t feel like thinking about anything, so my head remains a blank sheet. It’s true. In a situation like this, even a teacher who’s taught the same thirty minute lesson a thousand times will be at a loss for words. The most devoted believer won’t be able to recite the Lord’s Prayer. There’s nothing there, that’s what I’m trying to say. Just my body. The moment a person is in pain, he is alone.
It’s like a country I’ve never been to. Like music I’ve never heard. There’s an unknown, untraveled world, even within my own body. The world I just arrived at is the world of agony. I don’t think I can take it any more. Why do I keep running? Nothing is important, except for my body. And my body wishes to rest. It says it can’t take much more of this. Okay, I am my body. I’m going to stop. My body slows down, as if the springs inside are loosening. My feet drag. Something’s about to come to an end. But it’s strange. The next second, I open my eyes wide. It’s not like I literally open them, but that’s how it feels, like an awakening. I can feel my legs still going. What’s this? I’m still running. If I’m still running… My body. It hasn’t given up. In that short span of time, when I gathered my energy at my core, gnashing my teeth, my body had gone beyond a certain limit. I flex my lower stomach. I raise my shoulders high, to control my heaving. Ah, I can keep running after all. This being called ‘I’. As I run, I’m carrying the whole of this universe called ‘I’. The moment I give up, it will shatter into a thousand pieces. So long as I keep going, it will move forward. I am myself. I can feel myself getting stronger and stronger… I look off to somewhere far away. Chae-young’s limpid brown eyes stare at me. She’s about to say something. Her eyes are bright and her cheeks are flushed. The trembling! So quick! The feeling of floating, as my legs become lighter. Wind shoots sweetly into my mouth and expands my heart like a balloon, before it escapes. It feels refreshing and smooth, as if a cap of feathers has been placed on my head. I can hear the voice of the emcee. Almost there, folks! We wish the runners a fine race to the finish line! What a gorgeous day. I placed an order, just for our runners, so they’d have a great race! Such a lame joke. I thought it was corny when he said it at the starting line ceremony, but now it pleases me to hear it. It’s something you can rely on. As if he’d been waiting for me all along to cross the finish line. And the feeling at the end, of passing through below the arch! I’m here now, Chae-young. The autumn sky is high and blue. The wind rushes against my skin over the cooling sweat, and my tired calves, which remember the front of your house, heavy with sweet fatigue, carry me towards the grass to savor this long awaited rest. Translated by Jae Won E. Chung
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Book Lover's Angle
What I Like About Korean Literature There are many reasons for my interest in Korean literature, both as a reader and critic. It all began about 10 years ago, when I happened to become a “co-translator” with a former dissertation student I considered particularly smart. So it is thanks to Choe Ae-young that I became acquainted with Yi In-seong’s extremely innovative body of work: We translated Saisons d’exil (Paris, 2004) and then Interdit de folie (Paris, 2010), and I do see this writer as an artist of international stature. With the support of the Daesan Foundation and the KLTI, we also translated and published a book of Jung Young-moon, Pour ne pas rater ma dernière seconde (Montreal, 2007), as well as some short stories by Kim Young-ha and Kim Kyung-wook. I personally produced critical studies on all the works we translated. I also reviewed some that had already been translated in French: La place by Choi In-hoon and the pansori piece, “Byeon Gang-soe Jeon.” I came to enjoy writing these texts after I had the opportunity to supervise a special edition of the literary magazine Europe dedicated to South Korean contemporary writers (May 2010, No. 973) that was a valuable assessment of the present state of the nation’s literature. All of my studies were recently translated into Korean by Choe Ae-young and published in a book called Shock and Sympathy (Moonji, November 2010). Furthermore, I read the translation of different texts like Les descendants de Caïn by Hwang Sun-won, L’oiseau, la pierre tombale by Oh Jung-hee, Shim Cheong by Hwang Sok-yong, as well as several short story anthologies, not to mention of course the famous story of “Chunhyang.” They form a set that may be modest but have the advantage of variety. Still, it helped me get a more specific idea of what Korean literary fiction literature is. I am attracted to it for three reasons. The main interest in some of the works I just mentioned is their historical nature: it made it possible for me to understand how people actually experienced the main political events that have formed today’s Korea (end of Japanese occupation, the Korean War in 1950-1953, and the clashes in April 1960 and June 1987). They also appealed to me from a social perspective: those stories helped me to discover and understand the permanency of some special features of traditional life in the soul of today’s Korean people, which is often quite different from how I had been formed by my origins. So there is both a source of information and an exotic charm to it. But the main appeal to me is their purely aesthetic value. As I am first and foremost a belles lettres lover and a literary critic, what I notice most is of course the quality of the writing (i.e., what is new and different concerning the form, compared to the other cultures I know, in the West as well as in the great texts of the Far East). On the one hand, I appreciate a certain kind of sensibility, which is quite specific and appears both in the literature and in the cinema (the latter being much better known in the West). I would describe it as the cleaving of two adjectives: extreme and contrasting. Flowers and violence, subtlety and realism, delicacy and rigidity, usually both at
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the same time. An ancestral cult of discretion makes it so that the tension between the opposites should never become visible, and indeed remain almost imperceptible. Whether you like it or not is a matter of personal taste. On the other hand, I can notice that in today’s Korea, the quest for new literary expressions seems very promising and other literatures in the world would gain by getting to know it. I mentioned the name of Yi In-seong, who keeps inventing new writing techniques that ensure an exploration of the memory and the true feeling of things, in a deeper, stronger, and more accurate way than Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and Claude Simon did in their time. By age he belongs to the generation of avant-garde writers already acknowledged in the literary circle, but I could also mention younger writers whose daring work really impressed me. For the record: Kim Kyung-wook has a sense of humor that renews Kafka’s in a sharper tone; Pyun Hye-young doesn’t hesitate to present a totally squalid world in a very violent style; Han Yujoo expresses with a vague and disjointed language the conscience fluctuating when confronted by an unstable reality… All of this goes far beyond the present European modernity. I am full of admiration and therefore I try to share my enthusiasm through my translations.
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By Jean Bellemin- Noël 2
1. Shock and Sympathy Jean Bellemin-Noël, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 280p, ISBN 9788932021737 2. Europe French literary review, May 2010, No. 973 3. Pour ne pas rater ma dernière seconde Jung Young-moon, XYZ éditeur, 2007 4. Saisons d’exil Yi In-seong, L’Harmattan, 2004 5. Interdit de folie Yi In-seong, Imago, 2010
* French Professor Jean Bellemin-Noël, taught for 40 years in Paris (Sorbonne, then Paris 8 University) and worked as a critic. He is the author of 20 books about French and European literature and of Shock and Sympathy (Seoul, Moonji, 2010). He also translated in French two German novels and, with Choe Ae-young, three Korean books. His French translation of an anthology of short stories, La terre des ancêtres by Lim Chul-woo, is to be published in the near future.
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Overseas Angle
A Literary Dialogue with
Korean novelist Yi In-seong and Chinese poet Yan Li “Though we may come from different countries, We’re thrilled that we share the same feelings about the current society today.”
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Yan: As I understand it, you taught at Seoul National University for a long time but retired early. I am curious to know the reason for your early retirement. Was it because you aspired for a more free-spirited life, not to mention your passion for writing? Yi: You must’ve read my mind (laughter). Of course, my idea was to write more prolifically. But I haven’t been able to write that many novels and instead have been living an idle life. In the note you sent me before this interview, you had touched on many topics but the first sentence was “I’d like for us to talk about our meeting.” Although I have met you only twice, I have felt a natural camaraderie. I would surmise it comes from your being sort of like a wanderer that I can identify with. Moreover, you had lived in political exile against your will; I believe the aspiration for freedom and the nomadic ethos are very important tenets of what literature is about. Ya n: T he spi r it of a w a nderer i s s y nony mou s w it h independence, if not freedom. The reason why I’ve lived like a wanderer is that in actuality, I wanted to achieve independence. It is only when one is not affiliated with any organization that you can see the world in an original way. The system under which we have lived had too many barriers for those of us who wanted to live freely, and inf luenced our creative efforts. In order to overcome these artificial barriers, we’ve had to waste much of our time and energy. Yi: One of your paintings called “Brick” seems to be about the aforementioned conditions. The “brick” is a machine-made object and we live in a place where these bricks constitute our world. And the problem of how to alter or rupture them seems to be a common motif in our works. For example, like the bird flying off from a brick, or building a nest on a fruit. Speaking of which, I would like to share something interesting with you. This is the cover of my first novel called Seasons of Exile, see, how the image is made of bricks? Isn’t it similar to your painting? The sky in the cracks, and the message of seeing beyond those cracks is what I think binds us together in a communal feeling. It means we cohabit the same world of thought. Yan: Ours is an indeed a very special encounter. It is true that Korea and China are very different in their systems, but at the same time from the 1950s to the 1990s, there were also many things that were similar in some respects. Just now when I saw this picture, I thought of a line from a poem I wrote long ago: “Written words make a wall/ where a few bricks have been removed is a poem.” That is exactly the line I remembered, looking at this picture. According to one of your readers, it requires a great deal of patience to read your book. If that is the case, then I thought about how excruciating it must’ve been for the author to write it. I am curious to know what is it that you are exploring or experimenting with in your writing, and whether or not your style is close to modernism or perhaps more surrealist-oriented? Yi: It could just be an assortment of them all (laughter). Frankly, I am not too fond of concepts like “modernism” but I’ve recently resigned myself as I hear of them so often (laughter). At any rate, as you said yourself, the compelling reason for me to write is the desire to delve into something that is more fundamental than that you would come across in today’s commodified, disposable, and trendy literature. In the note you sent me, there was a phrase that similarly expressed what I am in pursuit of—“Which of us knows how to go deeper?”
“Written words make a wall where a few bricks have been removed is a poem.” – “Untitled,” Yan Li
Seasons of Exile Yi In-seong, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1983, 366p, ISBN 8932008795
Yan: I went from Beijing to the U.S. in 1985. Compared to China, the U.S. then was a free country. For that reason, many Americans asked me this question. How did I manage to write in a country where there is no freedom? But people seemed to have a mistaken notion about the so-called “freedom of expression.” Artists always have freedom of expression; what is not freely given is publication and distribution. That is why even though I could not publish, I tried my utmost to express what was in my mind. Whether or not I could publish was a problem for later. Some artists completely gave up their creative endeavors when it was not possible to publish, but I decided that even if my work was to be stored in the drawer forever, I would write. Profit from publication was not the issue. Yi: I absolutely agree. Art may not have the power to drastically change society like a revolution, but it can certainly contribute to altering the conditions in bringing about a change. At the moment, our lives are dominated by the capitalist system but within that very structure, it is very important that the artists make every effort to create a domain that is free from it. Writers nowadays act as though the capitalist order is the absolute way, and subsequently try to jump on its bandwagon, but that is truly behavior that is anti-art. list_ Books from Korea
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Overseas Angle
novelist Yi In-seong and poet Yan Li
Yan: I agree. Society designates all its members through the division of labor, and the job of writers is to mend society through writing. However, most people just want to become part of the mainstream, and there are very few people who want to enter the abyss of the human heart and mind. That is why people like us have to find ways to go into those depths, and with our newly achieved insight, we must turn it into a form of writing. We need to defy the mainstream with our unique voice and method of writing. Both Korea and China face all kinds of problems but writers should see beyond them, and struggle with more fundamental and earnest issues. What Westerners regard as the political problem of liberty is but only a small part. Yi: If politica l repression is a barrier in China, then materialistic oppression is a handicap in the capitalist West. Conversely, vis-à-vis Westerners, can good literature come out of no pain? It could be that they’ve forgotten what suffering is. Yan: That is why I believe one of the problems that we writers have to perpetually confront is our animal nature, and how cultural cultivation can overcome the bestiality in oneself. Writing for me is a process about this excruciating struggle. Another issue that writers should confront is the byproduct of a civilized society: that is, people’s allegiance to a certain political party, a community, a nation, or a religion. This is what deprives the citizens of their individuality, and turns them into massproduced entities; and writers are not necessarily the exception. Yi: Undoubtedly I also think that writers must confront these issues. The national identity or group consciousness both have their basis in our animal nature. I myself do not have the answer but I believe while facing up to the reality and in the process of exploring the possibilities that can bring about the change, we’ll be sure to find the resolution. Let’s take a look at the image of rupture that you incorporated into the drawing of the bricks. While acknowledging the practical aspect of the bricks, you at the same time create a space for play—which is one way of reacting 40 list_ Books from Korea
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to a standardized consciousness. If we cannot free ourselves from a society that is symbolized by the bricks, then it is within the power of the arts to transform that world to serve a different purpose. Yan: That’s exactly it. I’ve worked on the piece with that thought in mind. A while ago I wrote in a poem, “Many people favor designer bags, but to a witty person, his sense of humor is more dear to him than a designer brand.” In a world gone awry, a different way of perceiving is truly a powerful thing. Although we live in different countries, I am very happy to find out that we share mutual feelings about society and our times. Compiled by Wang Yanli
* The poet Yan Li is a Chinese poet and painter. He was one of the founders of the underground magazine Today (1978) and a member of the Stars Group of artists. His 1984 exhibition at the People’s Park in Shanghai was the first avant-garde art exhibition ever to be held in the country. In 1987 he founded the magazine First Line in New York. Among his collections of poetry are This Poem Might Be OK, The Twilight Manufacturer, and Selected Poems of Yan Li. He currently lives in New York and Shanghai. * The Korean novelist Yi In-seong debuted in the quarterly Literature and the Intellect with “Seasons of Exile” in 1980. He has published the short story collections Seasons of Exile (1983), A Endlessly Whispered Breath (1989), An Island at the River’s Mouth (1994), and the novel Crazy but Not (1995). He is known for his experimental style and literary world defined by a singular consciousness. His novel Crazy but Not (Interdit de folie) and short story collection Seasons of Exile (Saisons d’exil) have been translated by Jean Bellemin-Noël and published in France.
Overseas Angle
MerwinAsia Emerges on the Translation Scene I’m pleased to report that MerwinAsia published two volumes of Korean literature in translation in 2010. They are The Long Road, a novel by Kim In-suk, translated by Stephen Epstein, and Until Peonies Bloom, the complete poems of Kim Yeong-nang, translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé. I have been in touch with Professor Epstein over the years, and of course knew of him by reputation, but have never met him. A chance e-mail conversation led to the publication of his translation of The Long Road. I met and got to know Brother Anthony at a conference held by the University of British Columbia in the mid-2000s. He kindly submitted his translation of Kim Yeong-nang’s poetry to MerwinAsia, a new and barely known publisher, for which I am extremely grateful. Although I no longer read Korean, I am comfortable making my publication decisions for translations based on the literary merit in English. Without question, these two volumes meet that standard. It is the goal of MerwinAsia to publish at least one volume of translated Korean literature every year. The two books are: The Long Road: A Novel Kim In-suk Translated by Stephen J. Epstein
Kim In-Suk is a famous author of the so-called 386 generation (writers who were born in the 1960s, went to university in the 1980s, and were in their 30s in the 1990s when the term was coined), as well as one of the most prominent of the new wave of female writers who were born in the early 60s along with Shin Kyung-sook and Gong Jiyoung. Kim is one of the few writers to deal extensively with the Korean expatriate experience. She has written fiction that draws on her time living in Australia in the 1990s, as well as in China in this decade; she is currently living in Dalian with her daughter. The Long Road is a moving, elegiac novella that examines the processes that caused idealistic young Koreans to go overseas during the 1990s in the wake of Korea’s darker days of military dictatorship in the 1980s. The story centers on a trio of men: Han-Yeong, who although initially attracted to the freedom that Australia seems to promise, comes to feel increasingly ambivalent about his life there; his brother Han-Rim, a former minor star who fell afoul of the authorities in Korea for a song seen as critical of the government; and Myeong-U, who had been a student activist in Korea and developed psychological difficulties during his time in custody for protesting. Invited by Han-Rim to take a fishing trip on the boat that he now operates, the three set off for a day on the open sea in ominous weather. As a storm arises, the novel follows the thoughts of Han-Yeong, leading from flashback to ultimate epiphany, as he reflects on his relationship with Australia, his brother, MyeongU’s troubled history, and his anguished memories of Seo-Yeon, the woman he left behind in Korea. Winner of the 1995 Hanguk Ilbo Literary prize, The Long Road is the sole work of Korean literature in English that treats the Korean diaspora experience in Australia.
Until Peonies Bloom The Complete Poems of Kim Yeong-nang Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé (bilingual text)
Kim Yeong-nang (1903–1950) is highly reputed in Korea for the delicate lyricism of his poems. Yet in many ways he has remained little known, even in Korea, limited to a small number of often anthologized poems. He was a resolute opponent of Japanese colonial rule, but since he did not suffer frequent imprisonment, or death, his role as a champion of Korean independence has largely been ignored. Killed in a bombing near the start of the Korean War, he had no time to participate in the development of a new Korean poetry. Many of his earlier poems clearly express opposition to Japanese rule; after the country’s liberation in 1945, he wrote to express his agony at the looming conflict between leftists and rightists that he saw threatening to tear Korea apart. At the same time, most of his poems are bold experiments in forms of modernism; his use of images and symbols as well as his exploration of native Korean rhythms make him one of the most rewarding and challenging poets of his time. He spent most of his life in his native Gangjin, far removed from the literary world of Seoul, and the beauty of the Jeollanam-do (province) landscapes, as well as its dialect’s vocabulary, underlie his poetry. Kim was a noted performer of traditional Korean music, loved classical Western music, and was one of the rare poets of his time who could read and appreciate English language poetry, Keats and Yeats being among his favorites. All of this makes a translation of his complete poetic works a compelling project, allowing a unique voice to speak out in other times and spaces. By Doug Merwin
* MerwinAsia, founded in 2008, is an independent publisher of distinctive books on East Asia in the humanities and social sciences that aim to enhance an understanding of, and stimulate interest in, East Asian culture and history. The emphasis on translation, especially literature in translation, reflects the profile of the many titles acquired by the publisher, Doug Merwin, in the past.
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Overseas Angle
Introducing Professor Chung Moon-gil, Founder of Contemporary Marxist Studies in Korea 《德意志意识形态》与 MEGA 文献研究 Chung Moon-gil, 南京大学出版社 , 2010
I first came across Professor Chung Moon-gil’s thoughts in Inge Taubert’s article on the original handwritten draft of The German Ideology (Die Deutsche Ideologie). Taubert introduced a Korean scholar Chung Moon-gil, who had a different opinion on Taubert’s style of editing. Thinking that this scholar Chung Moon-gil, who was not known in China at all at the time, may be a very important expert on Marxist philology, I read the article with particular interest. Not long afterwards, I accidentally came across a copy of Professor Chung’s thesis in Japanese on the original version of The German Ideology and with help from Dr. Pengxi at the Department of Japanese at Nanjing University, I was able to discover Professor Chung’s research results for the first time. The result of this encounter was indeed shocking. The scholars in the field of research on the original The German Ideology I had read until then were limited to Ludwig Feuerbach, Inge Taubert, and Hiromatsu Wataru. Among them, Feuerbach was a philologist and a thinker, Taubert was a philologist, and Hiromatsu Wataru had experiences in philological research on the original The German Ideology in the early days but is mostly active as a thinker these days. Compared to these three scholars, Chung Moon-gil’s situation was certainly more interesting. Having started as a researcher in philosophy, Chung made his name with his research on the theory of alienation of Marx and Erich Fromm. He later changed his field of research to philology and has been active for the past 20 years as a philologist. During this period of research, Chung concentrated on one subject: MEGA and the original The German Ideology. In February 2007, I met Professor Chung for the first time at Yonsei University in Korea. Though it was our first meeting, I felt like he was my old friend. He had just retired from Korea University and was amazed that his research results were drawing attention from Chinese scholars. While talking to him, I could tell that this Korean was an established scholar with a solid scholarly basis and sensed his dignity from the modesty and refinement in his speech. Also, I learned that he had studied Marx’s theory of alienation in the early days and later changed his field of interest to MEGA, particularly the philology of The German Ideology which has been his focus of study ever since. During our conversation, I firmly believed that Professor Chung’s research would become an important mark in the study of Marxist philology that has recently begun in China, and then decided to translate and introduce his research to China. Shortly after I returned to China, I was once again impressed with Professor Chung’s sincerity and attentiveness. He sent me seven or eight books and related collection of papers. With a detailed list of the selected contents and subtitles, each book had
a label so that we could see it at a glance. Thanks to this, we were able to begin translating his collection of papers immediately from mid-2007 and Professor Chung sent the preface to his collection in Chinese in September 2008. In October 2008, he was invited by Nanjing University for two academic lectures and also had exchanges with professors in the department of philosophy. During the compilation of the collection, Professor Chung continued to offer guidelines and opinions. Just like when we compiled Hiromatsu Wataru’s philosophical thoughts, we formed a team with Dr. Yin Haiyan, Director of the Department of Korean at Nanjing University, Dr. Zhao Li who had returned from his studies in Korea, Dr. Peng Xi who had also returned from his studies in Japan, and Dr. Fang Xianghong who was studying at University of Freiburg in Germany. In mid-2007, we began by preparing a large amount of his early literature, and translated and had discussions simultaneously. We worked hard together for the following year and a half, consulting Professor Chung throughout the process. Dr. Zhao Li translating chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7, Dr. Yin Haiyan chapters 6 and 8, and Dr. Peng Xi translated chapter 3, footnotes in Japanese documents, and book titles. Meanwhile, Dr. Fang Xianghong was in charge of the editorial supervision of quotations in German that occupied almost half of the book, the reference index, and footnotes. Building on their efforts, I approached the text from an academic point of view and worked on substantive editing for consistency. The original text in German has been left so that readers could understand Professor Chung’s philological research more clearly. When almost all the leaves had fallen at the end of autumn in 2008, we finally finished compiling Professor Chung’s collection and sent it to the publisher. With this, we came to introduce Chung Moon-gil, an important specialist in Marxist philology, to the Chinese academic circle. Recently, Professor Chung published his new book The Treasure of Nibelung: The Literary Legacy of Marx and Engels and Its Publication (2008), which deals with the transmission and publication of Marx’s and Engels’s posthumous works and the editing and publication of MEGA. Our translation team has purchased the copyright of this book. As it is currently being translated, the Chinese version will be published by Nanjing University Press in the near future. By Zhang Yibing (vice-president, Nanjing University)
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The Place
Suwon,
the City of Hwaseong Fortress Located just south of the nation’s capital, Suwon has historically held its importance both geographically and culturally. Residents and tourists enjoy walking along the fortress walls that encircle the city.
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Suwon (水原), is a place name that is reminiscent of water (水). A village of water, the name supposedly comes from the time when the water route of the Yellow Sea used to reach the village. Today’s Suwon has no floods and is a good place to live with a welldeveloped transportation system that reaches everywhere in the country. It is therefore easy to go either north or south through Suwon. When we think about Suwon today, Hwaseong Fortress is the first thing that comes to mind. This is because Hwaseong has become Suwon’s unique attraction. Hwaseong is a beautiful fortress that surrounds the urban center of Suwon. People will always be glad to guide you there from anywhere in Suwon. Hwaseong Fortress is a proud part of Suwon’s cultural heritage (inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997) and a spiritual and holy place. Once there, our hearts and steps naturally become solemn as if we are standing in front of sacred books. In this sense, Hwaseong is always a bright flower garden that is full of citizens and visitors who enjoy their walks into tradition. “The essence of Joseon’s fortress art” is the phrase Hwaseong was crowned with a long time ago. This is because it is the cultural whole that epitomizes the philosophy, science, architecture, and military theory of the Joseon era. What holds the visitors’ attention
the longest is the beauty of the curved line of the fortress. The beauty of the curve that reflects the surrounding geographical features perfectly is truly outstanding. The winding line that climbs up, down, and round is as familiar as a trail and its flow is also extremely smooth. The fortress wall fitted together with stones creates the profundity of time that has lasted for hundreds of years. It is hard not to fall in love with the aesthetics of Korea while walking along the fortress wall that continues for more than six kilometers. Hwaseong Fortress is also a symbol of filial piety. It embodies the profound filial devotion of King Jeongjo, the 22nd king of Joseon. He built Hwaseong Fortress at Hwasan (mountain) where his father Crown Prince Sado, who died an unjust death, was buried, and often set off on long processions to visit his father’s tomb. Furthermore, Hwaseong Fortress was part of an ambitious plan to realize his political ideal. King Jeongjo implemented the mercantile and agriculture first policies and governed the people with love by listening to people’s sufferings during the procession. During his stay at Haenggung (temporary palace), he held his mother Lady Hyegyeong’s 60th birthday banquet and took care of many people who were in miserable condition. These grand political dreams that King Jeongjo harbored were all realized.
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Copyright © Suwon City
The Place
Hwahongmun
Banghwasuryujeong, Yongyeon Lake
There are indeed many sights to enjoy at Hwaseong Fortress and the best of all is Banghwasuryujeong. The beauty of the pavilion stands out even more in harmony with its surrounding nature and Hwahongmun, with its arched f loodgates and the beautiful pond Yongyeon next to Banghwasuryujeong heightens the elegance of the area even further. Paldalsan (mountain) is also one of the scenic attractions of Suwon, a city accessible from all directions. The view is excellent from the wall that embraces Hwaseong. Located in central Suwon and the most popular site for student writing contests and picnics, Paldalsan is an easy mountain to climb that is frequently visited by people. The pine forest that guards azaleas, forsythias, and cherry blossoms becomes more green and robust with time. Command posts for a military training stand tall at the top of the mountain. The poem King Jeongjo wrote at the command post expresses well the dignity and significance of the old Hwaseong Fortress: “Though guarding the royal tomb is an important affair / there was not wastefulness in management or oppression on the people / The fortress stretches far along the flatland / and the command post rises up high in the sky / Its very long wall is magnificent in scale / and the spirit of the army is ever so valiant / When the Song of the Great Wind is played / the red sun shines on the armor.” How about the culture and art of Suwon? There are many artists like writers, painters, and photographers who are captivated by Hwaseong Fortress. They continuously pursue the aesthetics of here and now from reproductions to diverse transformations of Hwaseong. Children also see, experience, and express the beauty of Hwaseong in their own way. In a way, Hwaseong seems to act as a sacred book even in art. The first writer I’ll introduce from Suwon is Na Hye-seok. She became famous in the early days as the first woman painter of Western art, but she was also a gifted writer and a cultural figure who took part in the national movement with her older brothers. What was most surprising was her enlightened thought and attitude on women’s rights. The fact that such a way of thinking made her last years unhappy reminds us once again how lonely it is to be a 46 list_ Books from Korea
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pioneer. Feminists’ efforts in reexamining her life have restored her reputation. As Na Hye-seok’s hometown, Suwon celebrates her life with events such as the Na Hye-seok Symposium, Na Hye-seok Art Competition, and Na Hye-seok Street. Also, the house of her birth located at Sinpung-dong No. 47 will soon be restored. Na wrote the poem "The Stream" from the perspectives of being at the Hwahongmun Pavilion: “From morning to evening / from night to dawn / Whether it’s cold or hot / whether you like it or not / always and without a break / flows the lonely stream / The stream! The stream! / It flows like that / When it becomes a lake, a river and the sea / the muddy water becomes clear / clear water turns blue / blue water becomes salty./ (From the Hwahongmun Pavillion)” By referencing the Hwahongmun Pavilion, Na pays homage to her hometown. The meaning of water is expanded to comprise her internal consciousness and the transformations of the world that overlap such consciousness. It seems to allude to the eventful life of a woman who was enlightened ahead of her time. The Hwahongmun that appears in the poem is also known as Buksumun (North Floodgate) with seven fantastic rainbow-shaped f loodgates. As Hwahongmun, under which the Suwon stream flows, is located next to Banghwasuryujeong, people have many memories associated with this spot. In the past, Suwon stream used to be a good washing place, but it was also where the evacuees of Korean War endured wretched life conditions. It also acted as a place for children to play in summers and ride sleds in winters. The stream will continue its role as a resting place and a playground for its citizens as a good ecological river. Another writer from Suwon to remember is Bak Pal-yang who, as a member of the KAPF, wrote poems that criticized Korea’s situation under the colonial rule while striving for aesthetic perfection. Suwon is not mentioned in his works but the poem “Night Train” where he misses his hometown deserves attention: “The sky outside the window is like my heavy heart / It is so dark like my heart that is stifled and about to burst / I lay my head gently on the bundle of a wanderer / Oh, where did the
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By Jeong Sooja
1. Yungneung (the tomb of Crown Prince Sado) 2. Seojangdae 3. Hwaseomun 4. statue of Na Hye-seok
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Copyright © Suwon City
beautiful dreams of hometown go? / My village that was as cozy as a pigeon’s nest / What has become of it now?” His hometown Gokbanjeong-dong was a remote village and he must have had a special memory of it as being “as cozy as a pigeon’s nest.” Sadly, it is now a huge pigeon coop—meaning, a modern apartment complex. Oh Ju-seok is another art historian from Suwon who must be mentioned. He devoted his life to establishing Korean aesthetics by reading old Korean paintings. When Oh Ju-seok analyzed the composition and space of the paintings of the Joseon era with his unique sense of aesthetics, new universal living elements were born from old paintings. Though he was expected to develop Korean aesthetics much further, to our loss, he passed away a few years ago. There are also many festivals to see in Suwon. In particular, the performance that reenacts King Jeongjo’s royal procession to the royal tomb is a festival unique to Suwon that should not be missed. Suwon Hwaseong Fortress International Theatre Festival offers great opportunities to appreciate high-quality performances from Korea and abroad. It is seeking for various ways to utilize the fortress to attain a status similar to that of Avignon Festival. Go to Gwanggyosan (mountain) if silence is needed after a tour of Suwon. Another resting place for the people of Suwon, Gwanggyosan is wider than its height (582 m). Walking around the reservoir at the foot of the mountain may seem enough for a day’s exercise but most people try to stay healthy by hiking up the mountain. Barley rice restaurants entice the hikers’ taste buds. Though people usually enjoy healthy food such as barley rice, it is their style to treat important guests with Suwon galbi, the city’s renowned meat dish. Suwon galbi is the city’s most famous cuisine that has continued the reputation it gained from when the cattle market stood in this area, and when the late President Park Chung-hee visited Suwon. The dish is famous for its huge size. The taste, of course, matches the size of the portion. But it does arouse some jealousy among those who cannot afford to pay for such a tasty dish; it is rumored that people living near galbi restaurants who are tormented by the fantastic smell of the dish are compensated once a year with free galbi. Haenggung is another attraction that is perfect for wandering around. One can often hear visitors cheering in front of Haenggung, especially after lunch. The reason is the 24 martial arts performances and various other traditional performances. There are always festivals taking place at the plaza. The bell at Yeomingak is struck loudly at the end of a big festival; it feels as though the bell is spreading King Jeongjo’s wish of “prosperity for each household and harmony and happiness for every individual.” Museums are the places to go to in order to learn more about Suwon. Suwon Museum and Suwon Hwaseong Museum will provide a comprehensive picture of Suwon, including its history and culture. Is Suwon Hwaseong really unique? Come and take a look for yourself.
Theme Lounge
Gut,
Korean Shaman Ritual Not just a relic of the past, shamanism is alive more than ever. To understand the age-old practice of the gut is to delve into the heart and soul of the traditional Korean arts.
When one thinks about contemporary Korea, the first image that comes to mind is of a country at the forefront of technological advancement and a leader in economic and innovative development. In this social context, it is easy to assume that shamanic practices would not have a place within modern or postmodern Korea and that shamanism is a thing of the past, an ancient religious practice. But considering the specific information obtained both from statistical studies and from direct observation of shaman rituals, it is clear that Korean shamanism is more alive than ever and is not a dying tradition; on the contrary, it is a healthy tradition with a growing number of practitioners, as well as shamans. Even more important, shamanism remains at the center of the cultural and religious world of the Korean people. This emerges with particular force in times of personal or family crisis. Korean shamanism has had a very turbulent history. When other religions began to be introduced from abroad, they dominated society so shamanism was relegated to the periphery. Especially during the Goryeo and Joseon periods, Buddhism and Confucianism became the main ideologies of Korean society. Shamanism moved from being the dominant religion in society to a cult mainly of women and the lower classes of society. There are two main elements of Korean shamanism: the shamans and their rituals. They are the ones that have helped it to survive over the centuries, from the origins of the Korean people until now, despite all the opposition and even persecution it has suffered.
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Theme Lounge The first characteristic of Korean shaman is the direct personal experience of the shaman with the gods and their role as a bridge between both worlds. The shaman is the one that gives cohesion to a l l t he ot her constituent element s of sha ma n practices. A characteristic feature of Korean shamanism is the fact that most of the shamans are women. The shamans received different names in Korean but the most widespread term is mudang. Although the great majority of shamans are women, there are also men, and in this case they are called baksu. There are several types of mudang and they have traditionally been classified into two categories according to how they became shamans. On the one hand, we have those who receive their call through the possession of a god, they are the spirit-possessed shaman or gangsin mudang in Korean, and the hereditary shaman or seseup mudang, whose shamanic vocation is transmitted from their mothers or grandmothers. The first element, central to the mudang’s identity, is their role as intermediaries between the spirit world and the human world. This union between the two worlds is done through a series of rituals, the most important of which is the gut. During these rituals, the shaman enters an ecstatic state of trance, through dance and music, and she is possessed by the gods and spirits. Other important functions are their abilities to heal, divine, to be preservers of traditional Korean culture, and to act as a kind of priest. The gut is precisely the other most characteristic element of Korean shamanism. It is the ritual that shamans perform to get in touch with the other world and to meet the needs of their clients, dangol. There are many different types of shaman rituals which vary in their degree of complexity, but the most important ritual of
services. In general, the gut can be divided into four types: those dedicated to pray for the good fortune of individuals or the community, jaesu gut; the gut to heal diseases, byeong gut, hwanja gut; the gut dedicated to the dead, ogu gut, jinogi gut and the gut to promote the spiritual power of the shaman, jin gut, or the initiation of the shaman, naerim gut. Restore harmony and balance by creating unity between heaven, earth, and people is the main objective of the gut. When the shamans are in a state of ecstasy, they connect this human world with the "other world" and this is done by combining experiences of pain and joy, suffering and joy, and tears and laughter. One of the most famous mudang of Korea, Kim Kum-hwa, named by the Korean Government as an Intangible Cultural Property and National Living Treasure, in a book she wrote about her experience as a shaman titled Sharing the Blessings and Healing the Sufferings, said: “a mudang is a person who is able to unite this world that is separated, to heal wounds and stitch what is torn.� Understanding the message and the structure of the gut is essential to know the deeper meaning of Korean shamanism. There are no established scriptures or doctrines; therefore, you can only get to know the core elements and understand the bond between them through the rituals. The gut as a whole can be divided into five main parts: The first part consists in the purification of the place where the ritual has to be celebrated so that it is clean and without any danger to the guests. The shaman uses water and incense to drive out evil spirits and misfortune. Then the shaman invokes and calls the gods and spirits to
Korean shamanism is, without doubt, the gut. In the gut different items are displayed such as liquor and food offerings, paper flowers, candles, and many other decorations to attract the attention of the gods. Also the shamans perform characteristic dances with music accompanied by traditional Korean instruments, songs, prayers, and prophecies. It is a fairly complex ritual that can last several days. The shaman, mudang, entering a state of trance or ecstasy through dance and music, invites the gods or spirits to be present. The mudang through these rites will entertain the gods, intercede before the evil spirits that bring misfortune to humans, send the dead to the "other world," ask the spirits to help the sick and bring happiness and prosperity to the village or to the families who have requested their
come and participate. She offers invocations through songs and dances to the gods and humans. In the third part, the principal celebrant of the gut performs prayers and divination. The shaman will dance and sing frenetically to go into a trance, in a state of ecstasy for the gods and spirits, and be possessed by them in order for them to communicate through her. These dances in a state of trance will allow the shaman to establish a communication with the spiritual world and to become like a bridge between the world beyond and the human world. In this situation, the shaman will communicate to us the words of the spirits, gongsu. Then the musicians and shamans play music and dance to
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entertain the gods and all participants. The shaman acts as a god and interacts with participants in the gut by playing, showing anger, reconciling, asking for things, laughing, and crying. She establishes a direct relationship between the gods and the humans. They also will share a big banquet between the gods and participants. Finally, there is the farewell to the gods. At the end of the gut the guests have to be dismissed. The shamans burn the paper and fabric decorations, and then make order of the rest of the utensils used in the ritual. Before closing the whole gut, the minor spirit, the wandering and abandoned spirit, are fed. Always some food is left for wandering spirits, japgwi, which are given at the end of the rite. The gut includes many elements of dance, song, and music that are a legacy of the traditional folk arts. The shamans still preserve many artistic expressions that, if not for them, would have been lost with the drastic changes that have been taking place in Korean society. But we must also say that mudang are women of great artistic creativity. They have been able to adapt the forms to the changing needs of their clients and also to the changes that have occurred around them. Many of the shamanic rituals were created in a rural setting and performed as a community event by all the members of the village. Now the Korean countryside is in a great process of transformation that makes it impossible to maintain traditional forms, unless they are performed in specially arranged events. The mudang, in their rituals, has an important theatrical and entertaining dimension in their rituals, both which are performed for cultural and artistic as well as for spiritual and religious reasons. The gut was traditionally considered as a family, people, village, or even a national event of celebration. It was especially a party for the women of the family and the village. For centuries the gut has
been the place where Korean women have been able to speak with more freedom and feel like the protagonists of their beliefs and aspirations. At present, it’s hard to speculate how shamanism will evolve in Korea, but it is clear that it is not an endangered tradition, but instead, a tradition in good health that is learning to adapt and keep building its identity within modern Korean society. By Antonio J. DomĂŠnech del RĂo (director, Korean Program, University of Malaga)
Gut, Korean Shamanic Ritual: Songs Calling Spirits Kim Soo-nam Youlhwadang Publishers 2005, 288p, ISBN 8930101771
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Reviews Fiction
A Limitless Imagination at Work Double Park Min-gyu, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 620p, ISBN 9788936435882
When I feel frustrated and things aren’t going my way, I bury myself in certain novels to find strength. During sleepless nig ht s I listen to Joha nn Seba st ia n Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” while on melancholy days I listen to Rachmaninoff’s “Voca lise Op. 34 No. 14.” Likewise the novels of Park Min-gyu can soothe several days’ worth of suffering. Actually, however, I don’t believe that reading his novels provides comfort. Rather, they are entertaining and a bit racy. But his recent novels make readers pull their heads out of books and take a look out the window, followed by a sudden welling-up of tears. Double is Park Min-g y u’s second collection of shor t stories. His f irst collection was Castella, published in 2005, so the second has been some time coming. The amount of work contained in his second collection is such that two volumes were required. These take an interesting form, which was alluded to by the author when he said that they resembled a double LP. It would be equally safe to say that the volumes resemble two CDs. However, the title “double” doesn’t necessarily refer just to the shape of book. Author Park Mingyu calls himself, “The guy named me.” He sometimes also says, “I got a little warmer while he got a bit colder.” In other words, “he” and “I” refer to Park Min-gyu as a writer and as a regular person. This was his starting point as an author. At some point during our teens we come to feel estranged from our childhood
selves, especially for the more precocious a mong us. We lea rn that each of us contains multiple selves and sometimes feel that there is no such thing as the self. Although it has no concrete form, from time to time the “I” feels pain and that amorphous thing called pride gets badly damaged. The “I” that wakes up in the morning, eats breakfast and goes to the bathroom is different from the former “I,” however. The former “I” may even grow a mouth, and this is when writers are born. The stories in Double are so varied that readers might wonder if the book was indeed written by a single author. The stories themselves seem to have “doubles,” with some using the grammar of the mystery, martial arts, and the science fiction genre, showcasing Park Min-gyu's unaffected style, while the others show us his more sentimental style of writing through subjects such as dementia, elderly fathers, a dying man, and suicide. Of course, it's up to the reader whether they are warmed or chilled by the stories that are woven from the completely different worlds that the author has calmly created. When I first read his individual stories released in literary journals, I enjoyed his chillier style. “Temple,” written in the style of a martial arts epic, takes a delightfully cynical view of modern life, while “Rudy” resembles the Book of Revelation from the Bible as it refreshingly wipes the slate of the world clean. Readers will enjoy their discovery of Park Min-gyu’s skill in
reinterpreting the norms and language of various genres, and will see how he succeeds in blending the experimental and the conventional. At the same time, the collection’s other stories such as “Nearby,” “A Boat on a Yellow River,” and "Daytime Nap" will melt the hearts of readers. Despite the cold, snowy winter, this book will keep one company like a friend patting your shoulder. Finally, some of the tales eloquently describe the latter years which readers have yet to reach, depicting the humble wait for the end. There are a great many quotable passages to treasure, such as, “Why doesn’t the art of tumbling work in our lives?” Books such as this one can make readers feel as if they have a strong mentor supporting them. Although I'm a literary critic, when I’m holding one of Park Mingyu’s novels I become an innocent reader once again, eyes glistening with tears. Among a sea of novels, Double is a rare gem. If I were marooned with this book, I could read it over and over without getting bored. I express my thanks to the author as it has been such a long time since I have visited worlds so beautiful and sorrowful. Good novels are just like this. By Kang Yu-jung
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Reviews Fiction
Desire Most Undesirable Since You Left Me Choi Inseok, Jaeum&Moeum 2010, 352p, ISBN 9788957075210
This is the author's ninth published novel. Contrary to the impression given by the title, this book is a story of the ups a nd dow ns bet ween t wo people with diametrically opposite personalities and values, and how they come to find mutual understanding and true love. This novel conta ins socia l criticism about the amplified desires and illusions propagated by capitalism, which leads the two main characters toward conflict and disagreement. The male protagonist, Jun-sung, is strongly anti-capitalist. Disgusted by the materialistic world, he quits his job. In accordance with his belief that all intellectual property should be shared, he joins a hacker group and becomes active. During this period he suddenly meets Seo-jin, a cable shopping channel lingerie model in her early 20s. Although she used to dream of becoming a star whose every move would be fawned over by the public, she has instead become a third-rate model addicted to buying designer goods.
How to Heal Wounds Yeongran Gong Sun-ok, Edition PPUL 2010, 272p, ISBN 9788901114293
A woman unexpectedly loses her child and husband, one after the other, and is left alone in the world. A married man deeply hurts his wife and child by falling in love with another woman, and is subsequently abandoned by his family. Both people start treating themselves like garbage and stop living—the woman because of crippling loneliness, the man because of intense selfloathing. By chance, the woman makes her way to the port city of Mokpo despite her daily struggles through despair and regret. While adjusting to life there, she comes to realize that people everywhere experience the same love and hurt, and joy and loneliness. This woman who had lost the will to live gradually begins to find meaning in life. She gets a new name and starts a new family. The man stops by Mokpo for a friend's funeral, and soon 54 list_ Books from Korea
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relocates to the same coastal town to write a novel, thus ending two years of living in a basement dive. The man was drawn to Mokpo after his brief encounter with the aforementioned widow who was in attendance at his friend's funeral. While living in Mokpo, the man is exposed to the various woeful stories of the locals and gradually comes to forgive himself. The novel ends just before the man and the woman meet each other again. Gong Sun-ok's Yeongran is a story about the fragility of people and how they can hurt each other. The novel illustrates the truth that people in relationships can at times be clear perpetrators as well as victims. Furthermore, Yeongran reminds us that wounds created by human relationships must eventually be healed within the same context. Therefore, the various sad stories told by Mokpo locals in Yeongran can be thought of as the actual tales of the everyman. By Cho Yeon-jung
A s expected, the unlikely a nd mismatched twosome of Jun-sung and Seo Jin causes lots of trouble. Due to her reckless shopping, Seo-jin's credit card balances have snowballed, putting her on the verge of bankruptcy. Nevertheless, she is still unable to let go of her dreams of becoming a star, and suddenly flies off to Hong Kong to shoot a commercial. She even gets arrested by the police when her past drug use with a film director is discovered many years after the fact. The plot is anchored by Jun-sung's steady love for Seo-jin, despite myriad difficulties. Jun-sung also happens to be a screenwriter, and in his new script he pursues the dual themes of anti-capitalism and the possibility of pure love, alternating between the two. Author Choi Inseok's trademark is his ability to captivate readers, and I found myself having diff iculty pulling myself away from my desk while reading Since You Left Me. By Shin Junebong
Reviews Fiction
Life and Death in Duet The Forest of My Young Days Kim Hoon, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788954613392
Life and death co-exist in Kim Hoon’s novel The Forest of My Young Days. The female protagonist Jo Yunjoo is an artist whose job is to paint miniature plants and trees in a civilian-restricted arboretum. She must paint the seasonal fauna of the arboretum as close to its original form as possible. As the head of her department notes, the work entails “depicting in detail the present reality of each individual life.” Jo also agrees to participate in a project in a neighboring military camp where an excavation of human remains from the Korean War is underway. Thus, she finds herself documenting the present vitality of life while simultaneously recording traces of death from the past. While Jo Yunjoo is transferring life and death onto her canvas, her father, too, is transitioning from life to death. While working as a civil servant in the county office, he is accused of accepting a bribe and thrown in jail. After being released from prison, Mr. Jo’s hea lth rapidly declines as he slowly makes his march
towards death. The father departs with two phrases to his only daughter when she visits him for the last time: “It’s okay,” and “I’m sorry.” It is not clear what exactly is okay about the situation or what he feels sorry for, but his daughter feels that, “Those few words were not lacking in summing up a life.” If the father substitutes death in Kim’s novel, the love that blossoms between the young Yunjoo and First Lieutenant Kim Minsoo represents the palpitations of life. In this elegant novel, the two lovers’ relationship progresses in a composed and solemn manner as if their romance has been filtered through the eyes of the elderly. By Choi Jae-bong
How It Feels to Write a Novel Blowfish Jo Kyung-ran, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 349p, ISBN 9788954612876
Jo Kyung-ran’s fifth novel, Blowfish, is arranged into four parts, in which a total of 67 stories about a female sculptor and a male architect are given in turns. Death is the motif connecting these story fragments together. The woman’s grandmother kills herself by eating poisonous blowfish in front of her husband and child, while the man’s elder brother leaves a phone message saying to come quickly before leaping from the fifth floor of an apartment building. The woman and man cross paths once in Seoul, and meet again in Tokyo. The narrative loosely approximates a love story. However, for the characters, this is no romantic story in the normal sense. The two become ever closer, but never become one in the end. For the woman, the man is a weigh station on the road to death. For the man, the woman forestalls
death and offers him the final chance to believe in the possibility of life. Through the conflicting impressions they have of one another, the characters are able to look back on events leading up to their approaching deaths, and complete their art. It is only desire to create art that calls them back from death. In the afterward, Jo Kyung-ran states, “The moment I began writing, I looked forward to having written this novel.” The evocation of the artistic flavor of the heterogeneous urban spaces of Seoul and Tokyo, together with the image of the blowfish tempting one towards death, leaves such a strong impression that this novel cannot be compared with others, even within the body of Jo’s own work. Perhaps Jo’s fierce will to write dwells in Blowfish, and animates it: the feeling that every time one is seized by the death drive, one cannot help but write. The lethal taste of blowfish, which one cannot help but eat even though one may die in doing so, approaches the sense of painful deliverance
one feels while writing a novel. That is the message Blowfish conveys to us. By Shin Soojeong
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Reviews Fiction
Welcome to a 5-Dimensional World Baron Quirval’s Castle Choi Jae-Hoon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 304p, 9788932020525
Readers will find many familiar literary works in Choi Jae-Hoon’s first short story collection, such as Conan Doyle’s S herl ock Holmes or Ma r y Shel le y’s Frankenstein. In his new book Baron Quirval’s Castle, readers may feel familiar as if they have already come across the story in a previous novel or a movie. The book also takes interesting characters from existing myths, fairy tales, as well as witches from historical texts, and relates them in a new and varied narrative structure. Rewriting such well-known tales can only be done successfully if the writer possesses a deep knowledge of the existing works and Choi is someone who passes that test. Choi’s novel stimulates an intellectual pleasure to readers that are familiar with the original works and also holds a light to readers who have never come across the stories before.
Re-hashing existing works may be a serious barrier to the writer’s creativity as well as their pride. In this case, the writer’s reputation is dependent upon how to overcome such difficulties, yet such worries will be proven groundless when carefully reading over Choi’s work. This is because Choi does not simply take these existing characters within their original customary context but re-defines their parameters by focusing on their relevance to the darkness prevalent in modern day man. The novel has remained a popular genre because of its ability to cut to the heart of the matter and maintaining vitality pertinent to contemporary times. In this way, Choi Jae-Hoon’s novel is a rewrite, but with a cutting edge. By Yi Soo-hyung
Therefore, We Write Writing Club Kang Youngsook, Jaeum&Moeum 2010, 336p, 9788957075234
Since 2006 with the publication of Rina, Kang Youngsook has held a prominent role in the Korean literary world. In her book, Kang sharply delineates the oppressed minority in the partitioned countries of a largely capitalistic world through a North Korean that continues to live the life of a refugee. The novel reflects the transnational world we live in today and outstandingly configures the literary ethics of such times. Kang has covered the major literary topics of the 21st century in Korea such as gender, the partition of Korea, capitalistic systems, and individual ethics. Kang’s Writing Club, published in 2010, also questions literary ethics but from a different angle than Rina. The novel chief ly explores the meaning of writing in a time where ever ybody can write and publish their work through various mediums. Kim and her daughter run a 56 list_ Books from Korea
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writing club in their neighborhood. They are not professional writers but through constant writing they discover a zest for life. The writing pieces are simple, such as ordinary cooking recipes, but for Kim and her daughter as well as the neighborhood housewives that have joined the writing club, writing in itself authenticates their existence. They write in truth about their experiences and they write with love, which enables them to verify their identity through their writing. K ang’s Writing Club revea ls that writing is no longer limited to the few literary elite. The proliferation of writing through blogs, homepages, and novel networks is already a public phenomenon. The popularization of published writing proves that the traditional sense of the writer has been dismantled, as they are no longer the main agents of writing. The writing of the average individual exemplified in Writing Club may not be a literary feat but holds value in that it na rrates t he individua l ’s concrete experiences and identity. Kang’s Writing
Club reflects the changing nature of the writing environment and the public’s desire to write in a time where anyone and everyone can be a writer. Her book can be highly commended for illustrating the fact that true writing does not comes from technical perfection but through the determination to confirm one’s identity through the practice of writing. By Jang Sungkyu
Spotlight on Fiction
A Dance with Grandma
(excerpts)
By Oh Chae Illustration by Oh Seung-min Translated by Julie Min
Way to Mama “Gran! I’m goin’ to school!” Grandma didn’t hear Dandelion because she was picking her peppers. Gran, I’m goin’ to the mainland. I’ll go and make sure she’s happy. On her way to the wharf, Dandelion’s heart was thudding hard because she was afraid of Grandma finding out about her. As she arrived at the wharf, Mr. Deckhand was preparing to leave. The only passengers there were three navies going on holiday. Dandelion waved at Mr. Deckhand and ran. “Oh my, Dandelion, it’s you here. What about school?” “Mr. Deckhand, please take me to ma mom. I have the fare, and— everythin’.” Mr. Deckhand looked down at Dandelion with surprised eyes. “What about your gran? Has she said okay to this?” Dandelion hesitated a little, but answered. “Yes! She even gave me the money for it. So— please take me to the restaurant where ma mom works.” “That’s actually a piece of cake. And it’s a favor for Dandelion. O’ course. C’mon up!” Whoa… I just lied to Mr. Deckhand. Dandelion was sorry about her lie, but that was the only thing she could do. If she told him the truth, he wouldn’t have allowed Dandelion to go to the mainland. Mr. Deckhand helped Dandelion onto the ferryboat. When LUCKY passed the jetty, she turned around. There she saw the younger version of herself, waiting for her mom, gazing over the crest. Dandelion shook her head hard and turned back. Like Dandelion, who finally got exhausted after all that longing to live with her mother, even the chestnut tree with the forest-green burrs dangling on its branches looked tired in the summer heat. Like this… I wanna go anywhere… You promised we would live on the mainland together. A betrayer. I’m never gonna forgive you! Dandelion glared at the sea holding the broken ocarina box against her chest. The ocarina seemed to keep calling mom inside of her arms. Sudden tears dropped onto Dandelion’s hands. No way, I’ll hate Mom. I’ll never miss her. Dandelion could now see the land in the far distance. Dandelion felt like her heart would pop so she hugged the box even more tightly. In anticipation, it felt like her heart was pounding wildly. “Yes, ma dear passengers, we have now arrived at the mainland. Please get off quickly, and make sure that you don’t leave anythin’ behind. Mr. Navies, it’s good to see the land again after such a
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long time, right? Ha ha ha. Cheers to your vacations. And—, finally, it’s Glory to our God that we’ve safely arrived. Then, hm.” After Mr. Deckhand’s announcement was over, Dandelion stepped on the land with him. Mr. Deckhand asked her: “It’s lovely here, the mainland, ain’t it? When we wanna go to your mama, we gotta take a bus from here.” Mr. Deckhand held Dandelion’s hand and headed for the bus stop. “Um, but, Dandelion, you know that your mama got married, right?” “You afraid that I’ll do somethin’ rash there?” said Dandelion, looking at Mr. Deckhand. “No! No! I would never imagine our Dandelion would do such a thing. Hmm, let’s go, hurry.” It w a s a s m a l l r e s t a u r a nt w h e r e Dandelion arrived with Mr. Deckhand. When they opened the door and entered, she saw her mom stirring soup with a big ladle in front of a cauldron. Her mom wiped her sweaty brow with her hand and greeted them cheerfully. “Welcome, come in.” Then she lifted her head, startled. “Da, Da, Dandeli…” Dandelion’s legs shook when she saw her mom. “How’s everythin’, ma’am. Dandelion said she wanted to see her mama, so I brought her here—. Dandelion, have a real good time with your mama. Let me come back tomorrow.” Dandelion caught Mr. Deckhand on his way out, and whispered to him, “Mr. Deckhand, please wait for just few minutes out there. I need to go somewhere else, too. Please, I’m askin’ you a favor. Please?” Surprised, Mr. Deckhand tried to object, but after he saw Dandelion’s desperate eyes, he just nodded and went outside. “God, ma baby. Ma baby,” said Mom as she took Dandelion’s hands. When Mom’s rough hands
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covered Dandelion’s hands, Dandelion recalled the calf at Jinwoo’s house. Dandelion wanted to be hugged by Mom like the calf was… She liked Mom’s warm hands, but slipped her hands back out, swallowing her tears. “They told me you got married. So I came to see you. I—, I was waitin’ for the days that the three of us can live on the mainland. But you…” The tears that Dandelion had been holding back so hard finally burst. She couldn’t hold them anymore. Mom hugged Dandelion and started to wail. When Dandelion was in Mom’s bosom, she could no longer resist. She realized that if she stayed like this in her Mom’s embrace, she would not able to say anything. So she pried herself free. Mom was peeved that she had to deal with her daughter who was so cold-hearted. “Dandelion, Mommy was… was goin’ to tell you everythin’… But I was afraid that you might get hurt. Mommy was goin’ to go to you with your new father to introduce him to you.” Dandelion felt suffocated when she heard the words ‘new father.’ “I don’t need a new father!” Mom held Dandelion’s hands back again and continued, “I don’t know if you understand, but life ain’t that easy. It’s hard for a woman to raise a child as a single parent. I want to send you to the college, and abroad to study more, but I can’t do those things by myself. This restaurant is makin’ a lot of money so now we’re preparin’ for opening another bigger one. If I work hard a little bit longer, we can live together even with your gran. Your new father promised me.” Mom couldn’t really continue because tears fell endlessly from her eyes. The more Dandelion heard Mom’s words, the more she wanted to be hugged. As this thought grew, Dandelion couldn’t stay any longer. Dandelion struggled to free herself from Mom’s grasp. “If only you didn’t make the promise to live on the mainland—, the three of us—!” Mom held Dandelion’s hands tighter. “When you grow up, when you grow up more, you’ll understand me. I’m not sayin’ that you should understand me now, so please stay here a little while longer.” Dandelion almost threw the broken ocarina onto the table. “I hate college and I hate the new father. I just want ma mom, that’s all. Just Mom, Gran, and me, the three of us. We can live happily for long time. But you’re another kid’s mom now.” Dandelion opened the restaurant door and left the restaurant, didn’t even look back once. She was afraid that Mom would hold her again. She just ran. Mr. Deckhand, who was waiting for Dandelion outside of the restaurant, followed her. Dandelion heard Mom’s faint voice calling her name from a far distance. “Dandelion! What’s wrong? Huh?”
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Mr. Deckhand stopped Dandelion and panted hard. “There were a few words that I wanted to tell her. I’m all done now.” Mr. Deckhand stroked Dandelion’s hair and said, “Did you tell off your mama?” “…” “I wish you could understand your mama’s heart. The owner of the restaurant promised her everything, I heard. That they would raise you together when you go to middle school. It’s really a heck of a hardship to raise a kid as a single mama. You will know it when you grow a little bit older.” Dandelion had already forgiven Mom when she was speaking to her. Dandelion could really feel Mom cared about her. But she could not accept Mom’s marriage yet. Mom was another kid’s mom now, but Mom would be her own mom forever, and that would never change. She knew it. But Dandelion said something different than her mind because she was afraid to reveal these feelings to Mr. Deckhand. “Who’s goin’ to go to college? It’s just her excuse. She just wanted to get married!” Mr. Deckhand sighed. “Phew, it now looks like you even didn’t tell your gran you were going, did you?” “Gran would never allow me to come here…” “I guess I have to work double today because of you. Your gran always called you ‘Loose-footed Dandelion,’ and she was so right. You’re so free-spirited, our sweetie.” Dandelion was sorry and grateful to Mr. Deckhand at the same time. “I had the fare…” “Huh, you little lass, I ain’t gonna take away your pocket money. Afraid what kind of punishment I‘ll get from our Lord if I take dat.”[……]
Grandma on the Helicopter [……] Grandma turned the light on for going to church for the early morning service. Dandelion squinted once and fell back asleep again. When she was sleeping, she heard some groaning. Dandelion rubbed her eyes and tried hard to open her heavy eyelids. Grandma wasn’t in the room. About to close her eyes again, she heard the groaning again. She cautiously opened the door; it might be coming from outside. Then there was Grandma on the earthen floor, collapsed and sweating. “Gran! Gran!” Dandelion joggled Grandma’s shoulders and called out to her. But Grandma couldn’t answer, just
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groaned. Dandelion didn’t know what to do. “Gran! I’ll get Village Chief. Wait here. Gran, don’t die. Huh? Wait here. Hang on. Pray to God. You can hear me, right?” Dandelion started running to Village Chief ’s house. She stumbled over the bushes and thorns that grew in all directions as she ran along a furrow, the shortcut. Dandelion murmured while running. “Gran. Don’t die. You can’t. You know I can’t live without you, right? God, please save ma Gran. Don’t let her die. Please? I can’t live without her. God, God—.” Dandelion saw Village Chief in the distance, sweeping his front yard. “Chie—f!” Dandelion’s appearance surprised Village Chief. “My, what’s brought you here so early this morning?” Dandelion couldn’t answer because she was all out of breath. Her heart felt like it was burning. “Hff, Oh, Chief, G, Gran, ma gran looks like she’s dying. P, please come with me.” “What, what’s the matter? How come, she was so healthy—. Hey, hon! Honey! Call the clinic, hurry!” Dandelion ran way faster than Village Chief. She was so afraid that something might have already happened to Grandma. Grandma was struggling on the earthen floor, holding her stomach and sweating hard. “Gran, Gran, wake up, huh? Gran, Gran.” “My, what’s goin’ on here—? Was there anythin’ that she ate alone last night?” Dandelion became more and more scared. “Nay, she ate everythin’ the same as me. Nothin’ else.” When Dandelion was wiping Grandma’s sweat with a towel, the clinician arrived. The clinician couldn’t give the same treatments as a doctor, but he could give prescriptions. “What’s happened? Ma’am, ma’am, can you hear me?” The clinician looked into Grandma’s eyes and pressed her stomach. “Ma’am, you feel pain here?” Grandma crouched more, and continued groaning. “I think it’s the appendix. Chief, is there any boat that can reach to the mainland right now? How long does it take to get to there?” “Nay, everybody is out at sea at this hour. I guess it will take some time...” “No, it won’t work, then. I need a helicopter. Chief, please give them a call.” Village Chief went home and made the phone call and returned with a pushcart. The clinician and Dandelion placed a blanket on the pushcart and laid Grandma out on it. The clinician gave
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Grandma a shot in her upper arm to help her cope with the pain. Then Grandma’s groaning gradually faltered. Village Chief pulled the pushcart and Dandelion pushed it from the back as best she could. The helicopter arrived at the schoolhouse field exactly 30 minutes later. Village Chief said that the helicopter would create huge gusts of wind, so they entered the field after the helicopter completely touched down. Dandelion was all confused and in shock. As the helicopter landed in the field, a doctor and a nurse in white gowns got off with a stretcher. Grandma was carried onto the helicopter on the stretcher. Dandelion was going to get on the helicopter along with Grandma. But Village Chief stopped her. “Dandelion, there’s nothin’ you can do at the hospital. It’s better for you to wait here—. They will take a good care for your gran. And my wife phoned your mama so she will come to the hospital and look after your gran. I want you to stay here because you will only make things harder for your gran and mama there.” “Nay, Mom can’t. She’s married to another man. She’s not my gran’s daughter-in-law anymo—. She’s nothin’, nothin’ for ma gran. She can’t.” “Grown-ups always know what’s best. I want you to just stay here. The helicopter has to take off soon. If you keep doin’ this, it’s only gonna be bad for your gran.” Hearing these words, Dandelion took a step back. After the people got out of the field, the helicopter ascended up to the sky, making a sandy wind, and then disappeared. Gran, you’re gonna be back soon, right? I can’t live without you. Dandelion stood blankly in the field, then went to the Secret Headquarters. There were books, snacks, and water; Teacher must have brought them here. Dandelion lay on the tent floor and looked out at the sea. What do I do if Gran dies? Dandelion shook her head hard. Dandelion muttered charm words many times inside her mind that Grandma would be perfectly okay. Dandelion turned and tossed around and then found three boxes in the corner of the tent. Dandelion carefully opened the box that had her name on it. There was a small notebook in the box. Then she found a memo from Teacher written on the very first page of the notebook. “This is the notebook where you bury your loneliness. You bury all your loneliness into this notebook.” Dandelion hugged that small notebook tightly. Suddenly she remembered the ocarina that she had given away to Mom. She wanted to call Mom more than ever.
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Mama’s Smell What if Grandma never comes back again? Dandelion became lost in her thoughts on the deck on her way to the mainland. She slept alone last night. Violet waited outside for a long time, but Dandelion couldn’t go to Violet’s house. It would be all uncomfortable in whoever’s house Dandelion would stay. It was acute appendicitis. Luckily, Grandma quickly arrived on the mainland and the surgery went well. However, Dandelion hated the fact that Mom was looking after Grandma. And she didn’t like it either that Grandma still liked Mom. Dandelion didn’t understand why Grandma prayed every early morning for her daughter-in-law who had married another man, leaving her little daughter behind. “Well, Dandelion. Let’s hurry.” Mr. Deckhand didn’t even make the announcement when they arrived on the mainland, and took
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Dandelion directly to the hospital. On the way, Dandelion kept looking out the window. Dandelion’s throat already became sore just thinking of Grandma lying on the hospital bed in a gown. Mr. Deckhand seemed to notice how Dandelion felt and stroked her hair. “Your gran will live long. Ma mama always attended to the early morning service at every dawn, and she lived long. It ain’t easy to get up at that early hour every day. People with such will power never collapse that easily.” Dandelion earnestly wished that Mr. Deckhand’s words were true. When Dandelion was at Grandma’s hospital room, she had a hard time opening the door. Mom might be in the room. Dandelion hesitated for a long time before she finally entered. Dandelion saw other people in the same gowns. Dandelion looked around for Grandma. “Da, Dandelion!” It was Mom, standing at the side of Grandma. Dandelion pretended that she didn’t see Mom and walked directly to Grandma. “Leave! I’ll be with Gran, just the two of us. Leave now.” Then Grandma’s faint voice called Dandelion. “Dandelion…” Then Mr. Deckhand coaxed Dandelion. “Dandelion, how can you take care of your gran? You need your mama. Huh? I’ll be back tomorrow for ya. You can stay here—with your mama for just one night. Ain’t this good?” Dandelion ran out of the room. She didn’t want to listen to anybody’s words. Everybody seemed to understand what Mom was going through. But Dandelion didn’t. Even Jinwoo’s mommy cow would cry and turn down food when her baby was sold and sent away. But a mom who got married away, abandoning her own daughter? How could the daughter possibly understand this? It didn’t make sense to Dandelion.”[……]
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A Dance with Grandma Oh Chae; Illustrated by Oh Seung-min 2008, 171p, ISBN 9788932018638
About the Author
Oh Chae was born in 1980 on Anma-do, South Korea, an island known for its beautiful sunsets. When she was little, she read books for hours and hours in the corner of her bookfilled classroom, where she was free to stretch the limits of her imagination. She won the Ma Hae-song Literary Award for this book, A Dance with Grandma.
Illustrator
Oh Seung-min was born in 1974, in Young-am, Jeollanamdo, and holds a BA in Visual Arts from Sejong University.
Steady Sellers
Revisiting the Wanderer Poet, Kim Sat-gat The Poet Yi Mun-yol, Minumsa Publishing Group 2008, 300p, ISBN 9788937482167
“The Poet is a novel about the journey of a cursed literary figure through whom the author poses profound questions about the role and meaning of poetry against the backdrop of history; this book is like a compass that can guide us through the thick fog and storm of our lives.” from Le Monde
Among the works by Yi Mun-yol, a prominent writer in Korea, there are those that could be called “the artist novels.” Through several works that are about artists, the author has persistently explored the meaning of art and its autonomous role free from politics. The Wild Ox (1979), Geumsijo (1981), and The Poet (1991) are Yi Mun-yol’s most famous artist novels. The Poet is a fictitious account of an
actual 19th century person called Kim Byeong-yeon from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). Kim Byeong-yeon lived in the same era as the A merican writer Edgar Allen Poe, as well as philosopher John Stua r t Mill of England; however, he is better known as K im Sat-gat in Korea. Having given up worldly riches, fame, and power, he is viewed as a spontaneous poet who wandered all around the
country carrying a bamboo cane, and wearing a satgat, a cone shaped bamboo hat; hence the origin of his name. This novel can be seen as a chronicle of the unfortunate scholar that Kim Sat-gat was, but at the same time through the exploration of the development of Kim Sat-gat’s philosophy of poetry, the author poses profound questions about the role and purpose of poetry. The author also states in the book, “Not everyone who deviates from a given life is a poet; however, all poets deviate from a worldly life.” Because his grandfather surrendered as a traitor, Kim Sat-gat was deprived of opportunities for worldly success, and the only desirable method of raising his social status was through poetry. Therefore rather than stopping short of viewing writing poetr y as a general prerequisite for a gentleman or something that the Neo-Confucian scholars did in their leisure time, he embraced it as a means of pursuing upward mobility. But when his aspirations were crushed because of the restrictions placed on his status and his family, Kim Sat-gat wandered all over the country and from this experience, reached a higher level of consciousness concerning the fundamental nature of poetry. In step with this shift in thought, a poet is not someone who uses poetry as a means for worldly success, but one who writes poetry for the sole purpose of writing poems. Hence, freedom is what poetry ultimately pursues, what is also referred to as bulipmunja in the East Asian tradition—an intuitive discernment or revelation that goes beyond words. This book does not just tell the story of a man called Kim Sat-gat from the mid-19th century and his development of thought regarding poetry. By way of an earnest dialogue between the past and the present, the author poses the question of what poetry and literature signify in this day and age. The author asks if it is possible to create art that is free from a political position. Furthermore, he asks what defines the autonomy of art at a time when the global expansion of capitalism has created harmful commercial effects, and lastly what connotes true freedom for an artist. This remarkable novel not only asks fundamental questions about art that are meaningful in the present era, but also displays the author’s cogent understanding of Korean and East Asian art while simultaneously exploring the universal problem of what it means to be a true artist. By Park Sungchang
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Reviews Nonfiction
North-South Relations Seen Through Film Two-Korea Blockbusters Agnes Bokyung Lee, Changhae Publishing Co. 2011, 214p, ISBN 9788979199772
S e c r e t R e u n i o n (2 010), We l c o m e t o Dongmakgol (2005), Taegukgi (2004), Silmido (2003), Joint Security Area (2000) and Shiri (1999)…What do all of these films have in common? Each of these films falls within the top 10 in terms of box office turnout, and all serve as worthy adversaries to the action films currently b e i n g pro duc e d by t he Hol ly wo o d blockbuster powerhouse. In addition, all of these films deal with confrontations between North and South Korea in a genre known as “North-South film.” In this book, Agnes Bokyung Lee analyzes how it is that the North-South genre has become such a staple of ma instrea m Korea n cinema, why the masses have taken to these films so passionately, and the reasons for and ways in which our society has, in turn, been affected. Up until the mid-1990s our society was in a state of cold war with strong anti-communist sentiments and so-called
Capturing Contemporary Korean Photography A New Exploration of Contemporary Korean Photography Park Pyung-jong PHOTONET_TNF Inc., Publishing Division 2011, 424p, ISBN 9788993818178
“Division, class conf lict…inalienable rights are all here. Even if democracy has been attained in an ideological sense, the reality is not the case. Additionally, any movement to cure the unequal distribution of wealth that is fundamentally splitting society is being rejected and even debate around the issue is not happening. This is the state of society permeated with what this writer calls kangyeok (the gap).” Area Park indirectly records in his photography structures of conf lict and inequality that are to be found everywhere in Korean society, a society in which discrepancies in access to social capital 70 list_ Books from Korea
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create “the gap,” which results in the pathos imbued in his photographs. In Park Hyung-Geun’s nebulous, impersonal style one sees a world of poverty, and in the mysterious depictions of nature seen through the camera of Lee Jeonglok, one sees a mythological imagination. Through pictures with blurred foci, Chun Kyungwoo attempts not to express the finite nature of concepts but rather their infinite realness. In this book, Park Pyung-jong offers a glimpse into the f uture of Korea n photography by introducing the works of 22 young Korean photographers, with descriptions full of both affection and expectation. Park makes sure, however, not to lose the unrelenting, critical eye for which he himself is known, as he draws up a new map of contemporary Korean photography through the works of these young photographers in their 30s and 40s
“red-baiting.” In such a state, it was nearly impossible to thematize North-South issues in film. From 1998 on, however, as the treaty for North-South reconciliation came into play and a mood of openness toward reconciliation came about, there came as well a kind of reflection on the blind anticommunist sentiments of the past, one that combined with a surging interest in the idea of reunification, at which point it became possible for North-South issues to become thematized in mainstream Korean cinema. In 1999, with the release of Shiri—the film with the highest recorded budget (2.4 billion won) and highest recorded domestic box office turnout (6.2 billion viewers)— the masses were offered a new look at the North-South issue. Subsequently, with the first ever Inter-Korean Summit which took place on June 15th, 2000, in Pyongyang, and the release of the films Joint Security Area and Shiri, Korea welcomed the onset of a golden age in North-South film. By Richard Hong
who are working earnestly to capture that which is our irrational, imperfect world. By Richard Hong
Reviews Nonfiction
Cracking Korea’s Code Korean Popular Culture Codes Joo Chang-yun, Book21 Publishing Group 2010, 247p, ISBN 9788950923631
What are some cultural characteristics of South Korea, the hub of the “New Korean Wave” that is sweeping across Asia? To examine the phenomenon, this book focuses on five key cultural words that dominated Korean society in the first decade of the 21st century. T he f irst code involve s nomad s. Individuals who used to roam aimlessly in cyberspace emerged as leading creators of digital user-created content through blogs and other online media. The second code is participation, namely a culture based on the space of public squares, showcased by the enthusiastic cheering squad who rooted for the South Korean soccer team in the 2002 World Cup finals. The participatory culture shores up the youth and enhances a sense of social community. The third and fourth codes concern
the human body and sexuality, respectively. SNSD and 2PM, for instance, represent the sexual appeal of Korean girl groups and boy bands. Films dealing with the formerly shunned topic of homosexuality are gaining popularity; men have become a major consumer group for the retail industry traditionally dominated by women customers. This body-oriented culture suggests that people now regard their body as an object for socio-cultural investigation. The final code hinges on historical imagination, which propels the popularity of h i storic a l tele v i sion d ra ma s a nd films including Jewel in the Palace and Queen Seondeok. The author argues that deconstructing historical authority by mixing reality and fantasy ref lects the postmodern mode of thinking. What is the common thread that runs through the five cultural codes? The author claims that the answer lies in Koreans’ preference for what is called “guerilla spirit” and playing games. Sidestepping political and institutional restrictions, Koreans are
Where History Lives and Breathes Gyeongju, the Heart of Korea’s Culture Choi Joon-sick, Hanul Publishing Group 2010, 296p, ISBN 9788946053182
The author, Choi Joon-sick is a university professor of Korean Studies and religious studies. The subject matter of this book, Gyeongju, was the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom for 1,000 years and is one of the best known historical cities in Korea. The entire city of Gyeongju is divided into five areas which are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List under the name of “Gyeongju Historic Areas.” It is rare for the entire city to be registered on the World Heritage List. The city is also a famous tourist attraction for many foreigners who visit Korea. This book is an in-depth guide to Gyeongju, which the author wrote after visiting Gyeongju dozens of times with his
forming a dynamic culture that revolves chiefly around ‘here and now’ as if they are playing entertaining games. The book is largely based on the accumulated data concerning contemporary culture in Korea, a reservoir of observations and analyses that the author, a professor of mass communication, had created with his students in the past decade. By Pyo Jeonghun
completely. The path leading to the main building of Bulguksa (temple), one of Gyeongju’s representative historical sites, is also like that. The path curves gently and visitors cannot see the entire temple from any point of the path.
students and examining various historical documents. It includes all of Gyeongju’s most famous historical sites and introduces both Gyeongju’s past and present. Though there are many books about Gyeongju, this book is different in that it attempts to present characteristics of Korean culture and aesthetic sentiments that are, according to the author, unique to Koreans. If you want to learn about Gyeongju through diverse lenses such as history, religion, myths, architecture, art and customs, this book would serve as a good guide. An example of Koreans’ aesthetic, according to Choi, is how when Koreans lay a path at the entrance of a building, they usually do not make it in a straight line. In architecture, Koreans prefer to see the main building little by little rather than seeing it in entirety from the entrance. The building appears in and out of the sight and finally reveals itself
By Pyo Jeonghun
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Reviews Nonfiction
Uncovering the Secrets of Street Food’s Past Even Bungeobbang Has a History Yoon Dukno, Green Barley 2011, 307p, ISBN 9788996502128
Bungeobbang (fish-shaped cake with red bean filling), odeng (pressed fish cake), ddeokbokki (spicy rice cakes), sundae (Korean blood sausage), hoddeok (sweet dough with melted brown sugar)—these are the popular street food items that are loved by Koreans. Street food, as the name suggests, is an affordable, not-so-special snack all over the world. However, this book has attempted to investigate the uncommon history and origin of the street food that has long been taken for granted. The author Yoon Dukno offers interesting origins of such street food and related anecdotes, taking advantage of his journalist career, overseas experiences, and extensive research. Yoon previously wrote Why Does My Mother-inLaw Catch a Brood Hen to Cook for Me?, a book that traces the origins of Korean food. His second take on the subject is nothing if not trustworthy. A close look at the popular Korean street food reveals a pattern. One such pattern is related to
Korea’s embrace of foreign food items with a twist. For instance, Korea’s steamed bun, cream bun, came from the Japanese soboro bun. Bungeobbang, a cake whose sale usually shoots up in winter, also has the same origin. The Japanese turned Western waffles into what they called ‘snapper bun,’ ref lecting their preference for the fish. Koreans opted for carp, which was readily available in Seoul, when adapting the Japanese bun. A not her intrig uing pattern found in street food is that some items have a surprisingly long history. Two of them in the category are ddeokbokki and Korean sundae. Sundae, a dish made by boiling or steaming cow or pig’s intestines that are stuffed with various ingredients, is included in an ancient document that was written more than 2,000 years ago. Ddeokbokki, a popular snack food, was once a part of Korean royal court cuisine, a braised dish of sliced rice cake combining beef and vegetables, and seasoned with soy sauce. What we eat mirrors who we are. The history of Korean street food is none other than a mirror of the country’s modern history. By Han Mihwa
18 Scholars Reflect on Korean Society Masterpiece Lectures of Seoul National University Choi Moo-young, et al. Geulhangari 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788993905434
This book compiles a series of lectures titled “Social Imagination and Culture for a Beautiful Community,” organized by the Center for Social Sciences of Seoul National University. A high school student, armed with a strong appetite for knowledge, could understand the gist of the lectures relatively easily. The topics include science, history, philosophy, family, nationalism, democracy, communit y, reunif ic ation, minorit y groups, ideologies, politics, environment, economics, and geography. The vir tue of t he book is t hat controversial issues in different topics are discussed in relation to the specific reality. For example, a question is raised on whether inequality in history has actually been reduced. The conventional notion of a nation is also thrown into question. Another issue addressed is about how to 72 list_ Books from Korea
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lead a life as an emotional being in modern society. The widening social and economic gap in the low-growth economy also offers food for thought. While the book continues to ask questions concerning crucial topics such as ideal conditions for a better nation, it strikes a balance between social issues at a micro level and global trends at a macro level. Whereas family and emotion belong to micro issues, globalization, democracy, communit y, a nd minorit y issues are categorized as macro changes that deserve attention. In an article titled “How to Live as an Emotional Being in Modern Society,” psychologist Min Kyung-hwan points out that the number of words expressing negative emotions is far greater than that of positively charged words. The disparity has to do with the survival mechanism. Pleasant emotions, however confusing in terms of boundary and classification, do not pose any lethal threat. In contrast, a clearer classification of negative emotions, such as anger in the face of an armed robber on the
street, significantly improves the survival rate of the person in question. As such, Min cites various situations in everyday life to explain key psychology theories and even provide specific steps aimed at improving the emotional life of readers. By Pyo Jeonghun
Reviews Nonfiction
Understanding ‘Youth’ Through Reflections Why This Is Not Youth Uhm Ki-ho, Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 266p, ISBN 9788971848456
T h e m o s t c om m on m i s t a k e i n c l o s e relationships is an attitude focused only on ‘teaching’ rather than trying to ‘understand.’ Concerning the difficulty and importance of putting oneself in other people’s shoes, renowned scholar and writer Shin Youngbok once noted, “Affection is more important than observation; implementation is more important than affection; stance is more important than implementation.” Not only in South Korea but also in other countries, the younger generation has become a cause for concern. Twenty-somethings in Korea a re c a lled t he ‘880,0 0 0 won generation,’ a similar group of youth in Japan belongs to the category of ‘Freeter,’ European youths are called the ‘1,000 euro generation,’ while the designation in China and Hong Kong for the same group is the ‘post-80s generation.’ Despite the different names, the connotation remains the same: the younger generation in question is characterized by their economic instability in a time of high
Investigating Power in the Age of ‘Googlization’ Information Revolution & Power Transformation Kim Sang-bae, Hanul Publishing Group 2010, 448p, ISBN 9788946052888
The “social network service” revolution, led by Twitter and Facebook, has helped bring down the dictatorial system in Tunisia that had persisted for 23 years. The outlook is that the “SNS”-initiated changes could spread to other neighboring countries, including not only Egypt but also nations in Africa and the Middle East. People now share critical views of their governments and organize protests through SNS. These new services, once deemed as innovation in the information technology sector, are increasingly affecting political upheavals. Korea is no stranger to the phenomenon. Back in 20 02 , on line activists played a key role in getting progressive candidate Roh Moo-hyun elected as President of South Korea. In
2008, online protesters against the import of U.S. beef led to massive candlelight vigilance campaigns. Infor mation Revolution & Power Transformation, written by Kim Sang-bae, professor of political diplomacy at Seoul National University, explores the process through which enhanced information exchange affects change in the political power structure. The author argues that citizens, armed with smartphones and Internet-enabled gadgets, have finally begun to challenge the way the elitist intellectuals and government officials go about business. But Kim does not believe that the information revolution is a force that will destroy the existing powers and create new ones. Instead, the transformative force will only encourage the same powers to put on a new, subtly modified façade. For all the revolutions brought by technological innovations, the time-honored power
youth unemployment and their political conservatism. From the perspective of Korea’s 386 generation people who fought for freedom and the country’s future at the cost of their own self-interest and France’s ‘68 generation, today’s youth can be difficult to understand. But the notion that today’s youth is inferior to the older generation is questionable at best. The book delves into the mindset of Koreans in their 20s and social prejudices facing them, dealing with various topics such as politics, economy, love, consumption, dating, and family. Specific information, rather than abstract guesswork, is provided to help understand the 20-something generation of Koreans. There is nothing wrong with younger people who have grown up differently from the older generation. Twenty-somethings today live in an increasingly brutal version of capitalism and in a results-oriented education system. It is futile to expect that all members in society have the same perspective, but a sincere effort to listen to other people’s views is needed. The book is a result of such effort to understand the position of today’s marginalized 20-somethings who deserve a fair assessment. By Han Mihwa
structure itself will not go extinct any time soon, he says. Kim proposes a new option called the ‘network knowledge nation system,’ designed to help bridge the gap between new and old systems. This alternative structure is to channel various online and offline opinions to generate more benefits for the general public. Readers interested in the information revolution led by smartphones and SNS will find this book at once informative and insightful. By Pyo Jeonghun
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Reviews Nonfiction
Forming a Unique Korean Identity in China The Diaspora and Settlement of East Asians in Modern Times Korean Studies Institution Grant Group, Eds. Ocean University of China, Kyungjin Munhwa 2010, 400p, ISBN 9788959961016
Three hundred thousand people composed of 200,000 joseonjok (ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality) and 100,000 permanent Korean residents currently live in Yanbian, capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. This populace forms its own unique Korean community on the Shandong peninsula of China. The Korea Research Institute at the Ocean
University of China, which opened on December 16, 2007 in order to establish a Korean community in the Yellow Sea zone, has compiled its research and materials from academic conferences to publish this book. The book is meaningful in that it is the first attempt to recognize the identity and culture of modern East Asians through research on ethnic Koreans in Yanbian and the Korean community in the Yellow Sea zone that is currently growing in the Shandong peninsula located across from Korea. This community has formed its own identit y a mid the cla sh a nd integration of diverse cultures. Starting from the characteristic of
Looking Back on the Life of an Icon Kim Dae-jung: An Autobiography Kim Dae-jung, Samin Books 2010, 708p (Vol.1), 648p (Vol.2) ISBN 9788964360163 (set)
“No matter how strong we are, we are weak. If we give up because we are afraid, we cannot change anything. We do not act because we are unafraid. We have to act because we must. That is true courage. It is then we become strong even if we are weak.” August 18, 2009, Kim Dae-jung who was the 15th president of South Korea, as well as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away. All of Korea mourned his death, and once again ref lected on the painful history of modern Korea that Kim Dae-jung himself experienced. To the people of Korea, Kim was the symbol of democracy and the embodiment of democratization. One year after his death, Kim Dae-jung: An Autobiography, which details his tempestuous life and turbulent political career, has been published. Despite it being a massive two-volume set, with 708 pages for Volume 1, and 648 pages for Volume 2, a large number of books were pre-ordered, putting it on the bestseller’s list, thus indicating the high number of 74 list_ Books from Korea
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people who had a strong interest in him and wanted to read the books. Kim Dae-jung, the former President who lived through Japanese colonial rule, the Korean War, dictatorship, and military rule, began working on his autobiography shortly after his presidential term came to an end in 2000. Over a period of six yea rs, he did 41 ora l recordings t hat amounted to 100 hours of material. Based on these transcripts, the editorial writer of Kyunghyang Daily, Kim Taek-geun, worked on the manuscript. The former President reviewed the first draft of the book up until he was hospitalized, and filled in some missing parts, providing extra information needed to complete this masterpiece. The first volume tells the story of Kim’s life before he became President. He was born in 1924 on a small island in Jeollanamdo (province). He spent his adolescence there and graduated from a commercial high school, and then found employment at a shipping company. His political career was a tumultuous one during which he was the victim of an unsolved auto accident, escaped the clutches of death several times, was imprisoned for six years, was forced into exile, and was placed under house arrest. The first volume ends with his becoming
Korea n autonomy t hat ensued w it h Koreans living in northern Jiandao in the 1930s when the Manchu state was founded, the book presents how Korean people were forced to take part in Japan’s invasion of China under the Japanese colonial rule and settle in China as well as how the hwagyo (overseas Chinese) who had come to Korea as merchants before the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) migrated and settled. The book also introduces Ahn Sookil’s works depicting various aspects of the Korean diaspora and their settlement in Manchuria, and K ang Kyong-ae’s works vividly describing her experiences in Jiandao. At the same time, the joys and sorrows experienced by Koreans who had to wander continuously against their will in the great turmoil of history are portrayed throughout the book. By Richard Hong
the President of South Korea in 1997 on his fourth attempt, and encompasses his political career full of extreme ups and downs. The second volume continues with the 1997 IMF crisis in Korea, and after his inauguration how Kim had to ensure international relief loans in order to save Korea from national bankruptcy. Then as a result of persistent efforts to engage the North with the Sunshine Policy, there came about the historical North-South Joint Declaration, thus making him the first president of South Korea to make an official visit to Pyongyang in June 2000. Kim was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements in the same year. The second volume also recounts all that he accomplished after his presidential term came to an end, and before he passed away. The life of Kim Dae-jung is in itself, as one will see, the history of 20th century Korea; therefore, reading this book will be the most expeditious way of understanding modern Korean history. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said, “I continue to be inspired by the bravery he demonstrated in defending democracy, and pursuing reconciliation with North Korea.” If we want to build a world that is more equal, more stable, and more sustainable, leaders should bear in mind President Kim’s faith in the power of partnership. By Richard Hong
Writer's Note
The World of My Translated Poems: A Wretched Life, a Powerful Voice My first translated collection of poems is Windflower (Hawks Publishing, 2004, translated by Choe Wolhee and Robert E. Hawks). A poet once wrote, “Reading a poem in translation… is like kissing a woman through a veil;” yet I have hope that the translated version of the poems, which I originally wrote in Korean, may strike a cord in the hearts of readers around the world, and that the verses may go beyond the limitations of one culture and language. Windflower carries some 60 poems selected with Englishspeaking readers in mind from eight collections of works published over some three decades since my literary debut. The poems present moments and events that touched me throughout my life—the Korean War I witnessed as a child, the feelings of love and heartbreak experienced while growing up in a divided country, the conflicts of a woman in Korea, life in a traditionally highly patriarchal society—and they take the form of short, restrained lyrics which include words yearning for freedom, tormented by the violence of reality. The verses about ordinary, simple daily life and incidents, without any exaggeration or decoration, result in creating very powerful imagery. My second translated work is Woman on the Terrace (White Pine Press, 2007, translated by Kim Seong-kon and Alec Gordon). This is also a selective translation from Yanggwibikkot Meorie Kkotgo (2004). The volume includes some 20 pieces from more recent works, which introduce dynamic emotions and leave strong impressions. This collection, therefore, is suitable to demonstrate my latest poetic philosophy and techniques. The 1970s was a major turning point, socially, for Korea— from a traditionally agricultural society to an industrial one. The concerns of Korean women poets also changed during this era from traditional, passive, and romantic lyrics to a modern, active one revealing their identities. Poetic diction also changed to a language of gender, and the themes also became diverse. And this work happens to be one of the works judged for having contributed to the historical, literary change. While fretting about the restricted freedom of speech under a military government and the suppression one had to endure for being a married woman, I raised the questions about freedom and human rights, which would sometimes be expressed as humor or as carefree love poems. Besides the social and ontological pains, and trials a woman has to bear, she finally comes to realize she is like Mother Earth, fulfilling her duty of procreation. Thirdly, I’d like to introduce the German translation of Die Mohnblume im Haar (Edition Peperkorn, 2007, translated by Seo Sophia Tjonghi). It is also a collection of selected poems that might be appreciated by German readers. As critics pointed out, the subjects dealt with in this volume are mainly the following: the loneliness of being expressed in ordinary daily life, eroticism and existential self-consciousness, and the female interpretation of life. In addition to the themes of the paradox of the times and history, I explore the high speed of modern society, and the skepticism and criticism of a civilization that continues to
drive towards measuring everything in materialistic terms only. The works have received criticism for being typical eco-feminist poetry, which focused on contradictory female myths, amidst an endlessly overflowing passion and hunger for freedom. Besides the three editions mentioned above, some poems are translated and published in several anthologies, and noteworthy among them is Kënga e Shigjetave (2008) in Albanian published in Macedonia. In 2011, a Spanish language version will be published in Mexico, and a new French version is on the way. By Moon Chung-hee
2 1
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1. Windflower (U.S. Edition) 2. Woman on the Terrace (U.S. Edition) 3. Kënga e Shigjetave (Albanian Edition) 4. Die Mohnblume im Haar (German Edition)
* Moon Chung-hee is a Korean poet. She debuted in Wolgan Munhak (Literature Monthly) in 1969. She is the 2010 winner of the Cikada Prize, a Swedish literary award founded for East Asian poets. Collections of her works have been translated into English (Windflower, Woman on the Terrace), German (Die Mohnblume im Haar), Spanish (Yo soy moon), and Albanian (Kënga e Shigjetave, Mln Ditet e naimit), as well as in French, Hebrew, and Japanese. She is a professor of Korean literature at Korea University.
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Reviews Children's Books
A Boy from the South Meets a Boy from the North Bonjour, Tours Han Yoon-sop; Illustrator: Kim Jin-hwa Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 2010, 215p ISBN 9788954612883
“Bonjour, Tours?” The exotic title demands attention. “Bonjour” sounds fa miliar, but what is “Tours?” The answer is in the preface, which explains that Tours is a little city in central France where the author resided during his time studying abroad. Question after question arises. What does the city look like, and what kinds of children live there? A few pages into the book reveal that though the story is set in France, the main character is a Korean boy named Bongju, who is 12-years-old. The stor y begins wit h Bongju discovering the Korean words, “My beloved homeland, my beloved family,” scribbled on the wall of his new home. For some reason, Bongju’s heart starts pounding hard when he sees the words. He wonders if they could have been written by some independent activist he has read about in a book. The next day, he sets out in search of the man in question. The man, of course, does not turn up easily. Thus, the story takes on an air of mystery and becomes even more fascinating. The author arouses the curiosity of young readers through the questions of the main character. Who wrote those words, and why there? Through Bongju’s deduction, t he aut hor su g ge st s t h at t he m a n i n
question may have been “An Jung-geun, the independence activist, who had come to Tours to save his life.” The possibility makes readers hold their breath until the last chapter, in which the mystery is finally revealed. Bonjour, Tours is full of other fascinating points as well. The setting is one of them, for rarely is a Korean story set in a city or country in Europe. Thanks to the author, who studied drama in France, young readers can experience different, exciting places— Tours, the scene of action for Bongju and his friends, Rue Roger Salengro, and Japanese and Algerian restaurants, among others. Kim Jin-hwa, the illustrator, portrays the city of Tours in different ways, at times realistically, and at times abstractly. The abstract illustrations seem to hint at the complexity of feelings in Bongju’s heart, and to suggest that finding the man in question will not be easy. The author, however, leaves occasional clues as to who the man might be. In the meantime, Bongju comes across a yellow-haired boy named Tosi, who lives in a Japanese restaurant. The two boys fight over every little thing, and watching them is like watching a soccer game between Korea and Japan, with sparks flying. What’s important
however is not who wins or loses, but how the two become friends as they get to know each other through conflict. The story makes rapid progress once it is revealed that Tosi speaks Korean. And finally, the story reaches its climax when Tosi blurts out, “I’m a citizen of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!” B ong ju i s st u n ned to le a rn t hat t he Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is North Korea, and grows nervous. “This North Korean boy who speaks the same language I do, is he a friend or an enemy?” And then there’s the shocking twist about the scribbles. The breathtaking mystery adds a great facet to the work, but its greatest merit lies in its handling of the division of the Korean peninsula. No other work has dealt with the issue in such an original, sophisticated manner: two boys from the two Koreas. Thus, the conflicts and the friendship between Bongju and Tosi are not just between the two boys. It is the reality of the North and the South. As to whether Bongju and Tosi will be able to continue their friendship, remains to be seen. By Oh Yunhyun
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Reviews Children's Books
Looking into Life on the Outskirts Today’s Weather Is… Yi Hyeon, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 204p, ISBN 9788936442590
The weather has an impact on the way people feel. Perhaps that is why Today’s Weather Is… consists of stories that deal with changes in human mentality, as well as changes in the times. There are many works of children’s literature that deal with urban areas under redevelopment and the gap between the rich and the poor. Yi Hyeon’s works, however, are different. They do not deal with simply the haves and the have-nots, but those who have more and those who have less, those who have little and those who have even less. Thus, her works become richer, with more depth. They are also noted for the simple, precise language reflecting the thoughts of c h i ld ren, a nd for t he re st r a i ne d narrative despite the dramatic stor y. Yi Hyeon’s characters are all very wellspoken. Even Kiron, an immigrant worker
from Bangladesh, is quite articulate. The contrast between Granny Sangbae’s thick Gyeongsang dialect, which Jongho considers closer to an alien language, and Kiron’s fluent standard Korean, and the bond they share in being away from home, make readers ref lect on the question of exclusivity. The titles of the different stories, such as “The Day the Sun Poured Down,” “The Day W hen Ever ything Was White,” “When Seasons Change,” and “After the Rain” aptly describe the process in which the characters come to grow through conflicts and reconciliation. Perhaps people grow more in regions with distinct seasons than in those where it’s summer or winter all year round. By Choi Yoon-jung
Depravity Seen Through the Eyes of a Girl The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays Hwang Sun-mi, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2010, 184p, ISBN 9788958285205
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The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays is the first young adult novel by Hwang Sunmi, the author of Leafie, a Hen into the Wild, a major work of Korean children’s literature that has sold over one million copies and been adapted into a movie and a play. The autobiographical work is based on an experience that also gave rise to The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays. The story is set in a small rural town in Gyeonggi province in the 1970s, an era when people had no choice but to “eat, get eaten, or sit by and watch quietly,” in a world where everything from the society to the family was swept up in the chaos of poverty. Hwang portrays the precarious life of a family through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl named Yeonjae living at a time when people who have nothing are defeated by the logic of development, symbolized by the New Community Movement. This is what Yeonjae has to live with: a father who comes home only when there’s money, a
mother who is no longer kind and gentle, an older brother, who, at 13, has to become the pillar of the family, an uncle who doesn’t pay back the money he’s borrowed and slaps around her mother, and younger siblings who have fallen ill due to cold and hunger. Yeonjae, however, has for mental support an uncle in college who gives her a schoolbag and a dictionary and tells her, “Use your smart eyes for something better.” Something else that helps Yeonjae endure the harsh reality are the dreams she has of a crippled woman who dyes gingko nuts different colors and knits vests for bunnies. T he s tor y, t hou g h de a l i n g w it h blea k issues such as debt, gambling, embezzlement, brothels, children who beg American soldiers, and the abandonment of babies, is told through a restrained na rrative in consideration of young readers. By Choi Yoon-jung
Reviews Children's Books
Writing Is My Destiny Larva Project Lee Jamiee, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 304p, 9788949123011
This is the coming-of-age story of Jeong Su-seon, a 17-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a writer. The protagonist is portrayed rea listica lly, for a ll her earnestness not without a touch of teenage levity. The author’s style is perfect for depicting the inner life of the teenage narrator. Su-seon meets a man at her “time journal” group who has been to the Thar Desert. There is something about him that makes Su-seon dub him “Cheetah.” One day Cheetah asks her if she would not write an old dream of his that he keeps having into a story. Cheetah’s dream inspires Su-seon and she does write it into a story. In her story the protagonist is put under a spell by an Indian and kills the friend that was crossing the Thar Desert with him. When the rain stops he forgets
what he has done and brings the body of his friend back to the car. Su-seon’s story wins her first place in a competition that qualifies her for special admission to college. The amazing thing, however, is that her story turns out to be true. Cheetah had forgotten that he had killed his friend nine years ago in the Thar Desert, due to the Stroop effect. What kind of being is a writer? This lively story of a young girl growing up to become the writer she always wanted to be also provides food for thought on the nature of literature itself. By Lee Jaebok
Embracing Diversity The Way We Go Together Kim Su-jung; Illustrator: Han Sung-ok Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd. 2010, 32p, ISBN 9788901114101
The number of foreign residents in Korea has now reached 1.2 million. Where do they fit in Korean society? What can Koreans and foreigners do to make the process easier? These are the questions The Way We Go Together attempts to answer. Irina is mindful of Sang-ho, who is lagging behind as they walk along the Nakdong River on Walking Day. Irina is from Russia and now lives with her mother and Korean stepfather, and Sangho reminds her of herself. When Irina first came to Korea she was always lonely at school because she could not speak Korean and everything was so different. Then she transferred to the Asian Community School where she made friends with Anna, who spoke to her in Russian. Irina would like to be a friend to Sang-ho like Anna was to her when she was lonely. Opening with Walking Day, the story moves back to Irina’s memories in order to introduce the Asian Community School.
It emphasizes the importance of diversity and tolerance by showing how students at the school learn English, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese in addition to Korean, world history, as well as perform Korean plays or play Korean traditional instruments. Koreans are scattered all over the world, starting with neighboring Japan. Diversity is therefore not just an issue for foreigners living in Korea. Diversity, peace, human rights, and ecological awareness are the pillars stressed at Asian Community School, but would be equally useful at any other school in Korea today. By Eom Hye-suk
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Reviews Children's Books
Creating Meaning Out of Reading Soso the Book Cleaner Noh In-kyung Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 34p, ISBN 9788954613521
Soso the Book Cleaner was born from the idea that if a library is a village of books with individual personalities and private lives, there must be someone to mend old and torn books and dust and clean dirty ones. Soso the book cleaner receives a call and is off to clean books. Soso vacuums old and now useless letters out of books as if sucking up dust. The letters do not respond quietly to this treatment, however. They show Soso their character, and often Soso plays games, such as word chains, with them. The letters show Soso new and interesting things related to their meaning. The letters that Soso erases find new homes, showing how the meaning of letters changes according to their combination. Soso the Book Cleaner offers an interesting point of view on reading books. On the one hand reading is about exploring the world created by a writer, but on the other hand it is about the reader exploring books to create meaning themselves. One might say that creative reading involves the reader creating new books of their own. This book shows how the reader’s role may be expanded. What is clear, however, is that books are created by writers, and readers create new worlds based on them. Soso the Book Cleaner is a lively study on the nature of reading. By Eom Hye-suk
Growing Up a Library Kid Child of the Library Chae Inseon; Illustrator: Bae hyun-ju HanulimKids Publishing 2010, 40p, ISBN 9788991871687
The novelist and poet Jose Luis Borges once wrote: “I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library.” For Borges, librarian-turned-director of the National Public Library of Argentina, libraries symbolized a perfect and prosperous world. The children’s library depicted in Child of The Library recalls Borges’ ideal library, a miniature universe of beauty and prosperity. Hansol is the son of Park Ggot-nim, a volunteer at the children’s library. He has always been at the library even since he was a baby. Everyone at the library looks after him, and he is part of all the events. Almost all of his waking hours are spent there, not just on occasional visits. When Hansol turns four the director of the library gives him a badge that says he is the 80 list_ Books from Korea
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“first child to be raised by the library.” One memorable scene depicts Hansol sleeping with a book open on his lap. The imaginative world of the book is displayed on both pages, showing how books can open up wonders that do not exist in reality. Books, however, are also full of interesting facts about the real world. There are books about the imaginary and the real, and the library is a wonderful place big enough to hold them all. A library child must therefore not only be a dreamer, but a voyager who journeys back and forth between imaginary and real worlds effortlessly. By Eom Hye-suk
Steady Sellers
Who Lives at the Pear Flower Village Orchard? Into the Orchard! Hwang Sun-mi; Illustrator: Kim Hwan-young, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2003, 224p, ISBN 9788971969526
Into the Orchard! is another steady seller by the children’s writer Hwang Sun-mi, who came to popularity with Leafie, a Hen into the Wild (1999). Artist Kim Hwanyoung who worked with Hwang as an illustrator for Leafie, a Hen into the Wild also did the illustrations for this book. The story is set in an orchard that has been preserved undamaged, despite its location in the center of a new city, because it is within the media communication facility protection zone. This rural community, which once had the beautiful name “Pear Flower Village,” has been broken up due to urbanization and only the orchard is left behind as a reminder of the village. In order to avoid the confusion that the title
may create, I must clarify that this orchard is not a space that can be possessed exclusively by any one person. One might say the grandmother’s family is the obvious owner of the orchard but it is only humans who think this. The orchard is the home of a duck family and generations of a magpie family, hometown of gray starlings and the place where field mice want to move. In short, Pear Flower Village orchard is a rich ecological space bustling with many forms of coexisting lives. This book has six stories that are linked together in an omnibus style. Diverse characters appear in each story to breathe life into the ecological imagination of the story: The duck family goes on a
picnic to catch bullfrogs; the timid pet cat Hopi grows into a confident wild cat; a group of mice have to find a new home because they are chased away from the vacant lot they have been living in; conf licts originate from pride arising between resident magpies and traveling starlings; the grandmother’s family hopes for the birth of a baby; and a tree has been acting as a tutelary deity of the village for the past 250 years while living in a big old willow. As relationships in nature always are, they live entangled by a net of connections. Looking for the scenes of their short encounters will add to the fun of this book. The main character of one story may be a secondary character or make a surprise cameo in another story. Of all the characters, a tree sacred to a tutelary deity, or seonang, is the only folk character that is based on Korean folk religion. In Korean tradition and culture, seonang is the village deity that shares the joy and sadness of Korean people and makes their wishes come true. This tree spirit has lost most of its former powers because people have lost their faith in the sacred and their ability to communicate with nature has weakened. The tree spirit laments that the tradition of gosure, where people considered the share for deities and nature by throwing bits of food on the ground before they ate in mountains or fields, has disappeared; people have become greedy and cold-hearted. This makes us re-examine the meaning of community life that has been destroyed in the process of modernization and the coexistence of humans and nature. The Korean children’s song writer Kwon Tae-eung says that humans as well as domestic and undomesticated animals live together in the village we live in: Who lives in the village? / (People of course, who else?) / No, who else other than people? / (Cows, dogs, pigs and chickens.) / Yes, anyone else apart from them? / (Let’s see, of course, birds and mice also live here) / When did the village begin to exist? / And do people and animals live together? It is the perfect poem to introduce Hwang Sun-mi’s Into the Orchard!, a book that makes us abandon anthrocentric ideas and look at the world around us again. By Cho Eunsook
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Meet the Publishers
Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd.
Gilbut Children Publishing is one of the foremost publishers of picture books in Korea, and has built up an impressive list of titles in the past 10 years. The high quality of writing and illustration in their books is setting a new benchmark for children’s books in Korea. Their contribution to promoting Korean children’s books abroad has been invaluable in countries such as Japan, the U.S., Switzerland, Taiwan, and France.
It is always good to have a fellow traveler or companion on a long journey or when undertaking a difficult task. The books of Gilbut Children Publishing live up to the company’s name, Gilbut, meaning “fellow traveler” in Korean. A few examples of their excellent work are Puppy Poo, Mahn-hee’s House, and Sori’s Harvest Moon Day, bestsellers in Korea for over a decade and successes in a number of foreign markets. Gilbut Children Publishing’s office is located in Paju, the center of publishing in Korea. The four-story building is modern and sophisticated, with over half of the walls made of glass. The office is bathed in light from the windows, through which branches swaying in the wind and migrating birds can be seen. All the elements that a place where marvelous children’s books are born seem to be there, just as books that children love have all the elements of curiosity, humor, suspense, and wisdom. 82 list_ Books from Korea
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books by Gilbut Children Publishing that have been published overseas
It also boasts a host of persevering editors bursting with creativity. Established in 1995, Gilbut Children Publishing had a clear mission: to create more uniquely Korean and more creative children’s books, not an easy task at the time. The children’s market was dominated by collectible sets and foreign titles, making it difficult for a new company to break in. Nor could the company be sure of how their audience would respond to more uniquely Korean stories and illustrations. Their first title was a picture book based on a Korean folktale. Sales were lukewarm. Undaunted, Gilbut followed up with two more “Korean-centered” stories, Mahnhee’s House, depicting the house and home life of a family of modest means, and Sori’s Harvest Moon Day, about visiting relatives during the holidays. Then they sat back, half hoping, half wary, when something happened. The books did surprisingly well in stores, and the media was showing an interest as well. Representative Ko Daeyoung of Gilbut Children’s Publishing recalls that “Back then, the parents of our target audience belonged to the ‘386’ generation that prized Korean heritage more highly than any other generation. We were lucky to have them so eager to share Korean culture and history with their children.” Their next title was an even greater success. Puppy Poo (written by Kwon Jeongsaeng and illustrated by Jeong Seung-gak) was a story about how nothing in this world is useless. The story touched many with its pondering of the meaning of life, asking the question, “Where am I needed in this world?” and the book flew off the shelves (last year the book became the first original children’s book by a Korean author in 15 years to sell a million copies). The indefatigable editors of Gilbut Children Publishing continued to publish such enchanting titles such as Badger’s Garden, about a badger growing a beautiful garden of his own, The Kind Yellow Bull, the tale of a bull who helps a family of mice, The Puppy, a beautiful depiction of a child’s longing for a pet, and a series of books adapted from Korean short stories and novels, such as Rain Shower, All Time Shirt, Echo, and My Father’s Butterfly Chase. More recently the company has gone a step further, introducing famous Korean artists such as Kim Hong-do, Lee Joongsup, and Park Su-keun in their Meet the Artist series, and painting a vivid picture of contemporary children in their Jiwon and Byeong-gwan series (six volumes at present, including Clean Up Time and Lie). Another recent publication, Songs of Farm Life, shows
the traditional customs and games of Korea as depicted in the old ballad “The Monthly Tasks of the Farmer.” Last August the company acquired Chondung Book s, a fairly large publishing house, in a move to expand into the e-book market. Gilbut Children was able to secure a number of picture books on Korean folk tales and games in the acquisition, as well as educational titles such as The Holes in My Body and Shadow Is My Friend. Yie Ho-kyun, Gilbut’s CEO, says that “We are looking to capture not only a Korean but an international audience with these titles.” As of January 2011 Gilbut Children’s Publishing has sold the rights to 20 volumes including Puppy Poo, Mahnhee’s House, and Sori’s Harvest Moon Day to such markets as Japan, China, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. By Oh Yunhyun
2 3 1
6 5
4
7
1. The Wildflower Kid Lim Gil-taek; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung 2008, 49p, ISBN 9788955820829
5. Puppy Poo Kwon Jeong-saeng; Illustrator: Jeong Seung-gak 1996, 34p, ISBN 9788986621136
2. Clean Up Time Ko Dae-young; Illustrator: Kim Young-jin 2010, 38p, ISBN 9788955821055
6. The Cats Hyeon Deok; Illustrator: Lee Hyoung-jin 2000, 28p, ISBN 9788986621730
3. Echo Lee Ju-hong; Illustrator: Kim Dong-sung 2001, 36p, ISBN 8986621789
7. Sori's Harvest Moon Day Lee Uk-bae 1995, 40p, ISBN 9788986621198
4. Mahn-hee's House Kwon Yoon-duck 1995, 34p, ISBN 9788986621105
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New Books
Recommended by Publishers Korean editors have handpicked their favorite titles among the collections from their own publishing houses. The following list contains hidden gems in Korea’s publishing industry. For further information, please contact the agents directly.
Copyright ©Lee Hyoung-jin, The Little Seed, Sigongjunior
Fiction
Business
Sohyeon, the Crown Prince
Spectators
Scandal
Park Bumshin, Jaeum&Moeum 2010, 248p, ISBN 9788957075364
Kim In-suk, Jaeum&Moeum 2010, 342p, ISBN 9788957074848
Ha Jaeyoung, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 168p, ISBN 9788937483103
Business, a novel set in the city of “M” on the west coast of Korea, poignantly depicts the lives of people who are destroyed through a cold-hearted, pariah-like capitalism. Through the people who collapse helplessly before the oppressive violence of global capitalism, the author has portrayed the reality of “the here and the now.”
Sohyeon, the Crown Prince is a historical novel by Kim In-suk, recipient of eminent literary awards such as the Yi Sang and Hyundae Literary Awards. Kim depicts a tumultuous period in the Joseon era through the life of Sohyeon, the tragic crown prince.
Yoon Sung-hee Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 312p, ISBN 9788954612807
Copyright Agent: Choi Min-seok munhak@jamobook.com 82-11-9374-3308 www.jamo21.net
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Copyright Agent: Hwang Yeo-jung munhak@jamobook.com 82-16-9344-6443 www.jamo21.net
The 17-year-old narrator talks about the ordinary lives of his family members—a grandmother who waited seven hours at a coffee shop for the baby’s father to appear, his father who proposed to his mother by telling her about how he fell asleep in an icebox when he was young, and an uncle who survived a car accident, only to die after a fellow patient knocked him down. Copyright Agent: Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com
A beautiful actress, a notorious scandal maker, suddenly commits suicide. All kinds of testimonies spill out as to the reason of her death, a secret which will be forever buried. Everyone talks about the death, but no one knows the truth—nor does anyone care to know. What matters is not whether or not the rumors are true, but how “plausible” they are. Copyright Agent: Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com
A Letter of Apology After Thirty Years Kim Do-yeon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 211p, ISBN 9788932020679
Following up on a promise made 30 years before to write a 500-page letter of apology for plagiarizing during a writing contest, the narrator pens a series of letters to his ailing former teacher. The “letter of apology” alternates with an exploration of the characters’ lives in the present day. Copyright Agent: Won Jong-kook moonji@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com
Elly’s World
The Goats of Guatemala
The Deep-Rooted Tree 1
Sun Ja-eun, Baram Books 2010, 268p, ISBN 9788994475110
Kim Eae-hyun EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co. 2010, 288p, ISBN 9788956603650
Lee Jung-myung Millionhouse Publishing Inc. 2006, 292p, ISBN 9788991643178
José, a Guatemalan man who earns a living by selling the milk of the five goats he raises, seems to have nothing in common with the narrator, a Korean woman in her 20s. As the story unfolds, the pieces that are scattered here and there come together, and the boundary between the two grows blurred
This historical mystery novel deals with the invention of hangeul, the Korean alphabet. The novel deals with the serial murders of Jiphyeonjeon scholars that took place over seven days at Gyeongbok-gung (palace) before the promulgation of hunminjeongeum, the Korean script, in the days of King Sejong.
Copyright Agent: Oh Ga-jin ehbook@chol.com 82-10-8620-8649 www.ehbook.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Kay Choi kay@imprima.co.kr 82-2-325-9155 (Ext. 304) cafe.naver.com/millionhouse
Poetry
Children's Books
The Baby Owl that Flew over the Rainbow
Those who are dissatisfied with their lives tend to dream of a different world online. Eunsae, an outcast, becomes a star as she substitutes for Elly, who has left home, as the moderator of an online community. The Eunsae on the Internet and the Eunsae in the real world—which is real? Elly’s World poses questions about the human relationships today, both on and offline. Copyright Agent: Nam Kyung-mee windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub
The Painter of Wind 1
The Downtown Boys
The Virgin of Fecundity
Lee Jung-myung Millionhouse Publishing Inc. 2007, 268p, ISBN 9788991643284
Lee Jae-ik, Hwangsobooks Publishing Co. 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788996328766
Moon Chung-hee Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 148p, ISBN 9788937407857
Based on historical facts, this imaginative novel tells the story of two artistic geniuses, Shin Yunbok and Kim Hongdo, who lived in the 18th century Joseon. The fierce competition between the two artists, which unfolds through “different paintings under the same title,” can be observed in the actual paintings of the two artists and the story told through the novel. Copyright Agent: Kay Choi kay@imprima.co.kr 82- 2-325-9155 (Ext. 304) cafe.naver.com/millionhouse
The Downtown Boys is a novel and mystery thriller about the love and ambition of four high school friends gone awry. Beginning with the suicide of a famous actress, the novel tells a story about twisted human desires, and at the same time, conveys a message of hope and salvation. Copyright Agent: Kay Choi kay@imprima.co.kr 82- 2-325-9155 (Ext. 304) www.hwangsobooks.co.kr
The Virgin of Fecundity is the 11th collection of poetry by Moon Chunghee, one of the greatest woman poets of Korea. Written 41 years after her debut, her poems are still vibrant and honest. The “virgin” spoken of in this collection is not a weak, vulnerable being, but symbolizes the fecundity of nature, as well as the purity of women as a source of life. Copyright Agent: Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com
Bae Myung-hee, OWL Books 2010, 40p, ISBN 9788996557005
Bae Myeong-hee, the author and the director of the Owl Museum in Samcheong-dong, has captured in this story the things she has learned and felt through her owl collection (begun in 1968) during her eight years of running the museum. The main character, a baby owl, flies over the rainbow to the Owl Village (the Owl Museum), and the things she experiences on her journey are told with a heartwarming message. Copyright Agent: Han Joo-seok hansn77@business.kaist.ac.kr 82-10-7212-5776
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Children's Books
Ali Isn’t Stupid
Roll Over and Clap!
Clean Up Time
Book Tree
Ahn Do-hyun; Illustrator: Kim Joon-young Gesunamu Publishing House 2010, 140p, ISBN 9788989654643
Baek Yeon-hee; Illustrator: Joo kyuong-ho Gilbut Children Publishing 2010, 22p, ISBN 9788955821154
Ko Dae-young; Illustrator: Kim Young-jin Gilbut Children Publishing, 2010, 38p ISBN 9788955821055
Kim Sunghee, NURIMBO 2010, 28p, ISBN 9788958761167
“Ali,” the main character, is nicknamed after Muhammad Ali, the boxer, because he looks like him. Ali is a gentle and sensitive boy, however, who knows the value of life and keeps his eyes on the ground as he walks, afraid he might step on bugs. He stands firm despite the abuse and apathy of adults and the contempt of children, and grows up to be a workers’ rights activist.
Roll Over and Clap! is a picture book that shows the playful motions babies make around the time they start walking. At the words “Clap your hands, clap, clap!” a seal and a child clap their hands, and at “Raise your arms, hurrah!” a cat and a child raise their arms up high. The children and animals in the book, clapping, crawling, rolling, and shaking, make it fun and easy for mothers and babies to imitate their motions.
The overseas rights for the Jiwon and Byeongwan series, volumes 1-5, has been sold to China. Clean Up Time is the sixth book in the Jiwon and Byeongwan series, In this book, Byeongwan makes a big mess in the house. And he doesn’t listen when his mother tells him to clean up the mess. Byeongwan is just like children in real life, scattering their toys everywhere. The illustrations, depicting each and every toy in minute detail, add to the fun of the story.
Something mysterious happens as a child begins reading a book. A yellowgreen sprout raises its head up in the book! When summer comes, the sprout grows into a book tree, and the thick leaves of the book wave at the child, beckoning. The child climbs up the tree and becomes immersed in the endless stories that unfold in the book tree. Then when autumn comes around, the fruit begins to ripen. The joys and pleasures of reading are portrayed, without any words, through the four seasons of a tree.
Copyright Agent: Kim You-jung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Park Mi-Suk nurimbo_pub@naver.com 82-31-955-7391 www.nurimbo.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Park Hye-young gesunamu21@hanmail.net 82-2-566-6288 gesunamu.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Kim You-jung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
Huh! How Did She Know It?
The Red Balloon
Row After Row
Ducks of the Ari River
Sim Mia, NURIMBO 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788958761150
Kim Young-ah; Illustrator: Kang Min-jung Yeowon Media 2009, 32p, ISBN 9788961683296
Kim Yeshil; Illustrator: Jung Jiye Yeowon Media 2009, 30p, ISBN 9788961683258
Han Jeong-A; Illustrator: Park Ui-Shik Marubol Publications 2001, 40p, ISBN 9788956632650
One of the 60 books in the TanTan Rhythm Books series, The Red Balloon is a hardcover picture book. In the book, a baby frog sets out on a journey on an inflated red balloon. Through the illustrations depicting the frog’s journey, children can learn about things big and small. The concepts of comparisons and differences are explained through easy-to-understand illustrations.
Row After Row is another book in the TanTan Rhythm Books series. This book helps children learn the basic pattern of counting numbers, and enhances their creativity through the imaginative story about cats decorating a Christmas tree. The TanTan Rhythm Books series consists of books about numbers and words, and five different kinds of pop-up books.
Ari River is the old name for the Han River. The soil around the river is fertile, so the two nations of Silla and Baekje go to war to take possession of it. In the midst of a fierce battle, the soldiers of the two nations come across a duck sitting on its eggs by the river. The soldiers decide to wait until the eggs hatch to resume fighting. After eight ducklings are born, the soldiers, now friends, end the war.
Little Red Riding Hood makes her way to her grandmother’s house all by herself. She feels triumphant for having sidestepped the wolf, but she falls for the three pig brothers who act friendly, the frog prince who asks for help, and the cat in the snazzy car. Every time she faces danger, she hears the voice of her mother, saying, “Wait!” This delightful tale of adventure, shows how Little Red Riding Hood combats crimes targeting children. Copyright Agent: Park Mi-Suk nurimbo_pub@naver.com 82-31-955-7391 www.nurimbo.co.kr
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Copyright Agent: Anita Joo tcmkr6@kornet.net 82-2-322-3464 www.tantani.com
Copyright Agent: Anita Joo tcmkr6@kornet.net 82-2-322-3464 www.tantani.com
Copyright Agent: Lee Sodam sodam@marubol.co.kr 82-2-790-4150 (Ext. 507) www.marubol.co.kr
I Am a Princess from Another Galaxy Kim Jae-hong, Marubol Publications 2004, 40p, ISBN 9788956630540
The main character of this book is a girl who believes that she is a princess from another galaxy. She decides to leave home, for she has always been unhappy about her mother favoring her siblings over her, and scolding only her, stuck in the middle. The girl, believing that servants from her home galaxy will come and take her away, carries out her plans to leave home one rainy night. In the end, though, she comes home on her father’s back.
A Color No One Knows
The Little Seed
The Last Paradise on Earth
Kim Hye-jin, Baram Books 2008, 560p, ISBN 9788990878601
Lee Hyungjin, Sigongjunior 2010, 40p, ISBN 9788952760210
This is the third book in the Perfect World series, following Aro and the Perfect World and The Cane Race. The series poses the question: Why is the world in books a “perfect world,” and the one in which we live, an “imperfect world?” This third book tells the story of Ajin’s adventures as she sets out on a long journey to save the perfect world.
The Little Seed is a picture book that shows the providence of nature through the growth process and life cycle of a little seed. The process in which the seed sprouts and grows is depicted with vitality. Children can find the strength to grow as they watch the little seed grow. Lee Hyungjin, the author and illustrator, as well as the father of two children, conveys a message of hope to all children.
Park Bokyong, Kim YongAnn Illustrator: Baek Namweon Sigongjunior 2010, 120p, ISBN 9788952760111
Copyright Agent: Nam Kyung-mee windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub
Copyright Agent: Lee Sodam sodam@marubol.co.kr 82-2-790-4150 (Ext. 507) www.marubol.co.kr
The Three Naughty Musketeers Shoot for Hope! Go Jeong-uk; Illustrator: Gyeong Ha IANDBOOK 2010, 104p, ISBN 9788992830836
This is a story about Yunseok, a boy with a childhood injury. With the help of his friends and teacher, he grows up into a cheerful, healthy boy. Go Jeonguk, the author, suffered from polio as a child and can’t move about without his wheelchair. He is making efforts to make a world in which people with disabilities are not discriminated. Copyright Agent: Jung Ae-young iandbook@naver.com 82-2-2248-1555 www.iandbook.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Min Yuree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongjunior.com
The first in the Sigongjunior Children’s Environment Documentary series, The Last Paradise on Earth, is a book on ecology that tells children about the beauty of nature and the value of life. The book is an adaptation of “KBS Environmental Special—the Wild Okavango,” and is full of vivid photographs, as well as moving narratives and illustrations, that take children to an awe-inspiring world of animals. Copyright Agent: Min YuRee yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongjunior.com
Mother’s Pet
School
Market
Lee Sang-gyo; Illustrator: Bak Jeong-seop IANDBOOK 2010, 64p, ISBN 9788992830843
Chaekbo; Illustrator: Cho Min-jung Ahyun Publishing House 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788958781288
Chaekbo; Illustrator: Chae Hee-jeong Ahyun Publishing House 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788958781295
Mother’s Pet is the seventh book in the IANDBOOK character development series. Yonghyeon is a boy who asks his mother for her opinions on everything. He brushes it off when his friends call him a momma’s boy. The author conveys the message that it’s good for children to talk to their parents and get the help they need, but that they should be guided to make their own decisions.
School makes readers reflect on the meaning of school—what people learn at school, and why. Everyone goes to school when the time comes, but even outside of school, there are countless people who teach and learn, as well as a tremendous amount of information and knowledge. Thus, the world itself is the greatest school.
The market is a place where people obtain their daily necessities—so all kinds of things people need can be found there. The simple storyline and the colorful illustrations tell you everything about the market, including how markets came to be, how to find what you need, what can be bought and sold at the market, as well as what can’t be bought and sold.
Copyright Agent: Jung Ae-young iandbook@naver.com 82-2-2248-1555 www.iandbook.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Jeon Jeong-sook jeonjjs@naver.com 82-31-949-5771 www.ahyunbooks.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Jeon Jeong-sook jeonjjs@naver.com 82-31-949-5771 www.ahyunbooks.co.kr
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Children's Books
Why? Art Jo Young-sun; Illustrator: Lee Young-ho YeaRimDang Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 184p, ISBN 9788930231398
Why? Humanities and Social Science Comic Book Series-Art is an easy-tounderstand guide on the fundamental principles and skills of art based on elementary school art textbooks. The book was written in the hope that children may learn to be more creative and expressive through art, as well as develop a positive sense of identity and an affirmative personality. Copyright Agent: Kim Boa kimba@yearim.co.kr 82-2-3404-8459 www.yearim.co.kr
The Tales Runner Surprise Curiosity Expedition ARISTO, Golden Owl, Inc. 2010, 160p, ISBN 9788960302525
This graphic novel series is based on “Tales Runner,” the popular online racing game. Each book in the series holds a quiz show on a different topic. Four books on the topics of feces, robots, dinosaurs, and sports science have been published so far, and a new book is slated to be published every month. Copyright Agent: Lee Soo-min sublime@goldenowl.co.kr 82-2-338-9151 www.goldenowl.co.kr
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Why? Book and Printing Technique
Following the Wind and the Petal
Jo Young-sun; Illustator: Song Hwoi-seok YeaRimDang Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 184p, ISBN 9788930231350
Kim Keunhee, Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd. 2008, 34p, ISBN 9788901079370
The Why? Humanities and Social Science Comic Book Series-Book and Printing Technique deals with a variety of topics concerning books and printing techniques present and past. Through this book, children will come to understand the continuous evolution of books and printing skills. Copyright Agent: Kim Boa kimba@yearim.co.kr 82-2-3404-8459 www.yearim.co.kr
This is a book that reflects on the meaning of the Tripitaka Koreana, through a story about children from the era of the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Goryeo period. Through the story of Baram (wind), a boy from the Joseon era, and Kotnip (petal), a girl from the Goryeo period, readers can learn about the Tripitaka Koreana. Copyright Agent: Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr
Genes, the Magicians of Life Lee Han-um; Illustator: Kim Bun-myo Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd. 2010, 92p, ISBN 9788901115511
This book conveys fascinating and useful information on genes, the building blocks of various forms of life, such as what kind of functions they carry out in the human body, and what characteristics they have. Children will come to understand more about DNA through detailed, photographic illustrations. Copyright Agent: Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr
I Am a Rat
Imo’s House of Dreams
Half-Man
Jeon Seong-hee; Illustrator: So Yun-kyoung Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2010, 236p, ISBN 9788954612791
Jung Ok; Illustrator: Jung Ji-yun Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 227p, ISBN 9788932020570
Lee Hyun-ju; Illustrator: Song Hee-jin BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788949101262
This is a story about “Naru,” a rat, who dreams of the Karni Mata Temple, a rat’s paradise. He finds his true self through the adventures he goes through after entering “Nuto,” a city of rats. Living in Nuto, where rats use human language, wear clothes, and go to work, Naru stands up against the unjust social system.
The winner of the 6th Ma Hae-song Literary Award, Imo’s House of Dreams is a lighthearted, lovely fantasy about books. Jinjin, the main character, whose goal is to enter a top university, receives an invitation to the “House of Dreams,” where humans communicate with books and objects. There, she comes to realize what her true dreams are.
Once upon a time, there lived a husband and wife with no children. They prayed and had three sons, but the youngest was born missing an eye, an ear, an arm, and a leg—in other words, missing half of himself. The two older boys, ashamed of “Half-man,” place him in danger. Half-man, handles his predicament with courage and wisdom, and ends up living happily ever after with a beautiful wife.
Copyright Agent: Lee Nayoung lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 123) www.moonji.com
Copyright Agent: Lee Young-mi ymlee@bir.co.kr 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 311) www.bir.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Choi Youn-mi youn@munhak.com 82-2-3144-3240 www.munhak.com
Nonfiction
Memorial Day for Grandmother
Bridges That Connect the People and the World
Ten Things I Love About My Mommy
Lee Chun-hee; Illustrator: Kim Hong-mo BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2011, 36p, ISBN 9788949182438
Kim Hyang-geum Illustrator: Lee Kyoung-guk, I-seum 2010, 42p, ISBN 9788937845505
Choi Jaesuk; Illustrator: Mun Kusun I-seum, 2010, 28p, ISBN 9788937846014
Minsu’s countdown until his grandmother’s memorial day tells children about how to set the memorial service table, how to bow properly, and how to proceed with an ancestral rite. The scenes depicting the whole family setting the memorial service table make it easy for children to understand the different aspects of ancestral rites.
This book tells the history of bridges that have connected people and the world for ages. Wooden bridges, stone bridges, long and sturdy steel bridges, bridges across oceans, space elevators that break through the earth’s atmosphere out into space—these and other amazing aspects of the history of bridges are examined in this book.
Copyright Agent: Lee Kyung-min yazaki97@naver.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 324) www.bir.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Cho Jin-hee thssla@hotmail.com 82-2-3475-3942 www.i-seum.com
In this picture book, a child talks about the 10 things he loves about his mother. He loves her for many reasons, but in the end, he says he loves her just because she’s his mommy. A heartwarming little story for both children and mothers. Copyright Agent: Heo Jeeyoun green@i-seum.com 82-2-3475-3948 www.i-seum.com
Playing with Flowers Na Tae-ju, Purengil. Co., Ltd. 2010, 216p, ISBN 9788962911404
Playing with Flowers is a book of essays and illustrations by Na Tae-ju, a poet with a great love for the flowers that grow in the mountains and fields of Korea. The essays in the collection, resonate deeply with their stories of human joys and sorrows, and heartrending tales of love that overlap with and unfold through the stories of the flowers, many of whose names remain unknown. Copyright Agent: Park Mi-ye pur902@kornet.net 82-2-523-2907 www.purungil.com
Graphic Novels
Decisive Books
Meeting in a Backstreet
Doll Song
Lee Marlyun Series
Wang Sang-han EunHaeng NaMu Publishing Co. 2010, 368p, ISBN 9788956603711
Yi Kyeong-Han, Purengil. Co., Ltd. 2010, 176p, ISBN 9788962911411
Lee Sun-Young, Haksan Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 217p, ISBN 9788925845487
Lee Marlyun, Joongang Books 2010, 302p, ISBN 9788927801603
Every country is sure to have at least one backstreet bustling like an ant tunnel. This book is about such places in Korea. This book shows us how the image of the past is still alive in the backstreets, and the fact that the author is a geographer. Focusing on the Jeollanam-do (province) area, the book includes various backstreet scenes as the author traces the evolution of these streets.
Fifteen days after she disappeared, U-hui, the daughter of the Minister of the Interior, was found beneath the village’s sacred Japanese apricot tree. After that, crimson flowers blossomed on the tree. One day U-hui encountered the Honorable Exorcist who warned her to be wary of a man wearing black clothes. On U-hui’s way home, a man in black clothes really does appear before her.
This book features the cartoons of Lee Marlyun, which have taken various Internet portal sites by storm with their winning combination of dynamic pictures drawn in a casual sketchy style. The author started serializing the cartoon concurrently on Naver and Yahoo, and is now building a huge following of fans.
Copyright Agent: Park Mi-ye pur902@kornet.net 82-2-523-2907 www.purungil.com
Copyright Agent: Park Jin-a joshua@haksanpub.co.kr 82-2-828-8805 www.haksanpub.co.kr
A single sentence in a book can decide the course of one’s life. This book is a collection of essays on reading by Professor Wang Sang-han, famous as a director of current affairs and educational TV programs. The author discusses 48 books that have played an important role in his own life. Copyright Agent: Oh Ga-jin ehbook@chol.com 82-10-8620-8649 www.ehbook.co.kr
Copyright Agent: Rachel Ahn Rachel_ahn@joongang.co.kr 82-2-2000-6024 www.joongangbooks.co.kr
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INDEX Title Original Title Publishers Copyright Agent E-mail Phone Homepage
12p
14p
19p
The Lily Star and The Little Star (Bawinariwa Agibyeol) Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Youjung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
The Divine Empire of the World Beyond (Roejeui Nara) Prooni Books, Inc. Choi Hye-ran agency@prooni.com 82-2-581-0334 (Ext.122) www.prooni.com
Save the Small Bear (Jumeokgomeul Jikyeora) Urikyoyuk Co., Ltd. Na Ik-su urieditor@uriedu.co.kr 82-2-3142-6770 www.uriedu.co.kr
Puppy Poo (Gangajittong) Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Youjung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
A Busy Family (Bappa Gajok) Baram Books Choi Yoon-jung windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub
20p
Conclave (Kkonkkeullabe) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext.123) www.moonji.com
16p The Myth of Baekdusan (Baekdusan Iyagi) Borim Press Park Eun-duk tea@borimpress.com 82-31-955-3456 www.borimpress.com
Cocky the Arrogant Dog (Geonbangjin Dodogun) BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. Song Jung-ha ha@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext.207) www.bir.co.kr
A Mud Snail Bride (Ureong Gaksi) Borim Press Park Eun-duk tea@borimpress.com 82-31-955-3456 www.borimpress.com
A Mouse Without a Tail (Kkorijallin Saengjwi) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com
Cat School (Goyangi Hakgyo) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Choi Youn-mi youn@munhak.com 82-2-3144-3240 www.munhak.com
Jumong, the Heroic Founder of Goguryeo (Goguryeoreul Seun Yeongung Jumong) Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd. Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr
22p
Aro and the Perfect World (Arowa Wanjeonhan Segye) Baram Books Choi Yoon-jung windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub
17p
The Secret of Flora (Peulloraui Bimil) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext.123) www.moonji.com
13p
The Cane Race (Jipangi Gyeongju) Baram Books Choi Yoon-jung windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub A Color No One Knows (Amudo Moreuneun Saekkkal) Baram Books Choi Yoon-jung windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub
14p Miru from Mars (Hwaseongeseo On Miru) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 123) www.moonji.com Hurray for Jangsu (Jangsu Manse) Urikyoyuk Co., Ltd. Na Ik-su urieditor@uriedu.co.kr 82-2-3142-6770 www.uriedu.co.kr Diary Library (Ilgi Doseogwan) Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. Kang Hyunjoo kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr 82-31-955-8600 www.sakyejul.co.kr
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Vol.11 Spring 2011
The Green-Eyed Elephant (Choroknun Kokkiri) Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Mijung iledor@prunsoop.co.kr 82-31-955-1410 www.prunsoop.co.kr
How I Caught a Cold (Gamgi Geollin Nal) Borim Press Park Eun-duk tea@borimpress.com 82-31-955-3456 www.borimpress.com
Princess Bari (Bari Gongju) BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. Song Jung-ha ha@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext.207) www.bir.co.kr
A Subway to an Aquarium (Jihacheol Bada) Marubol Publications Lee So-dam sodam@marubol.co.kr 82-2-790-4150 (Ext.507) www.marubol.co.kr
The Seven Friends in a Lady's Chamber (Assibang Ilgop Dongmu) BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. Song Jung-ha ha@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext.207) www.bir.co.kr
Cloud Bread (Gureumppang) Hansol Education Ann Lee ann@eduhansol.co.kr 82-2-3279-3802 www.eduhansol.co.kr
Half a Loaf (Banjjogi) Borim Press Park Eun-duk tea@borimpress.com 82-31-955-3456 www.borimpress.com
23p
19p, 81p
I Like You Just As You Are (Inneun Geudaeroga Joa) Sigongjunior Min Yuree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongsa.com
Into the Orchard! (Gwasuwoneul Jeomnyeonghara) Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. Kang Hyunjoo kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr 82-31-955-8600 www.sakyejul.co.kr
Hare, Wolf, Tiger and, Dammi (Tokkiwa Neukdaewa Horangiwa Damiwa) Sigongjunior Min Yuree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongsa.com
19p
The Cats (Goyangi) Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Youjung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
Dream of the Oxen (Deulsoui Kkum) Little Mountain Publishing Co. Shin Soojin littlemt@dreamwiz.com 82-2-335-7362
23p
51p
70p
74p
Ouch! It Stings! (At! Ttakkeum!) Sigongjunior Min Yuree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongsa.com
Gut: Songs Calling Spirits (Gut, Yeonghoneul Bureuneun Sori) Youlhwadang Publishers Yi Soojung ysj0710@youlhwadang.co.kr 82-31-955-7005 www.youlhwadang.co.kr
Two-Korea Blockbusters (Nambugyeonghwa Jeonseonggi) Changhae Publishing Co. Choi Ga-young chpco@chol.com 82-70-7165-7500 www.changhae.net
Kim Dae-jung: An Autobiography (Gimdaejung Jaseojeon) Samin Books Kang Joo-han saminbooks@naver.com 82-2-322-1845 www.saminbooks.com
27p
52p Double Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com
A New Exploration of Contemporary Korean Photography (Maehokhaneun Sajin) PHOTONET _ TNF Inc., Publishing Div. Choi Jae-gyun chamccol@mphotonet.com 82-2-736-1214 www.mphotonet.com
76p
Last Evening (Eoje Jeonyeok) StoryBowl Baek Heena storybowl@yahoo.com 82-70-7788-5664 www.storybowl.com The Red Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger (Patjukhalmeomgwa Horangi) Sigongjunior Min YuRee yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongsa.com
28p The Moon Sorbet (Dal Syabeteu) StoryBowl Baek Heena storybowl@yahoo.com 82-70-7788-5664 www.storybowl.com
33p A Gift from a Bird (Saeui Seonmul) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com Secrets and Lies (Bimilgwa Geojinmal) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com
34p Let Boys Cry (Sonyeoneul Wirohaejwo) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com
37p Shock and Sympathy (Chunggyeokgwa Gyogam) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com
39p Seasons of Exile (Natseon Sigan Sogeuro) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com
54p Since You Left Me (Geudaereul Ireun Nalbuteo) Jaeum&Moeum Hwang Yeo-jung munhak@jamobook.com 82-2-324-2347 (Ext. 124) www.jamo21.net Yeongran (Yeongnan) Edition PPUL Kim Jiyeong odrama35@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-334-7244 www.wjtkingbig.com
55p
71p Korean Popular Culture Codes (Daehanminguk Keolcheo Kodeu) Book21 publishing Group Jung Young-joo rights21@book21.co.kr 82-31-955-2194 www.book21.com Gyeongju, the Heart of Korea’s Culture (Sillaga Bijeun Yesul, Gyeongju) Hanul Publishing Group Won Kyung-eun wonke@hanulbooks.co.kr 82-2-336-6183 www.hanulbooks.co.kr
The Forest of My Young Days (Nae Jeolmeun Narui Sup) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com
72p
Blowfish (Bogeo) Imprima Korea Agency Kay Choi kay@imprima.co.kr 82-2-325-9155 (Ext. 304)
Masterpiece Lectures of Seoul National University (Seouldae Myeongpum Gangui) Geulhangari Kang Seong-min bookpot@hanmail.net 82-31-955-8897 www.munhak.com
56p Writing Club (Raiting Keulleop) Jaeum&Moeum Hwang Yeo-jung munhak@jamobook.com 82-2-324-2347 (Ext. 124) www.jamo21.net Baron Quirval’s Castle (Kwireubal Namjagui Seong) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Yoo Hee-kyoung morte@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 110) www.moonji.com
57p A Dance with Grandma (Nalmada Ppokkeuttaengseu) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 123) www.moonji.com
69p The Poet (Siin) Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com
Even Bungeobbang Has a History (Bungeoppangedo Jokboga Itda) Green Barley Yoon Dukno ohioyoon97@daum.net 82-31-705-3158
73p Why This Is Not Youth (Igeoseun Wae Cheongchuni Aniran Maringa) Prunsoop Publishing Co., Ltd. Baek Doraji mb100@purnsoop.co.kr 82-31-955-1400 www.prunsoop.co.kr Information Revolution & Power Transformation (Jeongbohyeongmyeonggwa Gwollyeokbyeonhwan) Hanul Publishing Group Won Kyung-eun wonke@hanulbooks.co.kr 82-2-336-6183 www.hanulbooks.co.kr
74p The Diaspora and Settlement of East Asians in Modern Times (Geundae Dongasiainui Isangwa Jeongchak) Kyungjin Publishing Company Yang Jung-sub wekorea@paran.com 82-2-488-3280 kyungjinmunhwa.tistory.com
Bonjour, Tours Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Choi Youn-mi youn@munhak.com 82-2-3144-3240 www.munhak.com
78p Today's Weather Is... (Oneurui Nalssineun) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english The Beanpole House Where Wind Stays (Barami Saneun Kkeokdari Jip) Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. Kang Hyunjoo kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr 82-31-955-8600 www.sakyejul.co.kr
79p Larva Project (Beondegi Peurojekteu) BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. Song Jung-ha ha@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 207) www.bir.co.kr The Way We Go Together (Hamkke Geonneun Gil) Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd. Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr
80p Soso the Book Cleaner (Chaek Cheongsobu Soso) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. Jeong Hye-kyung artlessmail@empal.com 82-2-3144-3236 www.munhak.com Child of the Library (Doseogwan Ai) HanulimKids Publishing Lee Eun-young fireeun@hanmail.net 82-2-2635-8110 (Ext. 104) www.inbumo.com
83p Mahn-hee’s House, etc. (Manhuine Jip) Gilbut Children Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Youjung youjung@dreamwiz.com 82-31-955-3262 www.gilbutkid.co.kr
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Afterword
The Tale of Two Titles: 2010 KLTI U.S. Forum in Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a small Midwestern American city known for its liberal politics, a lively art and folk music scene, and the University of Michigan, one of the premiere research universities in the United States. On a picturesque autumn afternoon last year, a crowd of over 100 filed into the austere modernist auditorium at the University’s Museum of Art to hear two Korean writers, Shin Kyung-sook and Kim Young-ha, read from their work and discuss their perspectives on literature and translation. It being the homecoming weekend, a football game was under way not too far from the venue; above the din of game-day cheers that shook the entire town periodically, the cadences of Korean and English prose floated up from the readings and transported the audience to a different time and place across the Pacific. The success of the 2010 KLTI U.S. Forum in Ann Arbor, despite the formidable competition outdoors, became a matter that occasioned some discussion among the Korean literature faculty who were in the audience. After all, many of us had been in the field long enough to have witnessed personally or at least heard about various overseas events where the lack of commensurability between the prominence of Korean literary figures present and the lukewarm interest they generated became a matter of embarrassment for both the guest and host alike. In recent years, however, Korea’s global profile has risen, led in part by popular culture. Concerted effort has been made to translate both contemporary and classical works of Korean literature into multiple languages. In the case specifically of Kim Young-ha and Shin Kyung-sook, English translations of their novels have been picked up by large, mainstream publishers in the U.S. A couple of weeks prior to the Forum, Kim Young-ha’s Your Republic Is Calling You (Mariner Books, 2010) had been favorably reviewed on the National Public Radio. No doubt these developments contributed to the success of the event. Certainly there seemed much to celebrate. But the event also provided an occasion for thinking through the age-old dilemma concerning the task of translation, a complex debate that might be summarized as “The Tale of Two Titles.” The two titles in question are the above-mentioned Your Republic Is Calling You, the English translation of Kim Youngha’s Bit eui Jeguk (2006) by Kim Chi-Young, and “The Blind Calf,” an English translation of Shin Kyung-sook’s break-out short story “Punggeumi itteon Jari” (1992) by Yu Young-nan. Obviously, neither translation is literal, and it isn’t difficult to conjecture why a literal word for word translation might have been given up. Asked to comment on the substantially changed title, Kim Young-ha stated at the Forum that Your Republic Is Calling You was the product of a sustained dialogue between the translator and the publisher, and that he had heartily approved of the modification when it was suggested to him. Readers’ responses seemed to support the change in terms of its appeal to an “American sensibility.” For Shin Kyung-sook, however, the changed title in English occasioned a greater degree of reservation. According to Shin,
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the original title in Korean, “Where the Reed Organ Once Stood,” was meant to be evocative rather than descriptive. Even though the titular instrument makes no appearance in the story itself, she wanted the weepy notes of a reed organ to ring out from the opening page and provide the proper frame of mind for entering into the story. Herein, however, lies a serious problem for the translator. While punggeum would be mildly nostalgic and possibly evocative to Korean readers of a certain generation who came of age in classrooms equipped with reed organs, the instrument carries no such associations in English. Facing this reality, the alternative was to fashion a descriptive title from a compelling image or element found in the story. And so was born the English title, “The Blind Calf.” Shin went on to comment that though she was ultimately persuaded by a very “powerful” editor to agree to the title change, she now wondered whether she should have held her ground against too liberal a departure from her original title. From my classroom experiences of teaching “The Blind Calf,” I can well appreciate the contours of the author’s anxieties. The students in my class who read the English translation tended overwhelmingly to interpret the story around the central imagery of the blind calf and struggled to make sense of the text in terms of the relationship between an abandoned child and compromised guardian figures. On the other hand, the students who read the story in Korean focused much more on the question of feminine desire and on the opposition the story sets up between romantic love and maternal duty. The episode, anecdotal though it may be, reveals the divergent consequences that can arise from a single decision of a translator and/or editor. Without delving into the rarefied realm of translation theory, we can say that the right balance between readability in the target language and fidelity to the original is still the ideal sought by translators. The ideal is, of course, easier to achieve with texts like Kim Young-ha’s, whose improvisational sensibility may be more jazz than pansori, but what about texts whose translation necessarily occasions cacophony? As translations of Korean literature move beyond government-sponsored projects to publisher-driven projects shaped by market forces, this question will become more agonizing, not less. Between contentment expressed by one writer and regret acknowledged by another lies the difficult task of the translator. Over the years, it has become a truism to talk about translation as an act of creation in its own right. While no one would argue otherwise, the tale of two titles that unfolded at the 2010 KLTI U.S. Forum begs us still to ask: What are the consequences of taking this truism to task and are we prepared to accept them? By Ryu Youngju
* Ryu Youngju is an assistant professor of Korean Literature at the University of Michigan.
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Vol.11 Spring 2011
Vol.11 Spring 2011
Special Section
Korean Children’s Fantasy Books Interviews Picture Book Artist Baek Heena Novelist Eun Hee-kyung The Place
Suwon, the City of Hwaseong Fortress Theme Lounge
Gut, Korean Shaman Ritual
ISSN 2005-2790