I love Korean culture and it’s very rare that you see contemporary literary fiction about Korea. Add to that that it was feminist literature and I was sold. The premise sounded so interesting and it was also a massive plus that Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was only 176 pages!

Kim Ji-young is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s.
Kim Ji-young is representative of her generation:

At home, she is an unfavoured sister to her princeling little brother.
In primary school, she is a girl who has to line up behind the boys at lunchtime.
In high school, she is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night.
In university, she is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships by her professor.
In the office, she is an exemplary employee who is overlooked for promotion by her manager.
At home, she is a wife who has given up her career to take care of her husband and her baby.

Kim Ji-young is depressed.
Kim Ji-young has started acting out.
Kim Ji-young is her own woman.
Kim Ji-young is every woman.

“He likes me? He picks on me because he likes me?… If you like someone, you’re friendlier and nicer to them.”

 

It wasn’t until finishing this novel that I started to research the impact that the book had had on Korea and that of the wider world. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was originally published in Korea in 2016 during their #METOO movement. There are definitely shadows of the movement throughout the book, noticeable when the main protagonist is harassed by a fellow student because he thought she was flirting with him, when in fact, she was just being nice. There is another incident where Kim Jiyoung finds out that there were cameras put in her previous workplace toilets. Both of these incidents that happen in the book are real-life occurrences that happened in Korea and – unfortunately – the rest of the world.

 

“You think girls don’t play sports because they don’t want to? We can’t play because it’s uncomfortable to play wearing skirts, tights, and dress shoes!”

 

In 2016, in a subway in Seoul, a 34-year-old man decided that he would murder a woman that he had never met before because he felt ‘ignored’ and ‘belittled’ by her. The women of Korea thought that their first ever female president – Park Geun-hye – would allow them to finally breathe, that she would give them more rights. However, she actually made the inequality worse by following her father’s military tactics and Korea finally called for her impeachment. She was removed from office in March 2017.

The novel is written in such a dry and detached way that suits the discourse. Cho – when speaking to The Korea Herald – stated that she “wrote the novel to show women’s shared worries,” and said that there’s nothing special about the character. She’s “ordinary in every way.” One of the things that I loved about Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was how real it was. It didn’t matter that the book was set in South Korea and that I live in the U.K, I could feel the message that Cho Nam-joo was sending and I could relate to so many things that it actually scared me and made me realise that even though I live in a country where it’s supposed there is more equality, it made me realise that under the surface, there isn’t.

 

“The world wants our uterus to be drug-free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.”

 

Whilst you read this book, you will also notice the use of references that advocate the statistics/facts that she reveals throughout. Some reviewers have said that this – along with the detached point of view – makes it feel academic, but I disagree. I think that it’s brilliant that Cho Nam-Joo includes the references. It shows the reader how real and present these problems are, and – if anything – they make it more scary.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and the ending (especially the last line) blew me away with how emotionless it felt. For those of you who loved the book, there is also a film adaptation but I have no idea where you can watch it!

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