- Overview
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This book is a collection of short stories by Korean-Chinese writer Geum Hee, who poses a fresh question for Korean literature.
- Book Intro
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This collection features a total of seven short stories that thoroughly deal with the issue of North Korean defectors seen from the perspectives of Korean-Chinese people and identity crises faced by Chinese ethnic minorities with powerful narration that penetrates reality and provides a detailed description of emotions. After reading this book, readers may find that their perspectives on Korean literature have widened. The colorful and vivid narratives of Geum Hee, who never takes a detour around a subject, will serve as a fresh and meaningful signal and question.
There have been stories that deal with North Korean defectors, refugees, and diaspora, yet “Okhwa” by Geum Hee is distinguished from them in that it portrays how a North Korean female defector settles in South Korea. The uniqueness of the topic as well as also the voice of a Chinese-Korean writer are enough to attract and capture the attention of readers.
The characters in this collection of stories are diverse and include marginalized people who use two languages, ordinary people who leave their homes and wander around hoping for better lives, and idealists who roam around the world but end up ruining their lives after failing to adjust to rapidly changing times. All of these characters represent the underprivileged who wish to have a “home” where they are warmly welcomed and can relax. For them, the world is an unstable place. The protagonist of “My House Is Nowhere in the World” thinks of herself as “someone who does not fit into this category or that one” and hopes to become “a complete version of myself.” In “Sealed Song,” the uncle who grew up with great expectations from family members wanders around the world due to being unable to adjust and ends up losing all of his fortunes. “Okhwa” centers on characters who "leave their home countries to go to China, and then go from China back to Korea.” The protagonist Yu in “Moonlight Dance” spends days on trains to borrow business funds and has no time to visit home, even during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In “Nomad,” Park Cheoli, a Chinese-Korean worker living in South Korea, witnesses a vicious cycle of discrimination among Koreans, Chinese-Koreans, and North Korean defectors.
- About the Author
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Geum Hee
Geum Hee was born in 1979 in a small Korean-Chinese town in Kirin, China. After graduating from Yanbian Normal School, Geum worked in various fields in China and Korea until she started to write novels in Changchun in 2006. Geum started her career as a writer in 2007, winning the Yun Dongjoo New Writer’s Literary Award sponsored by Yanbin Literature. Books Geum has written include The Box of Schrodinger, her collection of short stories published in China. My House is Nowhere in the World is her first collection of stories in Korea. Geum currently lives in Changchun while publishing her works in Korea and China.
- Award
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Changbi, 2016, Shin Dongyeop Literary Award
Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, 2016, Sejong Books Sharing Literature