Welcome to My Channel: An Introduction

Hi everyone, it is Cari. Welcome to my channel. I'm finally making this video and I was a little over ambitious. I thought I was gonna read a lot more so I could talk about some new Korean authors, but it turns out I'm just going to be blathering on about my faves again with a couple new editions. What is this video about? This video is about Korean authors - work that has been translated from Korean.

A Focus on Translated Works

So I think that when I was thinking about making this video I was writing down all of these authors and I realized a lot of them were actually Korean American or having written their book originally in English and I think that the subject matter is very interestingly - very different and so I wanted in this video to focus on authors who write in Korean and have their work translated. But before we dive into the list I do want to give a shout out to the sponsor of this video which is surfsharkvpn.

The Benefits of Using SurfsharkVPN

You guys probably already know what a VPN is - it is a virtual private network - and it essentially protects your identity, your data, when you are browsing online. So for me I most often use it to switch my location so on surfshark it's really easy: you just log on and you can choose what country you would like to be browsing from. So especially with Netflix or anything like that, if you want to access a different library or the Korean government loves to block you from looking at certain websites if you're outside of Korea so when I have to do like visa stuff, I have to make sure that I'm in Korea to do it kind of thing - surfshark makes it really easy. And it also just protects your data so if you are using like public Wi-Fi or something like that, someone can easily hack into that and get your data but if you're using a VPN it actually encrypts and protects you.

Why SurfsharkVPN is Useful for Korean Literature Enthusiasts

So overall like no matter what you want to use it for, it's very helpful especially if you are interested in Korean literature and usually if you're interested in the literature you're also interested in other forms of media - so if you're interested in Korean film or Korean dramas or anything the Netflix library in Korea is filled with them so definitely use that and browse the Korean Netflix. And so if you would like to try surfsharkvpn you can use the code caricanread to get 83% off of your order but also it gives you three months extra free so it's a really great deal.

A 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

There's also a 30 day no questions asked all money back guarantee so literally just try it out, see how you feel. And all that information will be in the description box. Highly recommend. Thank you surfshark so much. I talk more about film I think on my main channel which is cari cakes which will also be linked down below, so if you want some Korean film that you could try and check out using the VPN, I got you over there.

Now That We Have the Sponsor Out of the Way, Let's Get Started

So now we're just going to dive straight into this list and I'm going to start with my personal favorite author. And I am so incredibly frustrated because I know I have the physical copy of this book and I would not sell it. A couple of these that are on the list I was looking for it and I realized I sold them in my book sale - oops.

A Brief Introduction to Kim Young-Ha

But before we get into the authors, a little bit about my favorite Korean author. I think that's why he tends - I tend to call him my favorite Korean author is just because he goes to so many different places, like no book is the same and so depending on my mood, I can kind of always find a Kim Young-Ha book that I'm interested in.

My All-Time Favorite Book by Kim Young-Ha: Black Flower

I'm going to talk about my all-time favorite and some people find it boring so I will give that warning - some people think it's boring, I don't. And it is Black Flower. This book is a historical fiction and it talks about how in Korea there was this kind of mass exodus of people who were leaving Korea to find a better life and work opportunities and stuff like that.

A Historical Context: The Mass Exodus from Korea

And sort of similar to how Chinese immigrants were - people would go to China and be like \\\

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi everyone, it is Cari. Welcome to my channel. I'm finally making this video and I was a little over  ambitious. I thought I was gonna read a lot more so I could talk about some new Korean authors,  but it turns out I'm just going to be blathering on about my faves again with  a couple new editions. What is this video about? This video is about Korean authors - work that  has been translated from Korean. So I think that when I was thinking about making this video I was  writing down all of these authors and I realized a lot of them were actually Korean American or  having having written their book originally in English and I think that the subject matter is  very interestingly - very different and so I wanted in this video to focus on authors who  write in Korean and have their work translated. But before we dive into the list I do want to give a  shout out to the sponsor of this video which is surfsharkvpn. You guys probably already know what  a VPN is - it is a virtual private network - and it essentially protects your identity, your data, when  you are browsing online. So for me I most often use it to switch my location so on surfshark it's  really easy: you just log on and you can choose what country you would like to be browsing from.  So especially with Netflix or anything like that, if you want to access a different library or the  Korean government loves to block you from looking at certain websites if you're outside of Korea so  when I have to do like visa stuff, I have to make sure that I'm in Korea to do it kind of thing -  surfshark makes it really easy. And it also just protects your data so if you are using  like public Wi-Fi or something like that, someone can easily hack into that and get your data but  if you're using a VPN it actually encrypts and protects you. So overall like no matter what  you want to use it for, it's very helpful especially if you are interested in Korean  literature and usually if you're interested in the literature you're also interested in  other forms of media - so if you're interested in Korean film or Korean dramas or anything  the Netflix library in Korea is filled with them so definitely use that and browse the  Korean Netflix - I'm just saying. And so if you would like to try surfsharkvpn you can use the  code caricanread to get 83% off of your order but also it gives you three months extra free so  it's a really great deal. There's also a 30 day no questions asked all money back guarantee so  literally just try it out, see how you feel. And all that information will be in the description  box. Highly recommend. Thank you surfshark so much. I talk more about film I think on my main  channel which is cari cakes which will also be linked down below, so if you want some Korean film  that you could try and check out using the VPN, I got you over there. So thank you again to surfshark -  information will be down below, check them out. So now we're just going to dive straight into  this list and I'm going to start with my personal favorite author. And I am so incredibly frustrated  because I know I have the physical copy of this book and I would not sell it. A couple of these  that are on the list I was looking for it and I realized I sold them in my book sale - oops.  But this book I would not sell so I don't know where it is but it is one of my favorite books.  The book is by the author Kim Young-Ha and he's so interesting because he writes so many different  things. I think that's why he tends - I tend to call him my favorite Korean author is just  because he goes to so many different places, like no book is the same and so depending on my mood, I  can kind of always find a Kim Young-Ha book that I'm interested in. I'm sorry we've got a typhoon  coming in and so the light keeps changing... So I'm going to talk about my all-time favorite and  some people find it boring so I will give that warning - some people think it's boring, I don't.  And it is Black Flower. This book is a historical fiction and it talks about how  in Korea there was this kind of mass exodus of people who were leaving Korea to find a better  life and work opportunities and stuff like that. And sort of similar to how Chinese immigrants were  -people would go to China and be like \"oh my god, we can bring you to America and you're gonna have  this great life\" and then they come and they work in these horrible conditions on the railroads. That  happened in Korea except it was Mexico that they went to. And so there were just these thousands  of people who got on boats and went to Mexico thinking oh my god we're gonna have this great  life and they get pretty much sold into indentured servitude and they work on these massive farms and  that's their life and they can never really get to a place where they can buy their freedom etc. I  just thought it was so interesting, mainly because growing up I live very close to the Mexican border  so a lot of our history - I mean California a lot of it, where I lived used to be Mexico - so there was a  big tie into kind of Mexican history that I'm kind of familiar with, but then there's also this Korean  history that I'm versed in and I never heard about it on either side. And so I just found it really  interesting. It talks a lot about religion as well, and the power of language and stuff  like that. So I do agree that it's a little slow but I just thought that the actual subject matter  was so interesting because I had never read it before and so if you are interested in that -  either in Mexican history or Korean history or both - definitely I would say definitely give it  a try. I thought that his writing style was exactly what I wanted it to be for that kind of story. It's  not really like fast-paced or anything but I just really loved it so definitely give it a  try, it is Black Flower by Kim Young-Ha. But like I said, nothing he writes is ever the same so  my second recommendation...this one is very dark. This is an obviously short story.  It's called I Have the Right to Destroy Myself and this is one of these books that like I can't  really tell you what it's about because I'm not even really sure. It's about two brothers,  it's about suicide, I mean it's very dark. And it just kind of talks about life in Korean  society - he's really interested in kind of like the untold stories, the kind of underbelly stories,  so again very very dark but it talks about walks of life that I've never even thought about  here in Korea. I think one of the brothers is like an expressed taxi driver so he like drives people  from Seoul to Busan which is like a four-ish hour drive but he drives really fast and so he  gets them there in like two? Like it's just so -I would say very very dark but it's really short  and quite engaging and it has like just - he has some beautiful lines so I would definitely...oh what? Oh my god this is a ticket to a theme park that was Kurt and my like first date.Oh my god okay, so anyway - Kurt and I both love him so that makes sense of why it's in here.  But yeah Kim Young Ha. Also by him, just really quickly because these aren't the ones that  I remember super well. But he has Your Republic is Calling You which is about a North Korean spy  living in South Korea which is so interesting and then also I Hear Your Voice which I think  is one of Kurt's favorites and it's about these kids who are orphaned and they kind  of join this like motorcycle gang in Seoul. Again, it's just kind of like these sort of  unseen unheard groups of people in Seoul. But yeah I think that his writing  it isn't very flowery, it's a little bit matter of fact but then something about that like he  just comes up with some of these lines that are so simple but just kind of hit you really  hard so I just really appreciate his writing. I appreciate his subject matter. I appreciate  all the different things that he talks about in his work and he's also like very active in the  writing world - like he's on TV all the time and he does like commentary on things so he's just  like an interesting character in general. So I highly recommend checking out Kim Young Ha.  Just kind of pick whichever book sounds the most interesting to you and start there because  you're not going to get the same feeling every time so Kim Young Ha. Next up, oh my god, I talked  about this book in my last reading wrap up. This is The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly. It is by Sunmi  Hwang. This book is so sad, oh my god. So The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is about a hen who is  at a farm and she is meant to just lay eggs to be eaten, she never actually has a chick, she's unable  to have a chick. And she doesn't understand that obviously and so her main goal in life is  to escape the coop, live in the yard with the other animals, and raise a chick. And so it's really all  about - it follows her entire life and it's pretty much all about like a mother's love and like what  lengths mothers will go to. Yeah it's just sad but actually Kurt is the one who recommended  this to me. He was really touched by this story and so this is Kurt's addition to this video.  It was very quick to read but yeah just really touching it's been I mentioned this in my other  video but it's been a long time since I've read a book where all of the characters are animals  and it at first I thought like, oh I'm not gonna like it, but it was still so touching and  the end - it left me with a lot to think about so definitely if you're looking for something  quick, if you're interested in the topics of like love and motherhood and and stuff like that,   The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly was really excellent. Someone said that she has written more books  since this has come out so I will also link down below if she has anything else but yeahThe Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly. After that I think is one that you all know very well, it is by  Cho Nam Joo. It is Kim Ji Young Born (I always say in the wrong year) Born in 1982. I always say 1985.  This one I've talked about before. I did it in my Namjoon reads video.  It is, very appropriately, just about a woman who was born in 1982 and it follows her life and  I mentioned it when I was talking about when I first read it - that this book was so ordinary.  Like if you've lived in Korea and you know women - like even women who were born in the 90s - the way  that life progresses for women here, there's very much like milestones that you set and it  (even for men too but like very specifically for women) there's just like this kind of road map  that you're expected to follow but also there's so many horrible obstacles and things that you have  to go through especially if you were born in the 80s but it's still continuing now. I just thought  that it was like a very ordinary story and I think that that's why it resonated with so many people -  because it was a huge bestseller in Korea - and I think the reason why it resonated with people  in Korea is because we often have people writing stories about like extraordinary women like these  heroes and they went through so much and they did something like really out of the norm...and to have  a story about a woman who was absolutely the norm was kind of groundbreaking and it made people feel  really seen. And it kind of to put that on paper as a record and to have it be so accurate and so sad,  was, I think, really important that it was written. So for me it wasn't like a totally  gripping book because, like I said, it was just this woman's very normal frustrating life as  like a, you know, going from an adolescent to a mother in Korean society - but I think  that it was an immensely important book and I think it is good to read to really understand  what women went through and are still going through here. Because some of it is really  like quintessentially Korean and then I think that there there are obviously larger themes  that kind of all women can relate to so I would definitely recommend it - Kim Ji Young Born in 1982.I have not watched the - was it a film or a drama? I didn't watch that but definitely recommend the  book and that is by Cho Nam Joo. After that I kind of want to buy this book simply because it has a  really cool cover for one of its editions, but this is Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park. This book  was a good time, it wasn't my favorite but it is simply about this young gay man living in the  big city - living in Seoul. And just navigating their life, living with roommates, falling in love, having  a friend group etc. And I just thought - I think I think Sang Young Park is maybe born like the same  time as me because throughout it, he referenced a lot of K-pop that was like my era and so it just  felt almost like a friend was kind of telling me this story and taking me on this ride. It  was filled with a lot of sadness, a lot of joy - it's interesting because Korea, as like mainstream media,  compared to places like the US, is still very very conservative and so having literature written by  an openly gay man about a gay man is still pretty groundbreaking even in like the 2020s so it  was something that I hadn't really read before and so it was really cool to read that - how  he navigates and and sort of again that piece of society that you don't always see especially  not represented in like I said mainstream media. So it was very short. I thought it was told in a  couple different stories if I remember and I felt like a couple of them got a little too long but  overall I thought that the subject matter was really interesting so maybe that might be a book  that you can read a little bit more slowly because I like I said, I like to read books in one shot so  I think that's why I got a little tired of the writing style, but if you kind of pace yourself I  thought that I had never read anything like it before so definitely check it out - it is Love in  the Big City by Sang Young Park. After that - Cursed Bunny. Oh my God this is Cursed Bunny by Bora  Chung and what a weird little collection this was. Korean writing that is translated to English -  because newsflash not everything gets translated into English, so Korean literature has everything  you can imagine, it's just what ends up getting translated which is a whole other discussion -  but the work that's translated into English is usually incredibly dark. I mean for example...  we're going to talk a little bit more about another dark thing.  This was disturbing, this is a collection of short stories like I said, it's by Bora Chung. It's  translated by Anton Hur. Almost every short story had to deal with bodily fluids, specifically like  poop? So it was almost a little bit difficult for me to read because I kept focusing on that. I don't  think that this was necessarily my cup of tea but if you are interested in like the inner workings  of Korean society, I thought that it did have a really interesting way of looking into that and  talking about that and talking about also just like your inner workings as a person. So I will  say that the themes that are brought up here are really...I was very interested in them but I was  kind of turned off by how much like feces and like menstrual blood and stuff like that were  kind of thrown in there. I would say give it a try if you're able to kind of stomach those things, I  just found it for me a little distracting. But yeah that is Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. Speaking  of short stories, the next author I want to talk about is Choi Eunyoung who wrote Shoko's Smile.I'm sure you guys have heard of this, this is a pretty like recently buzzed about collection  of short stories and I was not expecting it to be as sad as it was. Sspecially because  smile is in the title - I don't know. But yeah I read the first story in like a public place,  I was in a cafe and I had to just kind of sit there and be like oh oh! I personally enjoyed  Eunyoung's style of writing a little bit more than Bora Chung - if you're trying to jump into Korean  short story collections. I will say though that like the topics are still very dark and sad.  This just felt a little bit, I don't know, it did it felt like a friend was kind of telling  you this horrible story versus like Borah Chung felt a little borderline like horror. So I would  definitely recommend like if you're just starting out, try with Shoko's Smile. But yeah I would  definitely just be aware that each story is gonna kind of hit you in a way that you didn't expect so  maybe don't read it in public while it's the first day of your period and you're super emotional.Maybe think about that. So and next up is one of my favorite authors again which is Han Gang. You  definitely should already know about her by now. I first read her work with the  Vegetarian which actually won an award for its translation? Yeah I read the Vegetarian -  I think I read it in about one sitting and it definitely reminded me of like a dark  Haruki Murakami feeling, and you guys know that I really enjoy Murakami. So that's how I kind  of very easily slid into her writing is that I - it felt familiar but also a little bit more gruesome.  So the Vegetarian follows a woman - I don't want to give too much away - but it's it's basically about  family, being a woman, mental health. And I just remember eating it up. It just really struck  me. It's a very short book as well so if you are interested in, if you can handle darker topics  and kind of like not fantastical but definitely a little more like dreamy feeling, like it felt  very surreal, I would definitely go for the Vegetarian. But if you're more interested in kind  of a historical background, a couple years later after having read the Vegetarian, I picked up Human  Acts and I will say that I read Human Acts once - I tried to get into it and I couldn't and then just  I was trying to make that Namjoon reads video and I've read it again and I was like knocked  on my ass. Like there is a POV change that I still think about and it like took my breath away and  whoo. So Human Acts takes place with the backdrop of the Gwangju Uprising in the 80s.  There was this massive uprising started with students and kind of spread to the whole city  protesting the dictatorship and it got very violent - the dictator sent in the military, many  many people died, it was chaos and this follows kind of a bunch of different people but most of  them are students. They were the young people during this movement. And it kind of flashes to  that time when it was going on, but it also goes to 20, 30 years later when these people are  adults. And it was just so moving. I think it's a it might be a little confusing if you don't know  anything about the uprising but I still think it was just, God, the way that she wrote some things  was just incredible and I highly recommend it. If you read the Vegetarian, I don't think  her writing is anything - like they're totally two different authors. I mean it was  totally unexpected. I think that's kind of why I put hHuman Acts off for a little bit is  that I didn't know if I could do like a kind of surreal historical fiction but this was  absolutely - there is definitely some like kind of a dreaminess aspect to it but oh! So please if you're  interested in Korean history, if you especially if you know anything about the Gwangju Uprising,  please read this book. It was just so moving and even to the very last page like  just heart-wrenching, gives you a totally different perspective of what happened and, you know, she  captured a lot of the really quiet moments. I think I mentioned this before but you know when we hear  about uprisings and revolutions and stuff like that we often hear about like the front lines  and this kind of like action-packed thing and there are these big heroes and good and evil  and this was just like very quiet and, you know, a lot of it takes place in where they're  burying the dead or they're, you know, having people identify dead bodies so it's not like - there is  eventually a lot of action - but so much of it is just kind of sitting with what has happened and  yeah I just - the things that she chose to focus on were just incredible. So, Human Acts by  Han Gang, please read please read. And last but not least, I still haven't finished this book.  It's, to be honest, it's taken me a while to get into it. This is Tower by Bae Myung Hoon and it is a  science fiction collection of short stories but it's all about this Tower. It is a  skyscraper that's like 600 something stories high so it ends up being considered its own  sovereign nation basically and it just goes into life and Society within this kind of  Tower. The first story is what took me quite a while to get into but it definitely tells you  what this is going to be about. The first story, without spoilers, is about this like researcher who  wants to find - who wants to understand like the power flow within this nation and so he like  GPS tracks all of these gifts. So in especially in Korea - kind of everywhere but especially  in Korea - you know not necessarily bribery but like you know getting on people's good side,  you typically give them a gift. It actually was recently made illegal to send flowers.  It used to be a thing, I forget exactly what it was but there was like you could send these huge  huge huge flower displays to people and that was kind of the same as like a low-key bribe  you know? It's a sign of your loyalty. I think it was right after the impeachment of Park Geun Hye.  they made it illegal to use like florists in that way and even the florists were like \"yeah  honestly we're down, like we would rather have like a clean government than have this you know  whatever going on\" so it is like a kind of active topic in Korea, of like the use of goods. It's not cash bribes but like the use of like alcohol or buying them XYZ in order to like show  loyalty or have somebody owe you a favor kind of thing. And so anyway this researcher GPS tracks a  bunch of alcohol to see like who sends it where and to figure out like the social structure  of this Tower but of course the research ends up showing something  interesting and maybe people are corrupt and I don't know so like I - this is one that I'm gonna  take very slowly because like I said the first story took me a really long time to get into but I  do think that the writing is actually quite funny. The dialogue is actually there's like a lot of  I don't know, irony and sarcasm and stuff that I don't normally see in like the translated work  that I've read soI am enjoying it, it's just one of those that should definitely be a slower  read. So if you're interested in kind of like a sci-fi, futuristic - it feels very dystopian already...  that is Tower by Bae Myung Hoon, and I believe he has a new book out  recently so there you go! I feel like I'm gonna get in trouble if I don't mention Kyung Suk Shin, Shin  Kyung-Suk because she wrote Please Look After Mom. She also wrote the Court Dancer and Violets.  She's written a lot and this is totally just my issue but she actually got in trouble with  Please Look After Mom for plagiarism and she had to apologize and like this it was  this whole big thing even though I liked Please Look After Mom, I know it's just something that  like I have to get over. Like she is a really great writer and it was unfortunate that  that happened but yeah I will definitely I know I want to read Violets but it's one of  those things where I have so many things that I want to read and I just keep kind of putting her  off because I'm sort of like you know so I do in the future want to read Violets especially. If  you haven't read Please Look After Mom, I would recommend it, but that's just the reason why she  wasn't like on the top of my list is that I still have kind of an issue with that and I wish  I didn't because she does have some incredibly beautiful work so that is also Shin Kyung Suk.  You can check her out. And on my list that I was trying to read but I didn't get a chance to...  there is Hwang Sok Young who has a book called At Dusk, there's Lee Hyosok, Endless Blue Sky and Lee  Soho, Cat Calling. I haven't read any of those and I really want to - I tried to read The plotters by Kim...I'll put it here - couldn't get into it and I really wish that I did. There are  so many books that are on my list that I just haven't gotten to so this definitely isn't the  be all and all list but I hope that I gave you a couple that you can be - that you can  check out. I also want to recommend I think I got this on...there is a bookmark in here  that says facebook.com/historybooks.kr but I know I didn't buy it from a Facebook group  so I think I actually got this from Thrift Books even though it doesn't say on here.  But there is this collection Library of Korean Literature - this is the ninth one I believe and so  these are works that I have kind of only seen published through the library of Korean  literature but this is a collection of short stories by Park Wan Suh, it's called Lonesome You.  There are a bunch of these - I have another one somewhere but yeah if you're interested in  more like short stories or literary fiction and stuff like that I would definitely look  up this - it's, the translator is Elizabeth Haejin Yoo. Yeah it's a series published in cooperation  with the literature translation Institute of Korea. They published 25 Korean novels  and short story collections in a single year. So basically just also look this up, I'll try and  find more information and put it down below as well but the library of Korean literature has  a lot of translated Korean work if you'd like to check that out. So anyway that was just kind of  my thrown together list of Korean authors that I really love. I'm gonna try and get into - there have  been so many recently that have been translated so I'm gonna try and kind of get back into that  especially since I'm living here I feel like I have extra access maybe I don't know. So yeah I  hope that you found something that maybe tickled your fancy and I will try and update this again  when I have finally finished my TBR. So thank you again to surfsharkvpn for sponsoring this,  all the information will be down below but you can use my code caricanread to get 83% off  along with three extra months free and there's a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so  yeah I will talk to you guys later, thank you so much for joining me, I'm going to  be traveling a bunch in October so I'm going to try and schedule some things for you  but in case I miss a week of posting I apologize but I'm going back to America to see my  family I'm very excited so yeah - I'm also going to see My Chemical Romance. I will catch you  guys when I see you, thank you always and let me know if you if there were authors that I didn't  mention - definitely let me know down below and make my list even longer! Okay so see you later bye!\n"