Gender inequality, gender expression, and the persistence of physical and sexual violence against women are hot button issues in contemporary South Korea. As young authors break onto the scene and face these issue head-on, queer and feminist literary publications have seen an increase in popularity among readers and garnered positive critical reception. At the forefront of bringing these works across into English is the translator Soje. Making their debut in 2020 with the poetry collection Unexpected Vanilla by Lee Hyemi (Tilted Axis Press), 2021 sees the publication of Soje's translations of Catcalling, a poetry collection by Lee Soho (Open Letter Books) and To The Warm Horizon, a novel by Choi Jin-young (Honford Star). The Kwajŏng series continues its exploration into the world of literary translation by inviting Soje to share the context of the works and authors they translate and the unique challenges faced during the translation process.
The event will be a bilingual reading of selected poems from Lee Soho's Catcalling and discussion of themes of gender in contemporary Korean literature by translator Soje and discussant Professor Judy Han. The discussion will highlight the creativity of the process of translating such urgent contemporary works of Korean literature into english and how the issue of gender impact contemporary Korean society.
Catcalling is Lee Soho's debut work from 2018 and winner of the prestigious Kim Su-young Literary Award. The collection tells the story of the speaker-protagonist Kyungjin in five parts as she navigates and exposes the violence of a patriarchal world that presents new brutalities at every stage of her life. The assemblage of poems ranges in style from lyric, to prose, to concrete and experimental forms building a strange and vivid picture of a treacherous society through which Kyungjin must traverse.
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um i'm delighted to welcome all of you to
today's event uh gender in contemporary uh korean
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poetry and thank you for joining us today my
name is namhi lee i teach modern korean history
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and also director center for korean studies
at ucla and for those of you who may be new
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to our center's events the center for korean
studies promotes korean studies program at ucla
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and engages the ucla community and the general
public with various issues related to korea
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and beyond by organizing lecture series symposia
film screening and cultural events please visit
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our website to learn more about our programs and
events and before i introduce today's participants
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i'd like to also make a very brief announcement
about upcoming events that the center for korean
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studies is organizing over the years a number of
community activists and scholars have been working
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on curating and translating a set of documentary
evidence concerning the japanese imperial military
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comfort women system into a readily
accessible english format and on may 20th
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our center and uci's law school and a number of
other organizations would have a public event
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to discuss these resources in an effort to
enhance ongoing discussions in the legal
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scholarly and educational communities in
the u.s south korea and the international
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community at large so please be sure to check
more information on that event on our website
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returning to today's event it is the second of the
series called kwajang celebrating the process of
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translating korean literature which will be about
which will be a bilingual reading of selected
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poems from e soho's catcalling and discussion of
themes of gender in contemporary korean literature
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by translators hoje and professor judy han
today's webinar will be recorded and will
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be made available on our center's website and
after speaker's presentations there will be a
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time for q a please use the q a function on the
bottom of your screen to submit your questions
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i also like to thank um kim our assistant director
of the center and alex chu uh it technical support
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coordinator at the international institute and
of course i would like to extend my warmest
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thanks to both soldier and judy han and
of course also victoria cordell this
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um uh series was actually conceived and
organized by victoria cordell who's a second
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year phd student in korean literature in the
department of asian languages and cultures at ucla
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so victoria will be saying a few words
about the series and also introduce sojai
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my job is to introduce professor judy han
who is a cultural geographer an assistant
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professor in gender studies at ucla where
she teaches classes on gender and sexuality
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korean studies mobilities or
immobilities and what does this say
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comics her research and publications uh cover a
wide range of topics including conservative uh
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religious formations cure activisms and protest
cultures i especially like to thank professor han
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for agreeing to be a discussion today as she's
been extremely busy um with the uh series uh
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that she's been leading the webinar series called
feminist politics in korea and the korean diaspora
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which it features invited guest speakers who are
activists and filmmakers and you should definitely
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check out this series the information can be also
found on the cks website so without further ado
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i'd like to hand over the microphone or
the i don't know what you call this too
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oh victoria i'm
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this is uh as just stated our second event
in the celebrating the process of translating
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korean literature series and with the support of
the center for korean studies kwatong is seeking
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to bring to the forefront uh those dedicated
individuals who bring works of korean literature
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across into english and thereby enrich our field
of study and provide materials that we can use
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in our undergraduate classes and share these
fantastic and prescient works of literature with
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those who are not yet of the linguistic capability
of reading them in their original korean
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and it's my great pleasure to introduce our
guest translator soldier soulja and i first met
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and collaborated at a translation workshop held at
uc berkeley uh when they were still an undergrad
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and their passion for korean literature and
their dedication to their craft has only
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increased exponentially since then and
led to the publication of their first
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full-length translation yemi's poetry
collection unexpected vanilla in 2020
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and april 2021 sees the publication of the topic
of our discussion today isoho's cat calling
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and uh further in the future in may we'll see
the uh the publication of their first full-length
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novel to the warm horizon by xi jinyoung as well
so a really busy year an exciting year with really
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exciting works that are dealing with
topics of gender and topics of sexuality
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that are um you know sorely missing from the
extant translated works uh soja is not only a
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talented translator but also works to broaden and
deepen connections between translators building
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community through their projects such as the
translations in choca which invites translators
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and those aspiring to translate to submit their
own versions of one poem per quarterly issue
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in order to highlight the versatility of
language and of translators creativity
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they are truly inspiring in their
craft and their presence and i'm
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so grateful they agreed to share their
work here with us today thank you both
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wow thank you victoria i didn't realize you were
going to bring up my undergraduate days but thank
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you for that very generous introduction and also
for organizing this wonderful series highlighting
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translators of korean literature i'm a really
big fan of the poet translators jack zhang
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and sakurakayasu and i'm very honored to follow
them in this event today it's quite a jump
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um that we'll be attempting between italian
and iso and i'm going to share my screen now
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yes um yeah it's quite a jump um but there is
a connection visual experimentation to express
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the subjective self beyond written
language i thought i'd take advantage
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of the particularities of a zoom lecture and share
my most visual translations of eso's cat calling
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i know the assignment is gender and i'll
get to that too i promise so isoho was born
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hyunjin being her given name in 1988 she studied
creative writing at the seoul arts university
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where she was taught by the poet kimesun among
others then went on to earn an m.a in korean
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literature from tongkuk university she won
the newcomer award in modern poetry in 2014
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and the kim jung literary award for her debut
collection catcalling in 2018 and i want to
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clarify that she is a cis hat woman and i'm
not dead naming her by acknowledging her birth
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name actually kyung jin the semi-fictionalized
version of isho's past self is the protagonist
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and one of the many speakers of catcalling
which exposes and ridicules the quotidian
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violences that keong jin experiences as she
grows up and becomes an artist under patriarchy
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the connection between form and content in this
collection is palpable and persuasive easel blurs
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text to recreate the after effects of physical
abuse scatters verb conjugations into a collage
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spells out the honorific yes with that very word
repeated 400 sometimes and recounts verbal abuse
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without spaces so that it takes up as little
space as possible and we'll be looking at some
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of those today i know i just said i'll discuss the
visual poems but i thought i'd sort of ease us in
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if that's even possible with this collection
uh with the very first poem as a kind of curse
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of her teeth i say curse because it's very
intense and an indication of the violence to come
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[in foreign language]
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cohabitation i was born but somehow
you were born too from one to two
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we crumple ourselves into the cramped stroller we
use the same uniform man room on knee the doctor
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says i should do whatever i want so omni i'm not
going to call you on me anymore because i love
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you i'm going to call you by your name let's be
real you don't deserve to be called a big sister
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my little sister says peeling the apple with a
knife it's the last apple so you better finish it
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little sister points the knife at me as she
peels the apple crunch crunch i eat the apple
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i slit little sister's wrists for her mom says
you slept inside her like it was your grave
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i slit little sister's wrist again hushed
little baby your prettiest when you sleep
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i put her to sleep on her stomach i put her
to sleep pulling the blanket to the top of
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her head how cramped how cramped the
knight is from one to two from one to two
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thank you and for this next poem i'm
going to be um off screen for a little bit
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[in foreign language]
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is
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so so never can ever get very little
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just the two of us let's lean on each
other and die it'd be super great
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don't forget i'm the only one
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say
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november 21st 2014 the day she
didn't beat me with a frying pan
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as a result of those strikes i had the
strange experience of briefly seeing double
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thank you could you hear me okay
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okay great i was getting a a message in the
chat about the volume so just making sure
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so this is the third poem in cat calling and the
moment i saw this i knew i wanted to translate it
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i'm always looking for works that are exceptional
in some way works that can bring something new to
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the english language and literary scenes obviously
this accomplishes both as you can see i don't know
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if you can see my mouse cursor but as you can
see there is a footnote in the korean as well
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editors tend to be very anti-footnote when it
comes to translations because they're seen as
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you know pedantic and distracting but most of the
footnotes in cat calling i did not introduce into
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the text myself i gave a reading on open letter
books instagram last week where i broke down my
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translation and editorializing of the footnotes
in xi jin's home a house of dead stones so i
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won't really get into the footnotes today unless
someone has a specific question later so there is
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a very obvious blurred effect on the page and the
footnote very kindly explicates the intent which
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is the double vision or traumatic disorientation
kanjin experience from her younger sister's
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physical and verbal violence as for my kwajang i
made two text boxes on microsoft word and overlaid
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them and adjusted the opacity so that the text
wouldn't become so bold but i think the layout
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editor open letter anthony blake might have done
something a little bit different for the effect
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here i have an example where my approach looks
quite different from his and we can think about
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the many ways visuality can be translated and
transmuted on the left we have the poem by iso
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in the middle the version that i turned in and
third this is the final version that anthony
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laid out so i think part of the process involves
the publisher's in-house style including font
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and spacing and had i known that anthony the
marketing director was also the layout person
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i probably would have annoyed him a lot more with
little tweaks but this was a lesson for me too in
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terms of realizing all the ways that translation
becomes a collaboration through publication
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at this point i want to turn our attention
to the word onni which has already come up
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many times in these two poems i've written an
essay on ani called not exactly a sister for
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modern poetry and translation the essay
is much more nuanced than i'm going to be
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today taking into consideration the historical
evolution of the word but in the interest of
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time and specific relevance to catcalling i've
summed it up into this sort of rudimentary chart
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omni meaning older sister is what a female
person would call an older female person
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out of respect and a sense of familiarity oppa
meaning older brother is female to older male
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nuna meaning older sister is male to older female
tongue meaning older brother is male to older male
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if you haven't caught on age order is a huge deal
in korean culture this explains why keong jin is
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and has to be on me or older sister to shidin
the honorific title is inextricable from their
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relationship in an interview iso said my sister
and i are only a year apart but the role and
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responsibilities vested by that single year are
so different eldest daughters are pressured to
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be unconditionally patient i wanted to speak
about the unfairness of this so you can start to
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understand the weight of this word as a symbol
of power and responsibility and even violence
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at the same time non-binary koreans such
as myself are excluded from this lexicon
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or is it an exclusion part of my realization of my
identity came from the fact that i don't identify
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as either an ani or uppa but because i worship
at the nightclub of munoz i do sometimes wish
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that there were alternatives to call my queer
korean siblings and beloved and move away from
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anti-relationality like like nibbling
the gender-neutral term for niece
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nephew neologisms will be inevitably divisive some
people will love it some people will find it corny
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so we'll find we'll see what kinds of new
languages surface and stick around in korean
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those with some engagement with k-pop will
know that these four terms are also romantic
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and sexual terms despite or because of the incest
taboo it seems like lots of familial words are
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recycled into sex like daddy mamacita and so
forth so it's not unique to korean culture but
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i find it interesting that the power dynamic is
slightly less hierarchical than the parent-child
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relationship i made a quick slide of some
pieces of culture from the last three years
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or so containing the word unni in the title this
evidences the popularization of feminism as well
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as less mainstream lesbian narratives because only
simultaneously reveals the speaker and addressee
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to be female it's a powerful word for suffix
and straight women seeking sisterhood alike
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it's politically powerful and also convenient
marketing wise to be able to signal in just one
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word that it's quote made by women for women
and living in korea i've been noticing cases
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of localization which is the process of
adapting certain products for the target culture
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involving on me as well i wrote about my
sister the serial killer being translated
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as annie i killed a man in my essay and sort
of the incongruence of the title and content
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but what a title right and the next screenshot
i have is about ocean's eight because the korean
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media really rendered the cast of ocean's eight on
nice to make them more familiar and approachable
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to the korean female audience these are some of
the reviews and articles written on that movie
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and one usage of ani even comes from warner
brothers korea and it's about some hat giveaway um
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so maybe you get my sort of jadedness over this
word but nonetheless i hope that it's clear
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why it's become such a go-to word for feminist
culture and now after ani we have oppa who in the
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landscape of k-pop and k-dramas is a much more
familiar figure but you haven't seen oppa like
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this unless you've been gas-lit by a korean man
which i dearly hope you have not been the unnamed
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male speaker of oppa likes that type of girl is
indeed referring to himself in the third person
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which is cringy as hell regardless of how you feel
about oppa in general but i wanted to highlight
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this poem because one i appreciate the way izoho's
night his words take up less space in her poetry
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and two i might have used variations of sister in
my translation had it not been for this oppa poem
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because this oppa doesn't translate to
older brother in the biological sense i
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decided to bring both oppa and ani into my english
translation again i will cover my camera for this
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[in foreign language]
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what are you trying to say if you're feeling
sick go cook yourself porridge why call me i'm
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sick of you you want to cuss me out huh go ahead
what are you afraid of i gave you everything
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but nothing satisfies you this is why i don't like
depressed girls hey stop whining and talk straight
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and think it over before you talk have i been
dating a stupid girl that's not it you're smart
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i can have a conversation with you so don't act
like you know something i don't oppa will explain
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everything to you one by one i'm doing this all
for you hey you don't believe me i'm just kidding
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why are you glaring like that i've told you
before but it's because you're stubborn and
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sensitive that our romance turned sour any other
man would have dumped you already i'm letting you
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off the hook again don't do this again if you're
having such a hard time drink yourself to sleep
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you're good at that you're gonna shake it off
anyway can't we just hang up happy now i couldn't
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stand to look at your outfit earlier buy yourself
some clothes when you get paid not from an outlet
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mall but something brand name so you won't [ __
] embarrass me hey only i'm telling you this you
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can't find another man like me anywhere it's
not that oppa changed you changed you used to
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at least pretend to get dolled up but i guess
you don't even try these days anyway i'm busy
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can't you understand that if you don't have a job
why don't you get a hobby watch tv stop watching
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me i like a woman who's productive what are you
going to do with what i did today stop asking me
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do you not trust me you're so obsessed i feel like
i'm going to lose my mind every time you do this
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this is why all those guys dumped you only i'd
stay with you all this time don't take this the
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wrong way you think lovers can't say stuff like
this to each other i'm closer to you than anyone
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else in the world i'm the only one who thinks
of you don't forget it so be nice to your oppa
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thank you
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i can see judy laughing um if you couldn't tell
that was 100 me reading with my voice pitch down
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in garageband um i my plan was to sort of do
a drag performance where i'm like lip syncing
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but i i sort of ran out of energy this week
um so unfortunately i couldn't wow you with
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um some drag makeup and whatnot but maybe
maybe at a future reading i can accomplish
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that plan um i have one more poem to
read i want to check the chat okay
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[in foreign language]
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a musical variation for the fighting spirit
you would grab because you're grabbing you will
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probably grab would you have grabbed will you grab
i'm not sure you grab i heard to grab you grab ya
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though you grabbed you would have grabbed or
if you had grub even when you grabbed you grab
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if you were to have grab you must have grabbed
you're grabbing huh you're garb and you will
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grab butt you grab in yet you must have grab you
must have grabbed yeah oh you must have grabbed
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if you had grab while you would totally grab
while you're grabbing not even grabbing you
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who'd grabbed you're totally gonna grab you
might have grabbed after all even if you'd grab
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if you were to grab you had to have grabbed
your grab but then again sir you grabbed me
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grab me i know you had grab even if you grab
even while grabbing you must have grabbed but
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should you grab you must have grabbed plus in
order to grab you grab i see would you have grab
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must have grabbed ya you're grabbing butt you'll
grab huh if you grab if you were to grab you grab
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00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:04,240
duh because you grab me you grab if you had grab
even if you had grab you grabbed i'm telling you
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you had to grab you either grab or you grab
and you grabbed her too the more you grab
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because you grab you grab me because you
grab yeah you'd grab you grab butt you grab
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or even if you were to grab yeah you'd grab you
do grab you did grab you who grabs thank you um
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i read this as another visual representation of
the disorientation following a traumatic event
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um first i know that the korean verb is to
touch bandita i accepted my editor anastasia's
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suggestion to change it to grab because a it's
somehow more violent but also in the it also
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innocuous in the context of like grabbing lunch
grabbing drinks um b i felt like touch could carry
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sort of a positive connotation and and these
covet times and see i was translating when
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grabbing by the was still very much part of
the national conversation and so that verb
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was unfortunately resonant for me and korean
has a bunch of conjugations based on tense mood
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and honorifics without specifying the subject or
object so you can imagine that there's no gender
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specified here either it's entirely up to the
reader whether it's a he or she or they or you
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00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:41,680
grabbing me you him her or them and understanding
the heteronormative context easel was writing from
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i seriously considered him grabbing her
or more seriously mixing all pronouns but
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since i read it as a singular traumatic incident
i also like how the second person makes it more
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confrontational and implicates even the
reader in the violent act i added these
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extra words like yeah or da because i needed
to somehow come up with 72 discreet phrases
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and i wanted to differentiate them in tones
similar to the way the honorifics do but sort
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of in the opposite direction in korean there's
the formal high banja nita informal high manja
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informal low manja and plain form mandata
and that's all without changing the tense
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that's just the levels of formality speaking
of honorifics they is the formal yes which
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is why i rendered it as yes mom in relation
to the title i did consider yes mom and dad
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but it became very difficult to fit in one page so
sometimes translation choices really do come down
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to pragmatism in that way and each book you
know presents a different set of challenges
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and thrills for the translator and catcalling was
certainly a roller coaster to translate last year
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i wish i could have read the chat while screen
sharing but i hope that you got a sense of all
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00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:15,040
the twists and turns from my experience and now
i'm very excited to speak with professor han hello
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00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:26,080
um hi i'm i i i think part of me is wondering
if i if i'm even allowed to laugh um
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add some of these uh the both the poems in the
original and the translations but thank you
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thank you so much this has been such an amazing
experience in immersing uh in the reading
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and now uh talking with you i'm i you know i
i'm just so fascinated by your discussion of ani
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um and the language of queer kinship uh so i
actually really want to start there because
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i don't really care about no just anything
else um no that's not true but you know the
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gender pronouns in translation um like
in such this had head to a patriarchal
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you know binary gender context of of
korea and korean culture cultural customs
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and the phenomenal interest in feminism uh in
recent years and of course the backlash there
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is so much in both the politics and and poetics
of gender and sexuality and the the names we
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call each other um this is such an interesting
topic for korean studies and translational
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studies i think there's a lot we can do in queer
theory um to think through some of these issues
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in translation um but i wanted to actually
ask you to say a little bit more about ani as
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a sexualized term um i know this is something
that you wrote about a little bit in the essay
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that you mentioned but it also comes up in this
discussion too in the idolizing of the only
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figures in some of the ways that you've shown
there's also the idolizing and desiring um the
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i don't know if it's necessarily an
older woman but it's it is an older
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yeah it's a it's both incestuous and
uh you know sapphic lesbian nick and
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00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:26,240
also something other than that it's there's
something very korean about this kind of same
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00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:32,720
gender you know identification slash desire
in familial terms um can you say a little
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bit more about this because there's a lot
of this in the poems too yeah for sure um
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in this context of cat calling it is the only
figure is limited to the familial right xi jin and
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00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:53,360
counting our biological sisters but then there's
also there's like sexualized violence happening
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between the mother and daughter between the
sisters so it's sort of this complicated
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00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:09,840
uh relationship that i don't know if easel
whole um intended us to read necessarily in
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a queer context but she i think wanted to sort of
heighten every form of violence possible between
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two human beings for sure um as for ani as a
figure of desire what's funny is that every time
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i talk about this in an interview
it gets cut out for some reason
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really no no no like what i'm about to say
which is the personal anecdote that i've
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never dated an older korean person i see and
i find this very relevant to my perspective
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right like i even before i you know identified
as non-binary um i never really had the chance
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of anyone older to me you know a woman older to me
on me and i wonder if that limits my sort of own
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00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:09,520
propensity to see and on me as a sexualized term
so when i should bring up the afraid of that thing
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00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:17,840
like somehow it always gets edited out in post um
but i i have um talked to different friends who
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are you know who do i identify as cis lesbian or
cis bisexual and they do call their partners on me
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and because they're in a romantic and
sexual relationship that term also becomes
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sort of heightened erotically right and which
i've always i mean you have your you know
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i mean i think i also find that to be very uh
jarring uh to imagine a romantic relationship
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where there would be someone calling the other ani
but of course happens you know of course happens
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daddy happens i mean of course right right yeah
but i think but i think ani has held up especially
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in a kind of a global sisterhood feminist context
where there is this isn't supposed to be about
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00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:13,360
romantic alliances or romantic relationships
but but really much more about uh shared um
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00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:20,480
you know rage against patriarchy so there's
a there's something so subversive in in
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00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:28,800
opening that possibility with just even that
use of the term in queer context yeah and the
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00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:36,240
most prominent sort of um i don't know if
they would use this term necessarily but um
288
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,680
lesbian and queer women inclusive
organization in korea is called
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00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:51,280
a new network yeah you know yeah so it's
definitely used in both assist political
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sisterhood context as well as like we we call
each other on the in bed kind of thing right
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00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:03,520
yes i'm gonna have nightmares about this
again i'm and of course among gay men too
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00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:10,560
yeah so yeah i mean there's and the the thing
the interesting thing about oni too um and the
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way that you're engaging in in translation
uh with this with this work is also that
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only is is the naming of of relations within a
family hierarchy um it's naming of one's location
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um simply by just like in the uh the examples
that you've shown just by calling someone udni
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you're also locating yourself um in the hierarchy
so in many ways it speaks to the heart of what's
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00:42:40,720 --> 00:42:46,080
conventionally often you know the biggest
question in translating korean to english
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00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:54,560
the the subject the i um all kinds of ways that
ani actually helps name and locate the speaker um
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00:42:54,560 --> 00:43:01,040
i mean so all the it's all the different ways that
you translated that location whether through using
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00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:08,560
the word on knee capitalized or big sister little
sister you i mean can you walk us through some
301
00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:17,440
of some of that dilemma it's i mean it must have
been such a myriad like possibilities before you
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00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:28,480
yeah um i guess when i made the executive decision
to introduce these korean terms into the text
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00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:35,600
um i then had many options as you just
pointed out i had older sister big sis
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00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:41,040
omni sort of these three things and then
we i also had the name kyongjin so um
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00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:49,120
once i opened up myself to those possibilities
then i sort of had all these tools um to
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00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:57,520
experiment with rhythm like i would see oh like
in this line or in this poem it's better if i
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00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:04,720
say big sis you know or you know i try to think
about um how the word is presented in relation
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00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:11,600
to the sentence so if there's another sort of
set of korean words you know um place names
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00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:17,840
then maybe i would use sister instead of on
me to sort of lessen the ratio of korean words
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00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:24,960
in a line right so yeah yeah in an english context
i could also see that yeah that makes sense um the
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00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:34,800
other way um that i think the these hierarchies
and um gender politics and pronouns come into play
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00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:43,200
is in the use of you um in the cohabitation in
the poem that you read too just when the younger
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00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:49,680
sister says i won't call you andy anymore you
don't you don't deserve that um clearly that it's
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00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:56,480
the kind of dynamic where any is also seen as uh
you know a qualification that actually one could
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00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:03,920
be dispossessed of um as well so so in places
where like um i think it's actually probably most
316
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:14,000
clear in i'm looking at my notes in cohabitation
but in other places too where i lost my place
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00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:26,080
yeah um when u is uh when u is used when u is
used as the the object uh do you think that
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00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:34,160
uh takes away from any nuance or ambiguity
that exists in korean where the you remains
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00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:43,680
unnamed in the case of cohabitation because
you just put it so beautifully like it is a
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00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:51,120
dispossessing of a title or sort of a ranking
in relation right to the younger sister i wanted
321
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,160
to capture that in the tone of the sentence
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00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:00,800
right like i'm not going to call like you
don't deserve that you know to sort of um
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00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:12,160
uh i'm blanking on the word i want to use but uh
yeah sort of use that tonally to show that this u
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00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:17,200
is not just a simple you that it is in english
right and just because we don't use honorifics
325
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:25,040
in english doesn't mean that we don't have all
these hidden hierarchies and like yeah disparaging
326
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:29,840
tones against each other yeah i mean except
you know in conversation we usually have a
327
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:36,000
chance to explain these things right i mean i
i remember immigrating to um to the states when
328
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,720
when i was 12 and i remember the first day of my
younger brother and sister because i'm the oldest
329
00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:47,520
sister and the it's yeah um when my younger
siblings used an english sentence and said and
330
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:54,160
used the word you in like it was it was something
like probably like why did you do that and then it
331
00:46:54,160 --> 00:47:00,800
was like you did did you just call me you i mean
it's it's this confrontation that um that that
332
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:08,240
is so everyday in the english language and yet in
the korean context when when the words are like no
333
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:14,000
it's it's a it's not just you
how do you i mean how do you
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00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:20,000
what are some of yeah we have tang
which is the formal extremely um
335
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:27,920
respectful version of that so anything lower
than tungsten becomes immediately sort of
336
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,640
it could be insulting but also it could be a
very familiar kind of thing like oh we're really
337
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:39,840
good friends so i can call you you right so so
going back to the they pronoun the gender pronoun
338
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:48,800
um i know that you had referred to they in korean
um yeah right so do you think that could also
339
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:54,480
border that sort of you know both pejorative you
know condescending but also intimate and familiar
340
00:47:55,200 --> 00:48:00,320
yeah i actually i want to pull up my you
had a slide right yeah a slide on that um
341
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:06,080
my presentation got closed out
and i'm i'm trying to find it like
342
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:11,680
so forgive me i love the infographic so i knew
about infographic i'm going to have to steal
343
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:20,480
it for every korean lecture oh yeah feel free i
mean it's it's like janky emoji i love it um but
344
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:28,960
i'm glad you enjoyed it i am pulling it up heater
is being slow but um yeah i actually have another
345
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:38,240
thing that i wanted to talk about with day um i
what i find hilarious and heartwarming is that um
346
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:46,880
if i just explain the singular day to koreans as
a grammatical concept they love it they're like
347
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:54,000
so down with it because the singular they
just exist you know as a concept in korean
348
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:59,120
so that's sort of the approach that i take
nowadays like in in relation to my own gender
349
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:05,440
identity if i'm just like oh you know we have coup
in korean they're like oh yeah it's kind of like
350
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:12,320
yeah it's sort of i mean it is like a survival
tactic for me right to sort of introduce myself
351
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:20,560
in that roundabout way but i found that people are
quite excited to learn that english you know we we
352
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:27,120
have another option beyond he and she and that
this is a discussion and there's room for change
353
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:33,600
yeah yeah for sure um and ivan jihad the korean
performance artist that i mentioned in my aniase
354
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:38,560
at the end um she has another essay i just
remembered it this morning where she's like
355
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:46,400
you know um i'm wildly paraphrasing her but
she's like i can't believe i was colonized by
356
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:55,520
the english language into dividing everyone into
he and she and like now all my queer korean friend
357
00:49:55,520 --> 00:50:00,480
career korean american friends are looking down on
me for like not catching up with the times like i
358
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:07,360
can't believe you guys colonized me and then like
left into liberation all by yourselves so there's
359
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:16,240
like sort of this i guess sort of delay um in
how queer language is transmuted um so it's been
360
00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:21,760
an interesting conversation in korea yeah yeah i
would imagine and so i mean it's it's clear to me
361
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:28,320
that you're in conversation with not just this
particular book of poetry but with uh feminist
362
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:36,560
poetry with uh feminist discussions you know a
popular discourse um broader like can you can
363
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:43,600
you share a little bit about how you came across
this particular poet this book this project when
364
00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:48,640
i mean you can't possibly translate everything
you find interesting so when when does it become
365
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:59,840
the next year of your life um i wish it was a year
i played it just so quickly i had like oh really
366
00:51:00,640 --> 00:51:07,840
tight deadlines i translated this in about two and
a half months oh wow yeah um and then i promptly
367
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:14,800
fell ill i do not recommend it um
but like i said in the beginning um
368
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:22,000
you know i read a lot of interesting things
but some some things really stand out in
369
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:30,480
in the sort of pile of books that i have and i
think about like what would be most interesting
370
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:39,360
to read in a slightly different context right
and cat calling definitely was that for me
371
00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:47,840
um not only the visuality of these poems but it's
so korean in this way uh usual herself like one
372
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:53,040
of the first times i met her she's like you know
i'm so korean i'm like from the chosen dynasty
373
00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:03,600
what does she mean by that you think um well
it's it's definitely sort of a millennial korean
374
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:09,280
thing to be self-deprecating like oh like i'm so
behind and like backwards that i'm from the chosen
375
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:16,560
dynasty so it's like very korean humor um but you
know if you read through this collection there are
376
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:25,120
a lot of very specific korean references
to tata to specific place places in seoul
377
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:32,640
across korea in a way that my first poetry
collection unexpected vanilla like it's completely
378
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:40,960
not in that way so i i like finding projects that
even contradict each other and what they're trying
379
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:46,880
to say about korean-ness because you know korean
poets aren't trying to represent korea in in the
380
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:55,680
way that dysport poets often feel the need to
um but i like how sort of my own body of works
381
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:04,880
become a very complex tapestry of korean-ness so i
i like how i got to sort of share that aspect yeah
382
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:09,680
i i'm i think i've i remember seeing
somewhere that you're you identify as 1.5
383
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:14,240
are you you're korean-american in the background
background right did you grow up in the states
384
00:53:14,240 --> 00:53:19,920
i i immigrated when i was seven so a little
bit younger than you when i moved over but
385
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:26,160
yes my citizenship is um the us that's i
wasn't asking about your citizenship status
386
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:36,080
of you know of uh just looking to korea
for korean-ness or korean like passport
387
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:41,840
koreans looking for signs of things that represent
korean-ness um i think that's also an interesting
388
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:50,240
um comment in this context because especially
because this this work is always so irreverent
389
00:53:50,960 --> 00:54:00,480
it's like it is just so um just graphic
um and uh perverse and uh and violent
390
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:07,920
um and uh despite what she might say about
herself also just fundam like just deeply
391
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:14,640
and intrinsically in some ways anti-traditional
um yeah there's there's something just unruly
392
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:22,800
uh just unkempt about her whole way of uh
narrating and ex and describing her experiences
393
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:28,640
and her relationships uh do you did you
struggle with any any of that like was
394
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:33,760
it did did at any point during those months
that you spent time intimate time with with
395
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:39,680
the poor with the poems did you think this
is just too much i i mean i lost my mind
396
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:49,680
without mincing words i mean because maybe
because it was such an intense translating
397
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:56,480
um period like i was really just living
and breathing this collection right and
398
00:54:57,120 --> 00:55:02,720
it did get very overwhelming but i think that
level of intensity also helped me because i
399
00:55:02,720 --> 00:55:09,200
was so in it that i was sort of like you know i
have to sort of process all this violent language
400
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:20,320
through my own body and make it convincing so it
was overwhelming um but i'm glad i'm glad it's out
401
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:27,600
yeah and do you think um you struggled with maybe
striking a balance between what is graphic in one
402
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:34,720
language with the the same level of graphicness or
impact in the other language that i mean i can't
403
00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:39,600
imagine i i mean probably later on i'm gonna have
to ask you why are you translating poetry like
404
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:45,280
for someone who doesn't translate poetry i cannot
imagine a more difficult task this is incredible
405
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:53,840
to me that you even do this but that's that's for
later um my own masochism to me questions yeah i
406
00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:59,440
don't i don't know there's something incredibly
creative about about this process but yeah but
407
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:04,560
what about that balance between what is you
know what remains uh ambivalent what remains
408
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:13,760
graphic on the one hand how do you translate
that into the other well you read korean also
409
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:20,240
so i i kind of want to flip the question back to
you and ask you did you feel that the impact was
410
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:27,840
um equal or at least similar in like across
the two versions i think i think it they vary
411
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:33,600
yeah with yeah with some poems i think they were
more impactful i don't usually use that word but
412
00:56:34,240 --> 00:56:41,760
um in english um and you know and then sometimes
it's just so perverse in korean um but in english
413
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:51,280
like the word you i mean i think for me like i'm
i'm sort of old school that way you know for like
414
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:59,520
the idea that someone for instance would talk to
their parents and use diga or digabonde or like
415
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:05,840
even even the ani was a year older there's
a there's a transgression that's involved in
416
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:13,520
even those small acts of linguistic you know
confrontation right yeah and now that i know that
417
00:57:13,520 --> 00:57:20,800
you're the firstborn in your family i'm just like
extra how dare you yeah yeah yeah oh that's a good
418
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:27,440
point yeah hmm i mean so it's not just cuss words
right and it's not just throwing around words like
419
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:32,240
uh [ __ ] and [ __ ] like it's not just about
that there's there's so much built into the
420
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:36,240
the structures of translation yeah so
how do you how do you do it what are
421
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:46,240
well if i sort of provoke the admit response that
you i feel like maybe i failed judy in some way
422
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:50,400
no no no that's not what i mean man isn't the
difference i thought the difference was like
423
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,800
sometimes greater than others sometimes they were
like right on par and then sometimes it's just
424
00:57:54,800 --> 00:58:01,520
like you know different yeah no i'm just kidding
but i i think i my my intention is always to
425
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:07,840
sort of keep them level um and like you pointed
out sometimes the cultural context is just too
426
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:16,240
big for me to achieve that in just one line and
of course there are certain you know footnotes
427
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:22,240
throughout this collection that sort of um
contextualizes certain things for the reader but
428
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:27,920
with the you i felt like it would be too extra
for me to like go in there with the footnote and
429
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:33,760
say you know this is like that's an insulting
curve right right no that's yeah definitely
430
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:38,560
don't do that i mean and i think and i think the
reason i keep bringing that up is because i'm
431
00:58:38,560 --> 00:58:44,560
i'm just confronted with this realization that
there is no one-to-one replication uh you know
432
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:50,560
transference of meaning in translation and i think
that's what i was so struck by your work with um
433
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:59,200
the idea that multiple translators can translate
the same poem in multiple ways and for that to be
434
00:59:00,320 --> 00:59:06,320
okay you know what they mean that this wasn't
about a competition like to win the best
435
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:12,160
translation that this wasn't to try to get at the
most authentic or truthful or faithful meaning
436
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:19,840
um i thought that was just so brilliant yeah thank
you for bringing up choca i had no idea you would
437
00:59:19,840 --> 00:59:29,840
also look into that um yeah i mean i was in a
translation program where it was very much of
438
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:36,240
the like we must get to the essence of the source
text but then after a while especially while doing
439
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:43,760
poetry you you realize like the korean is written
ambiguously and it's meant to be read that way
440
00:59:43,760 --> 00:59:49,200
and there are multiple interpretations even in
untranslated works you know i think we turn to
441
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:57,680
poetry because it is so nuanced and ambiguous
and mysterious and multivalent and so i
442
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:03,040
decided to start this project where we could sort
of freely pursue all these different directions
443
01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:10,000
without canceling each other out so yeah thank
you for bringing that up yeah do you see a lot of
444
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:18,160
room growth potential do you see a lot of interest
in translating poetry i definitely yeah our last
445
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:27,680
um issue we had 12 different translations of one
poem so it's yeah steadily growing yeah as their
446
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:32,640
project goes on i mean it's interesting because
i'm probably more likely to do a translation
447
01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:38,480
project of declarations and manifestos and you
know press conference statements which are of
448
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:43,600
course in a different genre but in some ways there
are the kinds of nuances and cultural contexts
449
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:52,160
um that one deals with in any genre um i would
imagine challenges exist across the board and what
450
01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:59,040
do you think are some of your biggest challenges
in translating not just poetry but poetry with a
451
01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:04,640
lot of political teeth a lot of political currency
and also just kind of under in the spotlight
452
01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:13,840
yeah i i want to deliver the emotional impact
that the source did had on me so i sort of want
453
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:23,200
to replicate my experience of reading the poem
and sometimes it involves reorganizing footnotes
454
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:30,000
you know changing words from you know um
no to your name or something like that so
455
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:39,920
yeah i i do i also translate non-poetry and
non-literature i do some technical translation as
456
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:45,680
well so i i can sort of contrast that personally
between the different projects that i do and
457
01:01:45,680 --> 01:01:53,920
speaking of manifestos and manuals um i saw on
your calendar for feminist politics you have
458
01:01:53,920 --> 01:02:02,160
an upcoming event with hijin shim from survive
and punish then i actually trend this was my
459
01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:10,080
only project that i've done um from english into
korean so the opposite way for me and i translated
460
01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:19,040
uh sort of a manual for queer survivors of
domestic abuse no way too that the project
461
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:25,600
oh you did that yeah oh did you read yeah the yeah
i've read it and i've i've attended that they're
462
01:02:25,600 --> 01:02:32,000
yeah with their workshops yeah yeah so when i saw
that i was like wow what a small world it is a
463
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:38,480
small world i i've never met in in person we just
became twitter friends and then i ended up doing
464
01:02:38,480 --> 01:02:49,440
this gig for them so even with that project um i
i definitely use the terminology like sort of the
465
01:02:51,600 --> 01:03:01,840
you know the casual vocab uh slang of the
career community here um so i i try to
466
01:03:02,640 --> 01:03:10,720
like in addition to paying close attention to
the text itself i try to just be mindful and
467
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:18,000
curious about things that are happening um right
now around me right it seems like that's also
468
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:25,120
advice you could give to aspiring translators
that you don't just study translation yeah i read
469
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:32,320
i mean now nowadays less so but what back when
i live in the states actually right now i'm so i
470
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:38,320
brought up my citizenship because it's i have this
sort of dual immigrant status of like i'm a korean
471
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:45,120
american back in korea but back when i lived in
the states attending uc berkeley as an undergrad
472
01:03:45,120 --> 01:03:50,720
i had um a twitter account where i would just
follow p i didn't tweet out anything but i just
473
01:03:50,720 --> 01:03:57,920
followed a bunch of queer korean activists and
just like people and that's sort of how i picked
474
01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:06,240
up a lot of um queer terminologies that are being
used you know outside of academia or you know in
475
01:04:06,240 --> 01:04:11,760
everyday contexts so that kind of knowledge
definitely paid off once i got here right and
476
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:17,840
even people were talking about yeah no for sure
and and among feminists too they're the kind of
477
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:25,440
um activist jargon or or slang the colloquial
language that also appears in like throughout
478
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:31,120
this portrait collection too um you must have
to make some decisions on how to match that to
479
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:36,640
perhaps what is current in english do you have an
example of that in in this collection you think
480
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:44,480
i don't know i mean because like cat calling
is not exactly one of those terms but that is
481
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:48,880
that is certainly an equivalent in
both no that's uh that's such a good
482
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:52,960
example oh my screen sharing disappeared
i was going to get to the t chair
483
01:04:54,400 --> 01:05:00,000
eventually i'm sorry eventually no no no why are
you please don't apologize um i should have gotten
484
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:07,120
through that but uh what were you talking about
cat calling so uh the korean title is kekkoring
485
01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:16,800
transliteration of the english into hunger and
i actually almost changed the title in english
486
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:26,960
translation um because quoting is less of um
like it is the term that's used in korea by
487
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:32,640
people who are already aware of the phenomenon
but catcalling is less a thing in korea as
488
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:41,920
a form of you know street harassment um am i gonna
go into this i mean the sex crimes here are more
489
01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:49,120
digital based i'm sure you've been reading
the news yeah all the more moroccan
490
01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:56,400
cameras in like public restrooms and i don't know
to what extent i should be explaining this for our
491
01:05:56,400 --> 01:06:04,000
audience here watching um should i sure i mean
especially because it's such a such a concern
492
01:06:04,000 --> 01:06:08,560
yeah and iso actually in her next collection
that hasn't been published yet she sent me
493
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:16,560
um her manuscript and it has because you know she
engages in visual poetry one of her next poems
494
01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:25,600
is a picture of a bathroom stall with tiny holes
drilled into the stall and then she has a footnote
495
01:06:25,600 --> 01:06:34,240
where she sort of like that's the poem um and so
to give context to what's happening is um cis men
496
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:43,840
are entering women's bathrooms and drilling holes
tiny tiny holes into the stall to install tiny
497
01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:50,800
cameras where they either like live stream women
going to the restroom or like taking pictures
498
01:06:52,160 --> 01:07:00,480
and it's so perverse but it's so prevalent
it's like it's become one of the most
499
01:07:02,240 --> 01:07:12,240
prevalent sex crimes in korea um and it's such
a violation of women's privacy and also it's
500
01:07:12,240 --> 01:07:21,040
meant to humiliate you know like the the sort of
psychology that the psychological reasoning that
501
01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:30,560
um articles have presented is like oh they they
feel so disempowered by women's empowerment that
502
01:07:30,560 --> 01:07:37,360
they have to watch women at their lowest to feel
better about themselves so it's this whole thing
503
01:07:37,360 --> 01:07:47,120
and if you go to like a subway like a um a metro
restroom and you will find these tiny holes
504
01:07:47,120 --> 01:07:55,040
and it's it's frightening you know like you
don't know where it's like you don't know which
505
01:07:55,040 --> 01:08:02,000
which of these holes has been um yeah yeah i've
i've seen people carry uh little kits with uh
506
01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:07,600
stickers right right so when you're entering
this like this whole mark yeah it's i feel so
507
01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:14,080
frustrated about the world because now there's
a market for anti-worker you know hidden camera
508
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:22,000
technology and so women have to pay money to be
safe against these cameras but i yeah i went on
509
01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:28,160
a sort of with tangent so my point is cat quoting
cat calling as a concept is less familiar in korea
510
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:36,080
because the men are less confrontational to
you oh right sex crimes are hidden and yeah
511
01:08:36,080 --> 01:08:42,640
um so i i was thinking because cat calling when
translated literally into english like everyone
512
01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:48,560
knows what cat calling is in english so i was
like well you know it's not gonna have that same
513
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:55,040
sense of foreignness mm-hmm so i i
was going um so i was just going to
514
01:08:56,320 --> 01:09:01,600
uh pick out like some some of my favorite
phrases from different poems like one of the
515
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:08,080
options was playing with scars which is from a
poem in the fifth section because you know easel
516
01:09:08,080 --> 01:09:13,200
like what is she doing if not playing with
her own scars um but ultimately i was vetoed
517
01:09:13,760 --> 01:09:21,600
by the publisher so we went with cat calling
um but yeah um that's it's such a that's
518
01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:26,720
such an um interesting point too because
catcalling is a kind of violence that puts
519
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:32,800
on display in a public context it's it's about
being subjected to harassment and violence
520
01:09:33,440 --> 01:09:40,160
um in public where others might be present but
whether it's about the kind of digital sex crimes
521
01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:45,440
you're talking about or the kind of intimate
family violence um and even violence among
522
01:09:45,440 --> 01:09:54,400
sisters and and obviously with oppa like i mean
all the the all those kinds of you know forms of
523
01:09:54,400 --> 01:10:02,320
violence in in in one's proximity um that's that
yeah that's not covered by a focus on cat calling
524
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:11,360
per se yeah and i wanted to mention that herself
um i asked her um at one point because while i was
525
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:17,440
like oh you know like maybe it just doesn't carry
the same valence so i asked her you know well how
526
01:10:17,440 --> 01:10:21,840
would you feel about changing the title and she
was very open she really liked playing with scars
527
01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:27,760
which was very validating and she told me she
picked cat calling not because she felt like it
528
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:31,920
was the repres because there's a poem called
cat calling and she picked it as a title not
529
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:36,800
because she felt like that poem in particular
was representative of the whole collection but
530
01:10:36,800 --> 01:10:44,080
she just felt like it was catchy cat calling as a
word is catchy because to koreans it's less of a
531
01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:51,600
violent it carries less of a violent connotation
they're like sure like it sounds cute that's also
532
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:59,280
the critique that we have in english that it's
such um it doesn't do the you know harassment
533
01:10:59,280 --> 01:11:08,240
justice in terms of how it sort of neutralizes
the actual fear that people encounter right
534
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:14,800
yeah that's that's such an interesting so you so
you had the executive decisions along the way to
535
01:11:15,440 --> 01:11:21,600
make some decisions but not all uh yeah the author
herself didn't have all the decision-making power
536
01:11:21,600 --> 01:11:29,600
either it sounds like yeah yeah i mean i tried
because you know she's alive and very online um
537
01:11:29,600 --> 01:11:36,160
i i emailed her a lot about um different thoughts
that i was having you know i i contacted her
538
01:11:36,160 --> 01:11:40,720
less to be like oh is this the right one but i
would sort of give her different options like
539
01:11:40,720 --> 01:11:46,480
you know i floated different you know um titles
like playing with scars or i don't know what else
540
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:51,200
i forget but i had i gave her like five different
things and i'm like oh this is sort of and then i
541
01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:58,400
would translate them back into korean to sort of
convey the meaning and so she would be like oh
542
01:11:58,400 --> 01:12:08,400
i like this and i would do that with the poems
themselves too like um he god he who rides and
543
01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:18,000
every man who has written and written me that poem
um with getting the sort of the rhyme um yeah i
544
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:23,280
gave her like eight different options i was like
you know these are all the different ways we can
545
01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:31,120
um sort of recreate the cinder which is
a homonym right for to write and also to
546
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:36,960
use yeah so i would always give her all these
options and then she would give me her thoughts
547
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:42,000
you know she'll be like oh i like this and but
then sometimes like a lot of the times i would
548
01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:50,000
be in agreement with her but sometimes i
would not agree with her you know was was
549
01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:54,720
there yeah was there any moment in this
collection that you thought this poem
550
01:12:54,720 --> 01:13:00,800
meant this and then you talked to her and
was you were off in your interpretation
551
01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:09,040
yeah speaking of speakers um when it's not
specified you know not spelled out in the korean
552
01:13:09,040 --> 01:13:18,160
i uh i workshop uh some of these poems with uh
translators who happen to be korean nationals and
553
01:13:19,040 --> 01:13:21,840
they would disagree with each
other and then i would like
554
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:28,880
like one one person would correct me and then i
would ask another person to make sure and then
555
01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:35,920
they'll be like no you were right so i'd be like
oh my god like this is no authority this speaks
556
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:41,200
yeah i mean this speaks to the difficulty but
also it validates you know my my confusion and
557
01:13:41,200 --> 01:13:47,120
then ultimately i would ask easel whole like i try
to not ask her about like subject stuff because it
558
01:13:47,120 --> 01:13:55,200
just seems so basic but but it's so important
and but it is so completely changed yeah yeah
559
01:13:55,200 --> 01:14:00,400
and i didn't realize like sometimes i'm like well
of course it's i and then and then someone will be
560
01:14:00,400 --> 01:14:04,960
like no it's you and then and then you will
be like no it's i and i'm like yes i got it
561
01:14:06,320 --> 01:14:14,080
um so yeah uh there there were maybe two instances
where like the subject was different from what i
562
01:14:14,080 --> 01:14:22,880
assumed yeah dummy is back yeah i think i think
we do have to transition to q a but okay yeah
563
01:14:22,880 --> 01:14:27,520
there's actually a question that that's sort of
related to this about translating and the nuances
564
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:34,320
um sja i had a question about there are some
words in korean that has more nuance right like
565
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:43,680
um and so how when this gets translated into
crunch crunch or simply knife um from shikar
566
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:50,800
to knife um it seems like you know that's the kind
of nuance um that's that one struggles with it do
567
01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:58,480
you do you remember struggling or uh or i don't
know did did you spend any time pouring over this
568
01:14:58,480 --> 01:15:06,880
war choice knife uh knife i think in terms of
rhythm i didn't want to go with cooking knife
569
01:15:08,080 --> 01:15:14,480
because sometimes kitchen knife cleaver
they're all kinds of yeah sure yeah because
570
01:15:14,480 --> 01:15:21,840
or like fruit knife because it's a it's a very
cutting an apple but my my thinking is that
571
01:15:22,800 --> 01:15:29,360
sometimes translators will get so specific
to you know get at every nuance of the word
572
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:38,240
that it bogs down the poem itself and and then
you know readers might be like of course it's a
573
01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:45,760
kitchen knife right you know so i i went with
knife as for paddock that was definitely something
574
01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:52,720
that um i poured over because you know korean
has all this ornamental yeah like it ital that
575
01:15:53,280 --> 01:16:00,720
don't exist in english or are less developed
than english so um everyone knows domi choi
576
01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:08,160
the brilliant poet translator in her translations
of kimusun she would often double verbs in that
577
01:16:08,160 --> 01:16:16,000
same way um so i took a page from don mi and
interesting so that's a strategy yeah yeah
578
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:20,320
yeah what other strategies do you have for
folks who say you know there are just some
579
01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:28,800
words in korean that just don't exist in english
even in you know the idea you know it's usually
580
01:16:28,800 --> 01:16:32,880
things like you know like i'm not let's not
get into han or chong or things like that
581
01:16:37,120 --> 01:16:42,640
i mean these words that people often bring up as
uh examples of the kind of korean-ness that we
582
01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:51,840
mentioned earlier yeah how do you respond to that
well because it's poetry i also invite people to
583
01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:56,800
make up their own words you know crunch crunch
is not a word that you can find in the english
584
01:16:56,800 --> 01:17:03,360
language so you sort of frankenstein these
different languages together to find something
585
01:17:03,360 --> 01:17:10,000
coherent i think yeah that's brilliant nami
did you should i ask that you ask a question
586
01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:18,000
i use my executive privilege no actually um the
conversation was so thought provoking but also
587
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:23,520
so much fun that i didn't want to disrupt you
um i wish we can spend more time just talking
588
01:17:23,520 --> 01:17:30,080
there are two questions however uh from the
audience so should we go ahead should i go ahead
589
01:17:30,080 --> 01:17:35,840
and read those questions sure uh they're actually
by the same person it looks like yes well actually
590
01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:41,680
two from ashley kim but let's go ahead with the
first one i feel that the majority conservative
591
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:48,080
korean media constantly gaslights feminists
do people who are part of the korean feminist
592
01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:57,840
literature community see translation as an escape
from that hypersensitive online mob society
593
01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:05,360
like could the english translation possibly offer
a way out of this you know kind of a close chamber
594
01:18:06,400 --> 01:18:09,920
interesting that's interesting i
haven't thought of it that way i
595
01:18:09,920 --> 01:18:17,840
i because i'm facing a different audience right
the korean feminists i mean cat calling is sold
596
01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:24,880
in korea as well but you know i wrote this with
people living elsewhere so i i don't know if i
597
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:34,000
can offer them an escape but i would love love
if give him any sort of solace yeah yeah or
598
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:42,160
validation from elsewhere that then becomes
legitimacy when right this sort of poetry is taken
599
01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:48,240
seriously enough to be published elsewhere yeah i
i i definitely get that sense from ethel herself
600
01:18:49,520 --> 01:18:56,080
she she was telling me um i think a lot of
people would be surprised to find um that she
601
01:18:56,080 --> 01:19:05,840
lives with her parents no yeah despite all her
sisters her sister lives in uh australia with her
602
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:11,360
boyfriend which is why okay anyway i'm not
gonna go into that whole thing but she lives
603
01:19:11,360 --> 01:19:16,560
with her parents and she told me she's like
thank you for translating this collection
604
01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:22,080
because now that my book is available
in the u.s my parents finally respect me
605
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:30,800
her parents are like oh like she's actually doing
something with her life that kind of thing she's
606
01:19:30,800 --> 01:19:38,800
never helped one person you had a hand in yeah
in holding up this yeah yeah yeah her parents are
607
01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:45,280
sort of just you know like they didn't expect
this right when their daughter became a poet
608
01:19:45,280 --> 01:19:52,320
um um i guess there's another question from
s lee i'm curious what the experience was of
609
01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:58,000
being edited by someone who's not familiar with
korean which i presume was the case though i'm not
610
01:19:58,000 --> 01:20:02,640
certain was there significant input
from the publisher aside from design
611
01:20:03,280 --> 01:20:12,720
aspects yeah um anastasia nicholas at open
letter books my poetry editor is wonderful she
612
01:20:14,320 --> 01:20:23,360
she had read a lot of korean feminist poetry and
translation um by tommy choi emily changmin yoon
613
01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:28,480
you know all these people who have come
before me and so anastasia was actually
614
01:20:28,480 --> 01:20:36,640
quite i i feel like i mean she might deny this
but i think she was pretty um knowledgeable in
615
01:20:38,160 --> 01:20:46,240
korean poetry in translation and then so she could
sort of see how cat calling fit into the existing
616
01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:53,920
canon i guess in translation um but on like
a word to word level no she couldn't read the
617
01:20:53,920 --> 01:21:00,000
korean so it was up to me to explain to her
you know this is this there's this homonym
618
01:21:00,640 --> 01:21:04,400
um in korean that i'm struggling to deal
with so i would sort of spell it out for
619
01:21:04,400 --> 01:21:09,520
her and then we would have these conversations
and um she was really really great in terms of
620
01:21:10,160 --> 01:21:17,760
um like being my sounding board in terms of
like oh this this cultural context like you
621
01:21:17,760 --> 01:21:22,800
need to spell this out a little bit more so
yeah i i found it to be a good experience this
622
01:21:22,800 --> 01:21:29,520
also confirms that the rumor that translation
is not an isolated experience that you engage
623
01:21:29,520 --> 01:21:37,440
certainly with the author the editors yeah
the world your parents yeah my parents oh god
624
01:21:39,600 --> 01:21:41,840
the test
625
01:21:45,520 --> 01:21:52,240
yeah well and also the i noticed a pattern in a
lot of the translators of poetry that they are
626
01:21:52,240 --> 01:22:02,160
poets themselves are you a poet yourself oh i feel
embarrassed because i haven't really been actively
627
01:22:03,440 --> 01:22:11,200
publishing them but yeah i i started as a
writer and yeah hope to pursue my own poetry
628
01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:16,720
as well excellent i'm really looking forward
to seeing more work um i feel like we should
629
01:22:16,720 --> 01:22:23,040
call on victoria who was the mastermind
behind this amazing conversation right
630
01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:28,800
let's do that uh but let me just go ahead
and read one more question from ashley kim
631
01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:35,360
uh the theme of vengeance has a different register
in korean culture and therefore korean art forms i
632
01:22:35,360 --> 01:22:40,960
feel that that's just so perfect for feminist art
but a different part of me feels that it can also
633
01:22:40,960 --> 01:22:47,120
be limiting how do you see vengeance playing out
in the literature you translate and have you ever
634
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:53,280
faced difficulties in communicating that intense
form of anger to the english-speaking reader
635
01:22:58,160 --> 01:23:05,120
yeah now that you sort of position cat
calling in the over of you know pakton
636
01:23:06,880 --> 01:23:21,040
you know vengeance trilogy wow hmm yeah i huh let
me think about this what a great question i think
637
01:23:21,040 --> 01:23:28,240
it's also vengeance in the form of a certain
violence or the expression of rage right yeah
638
01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:36,720
i think it's slightly different because
we now are receiving it from an entirely
639
01:23:37,440 --> 01:23:44,240
female feminist perspective you
know um is male of course he has um
640
01:23:45,600 --> 01:23:52,240
lady vengeance as well with young
a um which is great um but to have
641
01:23:53,120 --> 01:24:04,480
a woman sort of penning all these revenge revenge
and violence um literary violence yes yeah
642
01:24:08,800 --> 01:24:09,520
victoria
643
01:24:12,640 --> 01:24:18,640
thank you for inviting me to ask questions as
well yeah i suppose so they touched on this
644
01:24:18,640 --> 01:24:27,760
earlier in the discussion but um in selecting
texts to form what essentially will become the
645
01:24:27,760 --> 01:24:35,040
english canon of soldier the translator what do
you what do you look what do you think you're
646
01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:41,200
um potentially looking for in the
future we have um your collection
647
01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:52,160
here poems which are uh more queer uh
romantic poetry perhaps sensual erotic poetry
648
01:24:54,800 --> 01:25:03,280
and uh we have the upcoming uh to the warm
horizon which is a uh somewhat sci-fi futuristic
649
01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:10,880
apocalyptic novel lesbians in the apocalypse
wow exactly this is awesome yeah yeah i mean
650
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:16,880
i guess sort of tying back into the previous
question about vengeance like this is my this is
651
01:25:16,880 --> 01:25:22,960
the only work that i've translated that deals with
vengeance or violence like everything else is very
652
01:25:23,520 --> 01:25:34,160
not this energy um so you won't be typecast that's
the translator yeah yeah you know i do really
653
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:42,960
think about trans translators as sort of actors as
well um like i've talked about method translating
654
01:25:44,240 --> 01:25:48,560
before yeah yeah but victoria
i cut you off did you have like
655
01:25:48,560 --> 01:25:54,880
a question no no that was the question of just
what what are you looking forward perhaps to
656
01:25:56,960 --> 01:26:02,960
adding to our english canon of korean literature
because um it's really with translators such
657
01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:07,440
as yourself and anton hur and our other
smoking tiger friends uh sophie bowman so
658
01:26:08,560 --> 01:26:15,600
just fantastic young generation of translators
who are broadening what we can see now
659
01:26:15,600 --> 01:26:25,040
as korean literature in english so what are
you looking to yeah because the first sort of i
660
01:26:25,760 --> 01:26:30,080
anton and i have had a discussion
about this and we sort of disagree
661
01:26:30,080 --> 01:26:38,080
on how we define the generations of korean
translators but i i feel like i'm sort of in
662
01:26:39,840 --> 01:26:46,800
the 3.5 like we you and i are in the 3.5
like i always feel sort of in between
663
01:26:48,400 --> 01:26:54,880
third and fourth generations yeah yeah um but
he he thinks that we're still in the third or
664
01:26:55,680 --> 01:27:00,640
even second but anyway yeah it's like a
whole thing maybe we'll he and i will do
665
01:27:00,640 --> 01:27:06,560
a talk later on this but the first generation
of korean translators i want everyone to know
666
01:27:06,560 --> 01:27:12,640
that a lot of these were white men who
were who came to korea as missionaries or
667
01:27:13,760 --> 01:27:22,720
like uh un people you know so they were sort
of approaching korea as outsiders and then
668
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:30,480
they went on to become academics so they had
an interest in um replicating the korean canon
669
01:27:31,040 --> 01:27:38,880
in translation right um a lot of male authors
right but then uh whatever generation we're in
670
01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:44,240
now um everyone is sort of turning like looking
at different things like we have jack jung who's
671
01:27:44,240 --> 01:27:50,560
you know doing the very canonical thing but he's
sort of in the minority now for pursuing colonial
672
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:56,960
poets um and then we have a lot of um
members of smoking tigers doing really really
673
01:27:57,600 --> 01:28:06,160
cutting edge sci-fi stuff which hasn't been um
which hadn't been translated that much um previous
674
01:28:06,160 --> 01:28:16,000
to this decade i would say so it's really exciting
um interesting because for me because um so
675
01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:21,680
someone like sophie bowman you know she talked
about her like growing up with sci-fi and her
676
01:28:22,320 --> 01:28:29,120
long-long interest in sci-fi like i have no desire
to compete with a true sci-fi fan you know i think
677
01:28:29,120 --> 01:28:37,520
it's great that we all have our sort of niches
and passions so mine mine i guess is like queer
678
01:28:38,080 --> 01:28:47,440
queer stuff kristoff hopefully i i've i've been
noticing more non-binary poets as well so that
679
01:28:47,440 --> 01:28:53,920
would be interesting to translate but right now
my next um the next project that i've decided on
680
01:28:54,640 --> 01:29:01,360
i hope i could talk about it i don't see
why not um is a novel by tongsera sarang
681
01:29:01,360 --> 01:29:07,920
who is the author of the school nurse files i
don't know if people have seen the netflix show um
682
01:29:15,280 --> 01:29:21,040
like i like to use the word shimmy she
shimmies between these uh the literary
683
01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:28,240
very literary fiction and sort of wacky
sci-fi world and she has um a novel called
684
01:29:29,840 --> 01:29:36,720
that was a bestseller last year it was um
picked as like the number one book of 2020
685
01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:44,080
and that is about a family who um celebrates their
686
01:29:45,200 --> 01:29:51,840
mother slash grandmother's chez 10th anniversary
chez in hawaii so it's about how a family
687
01:29:53,440 --> 01:30:04,400
subverts the traditional expectations of mourning
ceremonies you know ancestral rights by going to
688
01:30:04,400 --> 01:30:14,240
hawaii and sort of um thinking about lineage in
a new way um there's i'm not doing a great job
689
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:21,760
explaining this right now um it is still early
in the morning for me and now you blame the time
690
01:30:21,760 --> 01:30:27,680
now i blame the time but um it's like it's
not just some like empty like oh they go on
691
01:30:28,640 --> 01:30:35,120
an island vacation like they go to hawaii and then
realize that they're part of the problem and you
692
01:30:35,120 --> 01:30:41,680
know how tourism affects the environment is like
a staunch environmentalist so she thinks about
693
01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:49,120
how um she thinks about ecologism she thinks
about indigenous sovereignty like there is like a
694
01:30:49,120 --> 01:30:56,720
chapter dedicated to like the indigenous people of
hawaii so yeah it's it's a really interesting book
695
01:30:56,720 --> 01:31:04,480
in terms of how she uses tachezah as like a
plot point but then the cesar is like totally
696
01:31:04,480 --> 01:31:10,160
different from what we expect a korean chesa to
look like no that's so interesting especially in
697
01:31:10,160 --> 01:31:16,400
an indigenous indigenous context and the yeah the
yeah the conjuring of ancestors i i can see this
698
01:31:16,400 --> 01:31:21,920
being an amazing connection so what i'm hearing
is that you don't care much about the sort of the
699
01:31:21,920 --> 01:31:27,280
generational genealogy like in the selection
process do you feel pressured to like i mean
700
01:31:27,280 --> 01:31:34,480
does anybody tell you like you can't do this you
have to do this first oh uh i feel like that was
701
01:31:34,480 --> 01:31:43,120
more of an issue when i was in school maybe but
then now i'm a freelancer so i'm so just i mean
702
01:31:43,120 --> 01:31:51,440
for better or worse i'm so disconnected from those
people so yeah yeah i have fewer naysayers um
703
01:31:52,480 --> 01:31:59,920
yeah i guess what i'm what i'm hearing for
myself is i'd like to translate different
704
01:31:59,920 --> 01:32:08,320
authors who redefine korean-ness now this is so
exciting i am just so i i'm yeah i'm going to
705
01:32:08,320 --> 01:32:15,120
be thinking about this for for a very long time
it's one of the most eye-opening and enjoyable um
706
01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:20,400
conversations experiences this whole
year yeah it was so nice to meet you and
707
01:32:20,400 --> 01:32:25,840
talk about me and everything
oh and there's so much more
708
01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:33,680
i can i can only concur with what just judy said
and we're going to have to have you back sometime
709
01:32:33,680 --> 01:32:41,680
very soon i would love to personally yes in
person definitely um and to continue to talk about
710
01:32:41,680 --> 01:32:49,440
all the just very thought-provoking um
subjects that we've covered so far um the um
711
01:32:50,880 --> 01:32:57,760
we are hoping the center for korean studies is
hoping to continue with this series of kwajang
712
01:32:58,960 --> 01:33:03,760
and with the obviously the help
of victoria and all other people
713
01:33:06,240 --> 01:33:15,280
sometime in the fall will be our third event of
this series uh series um so i'd like to thank you
714
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:27,040
um so there judy and victoria all so very much for
this wonderful event and such a fun event actually
715
01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:38,000
it's one of the few times it was so fun to be
part of um yeah yes so thank you so very much once
716
01:33:38,000 --> 01:33:45,200
again and for those of you whose questions have
not been answered i am sorry about that uh perhaps
717
01:33:45,200 --> 01:33:53,120
so they will be open to getting questions uh
in person sometime yeah uh after the event
718
01:33:53,120 --> 01:33:58,400
um do you have a website actually there was a
question about sharing your work yes oh yeah i
719
01:33:58,400 --> 01:34:04,960
saw that too from julie kim um i haven't posted
my poetry they live on very private google docs
720
01:34:09,920 --> 01:34:14,240
um but i do have a website
it's um smokingtigers.com
721
01:34:15,760 --> 01:34:19,600
i think and then i have uh twitter sojiflux
722
01:34:21,600 --> 01:34:27,600
so you can probably dm me your questions if
they're urgent great thank you so much um thank
723
01:34:27,600 --> 01:34:35,600
you victoria and uh thank you so much once again
all three of you uh we would probably have to uh
724
01:34:35,600 --> 01:34:44,800
end our event today uh and for those of you again
who would like to look up the the website of the
725
01:34:44,800 --> 01:34:51,520
center for korean studies for future events
and also possibly donate to our fundraising
726
01:34:53,120 --> 01:34:59,600
so that we will be able to continue with
this kind of program in the future please uh
727
01:34:59,600 --> 01:35:03,920
go take a look at this john duncan fellowship
in korean studies john duncan is the
728
01:35:04,720 --> 01:35:07,440
former director of the center for korean studies
729
01:35:08,240 --> 01:35:18,480
so once again thank you and good night um
thank you thank you so much everyone bye-bye