Geum Hee
Geum Hee, born Jin Jinji, is an ethnic Korean writer, who lives in China and writes in Korean. She realistically depicts the issue of identity for ethnic Koreans living in China and the diaspora experience, and she also continues to deepen her creative world by expanding the issue of migration to a transnational level. After making her literary debut in 2007 with the short story “Gaebul”, she broke into the South Korean literary scene through the short story “Ok-hwa” about North Korean defectors in 2014. She received the Baek Shin-ae Literature Prize and the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature with her short story collection Sesange eomnun naui jip.
Life
Geum was born in Jiutai, Changchun in northeastern China's Jilin province. She is ethnically Korean, and she grew speaking both Korean and Chinese. She graduated from the Yanji College of Education and worked as a teacher at a Chinese-Korean elementary school. After quitting her teaching job, she worked in various jobs in China and South Korea, where she lived with her husband for two years from 2002 to 2004, cleaning and serving at a restaurant. Eventually she settled down in Changchun, China, and began to write fiction. She also finished the Thirteenth Advanced and Middle-Aged Writers class at the Lu Xun Literary Institute in Beijing.In 2007, “Gaebul,” a short story about the true meaning of love, earned her the Yun Dongju New Writer's Prize, awarded by Yeonbyeonmunhak, the literary journal published by the Yanbian Writers Association. In 2009, she received attention for her short story “Paran ribongui mojareul sseun yeoja”. In 2010, she was invited to the Lu Xun Literary Institute in Beijing to study creative writing, and, in 2011, she received the Dumangang Literary Award. Her first short story collection titled Syuroedinggeoui sangja was published in China in 2013. The next year, she received the Grand Prize in fiction from Yeonbyeonmunhak for her novella Noran haebaragikkot, about a woman who lost her direction in life after her family fell apart.
She became known to Korean readers with the publication of “Ok-hwa,” a short story about North Korean defectors in the spring 2014 edition of The Quarterly Changbi. This work was also translated and published in a bilingual English-Korean edition of Asia Publisher's “K Fiction” series. It was also published in her second short story collection Sesange eomnun naui jip, which is also her first short story collection to be published in Korea.
Work
Geum Hee's birth in China is why most of the setting or theme in her story stories set with Joseonjok or refugees from North Korea who have crossed over to China and/or Korea. She first started writing in 2006 where she wrote novels, and her first book Syuroedinggeoui sangja was published in 2007. She mainly writes her book to express what she feels and sees beyond a person's ethnicity and race. The writer has also mentioned that she wanted herself to feel free through writing her books. The episodes of her books are influenced by the people around her who were refugee families from North Korea, a Joseonjok who married a South Korean exchange student and similar themes.Her first book was published in China but her stories regarding refugees were refused by the Chinese publications because this problem is also a sensitive matter in China. Instead, she sent the copy to a South Korean publisher which gladly accepted to print her story. This story is "Ok-hwa."
In her book Sesange eomneun naui jip, she writes in the dialect spoken by Koreans in China, which is different from the South Korean standard. This is why there are some expressions that came straight from the Chinese language and South Korean readers are unable to interpret. The author says that this is an inevitable due to the gap between cultural differences.
Moreover, she says that she not only wants to focus on a specific group of people but want to write a book where everyone can relate to the characters.
Geum Hee's sole translation into English is Ok-hwa, translated by Jeon Seung-hee, which was a nominee for the prestigious Ku Sang Literary Award.
Themes
Geum Hee is said to have expanded the scope of Korean diaspora literature. While many South Korean works of fiction feature North Korean defectors or Koreans living in China, Geum Hee's work is different as they tell the stories of women who defected from North Korea before they settle down in the South.Considered a third-generation ethnic Korean living in China, Geum Hee believes that the ethnic Korean communities in China have disintegrated due to migration and links it to China's industrialization and urbanization. Furthermore, she also differs from the first- and second-generation ethnic Korean writers living in China, such as Heo Ryeon-sun and Kim Hak-cheol, as she specifically describes women's migration and paints multifaceted pictures of the identity of North Korean defectors who cannot be simply described as good or evil. In particular, she vividly describes the diaspora experience of people who choose to migrate for survival through a strong narrative and provides a detailed description of their psychological state. In this way, she shows that the reality of migration is not specific to the community of ethnic Koreans living in China but rather universal and links it to migration on a broader, transnational level.
In Sesange eomnun naui jip, her first short story collection published in Korea, Geum Hee depicts not only the experience of moving to South Korea but also the identity conflicts of ethnic Koreans living in China as minorities and the issue of North Korean defectors as seen from the community of ethnic Koreans living in China. She also captures the issues of the family system under capitalism, disintegration of agricultural communities, and the ethical degradation resulting from materialism.
Major works
“Ok-hwa” is Geum Hee's first work to be introduced to Korean readers. It tells the story of a woman, who escapes from North Korea and goes to China and then to Korea from the perspective of a character named Hong. When she meets a woman asking to borrow some money, Hong is reminded of Ok-hwa and thus the relationship between Hong and Ok-hwa-Woman continues. In addition, rather than the simple dynamics of Hong showing compassion to the North Korean defectors and the North Korean defectors becoming their beneficiaries, the story addresses the dilemma and confusion about North Korean defectors.“Nomad” depicts the reality of transnational migration through Park Cheol, as well as Su-mi, an ethnic Korean living in China, North Korean defector Seon-a, and a Korean woman who set up a hair salon in China. Park Cheol, who returned to his hometown after making money in South Korea, encounters the reality of the disintegration of the ethnic Korean community in China, through a friend in a failed in a marriage with a woman who defected from North Korea, a cousin who lives as a mistress to a South Korean man, and a Chinese person who runs an ethnic Korean restaurant. Faced with these circumstances, Park plans to start a farm and an ethnic Korean restaurant. This kind of ending suggests optimistic prospects for the future as well as negative prospects, since there is only a small chance of success for Park.
“Sesange eomnun naui jip” features three characters: the narrator, who teaches the Korean language, Yeon-ju, a Korean woman studying abroad in China, and Ning, a Han Chinese librarian. At the end of the story, the narrator builds a house that has an atmosphere unique to ethnic Koreans living in China, Geum Hee shows an alternative way to deal with the issue of identity.
Works in translation
- 《옥화-K픽션009》, 전승희 옮김, 아시아, 2015 / Ok-hwa, translated by Jeon Seung-hee, ASIA, 2015.
Awards
1. Overseas Literature Awards
Yun Dongju New Writer's PrizeDumangang Literary Award
Yeonbyeonmunhak Grand Prize in Fiction
2. Korean Literature Awards
Baek Shin-ae Literature PrizeShin Dong-yup Prize for Literature
Works in Korean (partial)
- "Swallow, Swallow"
- "Irises at the Bus Stop"
- "A Girl Wearing a Hat with a Blue Ribbon"
1. Short Story Collections
《세상에 없는 나의 집》, 창비, 2015 / Sesange eomnun naui jip (My Home Nowhere in The World, Changbi, 2015.