Korean Mothers in Eyes of US Writer

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By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

It is a typical scene during winter when Korean women get together to make kimchi for the season and chat.

The annual event seems natural for Koreans and passes unnoticed, but an American playwright infuses dramatic elements into it and weaves it into a cheerful story.

American playwright Will Kern wrote the script of new play, "Mother and Tigers", which will be on stage from Dec. 16-31 at Seoul Arts Center, based on his interviews with numerous Korean women over the last two years.

Through true stories since 2006, the play mixes fiction and fact. He said he was inspired by a Korean woman who had memories of her mother from when she was an infant.

"It was really a good story. I thought maybe other women would have good stories too. I started to collect the stories for this play because I had an idea of writing a play that was a series of monologues ― along the lines of something like the `Vagina Monologues'", Kern said in an interview with The Korea Times.

He got the stories together but the feedback was that it would be a lot more interesting if people were actually talking to each other.

"So I scrapped the idea of doing just a monologue play and decided to do something where you would have the Korean women network in their natural environment, telling the true stories. So it's the idea of the true stories told by fictional characters", he said.

After developing the script with some Asian actresses and just working with it for two months in Chicago, he returned to Seoul.

In the play, four sisters-in-law make kimchi and swap stories. The characters are fictional but the stories they tell and act out are true.

The women are sitting around the kitchen and making kimchi and one woman has a daughter that needs to interview four aunties because she has to write an English paper and translate their stories.

"So the aunties started telling this story about themselves and about women they know. They just make kimchi. It's very free flowing and it's not something that necessary has a rigid plot structure because the stories themselves have plots in the beginning and the end. The beginning and the middle here are just making the food", Kern said.

As a playwright, screenwriter and travel writer, Kern said he needed something that women could do that they naturally do together.

"`Gimjang' (kimchi making for the winter) seems a natural thing because it brings them together and help each other while eating and drinking and talking a lot", he said.

The American writer said that he tried to portray Korean mothers as strong and protective beings, like tigers. Tigers have different connotations in Western culture. In Korean culture, they have many elements and are mythical. "But in Western culture, tigers are fearsome and protective and strong. That's what I wanted to say, these mothers were protective and strong because they protect their families", he said.

He said that he thought Korean mothers hold families together and look after everything much more than in other countries.

He thought Korean mothers have to be strong to get through a lot of problems resulting from the nation's turbulent history of Japanese occupation, poverty, dictatorship and the male-oriented Confucian society of the past.

"Men have to face men's society. But women have to face a women's society in men's society. Very often, the enemy she faces is within their own family. Mother-in-laws and people that are trying to help her but after all hinder her because of inter-generational jealousy", he said.

He said that he hopes people share their stories. "They should be shared. It's important for people to tell the stories because it makes a human connection", he said.

Kern said that he wrote the play for communication with others. "Story and character are all important. But I think the main thing is to communicate with somebody", he said.

He translated the Korean play, "Yi", which was recreated as the hit movie "The King and the Clown", from Korean to English.

He is preparing a new crime play. "The idea can be fitted into the Korean culture. I don't know technically if it can be a Korean story", he said.

The play, presented by the Trans-Dimensional Stage Ship, a local drama company, will be on stage from Dec. 16-31 at the Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul.

Tickets cost from 15,000 won for students and 25,000 won for adults. For more information, call (02) 747-1010.