Exploring theDimensionsof the KoreanDiaspora

The news that the Swedish Academy has set the dates to announcethe year’s Nobel Prizes heralds the arrival of autumn in Korea. Asthe weather gets cooler and cooler, the Korean people’s desire for theNobel Prize in Literature becomes hotter and hotter. Korea’s history ofpolitical democracy and economic development over the last 50 yearsis complemented by its literature, which gives hope and comfort to theKorean people. They expect every autumn that a writer will be honoredwith the Nobel Prize in Literature as a reward for the endeavors andefforts of Korean writers during Korea’s turbulent 50-year journey.These expectations are so tightly focused on Ko Un, the featuredwriter in this issue, that Korean reporters have been known to campoutside his home ahead of each year’s announcement. “His life is itself a poem, a poemfilled with struggle, pain, contradictions, and agony …” as Brother Anthony of Taizéhas said, “... he is not asking the audience to focus on him but to hear, through him, a voiceexpressing in vivid poetry the essence of what Korea has been obliged to suffer over the last120 years.” In addition, poet Gary Snyder noticed both national identity and universality inKo’s poetry, and recognized him as not only “a major spokesperson for all Korean culture, butas a voice for Planet Earth Watershed as well.” He went further: “Because of their purity, theirnervy clarity, and their heart of compassion, his poems are not only Korean—they belong tothe world.”However, it is from the mid-1860s that Koreans widely dispersed throughout the globe.This emigration has been unfortunately precipitated by the events of modern Korean history.Despite a relatively short migratory history, around 150 years, and the involuntary nature ofearly emigration, presently over seven million Koreans are living in 170 countries. Nearly fourfifths of them live in just four regions: North America, China, Japan, and Central Asia.In the special section of this issue, we explore the theme of “Literature of the KoreanDiaspora.” We can meet the writers, descendants of early emigrants in each region, namelyCathy Song (U.S.), Lin Yuanchun (China), Yu Miri (Japan), and Anatoli Kim (Kazakhstan).Although they write in different languages, we can hear the same voice—a voice that sincerelytells of the inscrutable destiny of their ancestors and constant search of their own identity, aswell as the hidden identity of their host lands.In Cathy Song’s poem, “Picture Bride,” she vividly describes a young bride’s journey acrossthe Pacific Ocean to Hawaii to meet a husband whose face she has never seen. An attempt togather a scattered family under one roof and reconstitute the true meaning of family is thechallenge faced by the characters in Yu Miri’s celebrated novel, Family Cinema. The charactersin Anatoli Kim and Lin Yuanchun’s novels embody the struggles for future self-actualizationbetween their Korean origins and the reality of their host land.It is my hope that readers truly enjoy this issue of _list. 

by Park JangyunEditor-in-Chief