By Manal Abdel Fattah
The Korean Cultural Center hosted a literary evening yesterday by Korean writer Hong Bo-young, as part of the activities of the Korean Literature Month during the month of Ramadan.
The Korean writer is visiting Egypt at the invitation of the Center, to celebrate the success of the first cooperation experience between a Korean writer and a drama production company in Egypt, which was embodied in the comedy series “Baba Jah,” which is based on her novel “Father for Rent,” which deals with the father’s relationship with his children and his role in their lives.
In her speech, the Korean writer expressed her overwhelming happiness at visiting Egypt and seeing the pyramids, especially in conjunction with the distinctive festive atmosphere of the month of Ramadan.
She said that the novel “Father for Rent” tells a real story that she lived herself when her father lost his job during the period of industrial transformation in Korea in the seventies and her mother was forced to work in order to meet the family’s needs.
She pointed out that her mother’s departure to work marked a major transformation within the traditional Korean family, so that Korean women began to play a greater role in leading and bearing the burdens of the family after this responsibility had been assigned to men only.
The Korean writer noted that education was the primary driver behind all the transformations that occurred within Korean society. She said that she wanted to study the Korean language and literature, but she studied economics in order to help her mothers. She began her career by working as a journalist, then moved at a later stage to literary writing to achieve her long-held dream of becoming a novel writer close to people, writing about their hopes and dreams and telling about their sorrows and pain. .
Hong Bo-young is classified as one of the most promising young novelists. She is doing graduate studies in Korean literature at Dongguk University, and has authored several literary works including “Father for Rent” and “I Married a Ghost.”
For his part, Oh Sung Ho, Director of the Korean Cultural Center, said that the success achieved by the series “Baba Jah” paves the way for more literary and dramatic cooperation, within the framework of fruitful cultural exchange between Egypt and South Korea.
The director of the center pointed out that Korean literature has achieved a huge leap at the global level, in parallel with the great spread of K-pop music, cinema, and Korean drama. He expressed his hope that the path of literary translation between the two countries will witness new positive steps in the future, which in turn will be reflected in the pace of bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries in various fields.
