Kim Ji-young: born 1982

By David Tizzard

Being born in 1982 in Northeast Asia is to be born in the year of the dog ― the eleventh in the 12-year cycle of animals. To be more precise, based on the five elements, it is to be born in the year of the water dog.

Online horoscopes suggest that those born in 1982 will experience relatively ordinary careers in 2019 but find little room for improvements and progress. Despite experiencing no major health issues, it is also suggested, perhaps presciently, that team atmospheres will be somewhat brittle.

At least in terms of age, I can certainly relate to Kim Ji-youngs born in 1982 because they are a mere year younger than I am.

On first arriving in South Korea and learning of these different zodiacs, I rushed to find out what majestic and powerful creature symbolized my birth.

Naturally, I thought, I would be a dragon. A tiger. Something, quite frankly, awesome.

Alas, I am a chicken.

Nevertheless, that supposedly makes me the epitome of fidelity and punctuality. And also pretty delicious with beer if modern trends are anything to go by.

Yet these archetypal characters are surely to be held as mere suggestions. We are free to … nay, encouraged, duty-bound even … to break the yolk of stereotypes and create ourselves as free and sovereign individuals.

We are not a generalization. We are human.

And that is what a generation of Kim Ji-youngs are now doing in South Korea.

For those unaware of the references, “Kim Ji-young, Born 1982” refers to a best-selling 2016 novel by Cho Nam-joo that took South Korea by storm.

Telling the tale of an average working woman who is forced to quit her job after becoming pregnant, and then questioning her identity and role in society, turning to psychiatric help, it set the feminist conversation here in the country ablaze.

A host of celebrities ― male and female ― endorsed the book and its depiction of what women experience, including Irene, Choi Soo-young, omnipresent TV host Yoo Jae-suk, and BTS' RM.

It even made the rounds in the National Assembly with politicians also trying to ride the popular wave and show their support for the message. Now deceased politician Roe Hoe-chan apparently gave the book to President Moon as a gift, asking that he reflect such attitudes in his administration's policies.

While the book gave a voice and opened a window into the lives, choices, and dilemmas that half of the population face as a rapidly industrialized nation tries to coexist with a less speedily changing culture, it also prompted many men to fight back in none too pleasant ways.

Neologisms flooded the internet, with comments, memes, and all kinds of other trolling becoming commonplace on portal sites and companies' social media postings. The internet is an undoubtedly wonderful thing but, in that regard, it does also have the tendency to bring out the worst in some of us.

Now the book arrives as a film. Set for release next month, it features Jung Yoo-mi and Gong Yoo and is directed by Kim Do Young. I, for one, will be taking the time to see the movie.

I am not really a big fan of spandex-clad American superheroes saving the day and triumphing over evil; it is all a bit Hulk Hogan-y and I kind of grew out of that when I was 10. I am, however, incredibly interested in people and individuals, regardless of when they were born.

I like to know what people are thinking. What motivates them. What their dreams are. What keeps them up at night. What worries them. What they see as their purpose. To know people as conscious and sentient beings with all the subsequent emotions bubbling under a social facade of a surface … just like me.

What I will say from my experience lecturing at universities on Korean studies and politics, is that the actual real-life approach and discussion to this topic is nothing like that which is seen online and reported widely in the press.

The vast majority of the undergrads that I teach are inquisitive and questioning. They do not hide behind maxims and cliches, do not talk in broad generalizations, and do not suffer the faults and errors of reductionism found in low-resolution answers.

Of course they do not all share the same views and ― on a spectrum ― their opinions on feminist and social issues are incredibly broad ― as they should be.

But in a place of public discourse and education, I have yet to witness anyone voice an opinion that comes close to the extremes I read online.

Thus, the medium is the key; the platform is important.

Get online and witness the culture wars seemingly tearing the country asunder as insults and barbarous observations fly hide and wide from both sides.

Or, sit down with people. Talk to them. Listen to them.

Do not necessarily agree with them. But rather seek to understand them.

Play, gracefully, with their ideas in your mind and see if one or two of them are not compatible.

You never know, you might just discover that there is a little Kim Ji-young in you too, regardless of what year you were born.

David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University.