Interview Hwang Sok-yong novelist × Kim Jeoungeun editor-in-chief
The City of the Other
Kim Jeoungeun (Kim): It is well known that you have traveled to many cities and across many countries. You were born in Manchuria in 1943, spent time in Pyongyang, then moved south and spent most of your youth in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. In the 1970s, while writing Chang Kil-san, you moved to Haenam, and later witnessed the rise of the Gwangju Democratization Movement. You also served in the Vietnam War. After visiting North Korea, you were unable to return to South Korea, and spent periods in the New York and Berlin. You were later imprisoned in connection with these experiences. More recently, you were living in Iksan, and a few years ago, I understand you relocated to Gunsan. What brought you to Gunsan?
Hwang Sok-yong (Hwang): I had been living in Iksan since 2018, until in 2021 a cultural foundation in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, offered me a private writing studio. They even remodeled it for me. The place was surrounded by mountains, with a river in view, and the scenery was truly splendid. I suppose they thought a writer would produce better work in such surroundings, but it turned out I was completely alone in the middle of a forest. Living high up in the mountains came with its inconveniences. After spending two winters there, I began to think it might be time to move on. In the end, some younger colleagues said, ‘How about coming over here to be with us?’and that’s how I ended up in Gunsan.
Kim: What was it about Gunsan’s history, architecture, or nature that led you here?
Hwang: The only time I’d been to Gunsan before was when I was young. Iksan is convenient enough for getting around, but Gunsan isn’t a place you just pass through on your way somewhere else. Back then, it had the atmosphere of a small Japanese provincial port town—rows of elegant Japanese-style houses lined up neatly. Now it feels more like being back in the 1970s and 1980s, which I also like. When you’ve lived as long as we have, you can see how buildings and cities change.
In many way...
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Hwang Sok-yong
Hwang Sok-yong was born in 1943 in Changchun, Manchuria, and graduated from the department of philosophy at Dongguk University. While still in high school, he won the Sasanggye New Writer’s Award for his short story Near Ipseok (Near the Marking Stone). In 1964, he was arrested during protests against the Korea- Japan Treaty and spent time in a police holding cell, after which he traveled around construction sites across the country, following a day labourer he had met there. He later enlisted in the Marine Corps, served in the Vietnam War, and drew on that experience to write the short story The Pagoda, which won the Chosun Ilbo New Writer’s Literary Contest in 1970, marking the start of his full-fledged literary career. In 1989, he traveled to North Korea and was unable to return to South Korea, remaining in Germany as a guest writer at the Akademie der Künste (Berlin). Upon returning to South Korea in 1993, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the unauthorized visit to the North, and was released in 1998 through a presidential pardon. His major works include the epic novel The Shadow of Arms (1989), which offers a sweeping portrayal of the Vietnam War and earned him the Manhae Prize for Literature, and The Old Garden (2000), which depicts the lives of those who fought for social transformation after the collapse of socialism and won both the Danjae Literary Prize and Isan Literary Award. In 2001, he received the Daesan Literary Awards for The Guest, a novel inspired by the Sinchon Massacre in Hwanghae Province. The Guest, Shim Cheong, Lotus Path, and The Old Garden were finalists for France’s Prix Femina, with The Old Garden also named ‘Book of the Year’ in France and Sweden. His novel At Dusk won the Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature in France, and Mater 2-10 was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
