- Overview
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This book has played an important role in raising the awareness of Eastern ideas in the West through an extensive depiction of Korea's traditional culture and historical background.
- Book Intro
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This book uses lyrical sentences in elegant and concise German to describe Korea's customs, nature, and compassion.
The protagonist's childhood spent in the countryside with his cousin Sooam, learning to read and write and taking lessons in manners, shows the process in which the young child's innocent personality matures.
Born at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, a turbulent period in Korea's modern history, the protagonist studies Chinese classics at the village school as a little boy. However, the waves of rapid change mean he ends up attending a modern middle school to receive Western-style education. However, he drops out of school due to health problems and educates himself using lecture notes until he is admitted to a medical school. In his third year of college, stirred by the March First Movement, the passionate young man starts to lead the anti-Japanese movement. He feels frustrated by the misfortunes of his country and distributes flyers that he has produced with his fellow students. However, violent oppression from Japan forces him to seek exile in Shanghai. From Shanghai, he makes a long and difficult to Europe. He arrives in Paris and dreams of studying in Germany.
In this fascinating story, we witness the way in which a man born into the traditional way of life opens his eyes to a new world and knowledge under the guidance of his father. This work is peppered with encounters and clashes between old and new, traditions and new culture, and old and new studies, which collectively reveal the writer's intention to bring the East and the West together within himself.
- About the Author
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Li Mirok
Li Mirok was born in 1899 in the city of Haeju in the Hwanghae province. After participating in the March 1st Movement in 1919, Li moved to Shanghai to avoid Japanese suppression. In May 26th 1920, Li Mirok arrived in Germany and studied medicine at the University of Wuerzburg and Heidelberg University, and he received a PhD in Zoology from the University of Munich in 1928. However, Li soon started to focus on creative activities that had no relation to his major. Li Mirok mainly released short stories based in Korea in German newspapers and magazines, and he became widely known as his work published by Piper Publishing in 1946, The Yalu Flows, which gained a positive response from German literary circles and readers.
Wai
After graduating from Hongik University with a degree in Western Painting, Wai worked as an advertisement film director for a long time, even directing a film with his own script. Books illustrated by Wai include I Miss You Now, Mudun, The Yalu Flows, Mother, The Story of Li Mirok, Seopyeonje, The Way of Sound, The Story of AhQ, and A Letter from Our Dokdo. - Recommendation
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Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Recommended Book
National Reading New Wave Group, Recommended Book
Association for Research on Children’s Publications, Recommended Book
- Selection
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Cheongju-si, 2006, The 1st One Book One City Program
Reading in the Morning Campaign, Recommended Book