[_list: Books from Korea] Vol.1 Autumn 2008 by LTI Korea Library

Special Section Three Key Words to View Korea’s New Generation of Writers:

Family, City, and History Towards a New Family The Postmodern City and Its Discontents Memory, Time and Politics Publishing Trends New Directions in Korean Publishing Interview Hwang Sok-yong: Taking the Pulse of Korean Society Hur Young Man: “You draw cartoons with your feet.” Bestsellers, Steadysellers and Reviews Theme Lounge Blook: From Power Blogger to Power Writer

ISSN 2005-2790

Contributors Han Mihwa writes a column about publishing in the Korean dairy newspaper, Hankyoreh, called “Book Talk with Han Mihwa.” Her written works include Bestsellers of Our Time and This is How Bestsellers are Made, 1 & 2. Jung Yeo-ul is a literary critic. Jung lectures at Seoul National University and the Korean National University of Arts. Her written works include Young Lady, Find Hope in the Forest of Pop Culture, Small Antenna in my Study, and the translation of Korea Between Empires: 1896-1919. Kang Yu-Jung is a literary critic. In 2007, she published Oedipus’ Forest. Currently, she teaches at Korea University and is a member of the literature editorial committee for the quarterly publication Segyeui Munhak. Karlsson, Anders is an associate professor of Korean Studies at Stockholm University and chair of the Centre of Korean Studies at SOAS, London University. He is currently working on a Swedish translation of Hwang Sok-yong’s The Old Garden. Kim Hyoung-joong is a professor of Korean literature at Chosun University and co-editor of Literatures. As a literary critic, he has published many books, including Novel and Psychoanalysis, The Criticism of the Centaur, and Disguised Utopia. Kim Jinwoo serves as a reporter at the Culture Desk for The Kyunghyang Daily News. He has previously worked on the Sports, Society, Politics, and Economy Section Teams. Kim Mi Hyun is a literary critic, professor at Ewha Woman’s University, and a member of the editorial committee for the quarterly publication Segyeui Munhak. Her published works include Feminism and the Novels of Korean Women, Literature Inside Pandora’s Box, and Beyond Women’s Literature. Kim Su-Yeong teaches philosophy at SungKongHoe University and is the executive editor of Moonji Publishing, Co., Ltd.

Kim Young Wook works as an editor for the monthly publication, Children and Literature. She published a guide to picture books titled Picture Books Meet Music. Mouchard, Claude, Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris VIII, is on the editorial board of the quarterly La Poesie. He is the editor-at-large of Literature and Politics Collection (Belin Publishers). Park In-Ha, comic book critic, is a professor in the Department of Cartoon & Comics Creation at Chungkang College of Cultural Industries. He is involved in the planning, criticism, and research of comics. Park Seokhwan, comic book critic, has written Goodbye, Paper Comics, The World of Comics, and co-authored Hur Young Man’s Brand-name Comics and Rapturous Audiences. Park Suk Kyoung works as a translator and children’s literature critic. Park is a member of the editorial committee for the Changbi Review of Children’s Literature. Park Young Mi graduated from the Department of Philosophy at Hanyang University and Hanyang Graduate School before earning her PhD from Peking University. Pyo JeongHun is a book reviewer, columnist, translator, and freelance writer. He has translated ten books into Korean and wrote: A Bibliophile’s Book, My History: A Thousand Years; Books Have Their Own Destiny, A Short Introduction to Chinese Philosophy, and An Interview with My Teacher: What is Philosophy? Shin Hyoung Cheol is a literary critic. His critical works include Sukijo and Anaki and Narratology of Universal Gravitation. He is also a member of the editorial committee for the quarterly publication Munhak Dongne.

Son Jemin is a reporter at the Culture Desk for The Kyunghyang Daily News and is in charge of arts and sciences. As a member of the Kyunghyang Daily News Special Coverage Team, he contributed to “Hope and Despair of Twenty Years of Democratization” and “Twenty Years of Democratization, Death of an Intellectual.”

Kim-Russell, Sora works as a consulting editor for the Korea Journal and as a freelance translator. She was the recipient of the 2005 Korea Times Literature Translation Contest’s Grand Prize in Poetry and the 2007 Korean Literature Translation Institute’s New Translator Award for her translation of Kim Jung Hyuk’s “Eskimo, This is the End.”

Son Jeong Soo is a professor of creative writing at Keimyung University and an active literary critic.

Lee Moon-ok is a freelance translator and high school teacher.

Chang, H. Jamie studied at Northfield Mount Hermon and Tufts. She is a freelance translator and writer who currently resides in Seoul. Isaac, Ann is a British citizen who obtained her MA in Japanese Studies at Sheffield University, specializing in translation. She currently translates from Korean to English, with a special interest in literary translation. Jung Yewon studied interpretation and translation at GSIT, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Jung has interpreted and translated for Bain & Company, Korea, and various other organizations, She currently works as a freelance interpreter/ translator. Kim Eungsan graduated from Seoul National University in German literature and also studied at the Free University of Berlin. He earned a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature and is currently working towards a PhD in English Literature at Seoul National University. Kim Kyongsook is the co-translator of Lee Dongju’s The Beauty of Old Korean Paintings. Her English to Korean translations most recently include Bertrand Russell’s Skeptical Essays. She is currently working on her doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Kim Sue Yon loves children and books. She even worked as a children’s librarian at Seoul Foreign School, an international school in Korea. She is a graduate of Ewha Woman’s University where she double- majored in English Literature and International Studies.

Leonard, Dan was awarded the Commendation Prize in the Korea Times 2004 Literature Translation Contest for his cotranslation of Go Eun Ju’s “Cocktail Sugar.” He also cotranslated Discovering the Empire of Ants through the support of LTI Korea’s “100 Korean Books” project in 2005. Son Sumin has translated many books from English to Korean and from Korean to English for Schweitzer Korea. In 2004, she was awarded the Commendation Prize in the Korea Times Literature Translation Contest for her co-translation of Go Eun Ju’s “Cocktail Sugar.” She also co-translated Discovering the Empire of Ants through the support of LTI Korea’s “100 Korean Books” project in 2005. Yang Sung-jin is currently a staff reporter who covers Korean movies and books at the Culture Desk for The Korea Herald. Yang wrote a Korean history book in English titled Click into the Hermit Kingdom (Dongbang Media, 2000) and a news-based English vocabulary book, News English Power Dictionary (Nexus Book, 2003). Yohan Duvernay, Nicholas (Lee Yohan) is a doctoral student at Korea University, a lecturer at Open Cyber University, and a recipient of the Seoul City Scholarship.

A Magazine to Present Korean books

In the year 2007, more than fifty thousand new titles have been published in South Korea. Among them, many books deserve to be read by the worldwide reading public beyond the Korean readership. LIST magazine was founded in an effort to introduce these books. To bring more value to overseas readers, LIST magazine not only presents books, but also includes articles on the Korean literary scene, including special features, author interviews, publisher introductions, and publication trends. Issued in English and Chinese, the first edition of LIST will be released in September 2008. This quarterly will be available at most major international book fairs and individual copies will be sent to publishers and agencies around the world. If any publisher wishes to receive a copy of this magazine, please make your request by contacting us at: list_korea@klti.or.kr

Son Jeong Soo is a professor of creative writing at Keimyung University and an active literary critic.

Lee Moon-ok is a freelance translator and high school teacher.

A Magazine to Present Korean books

FOREWORD

Globalizing Korean Literature: The Path to Cultural Exchange As the world is integrating into a single economic block, the importance of cultural exchange is becoming more important than ever. International cultural exchange through performances, movies, sports, and tourism have various advantages, but we firmly believe that books should be at the core of such cultural exchange. Books, published in different countries and in different languages, contain a wide range of cultural creativity; therefore, cultural exchange through books can achieve the highest level of communication between different peoples around the world. Korea has long nurtured a printing and publication culture, and is now considered a major publishing powerhouse. The Korea Literature Translation Institute is an organization devoted to translating Korean books into various languages in order to introduce them to overseas markets. KLTI has founded this new quarterly journal, LIST, in hopes of sharing Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative work with people across the globe, thereby helping promote cultural exchange at a deeper level. In recent years, Korea has not only achieved dramatic economic growth, but has also been able to showcase its unique culture and ideas on a global stage. The reality, however, is that foreign readers interested in Korea are not able to find enough material about either Korean literature or its swiftly evolving publishing market. We hope that LIST will play a key role as an information conduit for Korean publications, while at the same time raise awareness about Korean literature at large for readers around the world. By Yoon Jikwan Director, Korea Literature Translation Institute.

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Contents Autumn 2008

Foreword Globalizing Korean Literature

Bestsellers

Publishing Trends Educational Publishing Market Stays Strong New Frontiers in Korean Publishing New Economical Reads Journeys in Travel Writing

Theme Lounge Blook: From Power Blogger to Power Writer

Special Section

Three Key Words to View Korea’s New Generation of Writers: Family, City, and History

12 16 20

Towards a New Family The Postmodern City and Its Discontents Memory, Time and Politics

The Place Seoul: A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo

26 32

Interview Hwang Sok-yong: Taking the Pulse of Korean Society Hur Young Man: “You Draw Cartoons with Your Feet.”

30 36

Exerpt The Guest by Hwang Sok-yong Face Reading by Hur Young Man

38 48 68

Reviews Fiction Nonfiction Children’s Books

56 59 61 71

Steady Sellers Without Possession Letters from Prison Ant Empire Unearthed Lesson from an Ordinary Hen

76 78

Meet the Publisher Dolbegae Publishers Borim Press

Afterword A List of Lists

PUBLISHER_ Yoon Jikwan EDITORIAL DIRECTOR_ Park Hye-joo MANAGING DIRECTOR_ Park Jang-yun EDITORIAL BOARD DIRECTOR_ Kim Su-Yeong EDITORIAL BOARD

Jung Yeo-ul Kim Jinwoo Park Suk Kyoung Pyo JeongHun OVERSEAS PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Joseph Lee Paek Eun Young Rosa Han EDITOR-IN-CHIEF_ Kim HeaSeung EDITORS Kim Stoker Krys Lee EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Bang Keug Su Hwang Haena Kang HeeJu Sim Eunyoung Yoon Sun Young ART DIRECTOR_ Choi Woong lim DESIGNERS Kim Mijin Lee Jae hyun Jang Hye ju PHOTOGRAPHERS Park Jung hoon Han Ji yu Kim Shangtai PRINTED IN Dong-A Printing Ing Process

list_ Books from Korea is a quarterly magazine published by Korea Literature Translation Institute. Mudong Maeul Gil 26, Kangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea 135-879 Copyright ©2008 by Korea Literature Translation Institute ISSN 2005-2790 Tel: +82.(0)2. 6919.7700 Fax: +82.(0)2.3448.4247 www.klti.or.kr www.koreanbooks.or.kr list_korea@klti.or.kr

BESTSELLERS

What We’re Reading The bestseller list is based on the data provided by Korean Publishers Society. The data was the result of the total sales volume of eight major book retailers and three on-line bookstores from April to July of 2008. The list is ordered by publication date, not by sales volume.

Hyeon-young’s Financial Strategy Diary Hyeon-young, Chungrim Pubiishing, 2008, 248p ISBN 978-89-352-0742-8 03320

The famous Korean entertainer’s personal story of how she made a fortune by saving, investing, and being frugal

Style Baek Young Ok, Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 336p, ISBN 978-89-5913-295-9 03810 Oisoo Lee's Survival Skills

Chick-lit novel depicting the work, life, and love of a career woman living in the city, written in a sensuous literary style

A Thousand Magic Chinese Characters, vol.16 Studio Serial, Book21 Publishing Group, 2008 ISBN 978-89-5090-855-3

I Will Support You No Matter What Kind of Life You Choose

Hwang Nong-Moon, Random House Korea, 2007 290p, ISBN 978-89-255-1482-6

This book offers a scientist’s advice about how to maximize your brain’s potential capacity and increase your satisfaction with life

Study Like Mad in Your Twenties Nakajima Takashi, Random House Korea, 2008, 251p

Advice for people in their twenties about what to learn and how to prepare for getting a job, earning promotions, and attaining wealth

Don’t Gobble the Marshmallow Ever Joachim de Posada, Korea Economy Daily & Business Publications, INC, 2007,173p

Simple but invaluable advice for a successful and happy life

A comic book to help children have fun learning Chinese characters by reading interesting stories

The Kite Runner

Oisoo Lee’s Survival Skills

The story of a boy growing up with the culture and history of Afghanistan as background

Lee OiSoo; Illustrated by Jeong Taeryeon, Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008, 260p ISBN 978-89-7337-950-7 03810

My Happy House

An illustrated collection of well-known author Lee OiSoo's essays excerpted from his homepage

Maple Story Off-line Comic RPG 26 Song Dosu; Illustrated by Seo Jung Eun, Seoul Cultural Publisher Inc., 2008, 200p ISBN 978-89-532-9162-1 77810

Wandeuki

Think Hard

Khaled Hosseini, Yolimwon Publishing Co., 2007, 564p

Gong Ji-Young, Prunsoop Publishing Co. Ltd., 2008 347p, ISBN 978-89-7184-755-8 03810

An outspoken but optimistic novel depicting one family’s happiness, misery, agony, and delights

The Secret Rhonda Byrne, Sallim Publishing Co., 2007, 234p

Comic book based on the popular children’s on-line role-playing game

A self-help book that shows how positive thinking and sincerity are shortcuts to success and happiness

I Will Support You No Matter What Kind of Life You Choose

Dreaming in the Attic

Gong Ji-Young, Openhouse, 2008, 256p ISBN 978-89-960476-3-6 03800

A popular female writer’s essays written as letters to her daughter

E Ji Sung, Kugil, 2008, 260p ISBN 978-89-7425-489-6 03320

Book suggesting the formula R=VD: dream vividly and your dreams will be realizaed

Sauve-moi Wandeuki Kim Ryeo-Ryeong, Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2008 239p, ISBN 978-89-364-3363-5 03810

A fast-paced and cheerful coming of age novel about a high school student named Wandeuki

The Psychology of Thirty-Year Olds Kim Hae Nam, Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd., 2008 321p, ISBN 978-89-01-07858-8 03180 The Psychology of Thirty-Year Olds

A book written by a psychoanalyst about the careers, love, and relationships of people in their thirties

Guullaume Musso, Balgunsesang, 2006, 404p

A sensuous French novel where love, death, coincidence, and mystery intersect

PUBLISHING TRENDS

New Directions in Korean Publishing More than in any other field, publishing most sensitively registers the changes in society. This article introduces a lens for examining Korean society through its publishing trends.

Educational Publishing Market Continues to Show Strong Growth In the first half of 2008, interest in study-related books grew in the Korean publishing market. Sales of English and other foreign language textbooks increased considerably, and children’s educational books also sold well. This can be interpreted as a reflection of the social atmosphere of anxiety about the future in Korea, as well as Koreans’ need to make their children more competitive.

According to a survey by Kyobo Bookstore, sales of children’s English books have increased 22.3 percent overall over the first half of 2007. Sales of foreign language books have also increased by 20.3 percent overall; and middle school and high school textbook sales also increased by 17.1 percent during the same time period. What we are witnessing is a large increase in the sales of children’s English educational texts. According to the on-line bookstore Yes 24, this past May, 65,000 children’s educational books were sold, which is double what they sold during the same period last year. This can be interpreted as the influence of the new government’s announcement of policies emphasizing English education. The emphasis on educational books has also been confirmed on the bestseller lists. On Kyobo Bookstore’s top 50bestseller list, there are ten different TOEIC and TOEFL preparation guides, two more than what was on last year’s list. This is a result of increased competition in the job market that has led job seekers to study more foreign languages and prepare harder for the TOEIC and TOEFL exams. An unusual phenomenon has also cropped up in the field of children’s books. Seven of the top ten bestselling children’s books are children’s self-help guides, or popular adults’ self-help books rewritten for children. Other popular books in the educational field include math-related textbooks such as Indian Math to Improve Your Mind and Math Vitamins.

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New Frontiers in Korean Publishing In the first half of this year, the term young adult has become popular. This is a new term publishers are using to designate readers in their late teens and early twenties. Such books were previously lumped into the same category as children’s books, but this modern trend represents a new strategy targeting the tastes of readers in their late teens and early twenties. The attention the young adult market has received is an indication of the slump in the adult readers’ market as well as the excessive competition, if not saturation, of the children’s book market. Traditionally, teen book sections have mostly consisted of college prepatory exam textbooks, fantasy novels, popular romances, and the like. However, in recent years there has been a succession of books published for young people about the problems that other young people face in everyday life. Korean authors have become interested in literature for this audience, and a wide variety of international works of young adult literature have become available in translation. Last year, the newspaper Segye Ilbo also established a World Children’s Literature Award with an unprecedented 50,000USD cash prize. Children’s book publisher BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., released its new imprint Camėlėon, making the

term young adult a new category in the Korean publishing world. The first book they released under this brand was Steven Gould’s Jumper. Dulnyouk Publishers joined the Korean young adult literary movement with the release of their Mystery Yah! series. What has really shown the potential of the young adult book market in Korea is Wandeuki. This coming of age novel is about Wandeuki, a child raised by his midget father. Wandeuki found the courage to go out into the world after meeting his teacher, Ddongju. Wandeuki sold 50,000 copies in the first month of publication. The publication of this book united a new class of readers that was previously divided into children or adults. Another sign of the rise of the young adults’ literary market was the success of Tim Bowler’s coming of age novel River Boy, which was on the top 20 bestseller’s list from last November until this April. By Kim Jinwoo

New Economical Reads Small and inexpensive books, also known as pocketbooks, are enjoying renewed popularity as readers are trying to spend less money due to inflation and rising prices. As long as the Korean economy’s future remains bleak, the popularity of pocketbooks is expected to

continue. Two different series of pocketbooks have garnered a great deal of attention. The first is the Hand-in-Hand Library series, jointly published by 17 different Korean publishers. Each book in this series measures 12 x 17 cm and costs between 4.50 to 5.50 USD per copy. These slight books are reprints of existing publications but at a lower price and a smaller size. Available only online and in brick and mortar bookstores, these pocketbooks are not sold in large discount marts. The 80 books in the first series include many different steady sellers in the fields of the arts, humanities, business management, literature, and science. There are already plans to publish a second series of new books.

famous Brazilian author, published his novel The Pilgrimage in 1987. Santiago de Compostella was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. In recent years, the number of Korean tourists visiting this route has grown rapidly, and many Koreans have published travelogues about their journeys. However, many Korean readers confuse it with Santiago, Chile. One of the first Korean publications, The Beautiful Penance: The Road to Santiago by artist Nam Goong Moon, was published in 2002. Yet once Coelho’s The Pilgrimage was published

The Handy Book Series is available in major discount marts. From January to April in 2008, 88,000 copies were sold. Since May, over 90,000 copies have been sold. Most of the books in the Handy Book Series are how-to guides, books on business management, essay collections, as well as a number of bestsellers. Much like the Hand-in-Hand Library series, each copy costs between four to five USD. There are differing opinions in publishing circles regarding this phenomenon. Some argue that the market is growing, while others insist that these pocket books may be encroaching on the existing market. Those who view this pessimistically say, “These sales might be increasing for the time being, but they will ultimately depress the market in the long haul.” Regardless of who is right, it seems that more Korean readers than ever prefer pocketbooks.

Journeys in Travel Writing Santiago de Compostella is a walking trail that leads from the French border to downtown Santiago in western Spain. This trail was originally known as the pilgrimage path during the Middle Ages in Europe. The route became very popular after Paulo Coelho, the

in Korean in 2006, it gained great popularity, inspiring more Koreans to visit Santiago de Compostella in Spain. Since then, there have been around ten travelogues written by Korean authors about Santiago de Compostella, and more are in the works. The authors vary from a travel expert, a singer, a designer, a photographer, and a scriptwriter, to an office worker. Most of the books are more travel essays with plenty of photos than guidebooks. One editor commented, “The trend in Korean travel books is changing. Rather than tour guidebooks with lots of information, more books about the authors’ impressions and thoughts are selling well. This is partly because readers can get enough travel information on the Internet.” By Pyo JeongHun

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THEME LOUNGE

BLOOK

From Power Blogger to Power Writer

It is no exaggeration to say that the Internet has become part of the daily life of Koreans. Most recently, a great number of Koreans have gone from being Internet users to bloggers. The blogging culture is now moving from blogging to the blook, or blog + book, which is a book made of compiled blog material. The growing popularity of this new form has Korean publishers searching cyberspace for the latest power bloggers. South Korea is a leader of information technology with one of the best broadband Internet infrastructures in the world. This infrastructure allows Korean Internet users, or netizens, to enjoy an active, lively Internet life. It is no longer an overstatement to say that some Koreansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives revolve around the Internet. In the past few years, many Korean netizens have become bloggers who relate stories from their daily lives, keep in touch with other netizens, and share their expertise on-line. This Internet/blog culture has ventured into publishing territory in the form of blooks (blog + book), popular blog contents published in book form. Many of these blooks have garnered success, and some of them have even made it to the bestseller list. The most popular topic for blooks is cooking. Kim Yong Hwoanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2000

Korean Won is Sufficient to Prepare a Meal (Youngjin.com) has been a steady seller since its publication in 2003. This book gained wide popularity, especially among housewives, by exploring ways to prepare a meal for the American equivalent of under two dollars. Moon Sung Sil, a housewife, penned several books with contents 8

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from her blog. Her books include Twin Mom's Cooking (Living Chosun, 2005), Very Easy Mini-Oven Cooking (Living Chosun, 2006), My Child's Meal Within 12 Minutes (Youngjin.com, 2006), and Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Random House Korea, 2007). Moon Sung Sil has since become a renowned food columnist and a menu consultant for restaurants. Blooks on cooking, in particular, are characteristic of blooks in general. It is the amateur nature of the content that draws readers to these books; consumers tend to believe that

The authors of these blooks are not professional writers, but amateurs who share their accumulated knowledge, taste, and interests. Many readers who buy blooks have commented on the unpretentious, more approachable voice of these ‘amateur’ authors.

knowledge and information sought out and collected for personal interest are somehow more relevant and true, thereby satisfying the readers’ needs, preferences, and interests. This suggests that readers relate better to amateurs than to professionals. Another power blogger turned blook author is Park Kyung Chol, a smalltown surgeon who runs a popular blog that has been visited over two million times. He uses his blog as a journal and a venue to share his views and knowledge on the economy and financial investment. Park is by no means a professional investor, but he has had remarkable success with his personal investments. He became the author of best-selling blooks such as

Economics of the Rich: A Country

1 My Child's Meal Within 12 Minutes Moon Sung sil, Youngjin.com, 2007, 254p ISBN 978-89-314-3377-7 13590 2 2000 Korean Won, Sufficient to Prepare a Meal Kim Yong Hwoan, Youngjin.com, 2008, 222p ISBN 978-89-314-2624-3 13590 3 Twin Mom's Cooking Moon Sung sil, Chosun Living Media Inc., 2005 296p, ISBN 978-89-91055-17-6 13590 4 Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Moon Sung Sil Random House Korea, 2007, 339p ISBN 978-89-25509-92-1 5 Very Easy Mini-Oven Cooking Moon Sung sil, Chosun Living Media Inc., 2006 208p, ISBN 978-89-91055-40-0 13590 6 Economics of the Rich: A Country Doctor's

Secret Guide to Investment Park Kyung Chol , Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd. 2008, 316p, ISBN 978-89-01-04920-5 04810 7 A Country Doctor's Beautiful Companion Park Kyung Chol , Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd. 2008, 406p, ISBN 978-89-01-05802-0 033320

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THEME LOUNGE Doctor’s Secret Guide to Investment (Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd., 2006) and A Country Doctor's Beautiful Companions (Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd., 2005). Oh Youngwook, widely known as Architect Mr. Oh, is the leading travel blook writer. Oh has uploaded reflections, essays, and sketches from his travels to various places, and the contents have been published in blooks such as Sketching on the Hills of Campidoglio (Saemteo, 2005), Architect

Oh Goes to Barcelona in Pursuit of Happiness (Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd., 2006), and Architect Oh’s Travel Sketches (Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008).

Not all blooks are devoted exclusively to practical information such as cooking, investment, and travel. A Vessel Full of Heart (Anibooks, 2008) is one such example. Its author Ho Yeon, an archaeology graduate student, educates readers about traditional pottery

through cartoons. Ho Yeon first gained popularity among netizens through an amateur cartoon site; his blook is based on those works. Pottery, which can be a dull topic for many, comes to life through Ho Yeon’s cartoons. Author of A Finger that Shows Pictures (Hakgoje, 2006), Kimchi Salad (Internet id), has introduced readers to a unique style called pictorial drama. Kimchi Salad pasted images and word bubbles onto paintings of Van Gogh, Munch, Bruegel, and Magritte, turning them into cartoons. These reworked paintings are put together to create a story. Far from an analysis of famous paintings, the blook is a collection of essays inspired by the paintings. Some publishers unearth authors

through their own blog sites. Galleon Publishers (Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd.,) launched a blog site called Small Joy (www.smalljoy.co.kr) in February 2007, to provide a venue for bloggers. Galleon was able to accumulate enough content to publish various blooks on subjects such as cats, wine, Africa, kitchen, toys, dating, needles, parties, and pop-up books. Galleon refers to their Small Joy project as the publisher’s equivalent of Web 2.0. How do publishers benefit from blooks? The contents of blooks have already procured a high level of popularity among netizens, so demand precedes supply. The accuracy and authority of the content is to a certain extent established by the lively Internet discussions; and amateur writers,

“It is the amateur nature of the content that draws readers to these books; consumers tend to believe that knowledge and information sought out and collected for personal interest are somehow more relevant and true...”

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unbridled by publisher demands as professional writers often are, tend to produce more striking, innovative work. Korean publishers will keep their eyes open for power bloggers and blogs for these reasons. There are, however, blooks that are overly opinionated or have little to no authority in their field. Such blooks quickly go out of print. Even if the content earned great popularity on-line, it is important to pay close attention to content in order to ensure continued popularity as a book. By Pyo JeongHun

1 Architect Oh's Travel Sketches Oh Youngwook, Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 360p, ISBN 978-89-5913-281-2 03810 2 Sketching on the Hills of Campidoglio Oh Youngwook, Saemto, 2008, 316p ISBN 978-89-464-1515-7 03810 3 Architect Oh Goes to Barcelona

in Pursuit of Happiness Oh Youngwook, Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 388p, ISBN 978-89-5913-168-7 03810 4 A Vessel Full of Heart Ho Yeon, Anibooks, 2008, 416p ISBN 978-89-5919194-9 07810 5 A Finger that Shows Pictures Kimchi Salad, Hakgoje, 2007, 328p ISBN 978-89-5626-051-0 03810

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SPECIAL SECTION

Towards a New Family In contrast to most societies, Koreans have a preoccupation with family that moves beyond the ordinary. As victims of colonization and war, a crisis of consciousness compelled Koreans foremost to seek safety, security, and happiness for their family. Since the 90s, however, the existing family model has hit a crisis. The young writers of the 21st century are a generation that perceive and document these signs of change.

The family is the most powerful ideological institution everywhere. Yet, the attachment to family that most Koreans have is stronger than in many other societies. One can easily assume that the distinctive progression of modern Korean history could have resulted in a peculiarly strong attachment to family. The constant crisis of consciousness resulting from colonization and war experiences led many heads of families to die and many families to be scattered and feel the sorrow of parting. This made Koreans regard the stable family as the most important criterion of their happiness. Furthermore, although it might be said to be an imagined community, the pride in a homogeneous nation and a common bloodline with five thousand years of history, which Korean people firmly believe, has constituted a pure blood ideology unique to Korea. This ideology directly or indirectly contributed to the expansion of familism. The influence of the filial piety particular to Confucianism culture is also noteworthy. Family has been recognized as a small nation or even a small state in Korea. In short, it might be said that the family in Korean society has constantly kept its position as a medium for teaching community spirit and conventional gender roles. However, since the 1990s, the traditional family model as an ideological institution in Korean society has hit a crisis. Due to

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Chosun Ilbo

Three Key Words to View Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Generation of Writers: Family, City, and History

1 Waltz for Three Yun I-Hyeong, Moonji Publishing, 2007 416p, ISBN 978-89-320-1809-6 2 Her Use of Tears Cheon Woon Young, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2008, 272p, ISBN 978-89-364-3703-9 03810 3 A Cold Yoon Sung-Hee, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2008, 275p, ISBN 978-89-364-3700-8 03810

4 Run, Pop, Run! Kim Ae-ran, Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2008 269p, ISBN 978-89-364-3690-2 03810

5 A Pool of Saliva Kim Ae-ran, Moonji Publishing, 2008 309p, ISBN 978-89-320-1804-0 03810 6 Restless Kang Young Sook, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2002, 304p ISBN 978-89-8281-467-1 03810

7 Farewell to the Circus Cheon Woon Young, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2005, 280p ISBN 978-89-546-0052-2 03810 8 Festival Everyday Kang Young Sook, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2004, 236p, ISBN 978-89-364-3677-5 03810

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the changed characteristics of capitalism, the traditional family model is now losing its dominance. The primary reason for this is because of the changes in daily life caused by the extensive prosperity of cultural and IT industries. Korean capitalism after 1990 has made large profits primarily through its cultural industries: popular movies, the Internet, and pop culture icons. During this time in Frederick Jameson’s terms, Korea entered a phase of “late capitalism” or “consumerism.” There is various evidence that Korean cultural industries are flourishing: the number of people using cellular phones and the Internet ranks first in the world; almost onethird of the total population crowds into theaters to see Korean movies; the annual income of certain stars equals that of average corporations; and so forth. This social change necessarily influenced the process of subject formation, creating antisocial individuals who are significant social problems today. They enjoy going to see movies by themselves, communicating with others only through the Internet, and finding refuge in the virtual world of computer games and movies in order to escape mundane daily life. As this narcissistic culture becomes more dominant in Korea, individuals who avoid being a part of a traditional family unit are no longer rare.

Since the doors officially opened to foreign workers in 1992, the rapid increase of foreigners is also one reason for the changing family model in Korean society. Since this open-door policy, the dependence on immigrant workers in the Korean economy has gradually increased. Immigrant workers in Korea now number over one million, leading to the deconstruction of homogeneous nation and bloodline myths, as well as changing Korean society into a multi-ethnic and multicultural nation. In addition, the decline of rural areas since the 1970s caused by the abnormally fast development of Korean capitalism, made bachelors in rural areas helpless when seeking Korean spouses. This phenomenon has forced them to buy foreign brides in a manner not inconsistent with international human trafficking. According to many sources, about 30percent of current marriages in Korea are international marriages. Also, the entry of Korean-Chinese and North Korean defectors, including increasing numbers of foreign students from South Asia, contribute to this social change. In other words, the Korean family now faces a situation in which it must accept completely different races and cultures. It is easy to speculate that, more or less, this flow of change must have influenced literature. Young Korean literature in the year 2000 and beyond is the leading medium documenting

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The family in Farewell to the Circus by another young author, Cheon Woon Young (The Needle, Myeongrang, and Her Use of Tears), is also worthy of mention. This novel raises sensitive topics such as family, otherness, ethical virtue (in the Levinasian sense) and nationhood through the life of a KoreanChinese who is married off to Korea. Kang Young Sook (Restless, Festival Everyday) goes further in presenting families in her first full-length novel Lina. Lina, who appears to be a North Korean defector, forms families with various people she meets during her roving life around unknown cities and countries. Among them, a man named 'Ppi' first plays the role of her brother, becomes her lover, husband, and then companion. The female defector who used to work in a textile factory becomes a member of this family: she is a lesbian lover as well as companion in sisterhood to Lina. There is also an aged foreign singer who has never experienced pregnancy or raised children, as well as a childish elderly man who loves her. Yet, despite their old age and helplessness, they are not excluded from this family. When the textile factory woman who fell in love with a foreigner gives birth to a child, the baby is also accepted as a family member. These people who share their sexuality and the burden of living, such as raising a child altogether, are definitively families. Nationality, gender, age, and disability are not considerations of forming solidarity as a family in any way. 14

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By Kim Hyoung-Joong

Kim Ae-ran

was born in 1980 in Incheon City. In 2005, she published her first short story collection Run, Pop, Run!, and in 2007, she published her second story collection A Pool

of Saliva.

In that sense, the pseudo-family in Yoon Sung-Hee’s novels (A Cold and Hey, You?) is also pertinent. The families in her novels are said to be pseudo-families since bloodline and gender do not play critical roles in their formation. For instance, Korean literature, which was strictly patriarchal, has never even imagined the family type in A Cold: the family consists of three males, two men who once rivaled each other in love, and one of the men’s sons. They live their lives in harmony. What they put importance on is not bloodline or gender, but friendship between men. Another example is Kim Kyung Uk’s short story, “Treasure Map Buried at U-turn Point.” Without regard to bloodline or gender, four people with no previous relationship to one another form an alternative family. These touching stories are exceptional in Korean literary history.

Although their members suffer from miserable daily lives with no other alternatives or perspectives, new models of family in young Korean literature are preoccupied with transgressing the borderlines of nation as imagined communities, as well as violating the restrictions of conventional gender roles.

Yun I-Hyeong was born in 1976 in Seoul. Her first short story collection Waltz for Three was published in 2005.

Yoon Sung-Hee was born in Suwon in 1973. She published her first short story collection A House Made of Legos in 2001. Her latest collection A Cold was pubished in 2007.

First of all, the fiction of Kim Ae-ran (Run, Pop, Run! and A Pool of Saliva) and Yun I-Hyeong (Waltz for Three), which belong to a relatively younger generation, deem mention. The main characters of their novels, through a lack of communication or through precarious communication, are always ready to give isolation. Their daily circumstances consist of convenience stores, the Internet, temporary jobs, and small and cheap studios where they live. Their solitude differs from that of novels written by the previous generations in its spontaneity, unavoidability, and cultural characteristics.

There are no strangers in this family, nor any abnormal or handicapped people. The only thing they have in common is that they are all poverty-stricken laborers.

Cheon Woon Young was born in 1971 in Seoul. In 2001, she published her first short story collection Needle. Her latest novel is Her Use of Tears in 2008.

and revealing these symptoms of our times.

Kang Young Sook was born in 1966 in Chuncheon. She has published many books, including the short story collection Restless and the novel Lina.

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Genres Literature, culture and art, scholarly books, children’s books, instructional books, comic books

Genres Literature, culture and art, scholarly books, children’s books, instructional books, graphic novels

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Grant Amount Part of the total publication expenses -The amount varies depending on the region of the contracted publisher and the genre of the book. -The grant will be issued after publication. Application Documents All documents should be scanned and uploaded. 1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous publications of books related to Korea 2. Publication plan including the dates and budget for translation and publication (please specify in detail) 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator(s) 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder(s) 5. A copy of the translator’s resume How to Apply Register as a member on the LTI Korea Overseas Publication Marketing website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the on-line application form. Application Schedule and Announcements 2nd Round: Apply from September 16-26, 2008 Results will be posted in October 3rd Round: Apply from November 17-28, 2008 Results will be posted in December

Applicant Qualification Overseas publishers who have published Korean books in translation Grant Amount The amount will be decided by LTI Korea after due consideration of the marketing plan and scale. -Roundtrip airfare and accommodation expenses for the author, expenses for events, etc. * Grant will be provided directly to the author or to the overseas publisher in two payments, before and after the event Application Documents All documents should be scanned and uploaded. 1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous publications of books related to Korea 2. Event plan including marketing strategy and expenses 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translators 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holders 5. A copy of the translator’s resume How to Apply Register as a member of the LTI Korea Overseas Publication Marketing website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the on-line application form. Application Schedule Year-round

SPECIAL SECTION

Three Key Words to View Korea’s New Generation of Writers: Family, City, and History

The Postmodern City and Its Discontents As a result of Korea’s dizzying urbanization and modernization that have few precedents, Korea developed two radically different faces. One is an efficient and radiant modernity; the other, a heartless, dangerous modernity. In the 21st century, what shape will the city take for Korea’s next generation of writers?

Every city has two faces: that of an angel and that of a devil. These double aspects of a city result from the fact that the city is a child of modernity: simultaneously an angel and a devil. As Cho Myung-Rae clearly demonstrates in his book The Modern Society and City-theory and Reality (2002), the “city is not only a mold with which modernity is formed, but also an obvious medium that can represent modernity.” In short, the two faces of a city are those of modernity. Since urbanization and modernization in Korea have been achieved so rapidly, the mark of these two faces was carved very sharply in history. Koreans have experienced modernities of both efficiency and cruelty. What the authors have kept their eyes on was, of course, the latter. The efforts to overthrow the dangerous modernity of cruelty have advanced through the 70s and 80s and ignited the fire of revolution. During the 1980s, which can be recalled as a time of revolution, Korea had achieved democratization but failed to further the revolution. Korean literature had to accept the new frame of the so-called confusion of postmodernism. In When Adam Becomes Awake by Jang Jeong-il (once considered enfant terrible of the day), the main character Adam wakes up in a fake paradise named Seoul and sheds tears while watching the neon-lit cross of a church. In this novel, the passion and

list_ Books from Korea Vol.1 Autumn 2008

1 The Library of Musical Instruments Kim Jung Hyuk, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2008, 312p ISBN 978-89-546*0567-0 03810 2 Heading for a Breeding Farm Pyun Hye Young, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2007, 255p ISBN 978-89-546-0359-1 03810 3 Is Leslie Cheung Really Dead? Kim Kyung Uk, Moonji Publishing 2005, 304p, ISBN 978-89-320-1603-8 4 My Sweet Seoul Jung Yi-hyun, Moonji Publishing, 2008 442p, ISBN 978-89-320-1715-8 03810

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prospect, apparently the signs of the modern project of liberation, can hardly be found. This work is an apocalypse of postmodern consumer society. As the literature of the 90s turns its interest from revolution to authenticity, this trend was accelerated. Cities were revived as spaces without authenticity, and Adam’s descendants started wandering around the unreal city in search of a real self. The novels of Yun Dae-nyeong described this world in a most refined way. Probably in those days, Seoul might have shifted from a modern city to a postmodern city. Then, how is the city represented by the authors of the 21st century? The following explores the literary background and thoughts of young authors in accordance with two different themes. My Precarious City The first theme is the sense of insecurity with which Korean city dwellers are held captive. It is well-known that Ulrich Beck once called modern society a “risk society” and tried to find an alternative from this “reflexive modernity.” After experiencing a number of disasters during the mid 1990s, Korea had to face the reality of being a high-risk society. In 1994, Seongsoo Bridge, a former symbol for the so-called miracle of the Han River, collapsed. In 1995, a gas

pipe exploded in a Daegu subway construction site. Two months later, the Sampoong Department Store, regarded as a symbol of wealth in Seoul’s Gangnam district, collapsed. Some sociologists described these chain of disasters as accidents that betray the contradiction and cracks of a city obsessed with development. These accidents left deep scars in the hidden recesses of city dwellers. After having lived near the now-destroyed Sampoong Department Store through her mid 20s, Jung Yi-hyun published a short story, “Sampoong Department Store,” on the 10th commemorative anniversary of its collapse. It cannot be known whether this short story was written for the purpose of critical reflection of a “risk society” or “developmentism,” since her trauma is not dealt with socially, but privately. However, that is why this short story allows candid and natural reflections, not unfamiliar criticism. Those reflections were probably possible because of Jung’s sense of balance. In general, two aspects of the city are equally treated in her novels, but in any case, she never maintains a negative view towards life in the Gangnam district where she was born and spent her youth. She says: “I’m an urbanite by nature.” Or it can be said that though the metropolis of Seoul sometimes breeds solitude and sorrow, it is for her a “lovely place.”

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Since Kim Kyung Uk has always kept his eye on what ails contemporary society, it is hardly surprising that he is the first to attempt writing about the unique form of resistance called 'flash mob.' The main character in Is Leslie Cheung Really Dead? (2005), which was awarded a Hankook Ilbo Literary Prize, is a divorced credit defaulter. As he believes that nature is a mere “alibi of urban sin,” he stands for the typical loser in a modern city. In the novel’s last scene, when this man 18

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Postmodern Resistance? The next theme is a symptom of the new resistance that contemporary cities are demonstrating. Slavoj Zizek, with a positive reaction to the statements of Jacques Ranciere, comments that utopian strategies surely exist nowadays in an aesthetic sphere. Zizek points out that postmodern politics of resistance are influenced by aesthetic phenomena, as is demonstrated by the evidence from body piercings to spectacular incidents in public spaces. He also diagnoses the uncommon phenomenon dubbed 'flash mob' as evidence of the most pure aesthetic-political resistance revived into a minimalist structure. However, it is unclear how much he relies on the actual efficiency of this aesthetic resistance. When he calls these incidents “urban poems without any essential purpose” or “political reaction against 'the black rectangular' by Kazimir S. Malevich,” there is delicate irony in his tone. Can those things be real postmodern resistance? Can those things be called resistance?

By presenting a small community composed of one or two persons sharing the same taste, dubbed “analog fetishism,” Kim Jung Hyuk expresses the freedom of a mature individualism and the composure of those individuals. In his short story “Shield out of Glass” (2008), Kim tells a story of two job seekers who conduct artistic performances in the subway, reflecting a Korean malaise in the age of neoliberalism. Kim uses these characters as mouthpieces to ridicule both economic efficiency and artistic rigor: “We only think that we tell the common truth to save the world.” “What exactly is the common truth?" and "It’s to entertain ourselves.” Kim's strategy must be entertaining himself between this efficiency and rigor, but his strategy appears to be as safe as a shield out of glass. Probably because of this risky narrative

Yet, Pyun Hye Young, another young author of Jung’s age, rarely shows us the lovely face of a city. Instead, Pyun reaches into the dark side of the city, which makes us feel gloomy, frightened, and disgusted when reading her novels. This obstinacy in dealing with the hidden side of the city draws attention from many critics. Whereas the city was presented as a grotesque space in her first collection, Aoi Garden (2005), it is created through a more realistic atmosphere and vivid description in her second collection, Heading for a Breeding Farm (2007). The title of Pyun’s second collection describes one night at a suburban house in an uncanny way; the house, the symbol of middle-class daydreams, turns into a place of nightmares when invaded by a pack of dogs. Through this work, Pyun gained fame as one of the most important young contemporary authors in Korea. I would regard this novel as a fascinating allegory of the risk society spreading from Seoul to other cities around Seoul.

“Cities were revived as spaces without authenticity, and Adam's descendants started wandering around the unreal city in search of a real self.”

participates in a flash mob activity to commemorate the first anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s death and experiences a mysterious excitement, the author intentionally inserts an unknown song into the narrative. It is difficult to discern whether the song is a hymn or an elegy. Due to this ambiguity, this ending acquires an impressive pathos. This novel tells us that the flash mob might be an urban poem freely writing into the wild postmodern city of Seoul.

Jung Yi-hyun was born in 1972 in Seoul. She published her first short story collection Romantic Love and Society in 2003, a novel My Sweet Seoul in 2006, and a short story collection Today’s Lie in 2007.

Pyun Hye Young was born in Seoul. She published her first short story collection Aoi Garden in 2005, then her next collection Heading for a Breeding Farm in 2007.

Kim Kyung Uk was born in 1971 in Gwangju. He has written numerous books, including his first short story collection There’s No Coffee at the Baghdad Café, and the novel The Kingdom of Youth.

Kim Jung Hyuk was born in 1971. In 2006, his first short story collection Penguin News was published, and in 2008 he published his next collection, The Library of Musical Instruments.

strategy, Kim concludes his novel by making these two performers feel that they have to leave each other. The lives of people living in neo-liberal cities in Korea are unstable. They are not sure when a department store will collapse or when a suburban house will turn into a breeding farm. Under these circumstances, characters write urban poems by doing things like participating in a flash mob or putting on performances. In the meantime, Korean society experienced aesthetic-political resistance of a new kind in 2008: the candlelight rally that drew an enormous amount of attention from the world press. This “festival” took place in the heart of Seoul, and upset the metropolitan control system and authorities in a rather pleasant way. The demonstrators who turned a ten-lane boulevard into an open square for the rally for over two months acted beyond everyone’s expectation. I would say this was a rediscovery of the city. Reality always surpasses literature. It is worth paying attention to the upcoming efforts of these four young Korean authors, who, concerned about urban cultural politics more than anyone else, surpass reality. By Shin Hyoung Cheol

Integrated Website www.koreanbooks.or.kr LTI Korea will open a new website to facilitate copyright export of Korean books, based on the LTI Korea Overseas Publication Marketing website that was established in 2005. After integrating the LTI Korea Overseas Publication Marketing website and the joint website organized by the Korean Publishers Association, the new integrated website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) will go on-line by the end of 2008. This new integrated website was created to support Korean publishers’ copyright exports and the publication of Korean books in translation, as well as to facilitate efficient promotion through a one-stop database management of titles, authors, publishers, and copyright information. It will become the premier portal site for the copyright export of Korean books with user-friendly features.

SPECIAL SECTION

Three Key Words to View Korea’s New Generation of Writers: Family, City, and History

The New Reality of Korean Society as Perceived by Five Contemporary Korean Novelists

In a country where industrialization and democracy took root simultaneously, how will young Korean writers reflect on and investigate the issues of Korean modern history? These writers examine society’s social problems through a new reality and through new techniques. Within the prism of their vision, what will be the reality of the Korean society that they perceive?

After the 1990s, Korean society entered a new phase that was different from the past. People began agreeing that Korea was a rare case among developing countries in that it had accomplished both industrialization and democratization. Upon the realization of industrial and democratic goals, matters of individual desire begin to precede attitudes emphasizing public ideology. Due to the intimate relationship between literature and society, this kind of social change has been organically reflected in novels. The concern of novels has gradually shifted from the public sphere to the private sphere. The position of nation, people, and ideology in novels has been replaced by matters of domesticity and private life such as issues of family, sexuality, social minorities, and so forth. The changes are evident in the form of the novel. Varieties of media became more prominent, and the walls between high culture and low culture have broken down. With these social changes, the boundary between literature and other media has continued to collapse. Traditionally accepted aesthetics has lost its ground in contemporary Korean novels. Such a trend has paralleled the democratization and

list_ Books from Korea Vol.1 Autumn 2008

Memory, Time and Politics

1 Goodbye Mr. Yi Sang Kim Yeon-su, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2007, 278p ISBN 978-89-8281-358-6 03810 2 The Last Fan Club of the Baseball Team,

Sammi Superstars Park Min-gyu, Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2008, 304p, ISBN 978-89-8431-104-6 03810 3 Having Been at a Loss,

I Knew IT Went That Way Lee Gi Ho, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp. 2007, 328p, ISBN 978-89-546-0228-2 03810

4 Human Myth Son Hong gyu, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2005, 328p ISBN 978-89-546-0000-X 03810 5 So Quoth Bongseop Son Hong gyu, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2008, 335p, ISBN 978-89-364-3705-3 03810 6 The Trunk of Mr. Jo Paik Gahuim, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2007, 311p, ISBN 978-89-364-3701-5 03810 4

diversification of Korean society in general. The novel is no longer limited to being merely a medium for expressing the social consciousness of male intellectuals. The subjects of novels have extended in terms of gender, generation, and class. The objects of novels have also extended themselves to introspection, consciousness and beyond, to the imagination, fantasies, and the unconscious, distinct from the traditional emphasis on political and social reality. Yet, various social issues that play important roles in literary self-expression are still at work in Korean society. There are authors who express their concerns about society in very new ways. They face this changed reality, accept different and new aspects of their community, and convert these changes into the varied content and form of their novels. Here are some exemplary examples from five male novelists in their late thirties. In his novels, Kim Yeon-su focuses on the skepticism concerning the public history and memory of the collective. Absolute truths in history are non-existent to him since he believes that history can be interpreted differently according to one’s point of view. However, skepticism doesn’t always equate with the denial of objects. He explores the themes of history,

memory, and artifacts, which the former generation had dealt with in different variations.

Goodbye Mr. Yi Sang (2001) explores the irony between reality and fiction through three related stories about the lost death mask of the brilliant poet Yi Sang (1910-1937), who died young during the Japanese colonial period. The short stories in Kim’s book, I’m a Ghostwriter (2005) show the contingencies behind the necessity of history in various ways. The possibility of writing postmodern Korean historic novels has been realized in his latest work, Whoever You Are, No Matter How Lonely (2007). It draws on late 20th century Korean history, centering on the May 18th uprising in Gwangju. The historic times that Kim skeptically looks back on are now regarded with amusement by Park Min-gyu. Park looks back on Korean society’s past using movements of popular culture, not political events. Through a cosmic imagination, he also explores futuristic prospects of humankind.

The Last Fan Club of the Baseball Team, Sammi Superstars (2003) relays the story of a professional baseball team named Sammi Superstars, a team that went from the top to the bottom of the league from season to season. However there is

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The world Paik perceives through a negative lens is, for Lee Gi Ho, a comic scene. Lee changes stories into comic tales with his voluble tongue and imagination, as well as with his exploration of alternative forms for the novel. To him, the novel is a hybrid experiment with which he can create new ideas of the novel by using unpopular and unfamiliar narrative forms. In the short stories in Earnie (2004), strange, untraditional ways of expression such as gangster rap or the pseudo-classic style of the Bible is used. In his second collection, Having Been at a Loss, I Knew It Went That Way (2004), Lee tries other experiments, including an audio novella and a story written like a cookbook. In this manner, his ability as a novelist can be shown best through his storytelling abilities. By blurring the border between the narrator and reader, his novels attempt to communicate in a new way. Whereas Lee Gi Ho introduces contemporary subculture to the novel form, Son Hong gyu explores prehistoric storytelling traditions such as myths or tales. He deconstructs the diachronic progress of time by arranging different times in the same space. The characters in the short stories of Human Myth 22

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The short stories in Crickets Are Coming (2005) contain a full set of sexual perversions accompanied by violence, at the root of which the frustration of sexual domination lies. In Paik’s second collection, The Trunk of Mr. Jo (2007), the gravity of the problem of sexual relationships has eased; what flourish are the amusing aspects and the pliability of the narrative resulting from peculiar characterization, vivid dialogue, and the reversal of narratives. However, Paik’s stories still focus on the dark side of Korean society.

By Son Jeong Soo

In the stories written by Paik Gahuim, the phases of history are perceived not by the specific indicators of the times but by the types of sexual relationships that unconsciously rule the community members. In that sense, the obsessed, neurotic, male characters in Paik’s stories symbolize the unconscious restraints from which Korean society is unable to free itself. Additionally, the intensity of the neurosis is said to be one of the barometers that tell us how far we have advanced from our past.

(2005) often reveal the bestiality in themselves. Since the reality is so beyond their expectations that it leads to a loss of humanity, they seem to reverse reality by stepping back into nature. Son’s unique literary illusions spring from a place where rapid external time is faced with the resistance of internal time. In his second collection, So Quoth Bongseop (2008), his illusions become smoother and more delicate, but they sometimes enlighten the memory of a fundamental essence that extends beyond the bestiality in human beings.

one miraculous season. This work restores the memories and artifacts of people who have dropped out of modern Korean society. Park’s current novel Ping-Pong (2006) demonstrates the possibility of narrative on a broad scale. This story of two middle-school outsiders links the end of the world with a cosmic imagination. This fantasy novel gives two isolated teenagers, losers among the crowds, the responsibility of radically choosing to keep “the installment of the world” as it is, or to perform “the un-installment of the world.” This radical attitude is indeed the expression of the consciousness of the suppressed.

Kim Yeon-su was born in 1971 in Kimcheon. His novel Walk While Pointing to Masks won the Writer’s World Literary Prize in 1994. His most recent novel is Whoever You Are, However Lonely You Are.

Park Min-gyu was born in 1968 in Ulsan. He published the novel The Last Fan Club of the Baseball Team, Samni Superstars. His most recent novel Ping-Pong was published in 2006.

Paik Gahuim was born in 1974 in Iksan. His more recent efforts include Crickets are Coming (2005) and The Trunk of Mr. Jo (2007).

Lee Gi Ho was born in Wonju in 1972. He currently teaches creative writing at Gwangju University. He has published several collections of short stories, including the experimental Earnie.

Son Hong gyu was born in Jeongeup. He has published several books, including his first short story collection Human Myth (2005) and the novel The Age of Ghosts.

THE PLACE

In Search of a Lost Seoul Park Tae Won explores Seoul in the 1930s, and in a way that is impossible to recover solely through photographs, vividly restores the city to life. A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo By Park Tae Won

Hwa Shin Department Store in the 1930s

The Author Park Tae Won

Namdaemun surroundings in the 1930s

Seoul: population 10,000,000, Miracle on the Han River, sixth highest population density in the world, 13th highest GDP. Yet even with this flowery praise, it’s difficult to see the true Seoul. In order to uncover what Seoul means to the lives of Koreans, we must reconstruct its history and customs. To that end, Park Tae Won’s autobiographical novel, A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo, is a monumental work. Set in 1934 during the colonial era, a Korean novelist named Gubo pens a fascinating novel based on the record of his aimless wanderings around the city of Seoul for a day. If Walter Benjamin roamed around Paris, the capital of empire in the 1930s, and gazed upon the light and darkness of civilization, then writer Park Tae Won roamed

Chongro Intersection

Gyeongseong, the old name for Seoul and the capital of colonized Joseon, while examining the past and future of human civilization. Gubo the young novelist, kept one hand on his walking stick and the other on his notebook as he set out in search of subject matter to write about.

A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo vividly restores the daily life of Seoul in the 1930s that can only now be found in photographs. The account of Gubo’s aimless expedition around the city shows us – modern people who live repetitive, mechanical lives back and forth along the same path to work each day – that even the same city we walk through every day can become a grandiose spectacle unfolding before us like the adventures of Odysseus. The 1930s were a time when traditions of the past were collapsing and giving way to new symbols of civilization being built all over the city. If the old days of Joseon were like an “old, downtrodden, far too downtrodden, palace” to Park Tae Won, then the ever-changing Gyeongseong was a symbol of modernity with its “lively crowds.” In Gyeongseong, the old and new coexisted dynamically. It was a city of worldly aspirations “where even lyric poets hoped to strike it rich,” and a space of tradition where the women gathered close together on the banks of the Cheonggyecheon Stream to scrub laundry and talk about the events of the day.

If archaeology revives history and customs through past relics, then “modernology” divines the future from the present through the study of contemporary customs. Gubo believed that he could become a writer through the process of closely examining Gyeongseong in his own era, the 1930s. The café that he drops into four or more times a day is not simply a space of leisure, but a creative space where he can record his observations of the city. The secret hideout and base camp for this starving artist turned out to be a café right in the heart of Seoul. Gyeongseong, which was the subject of modernology for Gubo, has now become a subject of archaeology that must be restored anew. A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo was a record of the present for Park Tae Won, but for people living in 21st century Seoul, it is a legacy of a past that cannot be restored. His novel has been a source of inspiration to countless writers and intellectuals, as well as the subject of various parodies and theses alike. What would happen if we were to follow Gubo’s journey through Seoul, which has become all too familiar to us and lost its newness? Let’s wander the streets of Seoul with A Day of Novelist Mr. Gubo as our travel guide. Perhaps it will take us on a pleasant adventure “in search of lost time.” By Jung Yeo-ul

Gyeongseong in the 1930s was much smaller than currentday Seoul, but it lacked for almost none of the requirements of a modern city. Filled with department stores and banks, streetcars and cafes, Gyeongseong revealed the archetype of Seoul, which would become the megalopolis that it is today. Interestingly enough, though Gubo did not have a fixed occupation, he referred to himself as a “modernologist.”

GwangKyo in the 1930s

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â&#x201C;&#x2019; Hwang Moon Sung

INTERVIEW

Taking the Pulse of Korean Society An Interview with Hwang Sok-yong

One of Korea’s foremost writers Hwang Sok-yong reflects on his books and on Korean society with Korean scholar and translator Anders Karlsson. The works of Hwang Sok-yong have consistently reflected the trials and tribulations of Korea’s modern history, from the forced economic development described in short stories such as Gaekchi (The Land of Strangers) and Sampo ganeun gil (The Road to Sampo), to the pains of the struggle for democracy related in Oraedoen jeongwon (An Old Garden). While being a kind of autobiographical bildungsroman, his latest work, Gaebapbaragibyeol (The Star that Appears When Dogs Start to Beg for Food), is also a comment on current issues in Korean society. AK: First of all, could you please tell us a little bit about your latest work? HS: Teenagers in Korea today are suffering from entrance exams and the education system in general. Growing up in today’s society is very tough and it does not become much easier later when entering adult life. The competition for status and money is severe, and many have difficulties finding a job despite all the efforts to get a good education. By relating my own youth experience from the 1960s, my roaming life from adolescence to the early twenties, I want to tell young people not to be too disheartened by all this pressure. They should not be afraid to break the mold, to break out of this system and find their own way of life. AK: It very much sounds like a universal theme. HS: The pains and difficulties of growing up are, of course, shared by youth all across the world. The generation that grew up during the turbulent modernization of Korea, however, suffered other ordeals as well. That is something that the younger generation of today has not experienced, and they tend to be more individualistic and less willing to make sacrifices for others. Another motive behind writing

this story was maybe to make people reflect on such trends in today’s society. AK: Would you say that it is a statement about the state of today’s education system? HS: In the book the protagonist tells his teacher that he wants to quit school. The teacher then requires of him to write a letter explaining why he wants to withdraw. Many of the things that he criticizes in the 1960s can, of course, also be seen in today’s education, so in that sense you could say that the book is making such a statement. Recently Hwang Sok-yong has moved away somewhat from the strict realism of his earlier works. He mixes imagination and fantasy with reality and truth, as in works like Sonnim (The Guest) or Princess Bari. In the latter, Hwang not only borrows a shamanistic theme, but also experiments with the format of shamanistic rituals. He is also not averse to the idea of trying new media to reach his readers, especially the younger generation that started to read him in larger numbers with Princess Bari. AK: Your latest work was originally serialized on the Internet, I understand. HS: Yes, it was. For some time now there has been a lively literary scene on the Internet. But this scene has often been characterized by commercialism and consumerism. Serious writers have tended to neglect the Internet as a literary medium and maybe it is time for us to get more involved. I thought I would give it a try as an experiment in finding new ways to interact with the readers and the netizen community.

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INTERVIEW

The writer with Anders Karlsson

AK: Are you considering publishing your future work on the Internet as well? HS: First of all I must say that it was a very positive experience. From young schoolchildren to the elderly, we all share the experience of schooling and the trials of growing up. Altogether there were approximately 1,800,000 hits on the novel. On weekends there could be as many as two to 300 netizen comments attached after the text, and I would also write replies. Many things have changed since the 1960s, but under the surface many things are the same. Published on the Internet like this, the story really stimulated a lively discussion across generations. I, however, don’t think I will publish any more literary works in this manner. I am considering starting a literary blog magazine, though, together with a group of young writers. I guess I belong to what they call the “digilog” generation: a generation that uses the Internet as a medium, but who still thinks that the input must be based on the reading of books. Since Hwang Sok-yong started his literary career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, South Korea has undergone drastic political change. He not only describes this in his books, but he himself has been a driving force behind these changes. For this he has paid the price of exile and imprisonment. AK: You said earlier that with your latest work, you wanted to encourage young people of today by telling them about your own youth in the 1960s. The social and political situation back then that formed your own views on politics and social change, was very different from the situation today. How do you think these changes on politics and social movements have influenced the views among the younger generation? HS: The situation has changed very much indeed. Young people of today are very protective of their individuality 28

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Hwang Sok-yong's latest work Gaebapbaragibyeol Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp., 2008

and they do not put much trust in the collective or in groups. I think the recent candlelight demonstrations are a good example of the sentiments of young people today. In the media, the emphasis has mainly been on the import of US beef, but in fact these demonstrations are prompted by discontent over a large number of issues. The interesting thing is that they were not initiated by any one leading figure or organization, but rather by the mass of young people who got together over the Internet and agreed to start these protests. It is a very diverse and fluid movement, and famous and prominent figures from the older generation of political activists only play a minor role in it. This is the Internet generation making its voice heard. AK: Would you say that this is a Korean phenomenon, given the country’s famously high Internet usage? HS: I have seen similar events in London, Paris and Berlin as well. People from all walks of life, all with their own views and ideas, gathering under the banner of the anti-war campaign and conducting the protests more in the manner of a festival. AK: Finally, could you please tell us a little bit about your future projects? HS: I originally had plans to write a work on a grand scale, describing the development of Korean capitalism by telling the story of the formation of Gangnam, the affluent Seoul areas south of the Han River. However, some months ago I visited Bali and got fascinated by Balinese Hinduism with its potential presence of deities in all kinds of small items. So I changed my mind and I am now thinking of writing a compressed satirical story, borrowing the format of Ggogdu Gagsi, the traditional Korean puppet play, with condensed and simplified figures acting out the story. By Anders Karlsson

Healing the Wounds of History, One Book at a Time One might say that the life and works of Hwang Sok-yong are in and of themselves a modern history of Korea. The lives embodied in his works go beyond being unique experiences of individuals, to being concrete examples of Korean history. The reality revealed in his works is a painful memory of the people Korea literally wanted to overlook. With a cool but penetrating gaze, Hwang exposes wounds that most people want to turn away from and ignore. His gaze casts a heavy anchor in the hearts of readers trying to forget. What he says is that the atmosphere and life in Korea, which we can’t turn away from, are in shreds. Hwang, who was born in Manchuria, began his literary career while in high school. His remarkable talent, manifest in works spanning the 1960s and 70s, was compressed into a collection titled The Land of Strangers in the 1970s. The Road to Sampo, published in the 1970s, is a record of life in this land, which had suffered in the name of development. Rare is a collection that exposes the issues of industrialization, human isolation, and the loss of a homeland, as masterfully as The Land

of Strangers.

Hereafter, the depth with which Hwang deals with reality becomes a bit more decisive. The Shadow of

Arms, which is about the Vietnam War, and Jang Kilsan, which reveals the irony of an era through the justifiable nature of the existence of chivalrous robbers, are works that hold fast to life in the “present day,” beyond time and space. All the major works by Hwang deal with important aspects of Korean history so much that the issues captured through his literary perspective are confirmed to be the issues of the present era. It must be noted that Hwang reveals the patterns of a time period by dealing with the society, era, and history, while at the same time dealing with the concreteness that has settled deep in the lives of individuals. In that respect, it would be correct to refer to him literally as a masterpiece writer, beyond such classifications as a realist or a modernist. His recent works, published since the 2000s, aptly demonstrate the path taken by Hwang, searching for a writer’s ethics by making novel attempts and sympathizing with the era. Hwang has gone beyond

the classic framework of facts, compounding different factors such as fact or reality and imagination or fantasy. Through such juxtapositions, Hwang makes life appear unfamiliar, and gives a bird’s eye view of it as a problem, as in The Guest, which sheds new light on the history of this land through the shamanist rite of “gut” (exorcism), or in Princess Bari, based on the narrative of Princess Bari rites. If Hwang is currently working on a novel, then the subject is certain to be the symptoms of an illness that this nation is suffering. If The Guest deals with the issue of the two Koreas, then that is the issue of the day, and if An Old Garden ruminates on the generation of the democratization period, that too would be the current issue. The paradoxical import of Hwang Sok-yong’s works, which are historical and current at the same time, thus becomes the value of Korean literature. His novels contain a strength that overcomes values or subjectivity. By Kang Yu-Jung

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EXCERPT 10 Burning the Clothes BURIAL SETTING OUT FROM his uncle’s place in Some, Yosŏp and the guide climbed into the car and headed towards town. Cautiously, Yosŏp asked the guide in the front seat, “Would it be possible to drop by Ch’ansaemgol on the way?” “There’s someplace else you want to go, too?” The guide grimaced, glancing at his wristwatch. “We’ve got to be at the hotel by lunchtime.” “I was just wondering if we could have a quick look at the place as we pass through...” “I say, Reverend, you sure do have a lot of requests.” “I’m just curious to see if the place I used to call home is still the way it was back then.” “It won’t be anything like the old days-everything’s been changed by the introduction of the cooperative system.” “I’d be happy just to get a glimpse of the hill behind the village.” The guide laughed. “We have no way of even knowing where Ch’ansaem is.” “It’s in the Onchŏn township, so it’ll be on the corner as we drive up.” At that, the guide consented quite readily, saying, “Oh, well, if that’s the case, you can just tell us where to go.”

The Guest By Hwang Sok-yong Translated by Kyung-Ja Chun and Maya West Published by Seven Stories Press

Through the entangled past of three brothers, The Guest explores the wounds and deep suffering that people endured during the Korean War and during Korean modern history at large. The Guest was serialized in the Hankook Ilbo from October 2000 to March 2001. The following excerpt is from chapters 10 and 11 out of 12 chapters.

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Just as they had a few days earlier, they drove along the town’s paved roads and empty streets. As they reached the outskirts of town and the rice paddies began to stretch out before them on either side, an open field ringed by the ridges of low mountains came into view in the distance. The orchard was exactly where it had been all those years ago. Standing along the ridges were the apple trees. Each fruit was ripening at its own pace, countless different shades of apples peeking through the green leaves. “That’s it right over there. Just stop at the corner of that road for a minute, please.” Stalks of corn lined the road, swaying back and forth in the autumn wind. Two-story duplexes made of gray brick stood at identical intervals along the hillside, surrounded by the orchard. Yosŏp was amazed to see that the village that had seemed so spacious to him as a child actually took up no more space than a small corner of the low hill. The levee where Yosŏp used to take the cow to graze had, at some point, been transformed into a cement embankment. Only the starwort blossoming by the cornfields was still the same. The tiny little flowers still seemed to be laughing out loud in the wind. Yosŏp stood there for a moment, looking up at the vast expanse of sky, then took the clothes out of the bundle he’d brought out with him from the car. The guide, who’d been smoking a cigarette off to

11 Matrix of Spirits WHAT WILL BECOME the side, came up to him. “What have you got there?” “It belonged to my brother,” Yosŏp replied, waving his brother’s old underwear at the guide. “I promised my sister-in-law that I would help put some of her demons to rest.” “Ah, you brought them with you from Sariwŏn.” Yosŏp started off along the old levee path, cutting through the cornfields up to the base of the hill. The guide, having no idea what was going on, followed close behind. Avoiding the areas that were choked with weeds, Yosŏp chose a sunny spot where the dirt was visibly dry and crouched down to the ground. He reached down and gathered a handful of dirt. “What are you doing?” The guide seemed confused as he followed Yosŏp’s gaze towards the patch of bare earth. Yosŏp answered him with a question of his own. “You have a lighter, don’t you?” Apparently still unable to grasp what was going on, the baffled guide took out his lighter and handed it over to Yosŏp. Collecting a small pile of dry twigs from here and there, Yosŏp heaped them together and set the tiny pyre ablaze. The twigs flared up, crackling loudly. Above the flame, Yosŏp held the underwear that Big Brother Yohan had used to deliver his son Tanyŏl. The cloth fibers curled up, distorted, and the edges of the garment began to turn black, rapidly burning inwards. Holding it in his hand, Yosŏp turned the cloth over the flame, slowly, a bit at a time, so as to burn it all the way through. When all that remained was a square of cloth about the size of his palm, Yosŏp tossed the whole thing atop the miniature bonfire. It shriveled up and disappeared instantly. Moving over, Yosŏp began to dig a small hole in the ground. After he scooped out several handfuls of dirt, the consistency of the soil became damp and mixed with leaves. He continued digging, and about a handspan further down, the soil became soft, pink, and tender. After sorting out all the little pebbles and patting the bottom of the hole down to make it firm, Yosŏp took out the leather pouch he’d been keeping on him. Untying it, he took out the tojang-shaped sliver of bone that had once belonged to his brother and placed it in the hole. He filled it back up with dirt. Just as one might do to put a baby to sleep, he kept patting the little mound of dirt that was left. You’re home now, Big Brother, were the words Yosŏp wanted to say out loud.

THE WIND BLOWS HARD. All the grass on the hillside is flattened in one direction; the tips of the blades tremble violently, as if they are being washed away by a powerful ocean current. Particles of dirt smash themselves against his face and earlobes as the wind pushes against his chest and thighs. Even the crows can’t seem to fly properly. They flap their wings over and over but eventually, the moment they pause for even the briefest instant, they plummet towards the ground. The crows fall, but just as they are about to graze the earth they suddenly soar back up into the sky and disappear, flying swiftly in the opposite direction like a piece of paper blowing away in the wind. Their thin, naked branches shivering, the trees scream. A long line of people, hunched over at the waist, all move in one direction. They look as if they are each dragging something extremely heavy behind them. The endless parade has no visible beginning or end. A winding path passes through the field, leading up into a faraway lavender mountain ridge. They do not speak. From here, only their backs are visible. The sun is setting. Clouds soaked in twilight flow past. Just like the birds blown away by the wind, the clouds, too, stream backwards into oblivion. The reddish skies darken, and the moon rises like a piece of cloth in faded indigo. Under the moonlight, the parade of people moves on, making slow progress. The high, steep path up the mountain ends at the peak. He can see the stripe of river etched in white and the lights of the village far below. Like a bird, he soars up and over the scene. Below him a series of hills and a thin stream race by. He hears the cows moo in the distance and hears the hens cackle as they lay their eggs. He hears the people in the paddies, singing as they plant next year’s rice crop. The fast beating of drums is superimposed on the buoyant, metallic sound of cymbals. He hears the mother call to her children. Kids, time to eat. *** Once again, Reverend Ryu Yosŏp woke up from another early morning dream. It wasn’t time to go yet. He pulled the curtains open and looked out the window at the deserted streets. The streetlamps remained unlit; Pyongyang was still covered in darkness. In the apartment complex across the road, though, several lights were on_ around the middle and towards the top of the building. Has someone gotten up already to get ready for work? A car drove by, slowly, along the empty road. He gazed at himself as he was, reflected dimly on the windowpane. It was the face of the most familiar man in his whole world.

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REVIEWS

INTERVIEW

“You draw cartoons with your feet.” An Interview with Cartoonist Hur Young Man

Hur Young Man is one of the busiest artists in Korea. He draws two comic episodes each day for one daily and one Internet portal. Freeloader, a series that began in 2002, deals with various kinds of Korean food, while Face Reading, which started in 2008, deals with physiognomy. Apart from his thinning hair, Hur’s looks haven’t changed, while his artistic style has gone through major changes over time, he himself has remained the same. He is laid-back and confident. Despite the fact that he’s a grandfather over sixty, his openness to the changing times and readers has planted a permanent, youthful spark in him. Park Seokhwan: You must be busy. Hur Young Man: You’re stating the obvious. Park: You’ve been busy for the last three decades. I thought if you weren’t busy for once, it should make national headlines. (laughs) Hur: I’ve been working on comics for a long time and I still have projects I want to work on. I'm getting busier every year. I wish I could just focus on drawing, but a lot of people want me to do other things...

Hur Young Man’s comics are far from cartoonish. He tends to draw on subjects that are generally not dealt with in comics but happen to be of great interest to many people. This takes a great deal of field and library research, interviews with experts, and fact checking. Park: You have a predilection for difficult topics. You have to pick dishes according to the season, research restaurants, and find related literature for Freeloader, and Face Reading also involves a great deal of research and face analysis of famous people.

Hur: It was neither hard nor easy. It was necessary. I can’t draw something I don’t know about. I haven’t done history or sci-fi comics. I couldn’t do those. I have to see it in order to draw it, but I can’t travel to the past or the future, can I? (laughs) Park: Many people believe imagination is more integral to cartoons than informativeness. Don’t you think you’re spending too much time poring over research material? Hur: A true story is believable even if it isn’t told very well, but it’s no fun reading unrealistic fiction. For comics, entertainment is key. To make it entertaining, you have to make it real, and you can’t achieve that with what’s only in your mind. Even if everything else looks right, if you screw up one little plate of food, the readers begin to question the artist. That saps the fun out of reading comics. That’s why I have to be cautious with every frame and every line. I have to interview people and take pictures. You draw cartoons with your feet. The stories are out there, not at your desk.

Hur’s comics are touching and insightful as well as interesting. His works contain just enough information, humor, and personal belief. Korean readers enjoy Hur’s delectable pieces, which have gone on to meet a wider audience through movies, TV series, animated films, and computer games. Park: Many of your pieces were reborn as movies and TV

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INTERVIEW series’, all of which were hits. Has this turned “Hur Young Man” into a brand name in the entertainment industry? Hur: The movies and TV series’ were successful because the people who made them did a great job. I simply gave the rights to talented people. Comics and movies are different, so I figure it’s best to let the experts do their thing. Park: It seems that your dedication to researching good topics and creating multi-dimensional characters and settings has made your plots such attractive screenplays. Tazza, the series on gamblers, was made into a movie, and now a second movie based on the series is in production. It’ll also be aired as a TV series. The movie Freeloaders was released last year and is now a TV series. Your urban romantic cartoon, I Love You, is now also a TV series. I take it you have no time to watch any of these. What projects are you currently planning?

countries. I’m counting on Korean agencies to export comics suitable for a foreign readership. I personally would like to draw comics that are suitable for the Japanese market, since it’s the biggest and most renowned around. I’d like to rise to the challenge and put my work out there. Park: Thank you for your time. I hope your comics continue to do well overseas. Last question: What other projects do you have lined up? Hur: I’m currently focusing on Freeloaders and Face Reading. There are so many things I want and need to do that I can’t list them all. (laughs) (This interview is a compilation of several interviews conducted over the phone.) By Park Seokhwan

Hur: It makes me feel good knowing that fans of my comics are encountering my pieces all over again through different media. I go to movie previews, but it’s hard to keep up with all the TV series. (laughs) Tazza is made up of four volumes, and all four will be produced as movies, in chronological order. Bride Mask, one of my favorites (probably because it is one of my first comics), is also being turned into a movie. It’ll be released this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they depicted the large scale of the setting and Manchuria during the Japanese Occupation.

Hur has produced over 200 pieces throughout his career. The breadth and variety of his work covers a wide range of age groups from children to adults. He draws inspiration from such a vast pool that no two pieces are on the same topic. His style has also evolved over time according to his subject matter and intended audience. Park: I noticed your oeuvre mainly consisted of children’s comics in the beginning and only recently started shifting gears to adult comics. Your recent comics are also more informational than plot-driven. Hur: I’m conscious of the fact that my readers are aging with me, and so I cater to their needs. (laughs) There’s also the observation that graphic novels have hit a roadblock whereas informative comics are thriving. Readers’ tastes have changed quite a bit, too. Park: What are some of your comics that have been introduced abroad? Is there any particular piece that you’d like to see translated into any particular language? Hur: The young adult comic, Beat; No Defeat, a biography of Jang Hun, the Korean-Japanese pro baseball player; and Freeloaders have made their way into various Asian 34

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This cartoon series introduces the representative foods from Korean cuisine along with various stories about the people who eat them. This has been serialized since 2003. Gimm Young Publishers, Inc.

Portrait of a Cartoonist Hur Young Man Cartoonist Hur Young Man was born in Yeosu (present day Yeocheon), Jeon’nam Province, in 1947. Upon completing high school, Hur moved to Seoul and studied cartoons under teachers such as Lee Hyang Won. He made his debut through the Youth Korea Times New Cartoonist Contest. His debut piece, The Way Home, was an animal adventure piece about a small boy, Timmy, who gets separated from his parents while on vacation. Timmy finds his way home with the help of his trusty dog, Sam. In the same year, Hur released his new series, Bride Mask, the Korean equivalent of Zorro, set during the Japanese Occupation. This marked the beginning of his uninterrupted success that has lasted for 30 years and has established him as Korea’s greatest cartoonist. Since 2000, Hur has been producing many series such as Tazza, a portrait of gamblers set in the tumultuous

period of contemporary Korean history; Freeloaders, an insight into the food and lives of Koreans as they unfold through cooking contests; Dictionary of Korean Riches, the finance management of the rich; and Face Reading, a guide to the world of physiognomy. The protagonists of Hur’s stories are not powerful heroes, but humans conflicted over the duality of situations and attitudes. His works have earned critical acclaim for being simultaneously entertaining and perceptive by astutely yet humorously depicting the two-faced nature of humans. His major works include Superboard (for children), Beat (for young adults), Asphalt Man, Tazza, and Freeloaders (for adults). Many animated features, films, and TV series are based on his works, which are widely known in the entertainment world as screenplay goldmines.

As a tireless artist, he is also a teacher and colleague of leading Korean cartoonists such as Kim Jun Beom and Yoon TaeHo. A graduate of Dankook University where he studied business, he is now a professor at Sunchon National University’s Department of Cartoon Art. Hur received the Korean Cartoon Prize, Bucheon International Cartoon Prize with Freeloaders in 2004, and the Gobau Cartoon prize in 2007. A total of seven of his works, including Beat, Tazza, and Freeloaders, have been made into movies. Six of his works were adapted for various TV series, and others like Hammer and Superboard have been made into animated films or PC games. By Park Seokhwan

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EXCERPT

Gaining insight into one’s past and future by studying one’s face is fun and dangerous at the same time.

Three years ago, when the publisher proposed physiognomy as the next topic, my family opposed.

Tsk

Have you run out of things to draw about?

It’s a big departure from your previous works.

I don’t always consult my family on what to draw next, but I had wanted to hear their thoughts on this one.

Grr

Although the system of democracy where majority rules is often inconvenient and a waste of time, I figured I’d listen to them.

Face Reading

Publisher? Not gonna do it!

And then I set out on a hiking trip to Mount Everest with the Himalaya Man, Park Young Suk.

By Hur Young Man Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008, 268p ISBN 978-89-6086-112-1

Face Reading is a graphic novel about reading one’s fate through the study of physiognomy. The graphic novel educates and informs, not through pedantry, but through sheer entertainment. The first of the projected series was published in 2008.

The Mount Everest Base Camp is on the Tibetan side, a field of rocks 5400 meters above sea level. We had to endure wind, dust, and snowstorms for two months while climbing up and down the mountain.

One very windy night when the semi-spherical tent was stretched to the shape of a yam by tremendous wind, I lay awake worrying about the prospect of getting blown away. It was then that I started thinking about physiognomy again.

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If we were born great, do we remain great even if we do evil?

Is life predetermined?

If we were born mediocre, do we remain so despite all the good things we do?

You’re going to study with me looking like that?

I don’t want to expose myself to you.

Go Jeong Ran, chaperone sent by the publisher to make sure I’m not slacking off.

If one is born to be rich, does one stay rich? even if one is extravagant and lazy?

If you were born to be poor, would you be troubled by financial difficulties for the rest of your life even if you worked until your bones break?

I was particularly interested in how plastic surgery would change one’s fate.

As I lay peering out from my heavily padded sleeping bag, these questions swimming in my head, it became clear what I had to do.

Fine, I will draw about physiognomy!

How long will it take me to develop an eye for this?

Th..that long?

Ten years to become a master!

We’ll be leaving now. Life is short. I don’t have three years to waste.

Mmph

Three years will go by whether or not you study physiognomy.

A good topic is to an artist as a gazelle is to a hungry lion.

Three years!

sprrril!

Besides, if I put the effort into studying physiognomy, I could go be a fortuneteller after I retire from drawing.

But do I look like the type?

How long before I learn enough about it to write about it? A year? Two years? Three years?

I see your point.

So exactly what is physiognomy, the study of one’s face?

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REVIEWS Fiction

The Dissection and Defense of Mankind Kindhearted Bokhee Park Wan-seo, Moonji Publishing, 2008, 302p ISBN 978-89-320-1814-0 03810

Park Wan-seo was born in 1931. She appeared on the literary scene in 1970 at the rather late age of forty, but has been pursuing an extremely active writing career ever since. Now, at the age of seventy-seven, she is one of the oldest writers in Korea. She has written novels in diverse genres including postwar novels, urban novels, novels about women, and novels concerning people in their old age, but one can say that the underlying theme of her work is the exploration of the intrinsic nature of human beings. It is hardly surprising then that recently she has started to write about the elderly. However, in her own words, “it is not only the elderly who read Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’” and likewise she herself has received an overwhelming response from readers of all age groups. This is because the elderly people in Park Wanseo’s novels have qualities that all humans can relate to. For the same reason, her work has been described as “literature that, like a dinosaur, does not stop growing” and “a mighty living tree among Korean novels.” Nine years after The Loneliness of You (1998), the distinctive features and strengths of Park Wan-seo’s literature are again much in evidence in her new short story collection, Kindhearted Bokhee (2007). Of course, in between these two works, she has published fulllength novels such as The Very Old Joke (2000) and That Man’s House, as if she were using a microscope to see what is inside human beings, yet her scathing satire remains unchanged. This anthology of novels is made up of nine short novels published between 2001 and 2006. The keyword that runs

through these novels is “scandal.” Park provides deep insight into the true nature of human beings as revealed through various scandals. A typical example is the absurd scandal in “The Abundant Dinner Table.” This scandal is about the narrator’s friend, Gyeong-sil, who lives together as a couple with her son-in-law’s father less than a year after the death of his wife. She does so in order to bring up her grandchildren, after she loses her daughter and son-in-law in a plane crash. She is also blamed for using the large sum of compensation money left to her grandsons. Ultimately, however, Gyeong-sil does not care about the ridiculous rumors, as she considers the care and concern for her young orphaned grandchildren more important. Her view that “the ‘common sense’ of the world that you can’t explain to children can be ignored” sums up her ‘humanness’ and her logic that transcends convention. The scandal in “Forty-Eight-Years Old” is also considerable. A woman who diligently does volunteer work by helping elderly men who live alone is so hypocritical that when it comes to the dirty laundry of her own father-in-law, she picks up his underwear with tongs. The woman’s logic is that what one can cope with in the case of other people can be difficult when it relates directly to oneself. From this stems this irony: we have to recognize the inconsistency and duplicity in human beings in order to acquire the sense of justice to overcome it. Hypocrisy inevitably intervenes in all human affairs – it is an essential lubricant. Park’s moral

principle is that if one pretends to be nice, in the end one will become nice. With this chain of reasoning, Park Wanseo dissects human hypocrisy with a sharp surgeon’s scalpel. It is not because people are good, but precisely because they are not capable of being good, that humans must make more efforts to improve. “Candlelit Table” depicts a son and his family who, so anxious to avoid letting his parents know that they have returned home, eat dinner by candlelight instead of using electricity, while “Kindhearted Bokhee” portrays an elderly husband who, despite being paralyzed down one side of his body, tries to satiate his wife’s sexual desire by buying Viagra. In these two stories Park aims to show us the wretchedness of the human condition. However, according to her, human beings are not great “in spite of ” this wretchedness, but are great because of it. In “As Good as Free,” “Eat Up, Hu-nam,” “Nonetheless A Happy Ending,” and “For Nostalgia’s Sake,” a panorama of recovery and optimism unfolds, and in the end, Park has faith in human nature and defends its warmth. As she shows us the intrinsic human nature through “negative film,” Park simply pursues shamelessness without mocking it. Her productive and challenging thought is that it is only by confronting human hypocrisy that human nature can change for the better. By Kim Mi Hyun

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REVIEWS Fiction

An Ordinarily Extraordinary Life My Sweet Seoul Jung Yi-hyun, Moonji Publishing, 2008, 442p ISBN 978-89-320-1715-8 03810

The life of a 30-something single career woman seems “ordinary” in every sense of the word, yet integrating love and money brings exceptional challenges.

It is easy to say that something is standard or ordinary. But living an ordinary life could be the most difficult task to achieve, since the adjective “ordinary” is just a grand illusion that exists only in our mind. When asked to pick the most ordinary person, one might be deeply baffled. After all, each individual is unique and special. Jung Yi-hyun stages an entertaining battle against the illusion of the banal by depicting a Korean woman’s ordinary life and work in a rather extraordinary fashion.

Thirty-something Oh Eun-su is a deputy manager at a publishing company who has a seven-year career under her belt. She is an ordinary Korean in every aspect. Nothing in her family background, education, appearance, or even personality can be categorized as other than ordinary. Strangely enough, her everyday life is full of deviation and struggle. The novel chronicles Oh’s ordinary office life and romantic relationships in Seoul, but the way they are described is far from ordinary. Love, marriage, and dating are three different things in modern life, but Oh and other “ordinary” Korean women want the three things to be integrated into a single, perfect harmony. But what if such integration is just an urban myth or illusion? The novel’s delicate depiction of the character in her 30s is telling because her everyday life is full of frustrations. The chief stumbling blocks to the integration of the three modes of a single woman’s life are none other than money and temptation. A younger man, though charming enough, lacks money; a rich man, however, seriously lacks attractiveness. A young woman’s heart swings rapidly and recklessly in accordance with the intensity of such temptation, creating a potentially lethal emotional cycle. What’s more lethal is that in this world, even romantic love depends heavily, if not entirely, on money. The sheer dilemma facing young women in the metropolitan city of Seoul makes it tricky to blame them for preferring an expensive Starbucks coffee whose price is almost double that of a cheap lunch. For adult women who cannot imagine their lives without all the conveniences that the metropolis offers. The novel is a kind of second initiation. For readers who are drawn to Oh, who “is 32 years old, doesn’t have anything, no achievement, no man I deeply love, or no man who deeply loves me,” the novel will leave a subtle aftertaste like the caffeine in a Starbucks caramel macchiato. By Jung Yeo-ul

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REVIEWS Fiction

Six Degrees of Separation Whoever You Are, However Lonely You Are Kim Yeon-su, Munhak Dongne Publishing Corp. 2008, 394p, ISBN 978-89-546-0398-0-03810

When intellectual sparring leads to a dead end, two university co-eds discover their connection through personal stories. What begins as a simple storytelling game leads to romance and the realization that what moves an individual touches the entire nation.

They notice that ‘storytelling’ is the most effective alternative to real romance. At first, they exchange their views on popular topics such as philosophy, literature, and politics. When they run out of topics, they have nothing else to talk about – except for their own personal stories. Through a simple storytelling game, they come to realize that their personal stories involve an intricate network of people, starting with family members, and much more. By sharing their most intimate stories about their family members, they build up their relationship. The novel starts off with a description of a nude photo and then expands its scope to the history of a single group, a nation, and then the entire world. It is not about historical movers and shakers; it is about a secret history hidden behind the seemingly expressionless façade of individuals, woven into a literary web of surprises and insights.

No matter how hard people try to stay away from history, people eventually face the history of the time, just like how love defies endless rejections and eventually makes it to the final destination. The novel itself proves that even a modest personal story can turn into a beautiful novel. Simultaneously, the novel demonstrates that individuals cannot live alone, and their fate is an essential part of a broader history. The novel also reveals a secret glue that cleaves together the narrator and others in the web of history: love. Without such truthful encounters, life will be nothing more than a depressing wasteland. Perhaps that is why people continue to seek such encounters through a personal journey, which is endlessly ‘novel.’ By Jung Yeo-ul

In the 1980s, Korean novelists turned out stories about political struggle and oppression. At the time, typical subject matter involved people fighting off a dark reality and trying to overcome obstacles. Pent-up human desire, however, flooded the literary scene in the 1990s, like a latent volcano suddenly spewing its fiery energy. In the 21st century, something new is looming large. There is no shortage of information; however, people find fewer and fewer stories portraying humans in an insightful way. The unfortunate downside or side effect of modernity is that even the value of fiction is judged by money. Welcome to the world where everything, even novels, are deemed a mere commodity. Kim Yeon-su, however, bucks the trend. He fights to explore what a novel is and what a novel can mean to people at a time when not only individual, but also collective storytelling is fading away. The result of Kim’s impassioned efforts is Whoever You Are, However Lonely You Are. In the novel, Jeong-min and the first person narrator feel drawn toward each other while engaging in the prodemocracy movement at college.

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REVIEWS Fiction relationships that develop into serious love or friendship. But on-line networks, though crucial for communication, have long been disregarded. Critics often use negative adjectives to describe cyberspace: “onetime, anonymous, irresponsible, and even unethical.” Characters in Kim’s new novel do not accept the negative perception about on-line communication; rather, they fully embrace their identity built up on what is called the “cultural garbage” in cyberspace. The Internet, after all, is much more than a communications network for the new generation. It signifies the younger generation’s mental and cultural center.

Jacks of All Trades and Masters of None Quiz Show Kim Young-ha, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2008, 463p, ISBN 978-89-5460-417-8 03810

An online game show becomes more than a mere way to pass time for a group of cyber-savvy 20somethings. The stakes become a matter of life and death for its disaffected protagonist.

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Kim Young-ha is adept at reflecting his personal taste in the form of refined stories. Kim, in his 40s, is one of the few writers who can seamlessly capture the sensibilities of people in their 20s. His latest novel Quiz Show is an entertaining take on Koreans in their 20s, many of whom feel a deep sense of loneliness. The young group is often dubbed the “880,000-won” generation because today’s youth can barely get by on such a small salary; they often work at convenience stores and get little public attention in Korean society. Kim’s interpretation of this particular group is that: “The most beautiful people are often in the most unfortunate state.” Kim, in fact, belongs to the first generation of PC on-line users who experienced the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. Kim says that his generation noticed the huge potential of the on-line community where people could talk with each other in real time without revealing their true identities, and even have on-line

In the novel, a man in his 20s embarks on an on-line journey after having lost his family, job, and his loved one. He and his peers take an on-line quiz show very seriously. The online show is a make-or-break showdown that can determine their entire life in a single bet. Twentysomethings are under fire for their addiction to cyberspace, but Kim’s perspective reveals a different image. “We studied hard, we’re more intelligent and we can speak foreign languages better and we can deal with technology like simple toys. Many of us have a college degree, our TOEIC scores are high and we can watch Hollywood action films without Korean subtitles. We can also type at least 300 characters per minute; we are on average taller; everyone can play at least one musical instrument – you can play the piano, right? – and we read a lot more than our parents did. Strange thing is, our parents’ generation could make a fine living if they were good at only one thing. But how come we are idling away our lives even though we can do far more and far better? Why is it that all of us are without jobs? What the heck is wrong with us?” By Jung Yeo-ul

REVIEWS Fiction

Brave New Family My Happy House Gong Ji-Young, Prunsoop Publishing Co. Ltd. 2008, 347p, ISBN 978-89-7184-755-8 03810

The surging divorce rate and disintegration of the traditional family is no longer an abnormality. The collapse of family, however, is turning out new breeds of family structures. Alternative forms, including remarriage by divorced parents, multicultural families, and oneperson families, are on the steady rise. Gong Ji-Young’s My Happy House involves one extreme family where a mother raises three children, whose fathers are different from one another. In fact, the story itself mirrors Gong’s real life; she is raising her three kids from three different partners. What is more important than the parallel between the fictional character and Gong’s peculiar private life is that her novel captures the problems plaguing the Korean family system. Statistics shows that 74.3 percent of children whose parents get divorced end up living with their mothers and 85 percent of them fail to receive any child support from their fathers. The traditional concept of family remains highly conservative.

The very symbol of such rigid notions about family is a Korean expression that roughly translates into “defective family,” a concept that acknowledges the family whose biological parents maintain marriage as the only legitimate one. The stigmatizing expression of “defective family” should be eliminated, and Gong does the job in her novel by bringing to life children who never suffer from defects and anxiety. The mother feels deeply guilty about her three divorces, but her children remain cool and collected. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you this before, but I got a divorce,” she says, with tears streaming down her face. Her daughter’s reply is short yet to the point: “But why do you feel sorry for me?” My Happy House is Gong’s humane tribute to those brave families who try to build up their sweet home, not by blood but by love, despite the painfully unhappy situation.

A Room with No Home A Pool of Saliva

one-room accommodations such as a gosiwon, or study room, and basement rental rooms. Kim’s second collection of stories, A Pool of Saliva, has a sophisticated writing style that brings to life the Korean youth who find it extremely difficult to secure a single room. Kim, however, does not portray the dark and small rooms as depressing or suffocating; she pulls off a feat by describing the rooms as if they are a huge cosmos where space expands almost infinitely. She also casts a magical spell on her characters by extending a fleeting moment into their entire lives. Kim, also in her 20s, is widely recognized as a leading writer because of her cross-generational appeal. Young Korean writers tend to indulge in strange and grotesque stories or in an obscure background where time and space do not matter much. But Kim always starts from an ordinary episode and then leads readers to the often ignored truths of life by focusing on the most mundane aspects of everyday life. Instead of highlighting the ordinary anecdotes of so-called important people, Kim continues to discover great stories out of ordinary people, demonstrating her rare and insightful storytelling talent. By Jung Yeo-ul

Kim Aeran, Moonji Publishing, 2008, 309p ISBN 978-89-320-1804-0 03810

The generation in their twenties is the most overlooked generation in Korea in the 21st century. Not long ago, they were featured as central characters in television dramas and movies. Marketers also focused on their influence as trendsetters. Many of them, however, are now trapped in a cycle of youth unemployment. They are widely called the “880,000-won” generation, an expression that refers to their extremely low monthly wages. The unfortunate generation does not have a place called a “home.” They are squeezed into a much smaller and restrictive space provided by a mere “room.” Kim Aeran persistently investigates the 20-year-olds’ cramped

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REVIEWS Fiction

The Skeptic’s Guide to Life Beauty Despises Me Eun Hee-kyung, Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2008, 228p, ISBN 978-89-364-3699-5 03810

Despises Me. Critic Shin Hyoung Cheol says, “Eun Hee-kyung’s earlier writing had razor blades that could cut you several times, though the pain must have been bearable. But her new stories come with a tricky knife that doesn’t look or feel like a knife, so you don’t realize you are suffering a deep wound until it’s too late.” Unlike her previous characters who were deeply skeptical about the necessity for direction in life, her new collection of stories introduces a new type of character yearning for a “map” or “guidepost” in their troubled lives. Beauty Despises Me, however, is not about discovering maps; it is about characters’ journeys to find them. They eventually realize that there is no such map. But it is too early to despair. By embracing life without the correct answers, one can lead a life that will be more beautiful, which is Eun’s new message.

History Personalized Key pillars that bolster Eun Hee-kyung’s novels are cynicism and half-hearted maliciousness. Her books are perhaps the most cynical among the Korean novels written in the 1990s. For Eun, all ideologies seem suspicious. The Gift of the Bird, for instance, is a chronicle of a 12-year-old girl who constantly suspects everything around her life. “Preposterous and petty coincidences dominate our life. Therefore, don’t bother to find the truth. After all, life is a joke.” But the writer’s intense suspicion and cynicism, strangely, results in a beautiful literary landscape. This explains why Eun’s writing style is considered one of the finest among her peers in the 1990s. Her novels depict a “world of at once extreme suspicion and beauty,” and “the acknowledgement of the hateful but inevitable fate.” Eun demonstrates a dramatically softened – and warmer – voice in Beauty 44

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Lee Jin Shin Kyong-suk, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 2007, 360p, ISBN 978-89-546-0322-5 04810

Severe poverty and ‘barbaric’ customs plagued the late Joseon period when the nation was forced to open up to foreign forces. Shortly after Joseon pulled itself out of the grip of the Q’ing Dynasty, it had to grapple with imperial powers seeking to dominate the Korean peninsula. Unprecedented chaos, sparked by the imbalance between China, a declining empire, and Japan, a rising regional power, was the defining image that describes the turbulent period. Shin Kyong-suk, however, has not bemoaned the disheartening fall of Joseon; instead, she has created a largescale odyssey in which a beautiful courtesan embarks on a journey in search of her true love. Shin’s writing

doesn’t bring back to life a barren landscape saddled with poverty, but a shimmering myth about an individual who rises above the rubble of failed political decisions. This is an entirely new picture that goes beyond the typical descriptions of the trouble-laden period. Shin weaves a moving tale of a real life figure that cannot be found in school textbooks; she has drawn her inspiration from a brief historical passage about a Joseon court dancer who left for Paris after falling in love with a French diplomat. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when diplomatic conflicts and economic confrontation prevailed, there was no room for the individual. Shin, however, attempts to revive the innermost state of a woman, Lee Jin, down to the finest details. She does this in a way that proves the significance of a personal history in the context of broader social and political turmoil. Also restored in Shin’s novel is the lively and dynamic life of the Joseon people. In the novel, a Catholic priest named Blanc, who offers a chance for Lee Jin to learn French, says he is deeply surprised by three facts about Joseon. First, this small country in East Asia has its own language and writing system. Second, the Joseon people, even its lower-class citizens, have a strong literary culture in which they borrow books from each other. Third, Joseon people tend to eat a lot. By Jung Yeo-ul

REVIEWS Fiction snobbery in Lee, but deep inside her lies a complex mind that rarely reconciles with all her materialist desires.

Chick Lit, Korean Style Style Baek Young-ok, Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 336p, ISBN 978-89-5913-295-9 03810

“Sex and the City,” a popular television series, has captivated women across the world. The hugely successful series has demonstrated how up-and-coming single women in a big city explore their true identity – through sex and shopping. Something more than a simple adoration of Carrie and Samantha is at work. The single women in “Sex and the City” openly pursue their capitalist fetishes and desires, a point that strikes many female viewers as refreshing. Taking a cue from “Sex and the City,” Baek Young-ok’s Style targets readers who avidly absorb chick lit novels. Lee Seo-jeong has been working as a fashion magazine reporter for eight years, and like Carrie in “Sex and the City,” she has an unlimited passion for Hermes bags and Manolo Blahnik heels, but she also has a not-so-materialist side, such as her longstanding contribution to a charity that helps starving children in Africa. For Lee, there is no conflict between her addictive shopping for luxury goods and her sincere concern about African kids facing starvation. Some will see

The protagonist’s life is surrounded by interesting figures: a brand addict, a shopping queen, an expert in flattery, a cynical cook, and a workaholic who suffers from “smile syndrome.” She encounters one interesting character after another, which sheds light on the complex reality of Korean society. Despite her eight years of work experience, she does not have much extra cash in her savings account, no insurance, no mutual funds, and no boyfriend. In a single day, she considers resigning several times, but she still nurtures her fantasy about romantic and realistic love. She also serves up what her female colleagues chatter about in the workplace: “Whenever I think I’ve met a good catch, he turned out to be either married or gay! I don’t know why things go this way here.” “I don’t bother to have good sex. What I really want now is just to kick out of this double life of writing about well-being and at the same time eating only instant noodles.” Style portrays people who judge each other as snobs without revealing their true nature, but leaves a hopeful vision of reconciliation and mutual understanding.

Romance,

While Yun’s previous romance novels focused on the mysterious power of karma, Raising Swallows relies on the broader idea of a “meeting” rather than the narrow category of “romance.” While romance involves an attempt to capture the most enchanting moment, Yun’s attention is now placed on the yearning for eternal relationships that transcend the mundane world. The novel investigates how fated encounters work, even without going through social customs such as marriage. Dating, whose final destination is supposed to be marriage, is a relativist world where a sense of fear about parting prevails. Once such social restrictions are gone, a human-to-human encounter can be an absolute world where people do not control either sex or parting. Unlike his previous novels that revolved around a couple, Raising Swallows gives weighty significance to all the characters. In fact, the most ideal speaker of Yun’s previous novels was a man stuck with a lethal yet beautiful romance. Now, Yun’s new male protagonists are no longer impatient in their quest for love. They are now patient enough to listen to, say, a monologue by a grandmotherly figure, without any preconceptions. His past male protagonists used their lips to express their desires; his new male characters use their ears to listen to others attentively, which is a wise and welcome change. By Jung Yeo-ul

Beyond Chance Raising Swallows Yun Dae-nyeong, Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2007 319p, ISBN 978-89-364-3697-0 03810

Yun Dae-nyeong is adept at weaving tales about romance. There is no doubt that he has been one of the top three Korean romance writers in the past twenty years. Yoon used to create romantic stories in faraway settings, always through a dramatic encounter with a total stranger rather than someone encountered in everyday life. Romance, for Yun, is a myth that goes beyond everyday life, and love is a denial of fate.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR The novels and stories of Yi Chong-Jun (available for years to French readers in translation through the translations of Patrick Maurus, published by Actes Sud) constitute a substantial and often disturbing body of work. Readers who have read the works of other Korean novelists available through many different French publishers (such as Actes Sud or Zulma) will find his work powerfully original. Each reader can uncover, with more or less insight depending on their knowledge of the country’s history, hint after hint of the tragedies that afflicted Korea during the 20th century.

Yi Chong-Jun Looking Into the Heart of History Korean literary giant Yi Chong-Jun passed away last July 31 of lung cancer. University of Paris VIII Professor Emeritus Claude Mouchard, Yi’s close friend, wrote this article under the title “Yi Chong-Jun for French Readers” before Yi’s death. Through this article, one can pay homage to and relive the literary world of Yi Chung-Jun.

Born in 1939, Yi Chong-Jun was 11years old when the Korean War broke out. In the novel The Face of the Aggressor, he deals with the war through personal and family history. Suddenly the Korean drama, the asundering of the country, is condensed into a cruel fable: It was as if both sides had persecuted my stepbrother in order to kill him. Paradoxically, they were the ones who helped him to stay alive a little longer. The first group prevented him from being immediately killed by the second. Then, when he was captured by the first group, the second arrived, and in a way, saved him. This was how he found himself like a rabbit hunted by two eagles: the more they fought over the rabbit, the better its chances of survival.

Sometimes, the memories of the Korean War in the works of Yi Chong-Jun may seem strangely familiar to French and European readers who experienced the ravages of World War Two, or who are familiar with eyewitness accounts published in so many books in many different languages, during the second half of the 20th century. At times during the works of this great Korean writer, the sensations of a kind of primal violence remain or return to disturb the later lives of the survivors. This is the case in the story “The Wounded,” in which for one character, the trauma of the civil war comes back in the form of a sound, or rather a terrifying echo: “Deep down, the sound of gunfire remained a vivid memory inside me, because I had heard so many gunshots during the war.”

2 1

1 This Paradise of Yours published by Actes Sud, 1993 2 The Wounded published by Jimoondang Publishing Company, 2002 3 Io Island published by Actes Sud, 1991

In Yi’s world, the violence of life might crash down upon his characters from the outer elements, such as war. However, this violence is just as likely born from within the dark depths of his characters and their desires. At the same time, the author also reveals instances of resistance to this violence. In fact, at times violence and resistance become intertwined, becoming nearly impossible to distinguish. This can be seen in his female characters, especially the mothers. The presence of the latter is clearly important to his youthful characters, and ambiguous and even menacing in their desire-loaded stubbornness: Mother went back to gathering stones in the garden as she hummed in the dark. There seemed to be no end to the stones.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR The song was desperate and obsessive. There were so many stones that it seemed like she would never get rid of them. And the boy thought that her singing would never end….

Throughout his work, Yi Chong-Jun searches for forms of continuity across space and time and across the limits of the existence of individuals. In some of the author’s most gripping work, he resorts to the tradition of p’ansori, a traditional form of Korean singing. In one example, a brother tirelessly searches for his sister, and believes he has found her when voice and rhythm finally reunite: The woman paid no attention to the pain in her throat as she continued to tear songs from it. The man kept the beat on the tambourine, as though seized by a premonition as he faced the woman who would not stop singing.

In The People of the South, for example, the singing passes from one character to the next like a powerful and autonomous being. Furthermore, in spite of what might seem exotic to someone who is not Korean, the French reader finds himself deeply moved. This is also how this ancient song becomes the modern work that we read today: Since the twilight began to fall, covering the sides of the mountain, the song that had been hidden in the forest all day long furtively descended along with the dusk, and abruptly threw itself upon the boy’s mother, like a snake pouncing on its prey.

There is an irresistibly musical force in the very composition of Yi’s stories. The Korean author’s frequent flashbacks are at times reminiscent of the obsessive brooding over the past in the works of other authors like Samuel Beckett, Thomas Bernhard, or Imre Kertesz. The fantastic interplay between Yi’s works and Korean history, straddling the boundary between the real and the imaginary, is rich and subtle. Fiction is often valuable as a political experiment. Could the great novel This Paradise of Yours be compared with the famous dystopian works of Zamiatine, Huxley, or Orwell? Going further than any of these works, Yi’s novel is connected to historical and political realities that have already occurred, the exclusion and reinsertion of pariahs, and despotic rule over society. However, it is entirely possible that this novel has created something impossible, even untenable. For through a relentless fictitious demonstration, we see the leader’s ambitions turn into a disaster. When it belongs to someone (a leader) who is detached from others (his subordinates or victims), good intentions can only become tyrannical. That is when the leader begins his foray into the infernal logic of sacrifice.

P’ansori, in its unparalleled bitterness, is in itself a reasonable manifestation of continuity.

Yi Chong-Jun

Yet shouldn’t we perceive another sacrifice, underlying or implied, in the very existence of the books we have read by Yi Chong-Jun? As in the writing of other great writers in any number of languages, Yi’s novels communicate especially historical and political themes through the questions they lead us to ask ourselves. Perhaps this reflectiveness, such as in Io Island, about an island which is divided between reality and imagination, is what makes the novels of Yi Chong-Jun similar to those of the most challenging Western writers, from Flaubert, Joyce, to Kafka. It would not be surprising, once this author’s importance is understood, to learn that several great films (including Lee Chang-Dong’s A Secret Sunshine) were inspired by his novels and stories. In France, it is through cinema that an author, even one who so far has not been widely read, begins to acquire a larger audience. By Claude Mouchard

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REVIEWS Nonfiction

A Korean Film Buff ’s Delight: A Hundred Years of Film History in a Single Volume History of Korean Cinema Chung Chong-Hwa, Korean Film Archive, 2007, 272p ISBN 978-89-93056-00-6 04680

Take a stroll through one hundred years of Korean film history, a remarkably concise yet accessible walk through the turbulent and dynamic evolution of Korean film in easy-toaccess narration and images. How can one deal with a hundred years of history in less than 300 pages of a small-sized book? The answer to this question will be the merit and distinguishing mark of this book. First, this book is not intended for film experts or students of film, but for general readers with an interest in Korean films. Its aim is to help readers understand the overall flow of Korean films and the major characteristics of each period. This book was published as a part of the series, “Film Story,” organized by the Korea Film Archive, a non-profit organization that collects, preserves, and manages Korean film materials. As indicated by the subtitle, “A Hundred Years of Film History in a Single Volume,” the book contains the history of Korean films from 1807, when the film media first arrived in Korea, to the 2000s. Chung ChongHwa, the author, is part of the research team of film history at the Korea Film Archive. The author said, “My aim was to organize a hundred years of Korean films in a sophisticated manner, using words and images.” To this end, this book is loaded with important visual materials on Korean films and movie

posters. The book would not have been possible without the Korea Film Archive, in whose possession is the greatest trove of Korean film materials in the world. This book categorizes the various periods of Korean films as follows: The Arrival of Motion Pictures and the Birth of Korean films (1897-1923), The Renaissance of Silent Films (19241934), Talkies and National Policy Films (1935-1945), Liberation and the Korean War (1945-1953), Growth and Revival of Korean Films (1954-1961), The Renaissance of Korean Films (1962-1969), The Vicious Cycle of Regulation and Depression (19701979), A Search in the Dark (19801989), Another Renaissance (19901999), and Korean Films of the 2000s (2000-). Such classification may seem naïve at first glance. This is not the case, however. The author has come up with a system based on such elements as sociopolitical changes, including the Korean War, and systematic changes, such as the enactment of film-related laws. In short, he has done an overall review on backgrounds of film techniques, sociopolitical backgrounds, and systematic backgrounds. He then

goes on to sketch the characteristics of each period after the 1970s, dividing them into ten-year periods. The narration on each period contains the following elements: the characteristics of film politics, changes in the film industry, trends in major genres and special genres, noteworthy directors, accomplishments in film aesthetics, film techniques, and changes in film culture. Through such content, readers can gain a sufficient understanding of the characteristics of Korean films of each period. In addition, notable films, directors, and actors of each period are placed separately in boxes with descriptions, making it easy for readers to access. The author expressed some regret with this book: “Much of the content has been left out or not as closely explored, since I had to rely on my own method of narration with limited materials.” Such regret, however, rises from his modesty. If one had to pick out a single reader-friendly book on the general history of Korean cinema, this “small but faithful” book would be the one. By Pyo JeongHun

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REVIEWS Nonfiction

Beyond the Lens: New York City New York Sketch Kim Atta, Wisdomhouse Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 268p, ISBN 978-89-5913-292-8 03660

Praised by The New York Times for the philosophical novelty of his work, Korean photographer Kim Atta was the first Asian photographer to hold a private exhibition, “Kim Atta: ONAIR” at the International Center of Photography in New York, in 2006. He was also the first Korean photographer to produce a book of photography as a part of The Museum Project published by Aperture in 2004. In 2007, his work became a part of the Bill Gates’ Microsoft Art Collection.

In New York Sketch, the author has captured New York City, the primary setting of his work, through the camera’s viewfinder, and then has added his thoughts in the form of aphorisms. These aphorisms may seem very simple and obvious at first, yet combined with the photos, become philosophical ruminations: “It was already promised. There are no coincidences in the world. There was a reason to be here.” “Sleep, Kiss, Book. Life is really simple.” “It is peaceful. What else is needed?” “Places where people had passed by leave traces.” Kim Atta calls New York “a flower that has evolved from nature,” and “a city of beautiful savageness.” Magnificent display windows, skyscrapers reaching into the sky, New Yorkers who are constantly talking on the phone, always consuming, the nights and days of New York, streets where people and cars constantly come and go, the skyline that is as colorful and full of changes as the city streets, the faces of diverse races – Kim Atta has captured all of these with his camera. About his work in New York, Kim Atta says: “I took in my hand once again my small camera, which I had grown distant from since changing to an 8x10 camera

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twenty years ago. It had been eight years since my last encounter with New York, during which time I hadn’t done a single sketch. In that period, digital had evolved at a tremendous speed, enabling a person to capture the world as lightly as a feather. In the 21st century, digital has become like breath to human beings. I began caressing New York with the digital. New York is attractive at all times – passionate and dynamic, and yet too proud to easily open itself up.” Kim Atta has embodied the notion that “all that exists eventually disappears,” in his photography. Existence and its disappearance are the clear themes in Kim’s book of photography. To Kim Atta, New York is also one enormous set for his work. Being the set that it is, it’s then inevitably broken down and taken away. This is a metaphor for civilization. Kim Atta has sketched a civilization in the name of New York. By Pyo JeongHun

REVIEWS Nonfiction

CG Through the Mouths of the Makers Dream Maker Oh Jun Heon, Sigongsa Co., Ltd., 2008, 268p ISBN 978-89-7682-075-4 03590

First, let’s begin with an introduction of the author. Oh Jun Heon majored in art in college, and studied 3-D animation at the Academy of Art University Computer Art School. Upon graduation, he worked at Barn Yard, The Movie, Inc.. He then went on to work at 2K Sports Games, where he took part in the NHL 2K (an ice hockey game) and MBL 1K (a baseball game) projects. He now writes articles for game and computer related media, drawing from his experience in game development.

In addition to what one might expect from such a book – hearing the thoughts and feelings of the game developers and learning about the technical ins and outs of the industry – the author also includes insightful

quotes and words of wisdom from the CG artists themselves. Such gems include: “It’s more important to do something that makes you happy, than to make money doing something that makes you unhappy.” “Always be prepared for the new, look ahead into the future, and don’t stubbornly insist on staying in a single field.” “Try to learn something from everything – from work, to people, to things.” “You need to look and look and look, until inspiration hits.” By Pyo JeongHun

This book is inseparably related to the above-mentioned career of the author, for it is a compilation of interviews with twelve artists who are the most actively engaged in the CG game field in the U.S., where the author himself has worked. A concise summary of this book is that it is a field report on, and interviews with, CG artists working at game development companies. Various technical guides and manuals on CG have been published, but rarely can one find a book that contains the lively voices of those working in the field. That is what distinguishes this book from others. Its rich photographic materials are also worth noting. Another distinguishing mark of this book is that among the 12 featured artists, all but one, Bill Roper, the former vice-president of Blizzard, is of Korean descent. This can be seen as a reflection of the high status Koreans enjoy in the global CG game field. In addition, since this book is targeted towards Koreans, it comes with supplements, including a guide on preparations to study abroad, an explanation of animation jargon, and a guide to animation production companies.

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REVIEWS Nonfiction

Two-wheeled Insights into America A Bicycle Trip across America Hong Eun Teak, Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2007, 404p, ISBN 978-89-8431-189-3 03980

environment in which one can focus more on the present, by gradually connecting the past and the future. By freeing oneself from time, in which one must compete against speed, one is provided with an opportunity to experience timelessness.” How does the author feel about the “insanity” of traveling across America on a bicycle? He said, “Crossing America on a bicycle is a metaphor for the condition of human beings, who are like specks of dust in space. It is an effort to go forward, accepting one’s limitations and giving meaning to each turn of the wheel, rather than despairing over an overwhelming scale and speed. In light of the boundless universe, a trip across America is not such an extraordinary achievement.” This book is not just another travel sketch in any sense. It is a profound reflection on life, a keen observation on America and its people, and an open confession by someone challenging his own personal limits. Readers will find themselves crossing America with the author as they follow his vital, living sentences.

From May 26 to August 13, 2005, the journalist-author, Hong Eun Teak, took an 80-day bicycle trip across the United States. He took the Trans-American Trail, a 6,400 kilometer trail that reaches from Yorktown, Virginia America’s east coast, to Florence, Oregon, on the west coast. The trail was developed in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of the United States. The author traveled an average of 80 kilometers a day on this trail, with 40 kilograms of luggage. This book, which went on to become a bestseller in Korea, was highly esteemed for its anecdotes on the various bicyclers and average Americans the author encountered on his trip, as well as for the thoughts he had on the difficult, solitary journey. The thoughts at times are philosophical: “A bicycle trip creates an 52

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In the Name of Peace A Conversation Between Palestine and Korea Shin Gyeong-rim in conjunction with 25 coauthors Yeollin Gil, 2007, 281p ISBN 978-89-959583-2-2 04890

Four Palestinian and 22 Korean authors exchanged correspondence through the Internet. First, the Palestinian authors posted their writings, and the Korean authors in turn would reply. This book is a compilation of the correspondence between the authors of the two nations. It would seem that much of the writing would be of a stiff and political nature; but in fact, many conversations touch on the meaning of what it signifies to

live in Palestine, and the meaning of everyday life. Adania Shibli, a Palestinian novelistplaywright, was questioned for hours by airport staff in Israel for the sole reason that her watch had stopped. Recalling the experience, she says, “I think my watch was trying to act as though all that investigation and delay had lasted not even a minute, in an effort to console me.” Zakaria Mohammed, a Palestinian poet, compared opposition to war to the stubbornness of a llama, a kind of camel. According to the story, Israeli soldiers tried to use llamas to transport munitions. However, llamas, which are “peaceful animals,” smelled blood and refused to cross the border. Zakariah praises the stubbornness of the llama: “We must all be like this animal.” In the correspondence between Zakariah and Na Hee-deok, a Korean poet, Na replied as follows: “I learned how literature speaks of peace, and the possibility thereof.” This book is a rare example of authors from two nations who are culturally and historically distant, placed on opposite sides of the earth, yet sympathize and communicate with one another. What they share universally, despite cultural and historical differences, is their faith in peace. By Pyo JeongHun

REVIEWS Nonfiction/ Graphic Novels When did “Korea” come into use, then? The word “Korea” first appeared in Hamel’s Journal, published in Germany in 1671. However, this was a case in which the C was changed to K in the process of rendering the word “Corea” in the German phonetic value. Of course, various other expressions were used to refer to Korea as well. For instance, in the famed Travels of Marco Polo the word “Cauli” appears; and a Western missionary visiting Mongolia in the mid-13th century referred to the country as “Caule.” Other spellings included “Core,” “Cory,” “Caoli,” and “Corai.”

Illustrated Insights The Song of the Clown Baek Sung min, Semicolon, 2007, 178p ISBN 978-89-8371-374-2 03840

Is this book a graphic novel? A book of aphorisms? A philosophical allegory? A book of illustrations? Or freely expressed graffiti? It is all of these, and yet none of these. Baek Sung min, the author, is a prominent writer, best known for writing historical fables. It is also said that he has the strongest command of lines and touches that are Korean in nature. This book contains writings and illustrations that the author started posting on his blog since 2005. His blog was selected as “The Blog of the Year” in the illustrations category of the Korean Blog Award in 2006. In one of Baek’s illustrations, Michelangelo comes to a realization through a tree. He realizes how trifling he is, standing before the masterpiece called nature, created by God. Michelangelo says, “Those green leaves sparkling in the sun, how beautifully they sway in the breeze! It seems that the mysterious sounds of heaven are in those leaves. They are truly an everlasting masterpiece created by the hands of God. Oh, I’m nothing more than a fly compared to that.” And then comes the following illustrated tale: Every day, an old woman goes to a well with a cracked jug to draw water. Since the jar is cracked, the water naturally leaks out on the way back. Why does the old woman keep doing such a foolish thing? On the path along which this foolish woman walks, springs up beautiful flowers. The author states, “A thing of too much perfection is often barren. Flowers blossom abundantly from things that aren’t so perfect.” A major Korean graphic novelist gave the following appraisal of Baek’s book: “The freedom with which he handles

the brush at will, a piquancy with which he draws a line without hesitation, an omission that is startling at times, and a playfulness that makes you burst out laughing.”

By Any Other Name

What, then, caused the spelling, “Korea,” to become so widespread? The author claims that it is because of the United States. U.S. diplomats stationed in Korea between the late 19th century and early 20th century referred to the country as “Korea” in official diplomatic documents, and as the U.S. became a superpower after World War Two, through its influence the spelling took root. Thanks to the tremendous efforts made by the author delving into this seemingly simple subject, we are able to gather meaningful knowledge of Korea and of the history of exchanges between the East and the West. By Pyo JeongHun

Corea, Korea-Tracing the Origin of Corea and Historical Survey of Corea/Korea Oh In Dong, Cumlibro, 2008, 279p ISBN 978-89-91221-36-9 03900

The author tracks down the historical origin of “Korea,” the Romanized name of the Republic of Korea. According to the author’s research, the name was written as “Corea,” not “Korea,” until the late 19th century. This was due to an incident in which a missionary in Portugal in 1571 sent a letter to the leader of the Society of Jesus, that said, “There is a kingdom called Corea between China and Japan.” Since then, in most Western documents mentioning Korea, the name was spelled “Corea.”

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REVIEWS Philosophy

Three Pleas for Reading the Classics Today Analects are Progressive

is this conservatism from the one we thought we knew? The author herself admits that the word conservatism has been abused and misused. However, she says that when preserving our community, traditions, and ethical values for a better life is our primary concern, treating the issue of maintaining the absolute purity of the word can wait.

Park Min Young, FORUM, 2008, 472p, ISBN 978-89-92409-18-6 03900

Way of a True Conservative Yi Hye gyung, Greenbee Publishing Company, 2008, 320p, ISBN 978-89-7682-309-0 04150

An Apology for Egoism in East-Asian Tradition Kim Sicheon, Woongjin Jisik House, 2006, 271p, ISBN 978-89-01-06000-0 03150

Since we can discuss Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu, Chuang-tzu, and Yang Zhu conversationally, we tend to think that we are familiar with East Asian thought and classics. The truth, however, is that few of us can precisely articulate the meaning of the philosophies of these thinkers who lived two millennia ago. Is this due to the temporal distance between those thinkers and us? Or is it due to the emotional distance that we have caused ourselves during the rapid modernization in Korea, through which process we dismissed the classical thoughts and literature as “outdated” or even “evil,” blocking the road to development? For whatever reason, our past history and environment have caused us to evaluate the classics in a rather inappropriate and unfair way. Perhaps this explains the common direction chosen by most contemporary treatments of the classics: they attempt to correct the prejudice and misunderstandings of the general public. In Analects are Progressive, Park Min Young states that Confucius is not a conservative, which may strike the reader by surprise as we have customarily viewed the philosopher and his thoughts as being extremely conservative. Furthermore, the author argues that Confucius wished reform and progress in society. In a meticulous manner, he argues against the general public’s prejudice and misunderstanding. In Korean society where the word “conservative” is perceived to be in direct opposition of the word, “progressive,” the proposition that something is not conservative does not necessarily mean that it is progressive. After finishing

Three Pleas, the reader may still hesitate agreeing with the author’s view that Confucius and his thoughts were “progressive;” however, once reminded to take a look at Confucius by reading his Analects “upside down,” readers will come to realize that the author’s strategy was to make a measured audacious move rather than a blind erratic move. At such as point, readers may hear themselves saying,“Hmm, I didn’t know it could be read that way,” at which point a different Confucius appears. As opposed to Park’s view, in Yi hye gyung’s Way of a True Conservative, she says that Mencius is a representative figure of conservatism. Since we know that Mencius carried on the philosophical tradition of Confucius, the different evaluations by Yi and Park on Confucius and Mencius can be extremely confusing. Yi’s basic view on the “progress” of the modern age is that it has exerted a negative influence by bringing destruction to human life. In her view, modernization has destroyed agricultural-based communities (the Industrial Revolution), produced passive masses (democracy), and abused reason that is abstract and incomplete in of itself. Mencius’s conservatism is opposed to this kind of “progress” in the modern age. Confucianism bears affinity to modern conservatism in that it defies egalitarianism, designates families, not individuals, as a social unit, and lastly doubts the progress of human history. The author thinks that the innate goodness of human nature in Mencius’s philosophy, i.e., the compassionate heart, dissipates our selfishness and is a driving force in creating a world of solidarity and peace. How different

Finally, in Kim Sicheon’s An Apology for Egoism in East-Asian Tradition, neither conservatism nor progressiveness is explicitly mentioned. The author merely gives advice for those of us leading an ordinary life: “Live selfishly.” Kim's advice is not immoral or baffling, yet it makes us feel both discomfort and relief. The individual found in Yang Zhu is a being with “individual desires and emotion.” That individual is not a being that struggles with social duties; it is a subject with a right to enjoy life. Kim argues that the root cause of disorder and violence in society is distorted social relationships, not “selfish” human nature. Perhaps we have been oppressed too long by the view that equates selfish human nature with evil. However, to our surprise, the classics, which have long been regarded as the culprit for inventing such a distorted view of human beings, are now proposing the “Way of the Ordinary Person” to attain happiness in society. Kim says that while “heroic persons” take the path of the “large road,” “ordinary persons” can wisely take the path of the “small road.” But what makes us so reluctant to accept ourselves as “ordinary persons?” The classics can be compared to a giant elephant. While groping only a part of the big animal, each of us fiercely insists that we are the one who has a complete picture of the animal. It must, however, also be noted that every one of us possesses a portion of the truth, albeit incomplete. Perhaps there were no complete truths in the first place; it may be just another name for a collection of small, truthful parts. The classics reveal refreshing truths to modern people. In a time when it is such a challenge to advocate the classics, these three authors’ heartfelt pleas for reading them fills us with both pleasure and sadness. By Park Young-mi

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STEADY SELLERS

Enduring Words of Simplicity and Relinquishment Without Possession Beop Jeong, Bumwoo Publishing Co., 2008, 162p ISBN 978-89-08-04131-1 03810

“Although this book preaches the virtue of possessing nothing, what I really want is to possess it.”

A book might sell well over a short period of time. A book might sell slowly over an extended period of time. But it is uncommon for a single book to sell extremely well over an extended period of time. Such a case belongs to Venerable Beopjeong’s Without Possession. First published in April 1976, this small book has sold around three million copies in a period spanning almost 30 years, securing a unique slot in Korea’s steady seller list. Without Possession contains 35 short essays, each of which is less than five pages long. Each essay is self-contained in terms of content and theme, allowing readers to mull over what they have just read after flipping through only a few pages. Moreover, Beopjeong’s prose is highly readable and yet equally refined. While intending to move the hearts of readers, he uses small anecdotes from his life in a way that sheds light on the core messages of Buddhism. The overall style evokes a simple and soothing image like that of the back of an old monk. The concept of the title, Without Possession, is virtually impossible to achieve. Human beings always covet the material. Possession is a mode of survival; and yet such pursuit is not just for survival alone, but also for the promotion of the self. According to the author, human history is nothing if not a chronicle of possessions.

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No one can possibly obtain everything they want to possess. Everyone wants something more. The desire for acquiring a new object is an inescapable punishment for humans, for we fall into despair and sadness over what we can’t have. Venerable Beopjeong gives a soothing message to those who have tired of chasing after possessive desire by preaching the virtue of possessing nothing. “Only those who relinquish something big can gain something big,” he says. “When you own nothing, you actually own everything in the world.” The book’s longstanding popularity highlights that people are constantly struggling with the desire to possess and that they feel depressed over what they cannot and should not own. People have long wished for a curative experience for their uncontrollable desire, and Beopjeong shows that there is a simple solution. Such a talent for storytelling is granted to only a small number of writers. Referring to the book, Cardinal Kim Su-hwan, one of the most renowned Catholic leaders in Korea, once observed insightfully: “Although this book preaches the virtue of possessing nothing, what I really want is to possess it.” By Kim Su-Yeong

REVIEWS Philosophy

Understanding the Grey Between the Black and White Beyond Dichotomy Zhang Hwe Ik and Choi Jongduck, Hangilsa, 2008, 350p ISBN 978-89-356-5866-4 03100

What is it that makes humans yearn for absolutes? Is there really such a thing as right or wrong? This dialogue between a physicist and a philosopher, while trying to make sense of the human condition, offers a harmonious and complementary exchange of ideas.

Dichotomy is a very curious thing. It is a notion that we cannot constantly embrace, but neither can we discard it. Dichotomy offers us a systematic way of thinking, gives us a formula for analysis, and provides us with a standard for our sense of morality. However, we cannot expect to achieve correct thinking, correct analysis, and correct morals if we rely on dichotomy alone. The principle that it is wrong to tell a lie is correct and yet it is not always correct. For example, Wittgenstein said that after climbing up the ladder one should throw the ladder away. Dichotomy is a useful tool, but at the same time it should always be the object of critical reflection. Physicist Zhang Hwe Ik and philosopher Choi Jongduck have for some time been conducting a dialogue 58

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that critically examines the conceptual dichotomy that governs our thoughts and have published this dialogue in their book Beyond Dichotomy. This book focuses on dichotomies such as the East and West, the traditional and the modern, science and philosophy, mind and matter, and records the lively and animated conversation between a physicist and a philosopher on these matters. The subtitle of this book is “Looking at Unified Thought: A Dialogue between Physicist Zhang Hwe Ik and Philosopher Choi Jongduck.” One could not possibly find two people more qualified than Zhang Hwe Ik and Choi Jongduck to undertake this bold attempt to look at the point where physics and philosophy, and where natural science and humanities, meet. Zhang Hwe Ik, originally a natural scientist, is an eminent physicist and former professor of physics at Seoul National University. However, these days he has actively expanded his philosophical thoughts about life based on the concept he terms “global life.” Choi Jongduck is a philosopher who currently lectures on philosophy at Sangji University. He studied the

philosophy of science and has explored theories regarding the intersections of East and West, natural science and philosophy, and science and humanities. A particularly noteworthy feature of this book is that it does not call for any hasty dismissal of the important principle of dichotomy and the establishment of some superficial unity. The writers advance very cautiously, though firmly, towards “unified thought” by providing very detailed and persuasive evidence. Readers who pick up this book will experience an elegant cello sonata. Zhang Hwe Ik leads the conversation with a bold tune while Choi Jongduck enriches the conversation with the soft and delicate tones of a piano. In their dialogue, the two do not speak with the same voice but by complementing each other with their different voices, they produce one harmonious whole. In this respect this book is a model of eloquence. By Kim Su-Yeong

STEADY SELLERS

20 Years of Insight Letters from Prison Shin Young Bok, Dolbegae Publishers, 1998, 399p ISBN 89-7199-106-2 03810

It was 20years ago in 1988 when Professor Emeritus Shin Young Bok’s Letters from Prison saw the light of the day. Since then the book has left a deep impression in the hearts of many. Shin’s book has given a great consolation to those who have regarded their life as a series of failures. Letters from Prison is a compilation of the writings, letters, and pictures the author sent to his father, elder brother, younger brother, and sister-in-law during his imprisonment. Professor

Shin was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the famous “Unification Revolutionary Party Incident” of 1968. He was at the tender age of twenty-seven at the time. The young man with such a promising future had to spend his youth in prison instead. Shin ended up serving 20 years and 20 days in prison until he was released on a Special Amnesty Grant on August 15, 1988. The book opens with a gentle introduction to the passage of his twenty-year prison life along with his painstaking thoughts. The author stands alone in the midst of misfortune and despair. Yet not a word of complaint or expression of sadness can be heard. Instead, he extends his consolation to his family, prison mates, and the others around him. Shin was never devoid of respect and affection for other human beings. Although his body was bound in prison, he always carried on with the spirit of reflection on his interior life and present circumstances. It was

at this time he resumed calligraphy and the reading of such great books as The Analects of Confucius and The Thoughts of Mencius. Every word in this memoir exudes his extraordinary spirit under such difficult circumstances. For example, in the essay, “Relationship Theory on the Way to Calligraphy”, we learn that when the author drew a certain radical crookedly, he tried to save the character by making adjustments to the place and shape of the strokes of the next character instead of simply removing or correcting the crooked character itself. This kind of attitude makes a good contrast to the status quo of our society, which is preoccupied with eliminating any ‘crooked’ elements. By recounting such a story, the author delivers the significant message that every being in the world is interconnected with every other being, hence the ultimate purpose of a person’s life is found in fellow human beings. In addition, Shin says that thrusting our own views on others is equal to resorting to violence, and such an attitude eventually boomerangs by causing an isolation of the self. “Every attempt to change another person’s thoughts,” he emphasizes, “alienates our spiritual world by disintegrating the unity of our life and ideas, which eventually leads to the destruction of our own self.” And, in another essay, we hear him say, “One way to prevent a big fight is to fight small fights beforehand.” He adds, “The best thing is to lose well.” For him it is important that, once we have made the decision to fight, we need to do it well and with sincerity. At the same time we must find a way to heal our wounded relationships and hearts. Shin’s writing, which was drawn from a deep well of thoughts, possesses the universality that goes far beyond the boundaries of prison. With a healing power that permeates to the purest elements of human nature, Letters from Prison provokes the suspicion that perhaps we are the ones who are truly imprisoned, inside the prison of our own selves. By Kim Jinwoo

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REVIEWS Nonfiction

For the Love of the City Reading from Seoul Chung Guyon, Hyeonsil Munhwa, 2008, 358p ISBN 978-89-92214-43-8 04610

What do you do when you love someone? Think about it carefully. First you speak to them, desperate to find out who they are. Then you spend a lot of time with them, but spend even more time thinking about them, and although you value that person just as they are, at the same time you would like to change that person to fit the image that you desire. This usual and yet very distinctive behavior of someone in love is precisely the attitude of the architect Chung Guyon towards Seoul, the capital city of Korea. This author is a celebrated Korean architect. Chung Guyon studied architecture for a long time in France. Since his return to Korea, he has worked actively as a prominent architect, producing many monumental buildings and receiving many well-deserved awards. This book includes a cultural analysis of the space of Seoul, a delineation of the history of Seoul, and detailed and critical reflections on many of its public and private spaces. In addition, it contains many superb photographs. However, most of the problems the author pinpoints are problems common to all big cities worldwide, so this work does not stop at simply being an 60

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account of the city of Seoul. This book provides deep and rich insight for anyone concerned with the issue of how we should physically improve urban communities. In Reading from Seoul we can find not only the keen, discerning eye of the architect, but also the acute observations of the philosopher, the sensibility of the artist, the lucidity of the historian, and the attentiveness of the social scientist. Among the ten million people living in Seoul, the author is one of maybe only two or three people who could write such a book. Seoul is fortunate to have such a citizen. By Kim Su-Yeong

STEADY SELLERS

Looking at the Humanity in the Lives of Ants Ant Empire Unearthed: A Fascinating Story of an Ant Colony Choe Jae Chun, ScienceBooks Co., Ltd., 2007, 147p ISBN 978-89-8371-027-7 03490

continuing to have a great academic interest in ants. In short, this book is academically reliable. Second, this book contains a wealth of vivid pictures that the author personally took while studying ants. In other words, there are many rare photos that cannot be found elsewhere. Because of such illustrations, this book also serves as a pictorial guide to ant ecology. This may explain one of the reasons why this book was not only loved by a wide range of readers, but particularly by young adult readers. Third, the book’s main characteristic and advantage is that the various aspects of ant society were narrated as if looking into human society. This book is

categorized into: Ant Society’s Economy, Ant Society’s Culture, and Ant Society’s Politics. If we take the economy chapter as an example, it is divided into sections such as: Future Economic Structure Learning from Ants, Economy of Scale & Rational Management, Farmers for Fifty Million Years, and Founders of the Bodyguard Industry. As can be gleaned by the titles of these subsections, it would not be an overstatement to say that the book itself is an interesting analogy between ant and human society. By Pyo JeongHun

Choe Jae Chun, the author of Ant Empire Unearthed: A Fascinating Story of an Ant Colony, is the most celebrated science writer in Korea today. This is his first book; it was not written for specialists but for common readers. Although it has been nearly ten years since its publication, many people are still reading this book today. With this book as his springboard, the author rose from being a biology professor to becoming the most well-known science writer in Korea. Since its publication, Choe Jae Chun has successively published eight more books, all of which explore specialized science areas in an enjoyable and comprehensible manner. As an author representing Korea at the 2005 Frankfurt Bookfair, Choe even received much fanfare for a lecture he gave to international publishers. Still, the question lingers: how did a book about ants become a steady seller in the area of science? First, this book is based on the author’s studies on ants, which spanned over several years. Choe Jae Chun was taught by Edward Osborne Wilson, a distinguished scholar of sociobiology and an authority on ant studies at Harvard University. In the summer of 1984, as Choe studied tropical biology in the forests of Costa Rica, he began researching insects, including ants, in earnest. Later, after receiving his PhD, he taught at Michigan State University as an assistant professor while

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REVIEWS Graphic Novels

Confronting History on the Web 26 Years Kang Full, Volumes 1-3, Mynhak Segyesa Publishing Co., 2007, 295p ISBN 978-89-7075-402-4 07810

Kang Full is a prominent on-line comic artist in Korea. On-line comics emerged with the IT infrastructure of the late 1990s. The on-line comics of the late 1990s were usually short comics strips about casual episodes based on everyday affairs, and in Korea, are referred to as webtoons, a compound word formed of web and cartoons. Since then, on-line comics went through various phases through which the form of narration evolved, then settled upon the long vertical form. This form is called “vertical scroll comics” in Korean. Major portals began an active adoption of these vertical scroll comics to increase traffic; Kang Full’s main stage is on www.daum.net. Remarkably, Kang Full never went through the process of training that comic artists usually go through in Korea. In order to become a comic artist in Korea, one typically becomes an apprentice to a master, or trains oneself through coteries. Kang Full, however, gained his reputation through the web. Seeking to be a comic artist, he posted humorous episodes in the form of comics on his website, and as they gained popularity, he gradually gained opportunities to contribute to external media. He mostly dealt with light, humorous comics, but then he opened an era of long webtoons by starting a serial called Innocent (romance comic series) on October 24, 2003. Since then, Kang has alternated between two different styles in doing serials: romantic dramas that portray beautiful love stories, and the other, mysteries. Anyone can read his comics as they please just by going on the portal where his works are updated weekly.

The strength point of his comics is the elaborate composition of the story that drives his audience to guess at what will happen next. In addition, the simple screen composition, suitable for the long vertical structure, helps readers understand the story without too much trouble. The webtoon, which allows the artist to use as much screen space as necessary unlike comics in print form that have to convey a story in a limited page space, was the perfect media for Kang, a born storyteller.

not have been aware of. Then they come to the confirmation that the May 18 movement left a deep internal injury inside all the people of Korea. Thus, this work becomes more than just a revenge drama, forcing many Koreans, and in particular, the young people who are unfamiliar with the May 18 movement, to confront history. By Park In-Ha

26 Years is Kang Full’s fifth serial presented by Daum. The four previous serials dealt with universal themes of romantic drama and mystery, but 26 Years deals with the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, the most painful memory in modern Korean history. 26 Years is a story about a man who committed murder against his will as a soldier mobilized under martial law in 1980. It also tells the story of his son twenty-six years after the May 18 movement, in 2006, and the sons and daughters of victims exercising their own judgment of history that the law did not carry out. 26 Years is precariously balanced between reality and fiction. As he has done in his previous works, the author portrays the sorrows and pains of individuals confronted with the colossal burden of history. This series, however, focuses more on the injury than the instigation. Readers will come face to face with the injury, while bringing to mind historical facts they may or may

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REVIEWS Nonfiction

Preserving Europe from Book to Book A Trip Through Europe’s Book Villages Chung Jinkook, Thinking Tree Publishing Co., 2008 336p, ISBN 978-89-8498-853-8 03810

We’ve heard about backpacking through Europe but what about traveling from small village to village in search of used books? That’s exactly what the author did by visiting ten European book villages. The journey brings fresh light and perspective to the people and places that harbor these bookstore gems.

Book villages, or neighborhoods with many secondhand bookstores, are popping up all over the world. A typical example can be found in Hay-onWye, in Wales. This is a neighborhood where over thirteen hundred people used to live. Now, after Richard Booth purchased a castle there in 1962 and opened a used bookstore, 30 more used bookstores and 10 galleries opened nearby, making it the famous villages it is today. Following Hay-on-Wye’s example, similar book villages have sprung up throughout Europe in France, Germany, and Switzerland, and in other parts of the world as well, including Japan, Malaysia, and the United States. Book villages have helped small and medium- sized bookstores and secondhand bookstores, which had lost their customers to major book retailers and Internet bookstores, to get business back. The new social movement of book villages has also revitalized these rural towns and local cultures that had been impoverished by globalization. Art critic and book lover Chung Jinkook wrote this book about books after 64

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spending a year visiting book villages throughout Europe learning about old books and the people who lived in these villages. This book, with its 124 pictures and stories about the people who live in these villages, makes a visit to such a place look very enticing. This book presents twenty-four different book villages in ten different countries, including France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Sweden, Great Britain, and Ireland. The villages described include: the first book village in Europe, Redu in Belgium; Cuisery of France, which includes a statue of a book; Luxembourg’s Vianden, where you can see impeccably maintained buildings from the Middle Ages; the world’s most elegant book village in the Norwegian port town of Soerlandet; and the German village of Wuensdorf, still healing from the painful memories of war. Each book village has its own unique character, and every single bookstore within them looks different as well. What they all have in common, however, are the rows of old and rare

books, all inside carefully preserved historic buildings. There is a kind of harmony between those books and nature. The people of these villages – the artists, scholars, journalists, local people, and government officials–all stand united to preserve the history of these books and their communities. The simple people of these book villages are as full of stories as a 130 year-old letter written by Goethe, a 140 yearold biography of Raphael, a 200 yearold letter by Shelley, or any of the meticulously preserved books inside the stores. The names of these stores are all unique and fun to spot, such as “What Are You Reading?” “All Night Long,” “Diogenes,” “The Sleepy Elephant,” or “Snail.” A Trip Through Europe’s Book Villages is a dedication to book lovers everywhere. By Kim Jinwoo

REVIEWS Nonfiction

Globalization Without the Guilt Bonobo Revolution Yu Byung Sun, Bookie Publishing House, 2008, 252p, ISBN 978-89-6051-022-7 03320

Ever wonder whether it’s possible to be rich and successful without being selfish? Modern social entrepreneurs show how, through their creative interpretation of capitalism, it is possible to develop socially viable and sustainable forms of development and ethical globalization.

trained in developing countries so that, ultimately, the market and returns will expand and lead to even greater profits.” David Green is a case study of the social entrepreneurship being realized by citizens. In India, he created an ideal medical welfare in which “treatments are given according to needs, and fees are paid based on capability” by lowering the price of the artificial lens required for cataract surgery to a hundredth of the market price and receiving medical fees based on the patients’ financial capabilities. Those with financial means were made to pay more (in donations) and those with low incomes were allowed to pay less or not pay at all. In doing so, the patients who had traditionally existed outside the market were able to come to the hospitals, and even provide the hospitals with an overall greater income. Other examples included eight social entrepreneurs such as Earl Martin Phalen of Bell, who worked to combat hereditary poverty through education by

providing after-school study rooms; David Wish of Little Kids Rock, who, when music disappeared as a regular subject in schools, provided guitars for children after class and taught them music; Sara Horowitz, who built a social enterprise out of a labor union of freelancers and irregular workers, such as hourly laborers and dispatched workers, graphic designers, and maids; and Bill Drayton, who established a social enterprise consulting facility called Ashoka and started the movement for social enterprises. The title of this book was taken from anthropoids known as bonobos. Bonobos look like chimpanzees, but unlike the violent and selfish chimpanzees, they like equality, enjoy sex, are happy-go-lucky, and always seek peace. Why don’t we find the path toward a thoughtful capitalism and ethical globalization through the bonobos, the anthropoids that exist inside us? By Son Jemin

This book is for people who wonder whether there is a way to create a form of capitalism in which people can both earn money and live in cooperation with their neighbors – in other words, it’s a book for the aspiring social entrepreneur. Muhamad Yunus, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and his Grameen Bank, are regarded as the standard for social entrepreneurs and enterprises. This book introduces other people and enterprises like Yunus and Grameen Bank. One good example is John Wood, a former board member at Microsoft who began the Room to Read movement by building libraries in poor countries around the world. He began this work after traveling in Nepal. Over the past six years, he established over a thousand libraries around the world using small donations he received from people who sympathized with his goal. Wood states that, “One must, while of course seeking profits, pursue healthy globalization in which education is supported and people with talents are

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REVIEWS Self-Help

Not Yet Old and No Longer Young The Psychology of Thirty-Year Olds Kim Hae Nam, Woongjin Thinkbig Co., Ltd., 2008 321p, ISBN 978-89-01-07858-8 03180

People in their thirties can no longer be called young and yet are still too young to be considered fully mature.

Turning thirty seems a bit unfair. People in their thirties can no longer be called young and yet are still too young to be considered fully mature. Is this why so many people in their thirties feel depressed and exhausted? As if they had been thrown suddenly into the real world, they feel anxious about how to cope with unfamiliar feelings. To make matters worse, thirty-year olds also have to deal with the perplexing issues of love, marriage, and the difficulties and relationships of the workplace. From the perspective of The Psychology of Thirty-Year Olds, this is a time of change. This book brings light to the wanderings of thirty-year olds’ lives. Divided into 35 different subjects, including “What’s Wrong with My Life?” and “What Do I Really Want?”, it 66

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offers a pointed analysis into the suffering of people thirty-years old and the reasons why, at that age, they feel so sad and lonely.

mama’s girls. The author also pulls examples from books and movies such as Brave New World and The Devil Wears Prada.

The author has more than 20 years of experience as a psychoanalyst, yet doesn’t admonish the reader or give advice about what to do or not to do. Instead, through his many examples, Kim helps uncover what is happening inside the minds of thirty-year olds. Through his examples, he gets his readers to meticulously examine their problems for themselves. Inside this book we see all kinds of thirty-year olds, including people who have trouble getting up when their alarm clocks ring, the ones who hardly know how to be satisfied with themselves, the ones with victim complexes, the ones who never stop comparing themselves to their co-workers, and the mama’s boys and

Kim Hae Nam stresses to his thirty-year old readers that they can combine the best parts of being young and old. They can be as successful as they want to be, they can love passionately. There is no limit to their happiness. As he tells them, “You are always right, so put your doubts aside and step out into the world.” By Kim Jinwoo

REVIEWS Self-Help/ Fable for Adult

On the Edge of Adulthood Bye Bye Vespa Park Hyung-dong, Anibooks, 2008, 160p ISBN 978-89-5919-187-1 07810

his girlfriend as he takes off on his beloved Vespa scooter for one last trip. A boy and a girl who are overwhelmed by their shattered lives agree to break up and go to a mountain in order to leave behind their sick cat that they raised together. Mingky, a girl who has the special ability to transform into an adult, has forgotten who she is. But as her magic wand begins to lose its power, she has no choice but to face her true self. Each episode reminds us of the growth process that we have all undergone as we are pulled into the ambiguity of this phase of life. The author utilized the spaces between the dialogue and the pictures to make these stories even richer. His use of popular cartoon characters, whose appearances have also changed, such as Mickey Mouse and Jerry from Tom and Jerry, add a bit of the surreal to the book’s ambience. Each episode also features five different classic motor scooters, adding color to the development of each story.

of mind and body as well as a means of attaining better health and inspiration. The 108 Bows that Awaken Me deals with the meaning and methods of the 108 bows, and how they can eliminate anxiety. This book tells the stories of people from all walks of life, including priests, authors, lawyers, and professors, who have brought change to their minds and bodies through the 108 bows. Scientific experiments have proven that if performed on a regular basis, the 108 bows can not only double one’s patience and concentration, but also strengthen one’s physical and mental health, as well as the immune system. Bowing is also effective for eliminating anger and stress. It heightens concentration and straightens the spine. It can even be done in enclosed spaces. Most importantly, the bows will teach the humility of worship. This book teaches us how bowing transcends religion to be a comprehensive method of making impatience melt away, purifying the spirit, and bringing peace of mind and body, just by investing a little bit of time. By Kim Jinwoo

“Are you trying to be a grownup?” “I don’t know either what I will do or what I will be. What can I be?” Becoming an adult just might be the process of getting rid of the things you’ve treasured your entire life. You have to decide what to throw away and what to keep, so this time of transition is very unsettling and frightening for children.

Bowing Away from Stress and Anxiety The 108 Bows that Awaken Me Koo Bon Il, GimmYoung Publishers, Inc., 2008 68p, ISBN 978-89-349-2853-9 13510

Comic book artist and illustrator Park Hyung-dong’s short story collection Bye Bye Vespa beautifully captures the subtle restlessness and anxiety of children on the edge of adulthood in a comic book style.

In Buddhism, 108 bows is the practice of casting aside the 108 agonies that burden all of mankind. The bows are a means of clearing the mind. Touching both knees, elbows, and the forehead to the ground humbles one to the utmost and removes selfishness, arrogance, and desire.

The characters in the stories of this book are all suffering from their own kinds of growing pains. One young man who realizes he can no longer be a kid decides to leave his rock band as well as

In recent years, the 108 bows practiced in Buddhist temples have surpassed the boundaries of religion, becoming a popular means of achieving self-control

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REVIEWS Children’s Books

A New Take on Taekwondo for Kids Taeguek Chapter One Yoon Bongsun, Yeougogae, 2007, 23p ISBN 978-89-92855-00-6 77810

The orderly’s shouts of ‘yap yap’ blare throughout the field. The figures moving systematically in white uniforms are all small kids. There is a fat boy, as well as girls in pigtails. Adults worry a great deal that today’s children are used to computers and electronic games but aren’t accustomed to exercise. But even though the movements of the children learning Taegeuk Chapter One, the first level of taekwondo, are awkward, they are very earnest. Taegeuk Chapter One is the very first level of learning for anyone who takes taekwondo. The discipline incorporates the deep theology and meaning of taegeuk. Out of the eight levels, the first, Taegeuk Chapter One, symbolizes the sky of the Eight Trigrams of Divination from The Book of Changes. The cover of Taegeuk Chapter One, which shows a boy demonstrating the high front kick, is as concise as the orderly actions of taekwondo. The jacket cover depicts the happy procession of a monkey, rabbit, cat, chicken, puppy, and mouse behind a little boy. The next ten pages of the book, all with similar white backgrounds, introduce the low block,

face block, body block, and the body jab, which are the basic techniques of Taegeuk Chapter One. When you look at the actions of the animals, which start with the “Ready~” shout of the boy, you can see that the rabbit’s action is awkward. Through the encouragement of the other animals, the rabbit, who can’t complete the actions properly as he stares about at other animals, overcomes his own passive attitude. This scene appropriately illustrates how children receive validation of their existence and sense of achievement through praise, such as “very good” from adults, or acceptance from their peers. The fact is that children learn about the world and its rules through imitation. Accordingly, the orderly actions of taekwondo aptly teach children the importance of following rules.

subtly help the social development of children. Most importantly, four-year old children, the main readers of this book, will be able to execute each demonstration. This enables them to put into practice the famous words of the Roman Juvenal: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” For children with active bodies and inquisitive minds, a book that emphasizes learning might be dull. When reading Taegeuk Chapter One, however, children hardly have a moment to feel bored because they must practice after reading and seeing the examples and illustrations. Taekwondo, which is based on a deep traditional theology, has gone beyond being a martial art solely for Koreans. It now receives love from people all around the world. It has already been eight years since it was made an official Olympic sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Considering that there are hardly any books for children that focus on their country’s own martial arts, the significance of Taegeuk Chapter One is even greater. By Kim Young Wook

Yoon Bongsun, the illustrator and writer of Taegeuk Chapter One, structured the book so that the left side shows animals correctly imitating taekwondo movements; the right side shows animals attempting to follow the movements, but avoids tediousness by illustrating the rabbit’s awkward movements. Also, the encouraging and helpful words of the animal friends

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REVIEWS Children’s Books

An Arrogant Dog’s Choice Cocky the Arrogant Dog Kang Jeong Yeon, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008, 200p, ISBN 978-89-491-2106-2 73810

A dog’s life isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Dodo, the spoiled, pampered pet of a rich family. Living a life of luxury, he finds himself on the streets one day beginning a journey that forces him to have to earn the right to brag. In the city there are innumerable lonely people, and perhaps that is why so many of them adopt cats and dogs. Yet, if their pets become sick, ugly, or a hassle to take care of, these pets are often disposed of without regret. City pets are discarded just as easily as they are chosen by city dwellers. Is it not true that the moment cats and dogs rely on humans for food and a place to sleep, they are giving up the right to choose their way of life? In this respect, Cocky the Arrogant Dog offers a diversion from the average underdog’s life.

The story sets forth a dog that is determined to choose his own master. It’s not everyday that a pet gets to choose its owner, but dogs have rights, too. As a loyal friend of the human race, dogs have long been a part of human culture and history, and this time they’re demanding the right to their pursuit of happiness. Since birth, Dodo, meaning “arrogant” in Korean, was a wealthy family’s spoiled pet of choice. Dodo calls out, “Hey” to his owners, and considers them as pitiful people who dote on him as they vie for his love. Dodo realizes that he had been gravely mistaken when his owners conclude that he was too arrogant, lazy, and fat for them to keep, and subsequently abandon him in the countryside. Dodo is in disbelief at his abandonment until he meets Mimi – another discarded pet dog. In meeting Mimi, he understands that all along he had been just an amusing toy or accessory to his owners. “I haven’t been forsaken. Only owners can throw out their belongings. If I’ve never considered those people as my masters, then who can say they threw me out? The fact of the matter is that I don’t need a master!” shouts Dodo as he vows to choose a human being who will regard him as a life partner and not as a mere pet. When his fickle former owner comes to bring Dodo back to the city in order to make Dodo her diet partner in losing weight, it is too late. Dodo is no longer the sweet pet. He sprays urine all over his former mistress and escapes his comfortable life as a pet slave.

After his escape, Dodo lives a happy life with a poor, lonely grandmother until he is forced to enter a dog pound after the grandmother has a horrible accident. However, fate takes another turn, and in the pound, Dodo catches the eye of guide dog trainers. After being trained, Dodo becomes a guide dog for a family with a deaf-mute mother and daughter. Now, Dodo is no longer a vain dog, but a self-justifying professional one. Finally, he has earned the right to be arrogant. Because the main character of this book is a dog that loves to brag and put on airs, the story bursts with originality and humor. Escaped pets are a common theme in children’s literature, but the crisp characters and this book’s edgy style has made it quite popular among young readers. In 2007, it was awarded the 13th Hwang-guem Dokaebi Award, and was also nominated as the “Best Children’s Book of the Year” by Shisa In magazine. By Park Suk Kyoung

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STEADY SELLERS

A Hen that Left the Yard Lessons from an Ordinary Hen Hwang Seon-mi; Illustrator: Kim Hwan young Sakyejul Publishing Ltd., 2008, 200p ISBN 978-89-7196-871-0 73810

Who am I and how should I live? Philosophers have long pondered this question and produced all kinds of complicated answers. People do not usually ponder such questions. They lead their daily lives, which repeat meaninglessly. Then, when faced with death, they are struck with the embarrassing and regretful thought that they have wasted their lives. Most people cannot confidently say that they have led their lives in a way they truly want, not for the attainment of wealth or honor.

The reader is deeply touched by Leaf’s painful struggle to lead a truthful life, her attainment of freedom, and realization of her dreams, as well as the true meaning of love. The author Hwang Seon-mi conceived this story at a time when her father was on his deathbed. This experience led the author to thoroughly reconsider death as well as life. The reader will find several places extremely touching, the most spectacular being one where Leaf meets her death with uncommon courage. Leaf, a non-flying animal, breaks out of her body and flies into the sky. Even with a second or third reading, audiences will be filled with awe at Hwang’s rendering. The extraordinary illustrations of the story make a large contribution to its effectiveness. Kim Hwan young, one of

Korea’s most renowned illustrators, took full advantage of his background as an animator and produced illustrations that perfectly match the story. In fact, Kim’s illustrations were a precursor to the revival of illustrated Korean children's literature. As of 2007, 700,000 copies of Lessons from an Ordinary Hen have sold since its debut in 2000. A hardcover version was published in 2001. Its musical adaptation also gained popularity. In addition, an animated version is scheduled to hit theaters at the end of 2009. By Park Suk Kyoung

Here was a hen with a correct understanding of who she is and how she should live, and practiced it accordingly. At first, she was caged in a factory-style coop to endlessly produce eggs. Then one day she saw another hen taking her chickens for a walk in the yard. This hatches in her a thought; she wants to brood on her own egg and give birth to it. For this mission, she even gives herself a name. She chooses Leaf for her name because she wants to accomplish something, just as an acacia leaf, after freely receiving wind and sunshine, down to the ground, fertilizes the earth, and finally sprouts a fragrant flower. This marks her first step as someone who truly owns her life. But how difficult it is to live one’s own life! To start her life over as a true hen, Leaf decides to leave the comfort zone of the coop and yard where she doesn’t have to worry about getting food. She even chooses to be the mother of a different animal, a wild duckling. After raising the duckling with all of her heart and soul, she sends it off into the world. Some time after that, she loses her life to a weasel that had been waiting for the opportunity to kill her.

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REVIEWS Children’s Books

Relishing Children’s Short Stories The Bunting Boy Yoo Eun-sil; Illustrator: Jeong Seonghwa Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2008, 179p ISBN 978-89-364-4232-3 73810

One boy learns the flag for every country, because a book of flags is the only one he has. Two sisters fantasize about having a thousand won to spend. An illiterate father buys a book of poems for his son that he cannot read. This collection of short stories for children illuminates their lives with humor, heartache, and life lessons.

Children’s literature is written for children but it is also about children as well. If the majority of children’s literature consists of lengthy novels, then Yoo Eun-sil has established a unique reputation as a short story writer for children. In the afterword to T.B.Boy, Yoo writes, “It will make me happy if children who read short stories grow up to enjoy poems, short stories, and short films.” Nine stories are included in her first short story collection, The Bunting Boy, in which stories of children living in the tainted and broken world of adults are vividly depicted. “The Bunting Boy” tells the story of Jinsoo, a new boy at school who lives in a small trailer. Through the eyes of the narrator, Jinsoo’s classmate, readers will come to know the life of Jinsoo both inside and outside of the classroom. To the narrator’s surprise, Jinsoo knows the names and capitals of numerous countries in the world. Soon readers find out that this is because the only book Jinsoo has at home is a book about flags. The sympathy the narrator feels for Jinsoo and the resentment he feels towards the indifferent adults is 72

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woven into a unique voice, leaving a memorable impression. “My Name is Paek sok” is a story about a father and a boy whose name coincides with that of the brilliant poet Paek sok. The father is an uneducated, hardworking owner of a fried chicken shop. He buys a copy of Paek sok’s poems because the poet has the same name as his son, but is embarrassed because he doesn’t understand it. Even so, the father is devoted to his work and shows pride in it. The son Paek sok, is proud of his father but confesses that, “Alas, I was not able to offer a bright smile to my dad.” “Freedom to Spend a Thousand Won” is the story of two sisters whose mother works as a street vendor, and their desire to have the freedom to spend a thousand won. “Barley Fart Jo Sootek” is a story told from hindsight about a poor elementary school classmate ostracized by other students because he could only afford to eat barley, and as a result, smelled of barley gas. “The Award” is about the psychology of a girl who always tries her best at school

but is never able to win first place. Yoo’s exquisite prose in these short stories powerfully and acutely illustrates the troubled and anguished minds of children living in a world run by adults. Meanwhile, comical stories that satirize adults as being petty and immature are presented in the collection as well. “Suna’s Tray” is one of these stories in which a grandmother competes with her granddaughter to make the best pancakes. “Some Uncles” is about an uncle who calls his sister-in-law every week to complain about his life. Yoo’s delicately woven short story collection has been criticized for blurring the boundaries between adult fiction and children’s fiction. Nonetheless, her work has been widely recognized and acclaimed. The collection received the 2007 Korean Children’s Literature Award and was also selected as the year’s masterpiece by The Joongang Daily, one of Korea’s leading newspapers. By Park Suk Kyoung

REVIEWS Children’s Books

Taking Charge of Our Health Cartoon Vitamin (Four volumes) Vita-Com, Hong Jin P & M, 2008, each 234p ISBN 978-89-5697-973-1-07000

addiction. Not simply filled with drawings, the book ends each chapter with a detailed explanation of preventive methods, commonsense health advice, and a self-evaluative chart.

Writer Moon Seung-yeoun gives each of the sprouting red, blue, and green buds in “The Sound of Spring” the phonetic value of ‘koong, chack, cha,’ which Koreans use to express rhythms.

Parents are responsible for the health of their children, but it is impossible for a parent to be around their children every minute. Through this book, parents can learn how to educate their children on how to take for responsibility to love and care for their body. Accordingly, parents need to provide children with potential access to information on hygiene, good eating habits, and other daily regimens in a way that is fun and interesting.

After explaining that the name will make it come alive on the paper, she introduces Kim Hwan-Gi’s extraordinary masterpiece, “Where and After We Become, What Will We Meet?” In this work, endless, shiny blue dots resemble a constellation in the night sky. Moon uses a poem from a Korean resistance poet then transforms a dot into a star and sings, “A Star for Mother, A Star for Father, A Star for the Face of a Friend, A Star for Old Yeller...”

Children can easily remember what they have learned and put it to practice in their daily life. As evidence of this, Cartoon Vitamin has gained wide popularity among parents. In what is a hopeful sign, parents testify that their children, after reading this book, have become increasingly interested in healthy habits such as eating green and orange vegetables, brushing their teeth willingly, and giving up sweets.

Born on a southern island with many blue pine trees and an endless blue ocean, Kim loved blue and the objects of yearning that he must have recalled whenever he made a dot. Kim’s “Untitled,” the last painting in the book, is lengthy and looks like the mountains or streams in the artist’s hometown. The glimmering dots look as though they will go on even after one closes the book. Even the artist’s dying words, “The dots I made will be as bright as the stars that shine. The rivers and mountains of Korea that shine brighter than a rainbow when I close my eyes…” seem to echo endlessly throughout Pictures that Sound: Kim Hwan-Gi’s Dot Paintings.

By Park Suk Kyoung

Vitamin, a popular TV show on the public broadcasting company KBS, is an excellent source of information on general health, eating proper foods, and different kinds of illnesses. After Vitamin airs on Sunday night, the subject of the night’s broadcast often becomes popular fodder for discussion the next day. From the original TV show, Hong Jin P & M made several episodes into a cartoon version for children, Cartoon Vitamin. In Cartoon Vitamin, through adventures and travels through space, small cartoon characters provide commonsense tips on health and illnesses. Readers will find explanations in the book easy and fascinating. The health issues presented concern children as well as their adult family members. Topics range from such health matters as those involving eyes, teeth, the back, high blood pressure, and menstruation, to hair loss, immunity, skin care, serious metal poisoning, child obesity, and sugar

Celebrating Color

By Kim Young Wook

Pictures that Sound: Kim Hwan-Gi’s Dot Paintings Moon Seung yeoun, Chondungbooks, 2007 25p, ISBN 978-89-90025-39-5 77650

Kim Hwan-Gi is an artist who was born in 1913, a time before western art began to develop in Korea. His name became known in Paris and New York, the centers of western art. He expressed Korea’s nature and unique lyricism through restrained, abstract techniques, yet put emphasis on the spirit of poetry in his art. When you look at his paintings “The Sound of Spring” and “The Sound of Early Spring” in Pictures that Sound: Kim Hwan-Gi’s Dot Paintings, they embody the poetic spirit of “art that must be filled with songs.”

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REVIEWS Children’s Books

Reality and Dreams in Jeng Ah Jeng Ah Cheon, Jung Chul; Illustrator: Lee Kwang-ick Changbi Publishers, Inc., 2008, 38p ISBN 978-89-364-5420-3 77810

The Poetry Picture Book series, which weaves together Korean children’s verse with pictures, have received overseas acclaim since 2003. It has resurrected the children’s verse Jeng Ah, written by poet Cheon, Jung Chul and printed in the 11th issue of Uhleenee (Children) in 1925.

accomplished photos or inform the reader on how to take good photos. Rather, it wants to deliver the message that cameras, especially the popular digital camera, can be excellent toys for children; they can be a medium through which children can understand the world and express themselves.

Children are gripped by fear of what will happen to their loved ones and where their loved ones will go when they die. Now children can be relieved of this fear through a picture book with succinct verse and colorful illustrations. Even the scene where ants dismember the dead dragonfly, which could be depicted as frightening, is expressed in Jeng Ah in a dream-like way as though looking through a kaleidoscope. As a consequence, it causes no aversion. After confirming that life and death are joined, you close the book feeling as though you have just awoken from a sweet dream where reality and dreams commingle.

As Hae Bin plays with her camera, she starts to change. Of course, Hae Bin has become more skillful at photography, something the reader is meant to notice. But Hae Bin goes through an even more important change: a change in her perspective of the world. She is now more considerate and affectionate towards the world. Looking at things from her own unique angle, Hae Bin can now discover the special in the mundane. The change is not found in the daughter only; the father comes to know how to communicate with the daughter. He learns about her best friend and her favorite hangouts. This substantial change came about while the daughter began to play with the camera.

By Kim Young Wook

Jeng Ah, which weaves together children’s verse and illustrations to explore the cycle of birth and death, as well as Korean attitudes toward death, is a startling picture book. Once Jeng Ah the dragonfly dies underneath a fruit flower after freely flying around in the blue sky, ants gather and hold a funeral. By the end of the book, the remains of the dragonfly help the blossoming of a flower. Artist Lee Kwang-ick uses the monotype technique to express life, death, and rebirth in a mystical way in order to achieve the feeling of viewing a traditional Korean funeral. In such funerals, the dead lie in a flower-covered casket in the midst of a hazy spring procession. Lee’s words imaginatively mimic sounds from the bell held by the pallbearers; by connecting round pieces of Jeng Ah, who is carried by the ants, he conjures up the positive memento mori of Koreans. 74

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Photo Diary of a Photographer’s Daughter I Got a Camera! Ryu Woo Jong, Ryu Hae Bin, Design House 2007, 216p, ISBN 978-89-7041-952-7 73600

This book contains the diary and photos of a third grade girl, Hae Bin, along with the writings of her photographer father. The father says to the daughter, “Cameras are toys; take photographs of whatever you want, any time you want.” However, he does not forget to add casually, “Try to take one subject from several different perspectives rather than take a different subject each time.” The purpose of this book is not to lavish attention on

The main message of this book is how to enjoy using a camera. To fulfill the purpose, the book presents a brief explanation of the important features of the camera, and provides information on when, where, and how the camera can be used as a toy. However, it also does not forget to say that we need to maintain manners regarding the appropriate time and place when we take a photograph. That is: cameras are not just toys, they are social toys as well. By Park Suk Kyoung

REVIEWS Children’s Books excuses, wears clothes that are stylish only by her standards (regardless of what others may think), sells her belongings to make extra money, and agonizes over trying to get the attention of the boy she likes.

A Charming

Troublemaker The Story of Lee Seulbee (Five books in the series) Kim Lily; Illustrator: Han Jiyea, Darim Publishing Co. 2008, each 51~69p ISBN 978-89-87721 58-3 73810

The Story of Lee Seulbee (five books in the series) is about the delightful everyday life of tomboy Lee Seulbee’s family and friends. Seulbee is always getting into trouble because she never thinks twice before taking action. However, solving problems is also a part of Seulbee’s quirky and bubbly personality. She isn’t perfect and she certainly isn’t an angel, but Seulbee has captured the hearts of children in Korea. Seulbee’s parents are middle-class citizens living in modern day Seoul. Seulbee’s mother brags to neighbors, “My Seulbee is an insatiable bookworm,” while in reality she constantly nags her daughter to be a straight-A student. There are days when Mrs. Lee’s frustration mounts to her having to personally finish Seulbee’s homework. Seulbee’s mother doesn’t hide the fact that she would rather have a moneymaking dentist for a daughter than a baker or beautician. Nonetheless, Seulbee is not affected by her parents’ eccentricities. She quarrels with her mother who constantly lies and gives

She may be a troublemaker to adults but to children, Seulbee is a trusted proactive friend who takes care of her own problems. The Story of Lee Seulbee can be said to be a collaborative work of both the writer and the illustrator, as the illustrations in the book make up a great portion of the series. Each page of the book is divided into two sections. The actual body of the writing is on the top half of the page, and the illustrations that adhere to the text are on the bottom half. The pictures have all been done in copperplate print (etching), offering readers a humorous yet elegant experience. Among the series, in 2007, Mom is a Liar was translated and published in France, allowing young Swiss and Canadian readers to enjoy the book as well. By Park Suk Kyoung

Diary of a Space Dog

inside a cylindrical spaceship after enduring experiments on his physical conditions and reactions. The first half of Laika Said makes a stark contrast to astronaut Yurii Alekseevich Gagarin, who shouted, “The earth is blue!” Laika’s loneliness is palpable in the words, “Space is beautiful but lonely.” The next scene shows the distance from the earth growing wider, creating melancholy in the reader. The first half of the book focuses on historical facts, and then changes into a fantasy with a scene where a meeting with Yolayolaians, who traveled from a different universe on Hora-1, takes place. Like the writer’s words, “Space is dark but it has hope and miracles,” Laika, who was thought to have died in the spaceship, opens his eyes, and as a representative of earth, is invited to the Yolayolaians’ star, Puq. Some special features of the book include the pasted gold wallpaper in the Hora-1. This cutout and paste technique adds to the special aura of the golden Hora-1, and enhances the three-dimensional effect of Sputnik 2, the spaceship that Laika boarded. The author also won the Korean Anderson Awards with this book. One reviewer noted that, “Not only is it a satire about modern civilization, the writer’s unique sensibility and concise sentences demonstrate an easy and comfortable, formative style.” By Kim Young Wook

Laika Said Lee Min Hui, Nurimbo Publishing Co. 2007, 32p, ISBN 978-89-5879-043-6 77810

Since Vostok 1, mankind’s first manned spaceship with Yurii Alekseevich Gagarin on board, successfully completed its space journey, around 450 subsequent astronauts worldwide have completed space flights. In Korea, also, Yi So-yeon boarded the Soyuz TMA-12 on April 8, 2008, and safely spent ten days in space before returning to earth. But not many people remember space canines’ great contributions to pioneering the final frontier. But through Lee Min Hui’s unique imagination, the former astronomy and aeronautics major restores life to Laika, a dog who died

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MEET THE PUBLISHER

Dolbegae Staff

Dolbegae Publishers

An Exemplary Model in the Korean Publishing Industry

Established in 1979, Dolbegae Publishers (direct translation is “stone pillow”) gets its name from the autobiography of Jang Joon-Ha (1918–1975), who was a prominent figure in both the Independence Movement during the Japanese occupation and the democracy movement of the mid-century. Dolbegae Publishers was founded to carry on Jang Joon-Ha’s spirit of democracy and nationalism in print, and has dedicated itself to publishing progressive texts from the social sciences. Some notable works published by Dolbegae in the 1980s include A Modern Korean National Movement, Rewriting Modern Korean History, and Chun Tae il: A Biography (Chun Tae il 76

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is an important figure in the Korean labor movement who dedicated his life to the cause by setting himself ablaze in protest). These books were widely read by students and intellectuals alike in the 1980s and beyond. In the 1990s, Dolbegae greatly diversified the genres it published without losing sight of its vision; it published numerous Korean studies texts that were highly specialized yet relatively accessible to the general readership. One of its great successes was The Guide to Exploration Tour, a fifteen-volume travelogue. A fusion between humanities for the everyman and a travel journal, the book was a sensation brought on by innovative conceptualization and editing. Buddhist Temple Decoration: The World

of Splendid Symbols, and The Golden Age in Korean Culture: The TrueView Landscape Period also marked Dolbegae’s successes in the 1990s. In the 2000s, Dolbegae began an ongoing project, The History of Korean Culture Series. One of its volumes, Joseon Royal Court Culture: Ceremonial and Daily Life was translated and published in English, which clearly indicates the publisher’s dedication to publishing well-written Korean studies texts in the foreign book market. Since 2000 onwards, Dolbegae has likewise consistently produced books on the environment, ecology, and peace. The recipient of many prestigious publishing awards, Dolbegae

Dolbegae continues its tradition of continually transforming its readership with important, challenging texts. 1

Publishers has become a successful model in the Korean publishing industry for its superb conceptualization and editing. Since 1999, Dolbegae has also been running Chondung Books, a publisher of children’s books such as picture books, storybooks, educational books, and graphic novels. Han Chul Hee, the president of Dolbegae Publishers, claims, “We keep our eyes and hearts open in search of unexplored ideas and horizons. We aim to make books that contain information and inspiration to last a lifetime. It is our strong wish, as indicated by the English translation of The History of Korean Culture Series, to form a mutually beneficial relationship with foreign publishers. Books by Dolbegae are waiting to be published by willing foreign publishers, and our door is wide open to such offers. Also, if you happen to be in Korea, we invite you to visit our very unique office building within the Paju Book Complex.”

1 Discovery of Korean Culture 02 Ceremonies and Life, the Court Culture of Chosun Dynasty 2 Discovery of Korean Culture 05 Uigwe, the Flower of Historical Documentation in the Joseon Dynasty 3 Discovery of Korean Culture 04 The Tomb of King Muryeong 4 Rewriting Korean Modern History 1, 2, 3 5 Dolbegae Publishers 6 The Guide to Exploration Tour, 15 Volumes 7 Postcards by Shin Young Bok 4

By Pyo JeongHun

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MEET THE PUBLISHER

Borim Staff

Borim Publishers Books that Never Go Out of Style

Korean publishers are going through a phase of expansion. Publishers previously dedicated to humanities, literature, and children’s books are now branching out to other genres. Publishers of children’s literature are turning their attention away from original children’s books in favor of graphic novels, educational books, and non-fiction. There are disadvantages as well as advantages to this approach – many publishers are losing their color. Publisher specialties are becoming harder to recognize.

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Readers are often lured in by famous authors and best seller lists. As an average reader turns into a connoisseur of literature, he or she develops the habit of checking their favorite publisher’s new releases because a dependable publisher seldom lets its readers down. As far as children’s literature goes, especially when it comes to picture books, Borim is the publisher you can trust. Borim’s inception was rather unremarkable. Like most Korean publishers in 1976, Borim started out by printing multi-volume sets of children’s books. But in 1993, Borim took a bold step toward printing single-volume books. In 1994, the Pencil and Crayon series explored the untapped potential of original picture books in the Solgeo Land series, which brought traditional culture to young readers. This project was heralded as a courageous venture for bringing traditional culture in picture book format to a pre-school readership. Breathing Pottery, No One Knows Who I Am, and In Search of Pale Indigo are consummate examples of the balance between traditional culture and literature. Borim’s willingness to take on challenges is what draws readers to its books and keeps Borim’s standards high. Borim Publisher’s books, therefore, have a certain unique quality to them. One such quality is Borim’s dedication to making original Korean picture books instead of simply publishing translated foreign storybooks. Since 2000, Borim has been discovering new picture book illustrators and writers through contests. The winner of a 2002 contest, The Day I Caught the Flu by Kim Dongsoo, stirred great interest overseas; the childlike imagination and warmth of its illustrations captured the hearts of children in Japan, Taiwan, France, and Greece. The winner of the 2005 contest, Meet My Family by Lee Haeran, is a precocious picture book featuring a

Borim Books

family with a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, as well as other family members who work hard to make ends meet.

Korean Art Gallery, picture books for both adults and children, are products of Borim’s integrity. Borim keeps its readers excited about reading.

Borim has made its reputation both at home and abroad through its persistent passion for original Korean picture books and its daring investment in new artists. Children all over the world have been delighted by various Borim books, such as: Doggaebi Club (Japan); A Rainy Day (Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Spain); Half (German), Underground Garden (Taiwan, France, Spain); World Picture Map (Sweden); Monsters Teeming in My House (France); Story of Twelve Zodiac Animals (Switzerland); To the Mountain (France), and Yellow Umbrella (Belgium). Jin Gyeong Books, a series of young adult books, and

By Han Mi Hwa

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AFTERWORD

A List of Lists What is the most famous list in the world? The first thing that comes to mind is Schindler’s list. Most people are probably familiar with it because of the movie Schindler’s List, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, which won seven different awards at the 1993 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. The list that Schindler created helped save the lives of 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. After the end of World War II, the people he saved gave him a ring in thanks. Engraved on the ring was a line from the Talmud that read, “Whoever saved one life saved the world entire.” Although not as widely known as Schindler’s List, the Swedish botanist Carl Von Linne’s book Systema Naturae was also an extremely important list for the academic world. In this book, Linne provided the basis for the development of modern botany and zoology by systemically categorizing and listing all living things, both plant and animal, according to their genus and species. From this perspective, lists can be seen as symbols of nature and its contrast, culture. Categorizing things and creating lists can even be said to be a trait unique to human beings. In this sense, it would not be too much to say that human beings are list-making beings. As seen in the case of Linne, by classifying nature into lists, nature can be made systematically comprehensible for people, and can, in another sense, fall under the category of culture. Now let’s consider the title of this magazine, LIST, which will introduce Korean books to the world. What happens if we split the world in half, then use the two parts to form the first two letters of the Latin root words “Libro” and “Stori?” It becomes “Book Story.” In 2007, more than 50,000 new titles were published in Korea. Among those many titles were books worthy of being read outside Korea by readers around the world. LIST sorts through and categorizes those books in order to systematically bring their stories to the world. Of course, LIST won’t save lives like Schindler’s List, and it won’t make any groundbreaking contributions to science like Linne’s Systema Naturae. But it will do the following: it will become a hand of friendship extended by Koreans to book lovers all over the world. By Pyo JeongHun

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Son Jeong Soo is a professor of creative writing at Keimyung University and an active literary critic.

Lee Moon-ok is a freelance translator and high school teacher.

A Magazine to Present Korean books

Special Section Three Key Words to View Korea’s New Generation of Writers:

ISSN 2005-2790