Choe Chung-Hui (崔貞熙, 1912–1990) was a Korean writer. Along with Kang Kyeong-ae[1] and Ji Ha-ryun[2], she is categorized as the second generation group of women writers in the history of the modern Korean literature. Since her debut in 1931 with the publication of her short story "Jeongdanghan seupai (정당한 스파이, The Righteous Spy)" in the magazine Samcheolli, She had continued to write for no less than half a century as one of the most prominent women writers of the country, until her last work "Hwatugi (화투기, Story of Playing Hwatu)" came out in 1980 in the literary journal Hyundae Munhak. The source of her writing, which views the world from the perspective of a woman, is her consciousness as a woman, and her major work is the Maek triology, "Jimaek (지맥, The Energy of Land)," "Inmaek (The Energy of People)," and "Cheonmaek (천맥, The Energy of Sky)," published in 1939, 1940, and 1941, respectively. She won the Seoul Special City Culture Awards (서울특별시문화상), the Literature Award for Best Woman Writer (여류문학상), and the National Academy of Arts Award for Best Literary Work (대한민국예술원 문학부문 작품상).
1. Life
Choe was born in 1912, in Seongjin, Hamgyeongbuk-do. She was admitted to Dongduk Girls School to fill up a vacancy, before she graduated Sukmyeong Girls High School and Jung-ang Academy of Early Childhood Education. After her graduation, she worked as a nanny at Haman Kindergarten located in Gyeongsangnam-do, and then she moved to Tokyo in 1930, to work at Makawa Kindergarten and participate in a students' drama club with Yu Chijin[3], Kim Dongwon[4], and others. In 1931, she left Tokyo and returned to her home country, where she met Kim Yu-yeong[5], a film director, and got married. Then in 1934, he was arrested in Jeonju for being a member of New Construction, an affiliated organization of KAPF, Korea Artista Proleta Federatio, and Choe was arrested with him to serve eight months in Jeonju Penitentiary before she was acquitted and released. This was the Second Apprehension of KAPF Members[6].
The experience she had in Jeonju Penitentiary led her writing to a new dimension. After her release, she got a job at the publication division of the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, and published "Hyungga (흉가, The Haunted House)," which mark the new beginning of her writing, in the magazine Morning Light, in 1937. With the story, she departed from the class consciousness shown in her early writing and began to explore her consciousness as a woman by writing about the lives of intellectual women. After her husband died in 1939, she got employed by Samcheolli, got married to Kim Donghwan, and published "Jimaek" in 1939, "Inmaek" in 1940, and "Cheonmaek" in 1941, which became her major works.
Nearing the end of the Japanese colonial era, she actively cooperated with Japan, serving as an assistant administrator at the Association of Joseon Writers and a member of the Union of Bond Dealers on Streets, reciting poetry at the Grand Lecture of Culture, and delivering the lecture "The Mothers of the Army" at the Grand Assembly of Women held by the Joseon's Organization for Preparation of War and Protection of the Country. The works that represent this time of her life include the 1942 short story "Yagukcho (야국초, Picking the Wild Chrysanthemum)" and the 1943 short story "Gungugui Eomeonimdeul (The Mothers of the Army and the Country)."
Following the country's liberation, she joined the Organization of Joseon People of Letters and the Association of the Korean Literati. She could not escape Seoul when the Korean War broke out, so she joined the Alliance of Writers and cooperated with the North Korean Army who were seizing the city at the time. "Nanjung ilgi (난중일기, The Diary Written During the War)," which records her life during this period, is included in Jeokhwa samsak guinjip (적화삼삭구인집, Nine Writers Who Survived the Three Months of North Korean Army's Reign), published in 1951. After the South Korean Army recaptured Seoul, she played an active role as a wartime journalist and participated in a play of writers performed in Daegu. She served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine Styler Jubu Saenghwal, the president of the Association of Korean women writers, a member of the National Academy of Arts, and a representative member of the Society of Novelists. And she won many awards, including the March 1st Literature Awards (3.1 문학상), the Grand Prize of the Seoul Special City Culture Awards (서울시 문화부 본상), and the 1st Literature Award for Best Woman Writer. She died of old age at her home in Jeongneung, on December 21, 1990.[7]
2. Writing
Since her debut as a writer in 1931 with the publication of her short story "Jeongdanghan seupai" in the magazine Samcheolli, She had continued to write for no less than half a century as one of the most prominent women writers of the country, until her last work "Hwatugi" was published in 1980 in the literary journal Hyundae Munhak. Her writing career can be divided into the three periods: expression of her sense of class, development of her consciousness as a woman, and combination of her consciousness as a woman and that of society.
The period of expressing class consciousness
The main feature of Choe's early works, mainly "Jeongdanghan seupai," is the clear expression of her class consciousness. The women characters are described as having a strong sense of class or developing such sense with the help of men. That being said, such characteristics of her writing gradually changed as she went through the Apprehension of the New Construction Members, which could be observed for the first time in the short story "Hyungga." It was regarded as her real debut work by the author herself, who said it was the beginning of her writing, because "the essence of Choe Chung-Hui cannot be found" in the works prior to "Hyungga."[8] This story focuses on the will-to-live of a scrappy woman who is determined to provide for her family as the head of the household, and with this story, Choe starts to actively explore the women-related issues in her writing.
The period of developing her consciousness as a woman
The Maek triology, "Jimaek," "Inmaek," and "Cheonmaek," is her major work, which secured her status in the literary world at the time. "Jimaek" depicts the life of a intellectual woman who becomes the second wife of a married socialist activist until she experiences financial difficulty with the death of her husband; "Inmaek" deals with the desire of a married woman who falls in love with the husband of a friend; In "Cheonmaek," similar to "Jimaek," a woman becomes the second wife of a married man but has to raise her child alone due to the death of her husband, before she gets remarried and divorced again for the education of her child. The trilogy is significant in that it poses serious questions as to the desires of women and their nature, while exploring the unfortunate lives of the intellectual women. In her stories, women are not described as weak or feeble anymore, and they are not the objects of oppression and alienation, but the dignified protagonists who challenge the old customs and institutions.[9] In a way, Choe was fighting the world and its moral taboos with the lead of her women characters. And she could be recognized by the literary world without the label of 'a lady of letters,' because of the active, critical mind shown in the Maek triology.[10]
The period of combining her consciousness as a woman and that of society
Nearing the end of the Japanese colonization, she published a series of works like "Yagukcho" in cooperation with Japan. And after the liberation of Korea, she developed an interest in her times and society, by writing "Jeomrye (점례)," a 1947 short story pointing out that the reason behind the poverty and unhappiness of tenant farmers is the tyranny of their landowner, and "Pungryu japhineun maeul (풍류 잡히는 마을, The Village of a Taste for the Arts)," a 1947 short story describing the conflict between the wealthy landowner and their tenant farmers. The 1950s were the most prolific time of her career during which she published a number of novels. Notably, the works like Ggeudeobneun nangman (끝없는 낭만, The Endless Romance), which deals with the social issue of 'yanggongju,' or sex workers who provide sexual labor for the American military men in Korea, show the appropriate combination of her consciousness as a woman and that of society. On the other hand, during her later years, her writing went back to her childhood experiences. Her two novels Ingansa (인간사, The Human History), published from 1960 to 1964, and Gangmureun ddo myeot cheolli (강물은 또 몇 천리, The River Flows for Another Hundreds of Kilometers) are set from the 1930s to the 1960 April Revolution, and feature the characters full of autobiographical aspects. Then she also published "Ibaego byeongsil (이백오병실, Hospital Room No.205)," "Tapdori (탑돌이, Circling the Pagoda)," and others, which are deeply immersed in nihilism and loneliness.
Reference
[1] "Kang Kyeong-ae," Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=333135&cid=41708&categoryId=41737.
[2] "Ji Ha-ryun," Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=333946&cid=41708&categoryId=41737.
[3] "Yu Chijin," Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=539728&cid=46664&categoryId=46664.
[4] "Kim Dongwon," Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=572472&cid=46664&categoryId=46664.
[5] "Kim Yu-yeong," Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=553055&cid=46665&categoryId=46665.
[6] "The Apprehension of the New Construction Members," Wikipedia Korea, accessed November 18, 2019, https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%8B%A0%EA%B1%B4%EC%84%A4%EC%82%AC_%EC%82%AC%EA%B1%B4.
[7] Seo Dongsu, Research on the Women Writers of Korea: Choe Chung-Hui and Kim Jiwon (Paju: KSI, 2010).
[8] Choe Chung-Hui, "Autobiography of My Literary Life," Baekmin, March, 1948.
[9] Gwon Yeongmin, Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature, Vol.1 (Seoul: Mineumsa, 2002).
[10] Kim Tong-ni, "On the Trilogy of Cheo Chung-Hui," Literature and People, 1948.
[11] "Japanese Translation of Choe Chung-Hui's Story," Literary Library of Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://library.ltikorea.or.kr/node/11337.
[12] "English Translation of Choe Chung-Hui's Story," Literary Library of Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://library.ltikorea.or.kr/node/9555.
[13] "English Translation of Choe Chung-Hui's Cry of the Harp," Literary Library of Korean Literature, accessed November 18, 2019, https://library.ltikorea.or.kr/node/9300.
Jo Yeonhyeon, Literature and Idea (Segye Munhaksa, 1949).
Shin Dong-uk, "Study on the Consciousness as a Woman and Human in Choe Chung-Hui's Works," On Modern Writers (Gaemunsa, 1982).
Gwon Yeongmin, Encyclopedia of the Modern Korean Literature (Seoul: Seoul National University Press, 2004).
Pak Juksim, "On Choe Chung-Hui's Writing" (PhD Diss, Chung-Ang University, 2010).
Choe Jung-a, "Study on the Identity as a Woman in Choe Chung-Hui's 'Noksaegui mun'," The Journal of Korean Fiction Research 44 (2010).
Heo Yun, "The Dehistoricization of Memory and Politics of In-betweenness," The Korean Cultural Studies 28 (2015).
Gong Imsun, "On Choe Chung-Hui: Before and After the Liberation and Her Gender Politics," Feminism and Korean Literature 46 (2015).
