"If You Were Captivated by Reading 'Pachinko,' Then by Korea"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] "I hope all readers of my book become Korean."

At the press conference for the revised edition of Pachinko held on the 8th at the Seoul Press Center, author Min Jin Lee said this. Just as readers become immersed in the world of the work when reading the book, she hopes readers worldwide will be captivated by Korea. When signing books, she writes "we are powerful family" for this reason. She said, "Although we are not related by blood, we are connected," and added, "I believe that when it becomes 'we' instead of 'I,' there is nothing we cannot accomplish."

She was a girl who loved writing as a child but did not initially dream of becoming a writer. In the 1990s, it was considered absurd and strange for Korean-American women to write novels. The path she chose was to graduate from law school and become a lawyer.

She lived a busy life as a lawyer until she reached a turning point in her life. "You could get liver cancer in your 20s or 30s." This advice from a doctor changed the course of her life. Wanting to do something meaningful, she devoted herself to writing. The novel Pachinko was born through this process.

Pachinko is a global bestseller depicting the story of a Korean family living in Japan over four generations. Since its first edition in the United States in 2017, it became a bestseller and has been translated and published in 33 countries worldwide. In Korea, after its initial publication in 2017, it was reissued as a revised edition in April under a different publisher. Currently, only Volume 1 is on sale, and Volume 2 is undergoing translation and is scheduled to be published in August.

The current version of Pachinko is completely different from the original draft. Even her husband said it was "too boring," so she rewrote it.

Regarding the significant attention her work received in the United States, she cited the influence of the "Hallyu" wave. She explained that the Korean government has made great efforts to export soft culture, and content creators have produced excellent works, which led to the formation of the "Hallyu" phenomenon. She said, "As works by Korean-American women writers accumulated, a lot of attention was drawn."

She is known for putting great effort into translation. "I thought every single expression was extremely important." This was also the reason she signed a contract for the revised edition with the publisher Influential. She explained, "It is important that carefully crafted expressions are translated while preserving the original storytelling. Writing a work is a resistant, revolutionary, and risky act, and I needed a publisher who would understand that."