Soyeon Jeong (born 1983) is a South Korean science fiction writer, translator, and human rights lawyer.
1. Life
Jeong was born in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province. She attended Seoul National University, where she majored in social welfare and philosophy. She earned her JD from Yonsei Law School. Her fiction has appeared in numerous South Korean SF anthologies since 2004. Jeong officially began her career as a science fiction writer in 2005 when the graphic novel "Ujuryu" (우주류 Cosmic Go), for which she wrote the story, received a commendation award in the Science and Technology Creative Writing Contest. Her first short story collection, Yeopjibui yeonghui ssi (옆집의 영희 씨 Younghee Next Door), won the Book for the Year for Young Adults in South Korea Award in 2015.
Jeong is also a prolific translator of English-language science fiction to Korean, primarily having produced Korean translations of modern American SF novels such as Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark, David Gerrold’s The Martian Child, Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain, and Kate Wilhelm’s Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, and through her translation she has helped to shape the content and scope of the South Korean SF canon. One of the founding members of major Korean SF fansite and publisher Geoul, she is the founder and chairperson of the Science Fiction Writer’s Union of the Republic of Korea (SFWUK), and the executive director of the Boda Initiative, a non-profit organization whose mission is the education of children in developing countries.
2. Writing
Jeong has written and translated works of science fiction set in the near future or in the space age, where interplanetary travel has become commonplace. Jeong’s works present a variety of thought experiments that can expand the understanding of human lives using science fictional imagination in everyday life rather than a large-scale worldview or spectacular narrative composition. Her works that address the issues of disability and sexual identity, as well as coexistence and sharing of feelings between earthlings and aliens with different languages, ways of thinking, and living conditions ultimately all stem from a common theme: interest in others and contemplation of relationships.
Jeong’s first short story collection, Yeopjibui yeonghui ssi, is made up of two parts. The first part consists of 11 shorts stories including her debut work, “Dijeoteu" (디저트 Dessert). Jeong describes the moments in which the characters encounter others as well as the difficult process in which they come to accept and understand others with delicate details. In the titular story, an earthling and an alien use tactile language to momentarily communicate each other’s feelings. "Ipjeok" (입적 Becoming Family) suggests that mutual understanding and trust are still achievable despite the horrendous conflicts between earthlings and an alien race called Peians. Jeong’s interest in others, though, is not limited to aliens or life on other planets—she also explores the blind spots of our society. The protagonist of “Cosmic Go” becomes disabled in an accident but ultimately realizes her dream of working in space. In "Masan apbada" (마산앞바다 Coast of Masan), the protagonist comes to acknowledge their existence only after confronting their sexual identity-related trauma.
In the second part of the book, a corporation called Kadukeuseu (Caduceus) monopolizes the superluminal transport technology and controls the freedom of interplanetary movement. Although it has become possible for people to travel through space, the chances of space travel have become even lower than before and people’s lives are regulated under the corporation’s plans. The Kadukeuseu series of four linked stories highlight the lives of people who have escaped the competition within uniform regulations and remain in the margins, leading the reader to think critically about the possible issues of unfairness that may arise in the space age.
