Interview with actress Baek Jin-hee
Korean actress Baek Jin-hee [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]
My name is Baek Jin-hee.
My birthday is February 8, 1990. I can finally celebrate Adults Day this year! [The third Monday of May where young people in Korea celebrate turning twenty years old.]
I wanted to have a camera for my birthday, but I couldn't get one. When I was shooting the film "Hoya", the guy from Hoya often took pictures of me with his camera, and they looked so much better than ones taken by a digital camera. But my mother was like, 'What are you going to do with a camera when you don't even know how to take photographs?" But I can only practice taking pictures if I have a camera...More
By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
Lee Oi-soo is Korea's favorite novelist, according to Gallup Korea.
A survey to celebrate the research firm's 35th anniversary saw 13.5 percent choose the 62-year-old Lee as their favorite, the company said Tuesday.
A total of 1,704 people, older than 13, participated in the survey.
Gallup Korea reported that Lee, who was named the fifth favorite in 2004, topped the list thanks to his best selling ...
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By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Celebrated author
Gong Ji-young has released a new novel, "The Crucible" whose title was taken from Arthur Miller's eponymous play, based on the real events leading up to "witch trials" in the small puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
Her new novel, which was first posted on Daum, the Internet portal site, from the end of last year for six months, also deals with an actual incident that happened at Gwangju Inhwa School, a special school for deaf and dumb students, in which educational workers, including the school principal, continuously sexually abused their disabled students in 2005.
Set in Mujin, a fictional historical city where progressive and conservative values are in conflict, the book revolves around a school for deaf children who fall prey to collective sexual violence.
The city frequently blanketed with fog is portrayed as a region that was once the Mecca of the democracy movement, but is now stricken with reckless nightlife and corruption.
Kang In-ho, a teacher, moves into the city after landing a job at the school with the help of his wife's friend, leaving his family ― his wife and daughter ― behind in Seoul.
He meets Seo Yu-jin, his university senior now living in Mujin, who helps him settle down and adapt himself to the new environment.
On his first day at the new school, he encounters a weird and doubtful accident in which a boy from the school is killed in a train accident, and hears about a girl who jumps off a cliff to her death nearby the school.
The principal, a son of the founder, asks ...
MoreBy Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Korean literature is booming more than ever despite the economic downturn that has dealt a serious blow to the local publishing industry.
According to the Kyobo Bookstore, sales of Korean literature publications including poems, essays and novels dramatically increased by 35.7 percent in the first quarter over the same period last year. The number of Korean literature books sold in the same period rose 36.2 percent.
"There was an exceptionally sharp rise in the sales of Korean literature publications in the first quarter compared to the same
period in previous years. Sales had seen an average increase of around 20 percent, but this year's sales have greatly surpassed that", Jin Young-kyun, a manager at the bookstore, said.
Yes 24, the online bookstore, has also seen first quarter of sales soar by 37.4 percent, a drastic growth rate from 14 percent in 2007 and last year's 3 percent.
A...
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By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Celebrated author
Gong Ji-young claimed that her essays would be as "light" as a feather, in a departure from her previous works that touched on heavy social themes. The essays, in fact, are truly fun and interesting.
Gong's new book, "Light as a Feather", was compiled from her essay series posted last year in the Hankyoreh, a local daily.
The 46-year-old writer, who was an ardent student activist in the 1980s, is a best-selling author who peaked in the 1990s through her candid and sensible writing style in such novels as "Go It Alone Like the Rhinoceros Horn" and "Mackerel".
Gong is often regarded as a feminist writer for mostly dealing with the conflicts and complexities women face in male-oriented societies. In reality, she always has to fight with people seeing her as a divorcee and single mother ahead of her authorship.
Nevertheless, in the new book, Gong tries to shed light on her pleasant daily life, revolving on trivial happenings around her friends, family and fans.
She shows insight to take note of the little things that make up common daily life.
"As I get old, I realize the big things I used to be obsessed with in my youth are actually experienced through very trivial and small things. For example, we can feel the high atmospheric pressure only through sunlight and light winds, while feeling the low atmospheri...
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