I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Period novel author created literary retreat for writers
Korean and foreign writers stay and work on their writing in this building that has several single rooms with all the necessary amenities. / Korea Times file
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Daughter recalls late Park Kyong-ni, keeps her legacy alive
By Kang Hyun-kyung
WONJU, Gangwon Province — The late Pak Kyong-ni, author of the 20-volume period novel Toji or The Land, came to fathom the importance of writers staying free from distractions after her life was affected by her high-profile son-in-law, the poet and activist Kim Chi-ha.
In 1974, shortly after marrying Pak’s only daughter, Kim Young-joo, Kim Chi-ha was tortured and then jailed for seven years for allegedly teaming up with like-minded North Korea followers to overthrow the then Park Chung-hee government. He was cleared of the charge in 2009 by the court.
As a mother, Pak had a hard time watching her talented daughter suffer from the acts of the authoritarian regime. Kim Young-joo was monitored by the spy agency and had difficulty pursing her professional dream because of the government’s collective punishment of dissidents at that time. She and her husband were separated in mere months after they married when Kim Chi-ha was jailed. Later, she would take their son, Won-bo, to prison to see his father.
Kim said her relationship with her mother soured during that turbulent period.
“My mother was angry at me for no specific reason and gave me the cold shoulder,” she recalled. “At that time, I didn’t understand why she treated me like that.”
Now, years after her mother died from lung cancer in May 2008, Kim said she realized that her mother’s harsh actions were a part of her tough love approach.
“As a mother of two, I now understand that it had been very difficult for my mother to see her only daughter going through punishment she did not deserve,” Kim, now chairwoman of the Toji Cultural Foundation, said. The foundation was established by Pak in 1998 with $1 million of her own money to create a retreat where writers can focus on crafting their stories away from the distractions of everyday life.
Although it remains uncertain whether Pak’s experience was what prompted her to launch the writers’ residence program, Kim said her mother believed writers deserve to have access to a distraction-free environment.
Under the program, poets and fiction writers stay at the foundation in the countryside in Wonju, northeast of Seoul, for up to four months. The program includes free housing and meals.
The foundation first accepted Korean writers in 2001. In the beginning, Kim said, many people were skeptical about whether the program would succeed and attract enough writers.
However, the foundation proved those skeptics wrong. The residence program became popular and drew many writers. The foundation began accepting foreign writers in 2007. As of December 2015, 80 foreign poets and fiction writers from 20 countries, including the United States, Argentina, Brazil, France, Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine, have participated in the residence program. In addition to providing the space for writing, the program gives them access to Pak’s Toji.
Kim Young-joo, the daughter of Park Kyong-ni and chairwoman of the Toji Cultural Foundation / Korea Times file
According to Ng Yi-Sheng, a poet from Singapore who has been in the program for three months, the location helps foreign writers focus on their projects.
“In Singapore, I was involved in a lot of activities, including activism and theater criticism,” he said. “It was difficult for me to work on a big project in Singapore. But I do that here.”
Ng began reading Pak’s Toji last week. “I was amazed at the many different characters who appear in the book and wondered how the author was able to produce the voluminous book,” he said. “I think it is a book that you need to look at if you want to make a drama.”
In Toji, Pak portrayed Korea’s turbulent modern history between 1897 and 1992 by focusing on the rise and fall of the Choi family, who owned the large farm that stretched across Pyeongsa-ri in the southeastern city of Hadong.
By following the lives of lead character Choi Seo-hee and many other characters, the epic novel describes the demise of the Joseon Dynasty’s caste system and the ensuing annexation of Korea by Japan as a colonial state. It also details the sagas of independence fighters, the migration of some Koreans to Manchuria and the nation’s independence from Japan following the latter’s defeat in World War II.
The late writer Pak Kyong-ni prepared healthy dishes with the fresh vegetables she grew in the garden in the compound of the Toji Cultural Foundation in Wonju, Gangwon Province. / Korea Times file
The first volume was published in 1969, and it took Pak 26 more years to finish the critically acclaimed work of fiction. Critics say Toji is the most meaningful novel to emerge from Korean literature since the end of World War II.
Meanwhile, Pak’s residence program also helped rebuild her relationship with her daughter. As Pak became busier with the expansion of the Toji foundation’s programs, she asked for Kim’s help. The two discussed the foundation’s operational issues in detail, respecting each other’s opinions in the process.
According to Kim, her mother kept a low profile at the foundation.
“As a writer, she knew the pain of writing and rewriting stories,” Kim said. “So she tried not to disturb the writers and took care of their needs without their awareness.”
Pak prepared healthy dishes for the writers with the fresh vegetables that she grew in the garden in the foundation’s compound.
“My mother used to tell me that writing stories requires a lot of energy,” Kim said. “So she paid greater attention to the writers’ health.”
Gardening was an integral part of Pak’s daily life in Wonju. Pak had said she worked in the garden whenever she was not making any progress in her writing. Gardening helped her.
As a child, Kim witnessed the pain her mother felt when she was writing. Kim had been her mother’s closest coworker since she was a middle-school student.
After writing, rewriting and editing her drafts dozens of times, Pak would show them to Kim before submitting them to publishers. Kim thoroughly checked every word and sentence, as well the flow and structure of the drafts and gave feedback to her mother. Pak heeded her daughter’s comments and rewrote the drafts. Kim said Toji was the result of her mother’s extensive reading and painstaking writing and editing.
According to Kim, Pak’s literary interest was not limited to any genre. The writer was an avid reader in many fields, including philosophy and history. Kim’s father, who died during the Korean War, was a chemical scientist who owned several books about chemistry and engineering. Pak read those books, too.
Pak briefly ran an old bookstore in the port city of Incheon, northwest of Seoul. According to Kim, Pak read all the books in the bookstore and told her that there was a wonderful world inside them.
Kim said she thoroughly read Toji again after her mother died. “I wonder if we will ever see a novel as great as Toji again in our time,” she said.
“I dare say this because the fiction is a total package of stories of human lives. It has romance. The book also shows her perspective and understanding of the world and history. It covers several profound philosophical questions as well.”