Ha Geun-chan was (1931-2007) an early modern South Korean writer.
1. Life
Ha Geun-chan was born on October 21, 1931 in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province. At the time Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and Ha received his primary and secondary education under the aegis of the Japanese "naisen ittai" movement, an attempt by the Japanese colonial government to create Japanese citizens out of Korean ones. As a result he did not learn Korean in earnest until he entered higher education, in this case a teacher's college. After passing his teacher's exams in 1945, he taught elementary school until 1954.
The same year, Ha entered Dong-a University to study civil construction, but did not complete his studies. He made his literary debut in 1957 winning the Hankook Ilbo New Writer's Contest with the short story "Sunanidae" (수난이대 Suffering of Two Generations). From 1989 onwards he serialized Geumbyeongmae (금병매 The Plum in the Golden Vase) in the Korea Economic Daily.
Ha's major works include the novels Namhansanseong (남한산성 Namhansan Fortress), Wollyeneun bollae geureon yeojaga anieotseumnida - Wollyesojeon (월례는 본래 그런 여자가 아니었습니다-월례소전 Wollye Was Not that Kind of Woman), Sane deure (산에 들에 In the Hills, in the Fields), the novellas Giureojineun gang (기울어지는 강 Crooked River) and Jingnyeogi (직녀기 The Story of Jingnyeo), and the short stories "Wangneunggwa judungun" (왕능과 주둔군 The Royal Tombs and Occupying Forces), "Ilbondo" (일본도 The Japanese Sword), and "Huin jongi suyeom" (흰 종이 수염 White Paper Beard), among others.
2. Writing
Although Ha Geun-chan is a writer who belongs to the “postwar generation,” his literary concern does not include urban devastation or the consciousness of petit-bourgeois as shaped in the aftermath of the war that characterize other works of fiction from that epoch. Rather, he uses rural landscape and simple-hearted country folk to shed light on another dimension of the Korean War's traumatic impact on the Korean people. "Sunanidae" presents a man who lost an arm during World War II and his only son, who returns home from the Korean War, having lost his leg. Yet the simplicity of the man and his son, who accept their tragedy as a fate to be overcome, affirms the possibility of rejuvenation. In "Bun" (분 Excrement), a mother empties her bowels in the township office for not exempting her son from military conscription. In "Wangneunggwa judungun," a dedicated tomb keeper, who tries to protect the sacred grounds from being used as a site for prostitution, is horrified to discover that his only daughter has been sleeping with foreign soldiers. At times comical and even obtuse, Ha Geun-chan's characters nonetheless possess the strength of will to survive, the heartiness to endure and the regenerative spirit rooted in simple faith. The author maintains a sympathetic attitude towards his subjects without drifting towards sentimentality.
