Jang Ryujin (born 1986) is a South Korean novelist.
1. Life
Jang Ryujin was born in 1986. She studied sociology at Yonsei University, and then Korean literature at Dongguk University.
She debuted in 2018 with the story "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work"(일의 기쁨과 슬픔 ), which won the Changbi Prize for New Figures in Literature. Based on her experience of working in the IT sector, the story was widely read and shared on social media by office workers. Jang's first short story collection, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work(일의 기쁨과 슬픔), published in 2019, offers an incisive and good-humored portrait of young people weighed down with daily burdens as well as women surrounded by systematic contradictions in Korean society. Her first novel, Let's Go to the Moon(달까지 가자 ), was published in 2021.
She won the 11th Munhakdongne Young Writers’ Award for her short story "Yeonsu" (연수) and the Shim Hun Literary Award for "Maya in Tokyo" (도쿄의 마야).
2. Writing
Jang Ryujin’s works paint vivid depictions of ordinary Korean office workers in their 20s and 30s, drawing sympathy and positive responses from readers. With her experiences from working in an IT company in Pangyo Techno Valley for seven years, Jang has been able to depict this world more vividly and realistically than anyone else. Her stories have gained attention for the unique way in which they directly reveal the concrete and realistic units of money, such as salary, living expenses, cash gifts, and daily wages.
Irui gippeumgwa seulpeum is a collection of short stories portraying the lives of typical office workers. Even in the small startup company where the narrator works, the structural contradictions of the monolithic system that governs Korean society are still present. The “scrum” technique for working more efficiently becomes a waste of time because of the boss’ constant nagging, and the idea of using English names to avoid traditional Korean hierarchical titles fails miserably in practice. In the titular story, an employee at a credit card company is forced to receive her salary in mileage points because she offended the CEO of the company. Instead of quitting, however, the employee alias "TurtleEgg" devises the ingenious idea of turning her mileage points into cash by buying things with her points, then immediately reselling those items on a second-hand trading app.
The collection has been praised as both an affirmation of the most average lives within the system of capitalism, and a consolation for the readers of this generation who, for their survival, are searching for the best balance. In addition to this, the women, young people, and workers of this generation that appear in Jang Ryujin’s stories have been held up for their keen sense of survival and portraying a “revolution of sensibility.”
