Another of the Korean writers I was introduced to recently was Kim Young-ha, a man with a reasonably high profile in the West - and with a few books in English already. His most recent work in translation is a work of historical fiction (certainly a departure from the shorter works of his I've read), and it takes the reader far away from Korea. Shall we set sail? There's a long voyage ahead...
*****
Black Flower (translated by Charles La Shure, published by Mariner Books) begins in 1904, with the Korean Empire entering its final days. A thousand or so people have decided to leave their homeland, hoping to make a living (and some cash) by working hard as farmers in far-off Mexico. Few of the emigrants know anything about their new home (only one can even speak Spanish), but they're all convinced that this will be a change for the better.
The truth, though, is that the new start isn't quite as wonderful as everyone had hoped. After a traumatic crossing of the pacific, the Koreans end up in Mexico only to find that their future has been signed away. For four years, they are to work on the infamous haciendas, sold into indentured servitude - for most, the hope of returning home one day as a wealthy person is nothing but an impossible dream...
While a work of fiction, Black Flower is based on real events - this mass emigration really happened. As the Korean Empire was in the process of being dismantled by Japan, a shipload of Koreans set sail for Mexico, hoping to gain fortune and fame in a new world. It is this story that Kim uses as the springboard for his novel - the crossing, the haciendas and the struggles in Mexico and Guatemala.
The six-week crossing is a terrible experience, but the culture shock really kicks in once the Koreans arrive in Mexico. As farmers, used to a hard life, the immigrants expect that their work will be fairly similar to what they did back home, but their new environment is startling different to the Korean landscape:
"The vastness of the plain was felt strongly by the Koreans, who had never in their lives seen the horizon on land. They realized they had been born between the mountains, had grown up looking at the mountains, and went to sleep when the sun fell behind the mountains. This endless plain, with no Arirang Hill of their folk songs, was a truly strange sight, and they tossed and turned not so much because the ground was hard but because of the boundlessness and emptiness around them."
p.81 (Mariner Books, 2013)
No mountains, little water, no rice paddies - Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Seoul anymore...
As is the case with most expansive historical fiction, Kim creates a cast of characters for us to follow. The writer introduces us to soldiers, thieves, an enterprising interpreter and an apostate priest, each of whom will play their role in uncovering the country they find themselves in. However, the main focus is on orphan Kim Ijeong and Yi Yeonsu, the daughter of an aristocrat, who soon become drawn to each other. Their romance starts on board the boat, bringing to mind Jack and Rose from the film Titanic, and in fact the first part of the story has a lot of a Titanic feel about it (just dirtier...)
In the environment they find themselves thrust into, the Koreans soon notice the erosion of the rigid social barriers which separate people back home. Yeonsu's father Yi Jongdo, a distant relation of the Emperor, can't bring himself to work, preferring to sit at home rereading Confucius. However, he is the exception; the majority quickly grasp the new reality:
Ijeong spoke. "Do you really think the distinction between high and low, old and young, and man and woman will be as severe as it is in Korea? Look at this ship we are on. Aristocrat or commoner, all must line up to eat." (p.68)
The reality is that the Korea they knew no longer exists, and in the New World, they will all have to forge new lives and identities. This is especially true as, soon after their departure, their old country actually ceases to exist...
*****
There's a lot to like about Black Flower, and I've enjoyed filling in another little gap in my (enormous) ignorance of Korean history. However, several people have said this is not Kim's best work, and I can certainly see why. The writing is a little bit flat, almost wooden at times, and the novel is so didactic in places that it reads more like a history text. Also, while Ijeong is the one I'd pick as the central protagonist, he's a hero who goes AWOL at times, and as a result, the story meanders a little.
A bigger issue, though, is that at 300 pages it actually feels too short. It's as if the writer, having gone to the effort of researching the story, ran out of steam towards the end and decided to wrap it up quickly. That's a shame because this is a great story, and it feels like it should, or could, have been an epic. In the second part, events happen far too quickly, and the third part, thirty pages detailing the creation of 'New Korea' in Guatemala, could have been a short book in its own right (especially as the writer says, in his afterword, that this is the part that intrigued him!).
Still, it's not as bad as some had me believe before I started (I've certainly read worse...). I enjoyed reading Black Flower, and it was a fascinating look at a little-known part of history, especially in the Anglosphere. I'll certainly give Kim another try, and I suspect that his other books will be more to my taste. One thing I remember from the 10 Magazine Book Club interview I watched a while back is that he talked about his interest in taking genres and twisting them in his own manner. Historical fiction doesn't seem to be his thing, but perhaps... spy fiction? Your Republic is Calling You - and me too;)
Those of you who have been paying attention will have noticed my reviews this year of Dalkey Archive's Library of Korean Literature (four to date with more to come). However, there's more out there than that particular series of ten books, and in today's post I look at a few stories from a writer who, while not covered in that collection, has plenty of books available in English for you to try. And, even better, you should be able to find some of these tales online for free...
*****
Kim Young-ha is one of the big names in modern Korean literature (he's a certainly a name that's come up a lot in most K-Lit discussions I've seen) and after rummaging around some of the outlying corners of the Internet, I was able to find six stories to sample his work. Some involve murder cases, others look at big-city life in present-day Seoul; one thing they have in common though is that they're all entertaining :)
The first three stories were collected on a PDF I found a while back, and the first is one of his most famous, 'Photo Shop Murder' (translated by Jason Rhodes). It seems to be a standard crime story and starts with a great hardboiled line:
"Why do murders always seem to happen on Sundays?"
However, as the story progresses, the attention strays from finding the murderer, instead focusing on the detective's marriage and a possible relationship between the two main suspects. It's a dark story, and the ambiguous ending adds to the sense of depression surrounding the detective.
On the other hand, 'Whatever Happened to the Guy Stuck in the Elevator?' (translated by Jason Rhodes) is a much lighter tale. A typical Korean salaryman (to use the Japanese expression) is rushing off to work when he sees some legs poking out of the doors of the lift. Running late for an important presentation, he decides to contact the authorities on the way - if only modern life didn't keep preventing him from doing his civic duty... And what exactly is so important that he can't be late for work?
"And anyway, I was already late for work, and I had to give my presentation. It was an important report about more efficient use of office supplies. To be more exact, I had to get up in front of the trustees and speak clearly and confidently about my plan to reduce the use of toilet paper at the office."
Ah - all is forgiven...
The third story here is 'Moving' (translated by Kim Chi-young), in which a young couple's move to a dream apartment runs into complications. These include a dust storm, some malicious removal people and an ancient earthenware pot - and there may even be a ghost in there somewhere too ;)
Sadly, despite there being links to this PDF all over the place, it appears to have been removed from its original location. I suspect that this is because the first two stories are actually lifted from the Jimoondang bilingual edition of 'Photo Shop Murder'. Unless you have a spare US$2000 lying around though, I'd start looking for the PDF...
Update - 27/4/14
I've just found these stories online again! The first two can be found on a new PDF here, while 'Moving' can be read on translator Kim Chi-young's (Chi-Young Kim's?) website here :)
*****
Luckily, though, there are some stories out there to try for free. Charles La Shure's translation on his web-site of the story 'Christmas Carol' is one. It's about a man who hears of the death of a Korean woman visiting the country after years abroad in Germany. The thing is, he used to sleep with her - and he saw her on the night she was murdered...
There are also a couple of stories over at Words Without Borders (one of which appeared while I was in the middle of planning this post!). 'The Man Who Sold his Shadow' (translated by Dafna Zur) is a fascinating tale involving a writer, a Catholic priest and a woman they both used to know. It's a lovely story, one which obviously incorporates a lot of the writer himself (as you'll see in a moment...).
The other story, one of many in this month's South Korea issue of the online magazine, is 'The Suit' (translated by Sora Kim-Russell), a short tale about a Korean man on a mission in the States to retrieve the ashes of a man who may or may not have been his father. In this story, we get a twist on the old conflict between nature and nurture - and we also find out whether clothes truly do make the man ;)
*****
While that's quite enough for one day, there's one last link I need to provide you with. As I mentioned when discussing 'The Man Who Sold his Shadow', there's a lot of Kim Young-ha himself in the story. Don't take my word for it though - listen to the man himself :) Last night, I watched an interview in which he talked about this story, and his latest book to appear in English, Black Flower. It was all very interesting, and while the writer's English is far from perfect, he talked very well - and was also very funny at times!
All of which means that I'm keen to try more of his work - I'll let you all know when I manage it ;)
