Road to East Asia

"The Young Zelkova," told from Sukhui's perspective, explores the conflicts between social conventions and personal freedom. At 18, the narrator thinks she is in love with her stepfather's son, for whom she is willing to sacrifice everything. "Instead of accepting the bond artificially imposed by convention as brother and sister, they fall in love as man and woman," says translator Peter Lee. The two lovers contemplate moving to a foreign country where they can freely express their affection for each other.

Yet what Sukhui longs for is someone who resembles Apollo with curls drooping over his forehead. She has a crush on a mythical figure in Western literature who rules her thoughts. In Greek mythology, Apollo himself is notorious for leaving his mate, and although he has fathered numerous children, he remains single. Given a choice, Marpessa selects Ida instead of the sun-god, for she knows he will abandon her when her beauty fades.

Sukhui, however, is vain of her beauty, taking great pride in her fair complexion, stylish clothes, and her royal title as queen of E. High School. In her stepfather's "ivy-mantled" suburban home, she imaginatively steps into a French movie to savor the joie de vivre in a romantic atmosphere. Unless she wakes up from this make-believe world, chooses her path wisely, her life will be full of regrets.

What is the right choice? What is the wisest course of action in resolving the rival claims of society and individual preferences? How do we know that we won't find ourselves one day looking at the rain reflecting on our life, filled with sorrows? The naive narrator falls in love with an image of divine manhood enshrined in Western culture. Being part of that culture, I can understand her infatuation with the traits that Apollo embodies -- music, poetry, sunlight, and prophecy.

Bibliography

Ishiguro, Kazuo. A Pale View of Hills. London: Faber and Faber, 1982.

Kang, Sinjae. "The Young Zelkova." In Flowers of Fire: Twentieth-Century Korean Stories.


Ed. and trans. Peter Lee. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974. 348-371.
(Illustration: courtesy of Billy Lo, Eastern Image Canada )

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Editors and Writers: Maria Nadeau, Han Ki-Dongt, Sarah Tan, Kevin Perkins,
Michael Kociuba, Jennifer Henry, Sekou Russell, Lee Sengsiry, May Yuen, and Daniel Jacobs
Instructor and Founding Editor: Isabella Wai


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Copyright © 1996 by the authors. Information from this article should be attributed to the authors.

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