Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Why novelist Yan Lianke chooses anxiety over sleep
Chinese novelist Yan Lianke, right, speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday, on the eve of his scheduled appearance at this year's Seoul International Writers' Festival. Courtesy of Literature Translation Institute of Korea
By Park Han-sol
Chinese literary icon to meet Korean readers at Seoul Int'l Writers' Festival
For Yan Lianke — the Chinese novelist whose searing satires of modern China have been both banned at home and celebrated abroad — being a writer is to live under a constant weight of unease.
“It is anxiety that makes you swallow sleeping pills night after night. It’s a torment,” he said at a press conference in Seoul Thursday, on the eve of his scheduled appearance at this year’s Seoul International Writers’ Festival (SIWF). “I wouldn’t recommend surrendering peaceful nights to sleepless anxiety just for literature.”
Yet the Franz Kafka Prize-winning author has chosen that path for himself. What power does literature hold that makes it worth giving up his tranquil slumber?
“The experience of a writer, of any one person, is always limited. And yet from these limits we try to reach toward the limitless,” he said.
“The truth of literature lies not only in what can be seen and touched, but also in what remains unseen: a truth that withholds itself, a truth that in its very unreality still feels real and a truth veiled in mystery.”
For Yan, writing means transforming one’s finite experience into a bridge toward such infinite truths — not all visible, yet all equally real.
Korean literary icon Hyun Ki-young, left, answers questions during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. Hyun's oeuvre is known for confronting Jeju Island's April 3 uprising and the civilian massacre that followed in the 1950s. Courtesy of Literature Translation Institute of Korea
Exploring this interplay between the seen and the unseen, the Chinese literary heavyweight is set to open Friday’s SIWF in conversation with Hyun Ki-young, the Jeju-born icon whose oeuvre confronts the island’s April 3 uprising and the civilian massacre that followed in the 1950s.
Yan noted that every nation carries shadows and wounds in its history. But what struck him about Korea was that its writers are able to face those shadows openly. “In China, so many dark rooms and painful chapters are left unspoken. So I would say Korean writers are braver than their Chinese counterparts — far braver.”
“I admire the freedom of Korean literature,” he continued. “It’s more personal, more layered and attentive to the marginalized. We all know that Chinese literature carries more constraints. To create a work there demands enormous effort and sacrifice.”
A poster for this year's Seoul International Writers' Festival, held under the theme "( ) Meets the Eye" / Courtesy of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea
Expressing his congratulations to Han Kang on receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature — an honor for which Yan himself has frequently been considered a prime contender — he reflected that the award is not merely a triumph for Korean literature, but a moment of pride for all of Asian writing.
“I hope Korean literature can chart a path for Asian literature, which has yet to claim a clearly defined place on the world stage,” he said. “A free, thriving place like this could serve as a hub, from which East Asian writing builds its presence.”
The 14th iteration of SIWF will feature 29 celebrated authors and poets from nine countries at Ground Seoul in Jongno District under the deliberately open-ended theme, “( ) Meets the Eye,” running Friday through Wednesday.
For more details on the six-day festival, hosted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, visit its official website. All programs are free with online prebooking, and key on-site events will be streamed live as well.