Choe Hae-jin (1976 — ) is a South Korean writer. Fundamentally based on a warm and welcoming perspective towards a diverse range of “societal Others,” such as people with disabilities, foreigners, North Korean defectors, and overseas adoptees, her works act as a testimony to their existence and lives. Critics have reviewed her as an author that, through her novels, underscores the truth that life becomes richer through relationships with other people.
1. Life
Cho Hae-jin was born in 1976 in Seoul, South Korea. From an early age, she spent much time reading books and daydreaming. Though she never mentioned that she wanted to write, everyone around her had believed that she would someday become a writer.1) She majored in Education at Ewha Womans University and then received her graduate degree in Korean Literature from the same institution. She taught Korean language to foreigners for a long time, 2) and in 2008, she went to Poland to work as a Korean language teacher for one year. Her experiences as a Korean language teacher are incorporated into her stories that depict foreigners, such as Cheonsadeurui dosi (천사들의 도시 City of Angels), “Inteobyu” (인터뷰 Interview), and “Bukjjok dosie gasseosseo” (북쪽 도시에 갔었어I Went to the City in the North). 3) After she officially became a writer, she taught writing at various colleges and civic organizations.4)
In 2004, she won the Munye Joongang Literary Award for Best First Novel with the story “Yeojaege gireul mutda” (여자에게 길을 묻다Asking Women for Directions) and made her official debut as an author. She subsequently wrote many new pieces, without being particular as to whether she wrote short stories or novels. She won the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature for Rogiwaneul mannatda (로기완을 만났다I Met Logiwan, 2011), 5) the Lee Hyoseok Literary Award (이효석문학상) for “Sanchaekjaui haengbok” (산책자의 행복 The Stroller’s Happiness, 2016), 6) and the Daesan Literary Award for Dansunhan jinsim (단순한 진심Simple Sincerity, 2019).7)
2. Writing
The figures of the Other that appear in Cho Hae-jin’s stories are people that we can commonly see in our lives—ordinary people that we can encounter at any moment. Her stories depict the process of people encountering the Other and gaining a greater understanding of themselves and their lives through them.
(1) Novels of the Other
Critics have deemed Cho Hae-jin’s first short story collection, Cheonsadeurui dosi (2008), as a “novel of the Other.”8) The people generally depicted in Cho Hae-jin’s stories are those that are typically unnoticed or difficult to communicate with—that is, people who are easily and indifferently passed by unless one pays close attention to the surroundings. These people, at least superficially, are difficult to distinguish from others. The “Others” that appear in Cho Hae-jin’s stories are often trapped within desperate circumstances, and it is only when we observe them with deep attention that they can be revealed. This is also related to Cho’s diverse attempts at experimenting with literary form, commensurate to the wide range of subject matters her stories cover. Her literary experiments capture those who are not readily visible, and are mechanisms for listening to their voices. A relevant example is the short story, “Inteobyu,” which tells the life story of a Goryeoin woman (ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states) born in Uzbekistan through the form of an interview.9)
Cho Hae-jin’s authorial consciousness, in which she aims to represent through stories those that have been alienated from society, can also be found in her 2019 novel, Dansunhan jinsim. In this novel, the author depicts an overseas adoptee who enters Korea through a random opportunity as they go through the process of reconstructing their life before they were adopted abroad.
(2) Communication with the Alienated
Cho Hae-jin’s deep interest in the Other is a theme that threads all her stories. Her second short story collection, Bichui howi (빛의 호위Light’s Escort), published in 2017, clearly reveals this kind of thematic consciousness. This short story collection focuses on representing isolated people as they try and communicate with one another. 10) Communication, as depicted in Bichui howi, consists of verbatim momentary incidents. 11) The unexpected demonstrations of goodwill, random incidents, and meaningless struggles chosen by people in order to escape loneliness influence other people’s lives in an unpredictable manner. And yet, because this kind of communication is unexpected, its continuation and repetition are also impossible. In this manner, Cho Hae-jin does not deny that loneliness and alienation are unavoidable human conditions, but nevertheless highlights through her stories the possibility of communication. In this sense, Cho Hae-jin’s literary route can be said to have gradually shifted from sensing the “Other” to an introspection of “relationships with the Other.”
(3) Novels as Testimonies
Cho Hae-jin has repeatedly asserted her position that novels must “testify.” 12) To further expand upon this, her novels testify to the existence and lives of those who cannot speak, or on behalf of those who speak but remain unheard. And yet, in considering the significance of names in Dansunhan jinsim, the claim that her novels (particularly in this story) merely witness the “lives of Others” may be insufficient. This is because in this novel, one’s name is “the house of existence” 13) — perhaps an obvious statement, but names are nevertheless not chosen of one’s accord and more broadly speaking, used by strangers when calling upon a particular person who belongs to that name. Put differently, this signifies that all human beings come into existence through a symbiotic relationship with other people. Thus, testifying to the lives of the alienated Other requires that we, in whatever manner, enter the lives of Others and that they enter our own lives. In sum, Cho Hae-jin’s testimony consists of scenes where peoples’ lives, in all moments, encounter and intersect with each other.
(4) Critical Reception
While winning literary awards never explains the whole picture, the fact that Cho Hae-jin has frequently won major literary awards throughout her writing career and her works have frequently been nominated for a wide array of literary awards at the very least demonstrates the high regard critics have for her works. The diverse literary experiments she conducts in order to represent the Other through literature have also garnered favorable responses from readers.14) That her various attempts have consistently received high praise from both readers and critics alike is likely due to the warm gaze towards humanity and sharp sense that captures life’s secrets in Cho Hae-jin’s novels. 15)
Reference
1) Kim Yutae. “Interview with the Winner of the Grand Prize: Life is a One-Time Stroll… Containing Life and Death.” In The Anthology of 2016 Lee Hyoseok Literary Award Winning Works. Maegyeong, 2016, pg. 74.
2) Im Nari. “Interview: Cho Hae-jin ‘I want to write about the moments where we become each other’s light.’” Channel Yes, 2017. http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/32932
3) Chung Serang. “Interview with Writer Cho Hae-jin: Light, Angels, and You.” Littor 6, 2017.
4) Im Nari. “Interview: Cho Hae-jin ‘I want to write about the moments where we become each other’s light.’” Channel Yes, 2017. http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/32932
5) “Writer Jo Gapsang Winner of the Manhae Prize for Literature, Writers Park Joon and Cho Hae-jin Winners of the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature.” Dong-A Ilbo, 31 July 2013. http://www.donga.com/news/article/all/20130731/56757713/1
6) “(Lee Hyoseok Literary Award) Winner Cho Hae-jin’s ‘Sanchaekjaui haengbok.’” Maeil gyeongje [The Daily Economic], 7 August 2016.
https://www.mk.co.kr/news/culture/view/2016/08/562387/
7) “Winners of the Daesan Literary Award: Cho Hae-jin and Oh Eun.” Yonhap News, 4 November 2019. https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20191104073100005
8) Sin Hyeongcheol. “I am the Other.” In Cheonsadeurui dosi, Minumsa, 2008.
9) “After ‘Interview,’ saying that the content and the form were skillfully harmonized was not enough. It must be considered as an example where form matches content.” Sin Hyeongcheol. “I am the Other.” In Cheonsadeurui dosi, Minumsa, 2008, pg. 251.
10) “The Alchemy of Light that Resurrects Disappeared Things.” Hankyoreh, 16 February 2017. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/book/782994.html
11) “Bichui howi author Cho Hae-jin: ‘A single moment residing within light allows us to conquer this vast futility.” Kyobo Book News: Meeting the Author, 2017.
http://news.kyobobook.co.kr/people/writerView.ink?sntn_id=13020
12) Kim Yutae. “Interview with the Winner of the Grand Prize: Life is a One-Time Stroll… Containing Life and Death.” In The Anthology of 2016 Lee Hyoseok Literary Award Winning Works. Maegyeong, 2016, pg. 74.
Im Nari. “Interview: Cho Hae-jin ‘I want to write about the moments where we become each other’s light.’” Channel Yes, 2017. http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/32932
“Writer Cho Hae-jin, who looks back on history through adoptees: ‘Novels must act as testimony.” Hankook Ilbo, 16 July 2019.
https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201907151602794147
13) Cho Hae-jin, Dansunhan jinsim, Minumsa, 2019, pg. 17.
14) Cho Hae-jin is one author known to have an extensive and enthusiastic fan base. NamuWiki: “Cho Hae-jin.”
https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%A1%B0%ED%95%B4%EC%A7%84(%EC%86%8C%EC%84%A4%EA%B0%80)
Minumsa Naver Blog: “What more to say? Believing and reading Cho Hae-jin’s novels.”
https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=minumworld&logNo=221616229645&proxyReferer=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
15) Kim Jonghoe. “Reinterpretations of reality in the same era with a sense of speed: the novels of young women writers.” In The Mirror and Scales of Literature, Minumsa, 2016.
