"I Fried Fish to Feed My Family": The "Sacrificial Love" in Min Jin Lee's New Work, Author of "Pachinko"

[Financial News] Korean American author Min Jin Lee said the message she wants to convey through her new novel "American Hagwon" is "sacrificing one's desires for the people one loves."
In an interview with The New York Times (NYT), a U.S. daily, on the 28th (local time), Min Jin Lee said, "What I want to convey to readers through my new work is 'love that makes people willing to sacrifice.'" She explained, "While writing American Hagwon, I thought more deeply about sacrifice than I had while working on any of my previous books."
American Hagwon features characters who give up their pride and personal ambitions to protect their families. After the financial crisis, one father chooses to fry shrimp and make fish sandwiches in the kitchen of a fried-fish shop to support his family. Although people around him try to dissuade him, saying it is "a job unsuitable for someone highly educated," he puts on a hairnet and rubber boots that reach his knees and begins working without complaint. Min Jin Lee emphasized, "Sacrifice is always judged negatively, but it is not always a bad thing."
NYT wrote, "Although American Hagwon contains an evident critique of education and materialism in Korea and the United States, at its core is an exploration of sacrifice, love and the meaning of family."
The economic survival and sacrifices made for family that recur in Min Jin Lee's novels are also closely tied to her personal history. Min Jin Lee emigrated to the United States with her parents and two sisters in 1976, when she was seven. In Seoul, her father was a marketing executive, while her mother, a music college graduate, taught piano to children. After the family moved to the United States, however, their first home was a shabby one-bedroom apartment where mice and cockroaches roamed. Her parents found jobs at a jewelry wholesaler and had to report for work at 6 a.m. every day except Sunday.
The exploration of sacrifice is expected to continue in her next work. Min Jin Lee plans to examine the role of remittances sent home by Koreans living overseas during South Korea's economic growth in the 1960s.
In particular, Min Jin Lee is focusing on Korean women who moved to the United States after marrying U.S. servicemen. She said, "When I think of South Korea's glamour and beauty today, I do not think of the bar women who married U.S. servicemen in the past, lived in Texas and were called prostitutes by people. But without them, their cousins and brothers would not have been invited to the United States or received money for their education." Min Jin Lee expressed regret that these women made significant sacrifices yet were insulted by other Koreans.
NYT reported, "Min Jin Lee has begun filling the bookshelves stretching from floor to ceiling in her office with research materials for her next book."
[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter