Review of On the Eve Of the Uprising and Other Stories from Colonial Korea, translated by Sunyoung Park

*On the Eve of the Uprising* by Sunyoung Park (2010). Published by Cornell East Asia Series.

Throughout the semester, I began to take an independent study I designed myself. I wanted to find an elective that would challenge me as an academic, which means I would need to design a course in a subject area I knew nothing really about as a scholar.

One of the periods that’s been interesting me lately is how Korean cinema and literature has been romanticizing Korean colonial resistance as of late, creating a new mythology of what it meant to be under colonial rule.

But what I was really interested in was digging deeper into the role of women and how they were depicted during this time period, especially when it came to women writers and what they were producing in this time.

So one of the books we began the semester with was On the Eve of the Uprising and Other Stories from Colonial Korea, which had been recommended by my independent study professor. I read this in tandem with another book (Theresa Hyun’s Writing Women in Korea), and it was fascinating to compare the two as I was going along.

Let’s get into the review, shall we?

Six short stories written by writers throughout the colonial period.

Each of the short stories in this collection are by different writers, and if you’re looking to analyze these pieces in context, definitely read the main introduction before the first story, as well as the author introductions before each story.

I think they offer a lot of insight into the decisions the authors made when deciding what they were writing about, as well as how they went about. One of the other big things to realize is that a lot of these stories were most likely self-censored by the authors or, at the very least, by the Japanese colonial government.

The first story is “On the Eve of the Uprising,” which was written by Yom Sang-sop. This is a first-person narrative about a man studying abroad in Japan when his wife is found to be dying and with a child, so he makes the decision to go back to Korea and visit her.

Across his trip back, he makes some observations and kind of debates what to say to his Japanese mistress Shizuko. This was the protagonist that made me want to punch him in the face, but it was very masculine Japanese identity inspired, which can be seen in a lot of the literature of that era.

“Escape” is the next story, and it’s by Ch’oe Sohae. He himself went to Manchuria, and at the time he was writing this story, there was a beginning of Korean and Japanese exodus to Manchuria, where they then faced harsh conditions.

The narrator of this piece is responding to a letter he received about why he abandoned his wife and mother in Manchuria. He ends up joining the revolutionary cause for Koreans, but he still left those behind that needed him.

The third story is “Samnyong the Mute,” which was written by Na Tohyang. It’s about a mute servant named Samnyong who falls in love with his master’s wife.

He sees how the girl is beaten during their life inside the home, and he dreams of taking her away. But this is no happy fairytale, and there’s a pretty dark ending—everyone pretty much dies because he set fire to the home.

“A Day in the Life of Kubo the Novelist” by Park Tae-won was my favorite story. It basically is about Kubo, whose mother believes that he is a bum and unable to provide for the family. Over the course of the story he wanders the streets of Seoul, taking in observations and reflecting on his life right now.

“Barley” by Kim Nam’chon was next. It’s about a woman who engages in philosophical discussions with a tenant. Together they debate the pros and cons of studying Asian and Western culture through a certain lens.

A good chunk of this story lies on the fact that Korea hasn’t been developed yet, and is seen as backwards by the rest of the world, especially the west.

The final story in this collection is “Before and After Liberation” by Yi Tae-jun. This was the one that had the most communist leanings, and then he ended up going to the North anyways, which made sense if you read this story.

This is a piece where a writer hides out in the countryside of Korea, discovers an older man who still lives and acts like it’s Joseon, and when the war ends, and Korea is free, the narrator goes back to Seoul and engages with more communist-leaning circles.

Overall Thoughts

Together, I think all of the stories in the collection are fascinating to read in tandem, even outside of an academic context.

They’re very much set in certain periods and moods, and the introductions offered by the writers/translators give good information to break down certain aspects about the writing.

Context is everything, especially in a period where everything was politically charged and there was an inherent sense of nationalism going around. Even outside of school I think I would’ve read this for sure.

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