Lee Hoesung

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with the Korean economist and IPCC Chair-elect Hoesung Lee.
In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.
Lee Hoesung (李恢成)
Born (1935-02-26) February 26, 1935 (age 89)
Karafuto, Empire of Japan (present-day Kholmsk, Sakhalin, Russia
)
OccupationNovelist
Notable worksHyakunen no tabibitotachi (百年の旅人たち; Travellers of a Hundred Years)
Lee Hoesung
Korean name
Hangul이회성
Hanja李恢成

Lee Hoesung

Zainichi Korean novelist in Japan. He writes under the pen name Ri Kaisei, the Japanese reading of his Korean name. In 1972, he became the first ethnic Korean to win the Akutagawa Prize for his story "The Woman Who Fulled Clothes" (Kinuta wo utsu onna). Other representative works of his include Mihatenu Yume (見果てぬ夢; Unfulfilled Dream) and Hyakunen no tabibitotachi (百年の旅人たち; Travellers of a Hundred Years).[2]

Biography

Lee was born in 1935 to

exchange student activities. After graduation, he first aimed at creative work in Korean, but then decided to become active in Japanese instead. He was also employed at the Choson Sinbo, a Korean newspaper run by pro-North Korea ethnic activist group Chongryon, but afterwards separated himself from them, and 1969, having been awarded the Gunzo Prize for New Writers for Kinuta wo utsu onna, threw himself into the literary world. Kinuta wo utsu onna was notable at the time for its sporadic use of Korean words.[4]

In 1970, he secretly visited South Korea, and went again after winning the

visa several times by the South Korean government, and it would be until November 1995 before he was granted permission to enter again. However, in 1998, with the start of Kim Dae-jung's Sunshine Policy, he was able to obtain South Korean citizenship. He was later criticised by fellow zainichi writer Kim Sok-pom
(金石範) for his comments about the democratization of South Korea and his naturalization as a South Korean, over which the two had a vigorous debate in magazines.

On the problem of

Kim Jong-il, who apologised for his errors, should be accepted by Japanese people in the spirit of historical consciousness and the peace constitution."[5]

Awards

Major works

Title translations are not official English titles

  • Kinuta wo utsu onna (砧をうつ女)
  • Watashi no Saharin (私のサハリン; My Sakhalin)
  • Kayako no tameni (伽倻子のために; For Kayako; made into a movie by 小栗康平 in 1984)
  • Imujingawa wo mezasu toki (イムジン江をめざすとき; Eyes on the Imjin River)
  • Ryūminten (流民伝; Refugee Tales)
  • Kanōsei toshite no "Zainichi" (可能性としての「在日」; "Zainichi" as a possibility)
  • Chijō seikatsusha (地上生活者; Living on land; serialized in Gunzo Magazine)

References

  1. ^ Fukumoto, Yumiko (Winter 1998). "Titles Introduced in Japanese Book News Published in Other Languages 1991–98" (PDF). Japanese Book News. The Japan Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 13, 2004.
  2. S2CID 143776148
    .
  3. ^ For general information about the detention camps, see Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. "Invisible Immigrants: Undocumented Migration and Border Controls in Early Postwar Japan". Japan Focus. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  4. ^ Matsuura, Yoshiko (November 2000). "Ethnic Identities and Various Approaches towards Japanese Language: Analysis of Ri Kaisei, Kin Kakuei, and Tachihara Masaaki". Purdue University. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ 「過ちを認め謝罪した金正日の告白を、日本人は歴史認識と平和憲法の精神で受け入れるべき」. Tokyo News (東京新聞)
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