Park Chong-hwa

Park Chong-hwa (Hangul: 박종화) is an early-modern Korean novelist.^[1]

Life

Park Chong-hwa was born October 29, 1901, in Seoul, Korea.^[2] Park wrote under the name Woltan and attended the Huimun Uisuk Academy. Park worked as a member of the literary club Swan (1922) and was the Vice of the Choson Writers' Association in 1946. He also served as the Chairman of the Seoul Committee for Arts (1947) and the Writers' Association of Korea (1949). Park was named the President of the Korea Arts Council (1955) and Chairman of the Board of the Korean Writers' Association (1964). Park died on January 13, 1981.^[3]

Work

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea summarizes Park's contributions to Korean literature:

He first entered the literary world as a poet, publishing “Anguished Youth” (Onoeui cheongchun) and “Milk-colored Streets” (Uyubit geori) in the inaugural issue of the journal Rose Village (Jangmichon), and “Returning to the Secret Room” (Milsillo doragada) and “Elegy” (Manga) in the 1922 inaugural issue of White Tide (Baekjo). With his first poetry collection, Private Melodies of the Black Room (Heukbang bigok), published in 1924, Park established his reputation as a romantic poet. Turning to fiction, however, Park Jonghwa devoted the rest of his career to writing historical novels that espouse Korean nationalism.^[1]

Devotion to Korean national identity remained the dominant theme of both Park Jonghwa’s fiction and life. Even in the climate of intense persecution toward the end of the Japanese colonial rule, Park Jonghwa refused to adopt a Japanese surname or participate in pro-Japanese literary organizations as many of his colleagues had done. During the colonial period, Park published several works of historical fiction, including Blood on a Silk Sleeve (Geumsamui pi, 1936), Long Awaited Spring (Daechunbu, 1939), The Eve (Jeonya, 1942), and Compassion (Dajeongbulsim, 1942). After the Liberation, Park Jonghwa continued to be active in the nationalist camp, serving as the vice president of both Pan-Korean Writers’ Association (Jeon Joseon munpilga hyeophoe) and Pan-Korean Federation of Cultural Organizations (Jeonguk munhwa danche chong yeonhaphoe). He also expressed his euphoria at the recovery of national independence in The Nation (Minjok), the last work in the trilogy that includes two earlier works, The Eve and Compassion. Thereafter, Park Jonghwa turned to more remote times to continue his examinations of Korean history from a nationalist perspective. Japanese Invasion of 1592 (Imjinwaeran, 1955) Hong Gyeongrae (1958), and The World in Women’s Hands (Yeoin cheonha, 1959) all manifest his desire to unearth the vigorous spirit of national pride from the pages of Korean history. By virtue of meticulous research and awareness of history’s grand scope, Park Jonghwa managed to preserve in these historical novels a great variety of Korean habits of thought and folk customs.^[1]

Works in Translation

• King Sejong (세종대왕)

Works in Korean (Partial)

Novels

• Blood on the Royal Sleeve
• Ode to Spring
• Friendly Buddha
• My People
• The Japanese Invasion
• Resting Cloud

Awards

• Cultural Medal by the Order of the President in 1962
• May 16 Nationalism Prize in Literature in 1966
• Republic of Korea Rose-of-Sharon Citizen’s Medal in 1970.

References