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The Korean drama I’ve been waiting for
I had a driveway moment the other day when NPR reported on a Korean novel that had been translated into English: Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982, just before the film based on the book was to be released. I had to get my hands on this novel.
As a white American married to a Korean-American man for the last 15 years, I have not had to explain or defend the societal norms that have served as the backdrop to my whole life. White normativity has been my province, for better or for worse. My husband John, on the other hand, has been a patient teacher, explaining the culture into which he was born, as well as the ways he has assimilated and absorbed the culture in which we live now.
This is the work of anthropologists; it is also the work of people in cross-cultural relationships. So when a book or a film or other media offer a keen perspective on historical or contemporary Korean culture, I leap for it.
Not that Korean culture is obscure. Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” practically swept this year’s Oscars. The wide popularity of Korean Dramas, the global acclaim of K-Pop boy squad BTS, and Korean adaptations of shows like “Designated Survivor” are ubiquitous. There simply are so, so few books translated into English from a modern Korean woman’s perspective, however.
