Lifestyle

DAILY FORTUNE - NOVEMBER 25, 2022

'Kimchi ambassadors' recognize Korean staple food's global ascent

Kimchi made out of salted and fermented cabbage / gettyimagesbankKorea seeks to promote kimchi furtherBy Dong Sun-hwaKimchi, a traditional Korean food of salted and fermented vegetables, is a staple in Korea, eaten at almost every meal. For Koreans, it is more than just a side dish loaded with diverse nutrients; it is also an emblem of the country's unique culture and identity. In 2013, kimchi-making or “kimjang,” was inscribed in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Koreans are eager to promote kimchi worldwide. For a long time, they have attempted to delight the taste buds of people from overseas with this staple food, which dates back to sometime around 37 B.C.E. to 7 C.E. in the early days of the Three Kingdoms period. For this goal, the World Institute of Kimchi appointed six “global kimchi ambassadors,” who have been actively introducing the dish around the world since earlier this year. The ambassadors are: Kalidas Shetty, a professor and director of the Global Institute of Food Science at North Dakota State Univ

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Commendation Award winner Giulia Macri

Commendation Award winner Giulia MacriGiulia Macri is a translator from Milan, who is currently in her second year at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea). She used to work as a graphic designer in Italy before coming to Korea in December 2017.After taking a Korean course at Yonsei University, she took the Interpretation and Translation Course for six months at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She has always had an interest in translation. So after learning English at school, she first picked up translation as a hobby, translating magazine articles from English to Italian or the other way around. When she came to Korea, she took on a Korean-Italian translation job, but it wasn't until she began studying at the LTI that she found her dream as a literature translator, hoping to introduce Korean literature to an Italian audience. Macri translated the short story, “The Forty-Four Lives of a Wedding Dress,” by novelist Chung Se-rang. She said that she fell in love with Chung's style of touching on “heavy topics in a very humorous way,” whe

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Commendation Award: The Forty-Four Lives of a Wedding Dress

Cover of Chung Se-rang's "See You on the Rooftop," which includes short story "The Forty-Four Lives of a Wedding Dress" / Courtesy of Changbi PublishersWritten by Chung Se-rangTranslated by Giulia Macri The dress was picked up at a small warehouse in Vancouver during the Canada Day Sales of July 2013 and imported to Korea. Although it was a designer dress, it came at a highly discounted price because it was the work of an emerging creator. The price tag read $15,000, but the final price had come to $3,500. The dress was a size 4 but because it was somewhat larger than the average and could be adjusted with the strings, it could pass for either a size 2 or 6.1The dress remained unchosen by anyone for a long time. It was a simple dress with a geometrical line. It looked like an origami dress, as it flaunted no handmade lace or beads or sequins. As the shop owner began to regret making it a part of the collection, the first woman picked it out at last.“When the protagonist in a movie or TV show puts on her wedding dress, special effects are used to make her look dramatically prett

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Grand Prize: The Beginning of Winter

Cover of Kim Ae-ran's "Summer Outside," which includes short story "The Beginning of Winter" / Courtesy of MunhakdongneWritten by Kim Ae-ranTranslated by Graham HandIt was after midnight when my wife suggested we redo the wallpaper.― Right now?― Yeah. I stayed hunched over on the sofa for a moment before I said, “Okay,” and got up. It had been a long time since my wife suggested we do anything. I went out onto the veranda and got it out of the storage cabinet. A roll of do-it-yourself wallpaper we'd bought at a nearby big box store a while back. It was about as wide as my shoulders, but the roll was more than ten meters long and it felt heavy in my hands. I started reading the instructions without putting it down, but I felt something weighing on me and I glanced at the light in the living room. Without taking my eyes off the instructions, I shouted.― Are we really going to do this now?Last month my mother stayed with us for a while. She said she knew neither one of us would have the wherewithal to deal with things, so she'd come take care of the housework. Starting the d

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Grand Prize winner Graham Hand

Fiction Grand Prize winner Graham HandGraham Hand is a modern Korean literature student from Boston, who is currently studying for a master's degree at Korea University. He came to Korea in 2008, and studied from 2016 to 2018 at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).He developed an interest in translation as he studied Korean, and began translating Korean literature about 10 years ago, starting with short poems. He made his first submission to The Korea Times' Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards with a fictional story five years ago.This time, Hand translated writer Kim Ae-ran's short story, “The Beginning of Winter,” for the contest.“Everything Kim Ae-ran writes is phenomenal; I think 'The Beginning of Winter' is particularly significant,” he said. He said that translating this novel was challenging because the writer's use of words and descriptions needed meticulous work to deliver her intentions precisely. “The story includes some meta-linguistic challenges, with specific descriptions of Korean reading and writing that need

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Judges' Report

From left are Sogang University Professor Emeritus of English language and literature Brother Anthony, Ewha Womans University associate professor of interpreting and translation Jung Ha-yun and Seoul National University professor of English language and literature Min Eun-kyung, the judges of The Korea Times' Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards. Korea Times fileBy Brother Anthony, Jung Ha-yun and Min Eun-kyungAs judges of the Korea Times Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, we have the privilege and pleasure of discovering every year what bilingual readers and writers are reading. It is always interesting to find out what our translators are choosing to translate. We enjoy the element of surprise. Often the translations reflect trends in Korean fiction. For instance, some years we have found our files full of science fiction. However, there is usually a balance between writers who are perennial favorites and relative newcomers. The eclectic mix is itself interesting and instructive to us. Indeed, we sometimes come across unfamiliar writers and works through this trans

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Grand Prize winner Gene Png

Poetry Grand Prize winner Gene PngGene Png is a Seoul-based illustrator and Korean-English literary translator from Singapore. She came to Korea to study at Yonsei University's Underwood International College, earning a bachelor's degree in Asian Studies.After completing the regular program at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), she became a mentee for the Emerging Translator Mentorships program at the U.K.-based state agency, the National Centre. She expects to take on freelance translation projects in the coming weeks.Png first got into literature translation when she met Korean American literary translator Sora Kim-Russell in school. “When she described to us the work that she does, I was immediately invested. Literary translation felt like something that combined my love for reading and writing, and something I could see myself doing for a long time,” she said. “I haven't been translating for long ― only two years, since I only started translating when I started the regular program at LTI.”She translated a selection of Jeong Han-ah's

53rd Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Grand Prize: Everlasting Snow

Cover of Jeong Han-ah's poetry collection "A Mature Kiss," which includes “Everlasting Snow” / Courtesy of MunhakdongneWritten by Jeong Han-ah Translated by Gene PngEverlasting Snow ― The things your eight-year-old hands could doThat winter, the list of ways you kept yourself amused:Mourned Patrasche and made a windmill out of an empty milk carton + two leftover skewer sticks + a single chopstick + a thumbtackDecorated the Christmas tree with chains made of countless interlocking paper rings of silver, gold, and every colorTossed a handful of rice on the landlord's snow-covered courtyard, propping up a straw basket with a stick, setting up a sparrow trapFelt oh-so-proud of yourselfPerched on every branch of the jujube tree, the sparrows do not go under your basket, instead they only chuckle-chuckle-chuckle.Behind the tree, the sun casts its shine-shine-shine,it's early in the morning, and Eungyeong, the daughter from the shop across the street, runs to tell you that the chick you said was cute a while ago, the one you said you'd keep for just one night, the one you've bee

K-Book Festival 2022 to bring together lovers of Korean literature in Japan

A promotional banner for K-Book Festival 2022 in Japan / Courtesy of Korea FoundationBy Park Han-solThe K-Book Festival 2022 in Japan invites fans of contemporary Korean literature across the country for a weekend-long series filled with talks, performances and contests.The hybrid event is scheduled to be simultaneously held at the Bellesalle Kudan in Tokyo and broadcast live via the festival's YouTube channel from Nov. 26 to 27.Co-hosted by the Korea Foundation (KF) and Japan's K-Book Promotion Association, the fourth edition of the book festival will see a string of talks among renowned authors, translators and editors hailing from the two countries.Kim Ae-ran, four of whose works have been translated into Japanese over the years, including “My Brilliant Life,” “Run, Abby” and “It's Summer Outside,” will engage in a dialogue with Naoki Prize-winning Japanese writer Kyoko Nakajima.Best-selling journalist-turned-novelist Chang Kang-myoung, who has award-winning pieces like “Team Aleph” and “The Bleached” under his belt, will