LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
Translated into French as Le Monde selon Sisun, or “the world according to Sisun,” Chung Serang’s 2020 novel was published in France in 2024 by Charleston, an imprint of Éditions Leduc. As Charleston specializes in women’s fiction, feminist themes loom large throughout this story of the eponymous Shim Sisun, a female artist-turned-best-selling author. But its depiction of patriarchy in general, and in Korea in particular, is far from a straightforward denunciation. Chung, winner of the 2017 Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, does not spin a linear narrative. Instead of retracing the matriarch’s long career and tribulations across the continents, Chung weaves interesting voices into a multi-layered family saga. The portrait of Shim Sisun is reconstructed through excerpts from her books, interviews, and diaries, alongside the recollections of members of her family—her four daughters and her only son, and their spouses and children.
Sisun has been dead for ten years. Her eldest daughter, Myeong-hye, decides that it is high time to commemorate their late mother in a proper fashion, although Sisun had always been an outspoken critic of ancestor worship and all things traditional. The ceremony will take place in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, where Sisun lived as a young woman and where her famous nude portrait by the German artist Mattias Mauer hangs in the Museum of Art. The ritual will be as original and idiosyncratic as the person who will be commemorated: each member of the Shim clan is to give an offering reflecting their personal relationship with Sisun—ranging from a special kind of food, to bits of volcanic rock collected off the soles of hiking boots, and delicious coffee beans.
The trip to Hawai‘i becomes an excuse for a family reunion, and her five grandchildren offer an insight into South Korea’s youngest generation. The daughters of Myeong-hye, Hwasu, and Jisu, are opposite in character and represent two facets of contemporary womanhood south of the 38th parallel. Hwasu, still distressed after an acid attack at her office, is married to a loving man but is reluctant to have children in such a violent world; Jisu, a DJ, is a maverick not ready to settle down. Their cousin Uyun, the only child of Sisun’s son Myeong-jun, is a trained sculptor who works in Los Angeles where she designs monsters for the film industry. The other grandchildren are the son and daughter of Kyeong-a, Sisun’s youngest daughter (actually her stepdaughter, the daughter of her second husband). They are still schoolkids mirroring today’s topical issues both technological and environmental: Kyurim is the sporty tech-nerd type and Hyerim is obsessed with the welfare of birds.
The throughline is, however, the homage to the free-spirited matriarch, a resilient modern Korean woman who fought to liberate herself from a male-dominated world and particularly the toxic machinations and abuse of her so-called mentor Mattias Mauer (nicknamed “M&M”). Mauer took her from Hawai‘i, where she had arrived as a mail-order bride, to Düsseldorf. There, she pursued her own career as a painter while also working as model for the German artist. The press, with racist innuendoes, depicted her as a manipulative Asian woman seeking money and fame. Fortunately, her life changed upon meeting the German-Sino-Malaysian art dealer Josef Lee, who truly loved her and followed her back to Korea, eventually becoming the father of Sisun’s children.
Chung’s deft polyphonic construction is a tour de force. Every chapter starts with Sisun’s own words—a short excerpt from her fiction, memoir, or interviews—before focusing on the point of view of one of the many members of the Shim clan during this journey to Hawai‘i. The subtle depiction of the bond between the siblings is redolent of Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters. While the novel revolves around the matriarch, on a larger scale, it addresses the history of violence in the Korean Peninsula. Sisun had to flee to Hawai‘i after her family was massacred by nationalist soldiers who thought they were communists. Chung Serang delivers a beautiful portrayal of an extraordinary lady through a narrative that is both complex and fascinating.
Writer 필자 소개
Sean Rose
Sean Rose, born in Saigon, is an Anglo-Vietnamese writer and journalist based in Paris. He works in the cultural field, with a particular focus on literary and art criticism. He contributes to a range of print and broadcast media, and is the author of novels, essays, and translations.
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