When I was tutoring a Korean student, one thing that really took me aback was how, from a young age, they were taught about the Japanese discrimination toward them. At the time, I didnโt know much about South Korea or anything about the peninsula. I thought the eastern side of Asia was pretty much all cool and dandy but that wasnโt all true.
๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ด "What book introduced you to a culture different from your own, and what did you learn about that culture?". ๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ : ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต #318
My student got me into exploring the horrors of East Asia, the story that weโre not so much exposed to. Long story short, I learned that much like Indonesian, they were colonized by the Japanese. They suffered longer than Indonesian with 35 years under the iron hand of Japanese colonial rule. For us, the Japanese colonization for 3,5 years already left us with horrors and trauma. We learned at school that their rule was much harder than how the Dutch were portrayed. Apparently, in South Korea, it wasnโt that far from being similar and that was even longer. The Japanese were as ruthless as they were in other parts of the world. That era in South Korea also becomes an intriguing historical exploration as it contains so many stories of tensions between Korea and Japan. I got to know Pachinko just a few years after it was initially released. I never really explored it until the series came and I got interested in it more.
As seen in Pachinko written by Min Jin Lee and published back in 2017, weโre taken to relive the lives of Korean families under the reign of Japan. It starts with a story of a couple Yangjin and Hoonie, from a fishing village who own a house and rent the rooms for extra income. The family tried to have children but none of them survived until Sunja, their healthy beautiful daughter came into the picture. Their happiness was short-lived because Hoonie, the husband, died and Yangjin had to raise Sunja.
When Sunja was 16 years old, she met a wealthy Korean man named Koh Hansu. He was a broker for the fisherman in the village although he was mostly living in Japan. This is the turning point of Sunjaโs life where she got pregnant but later finding out that Hansu was a married man and couldnโt marry Sunja legally. This is where the story starts to get interesting as Sunja is married to a North Korean Christian minister who happens to be traveling and stops by Sunjaโs lodging called Baek Isak. Isak stopped by as he was recommended by his older brother Yoseb to visit the lodging before eventually boarding to Osaka, to work for a church there. Unfortunately, he was ill during his stay at the lodging and was taken care of by Yangjin and Sunja. When he heard Sunja was pregnant, as a request from her mother Yangjin, Isak was willing to marry Sunja since the family saved his life.
At this time, Hansu was out of the picture yet he was always around in Sunjaโs life. He constantly watches over Sunja and he knows that she is pregnant with his child. Long story short, Sunja moved to Japan and witnessed even more discrimination that the south korean faced in Japan. They lived in a ghetto area where only Koreans lived. Sunja eventually gave birth to Noa and Mozasu. Noaโs biological father is Hansu while Mozasuโs was Sunjaโs son with Baek Isak.
Sunjaโs son faced discrimination as they grew up among the Japanese and they tried to hide their Korean identity at first. In Japan, they are called Zainichi and these people have limited social mobility as well. They are known to particularly work in Pachinko, some type of game parlor that involves gambling(think of modern vegas establishments). The first person in Sunjaโs family that works in Pachinko was Mozasu. The story goes on until the birth of Solomon Baek, Mozasuโs son who wanted to establish Pachinko but was dissuaded because of the stigma that comes with it.
Pachinko is a multi-generational story that discusses the lives of Koreans during that era. It talks about a woman's position in the society, the role of a husband, duality and identity problems that these characters faced. It gives a glimpse to cultural shifts that happened at the time and how these Zainichis survived through it all.
For an outsider like myself, I find it very intriguing that the North Koreans werenโt as poor as today. While it could have been a fiction, it was portrayed that before the divide, the north korean were landowners and during the japanese occupation, a lot of lands were seized or because of the heavily imposed tax, they couldnโt afford it anymore hence selling the land. At the same time, while today North Korea is known to be irreligious, it wasnโt the same back in the day. There were religions there and even Christianity was also there. As seen in the story, Baekโs family was christian and he even became a priest. However, in Japan during WWII, they tried to impose the religion where people praised the emperor and the protestant didnโt want to do that hence, just as reflected in the story, Baek Isak was detained as well.
I also learned that culturally in South Korea at the time, rice was only consumed during very important events. It was shown that only the Japanese could afford and the South Koreans who can afford it are the wealthier ones.
There's a series on it if you want to watch it rather than read the book. However, after having watched the series, the book made more sense. The pacing, the timing too was easier to digest than the film. The book also explained more than what was shown in the series. This book truly is a literary work that helps me understand other cultures better. Itโs still astonishing to me that now South Korea has grown so much and is able to overcome their darkest past.
I would definitely recommend Pachinko if you fancy learning more about Koreanโs culture and history. It gives a rare glimpse of things that we normally arenโt exposed to.
 | ๐๐ข๐ค ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง-๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ข & ๐ค๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ณ . ๐ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ, ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ญ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด, ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ! ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ท๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ. ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ. |