(Yonhap Interview) Rising author rosy about fiction by Korean-Americans

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By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- For an English-speaking Korean reader, nothing can be
more exciting than spotting one of the country's single-syllable family names --
Kim, Lee, Park et cetera -- alongside the names of renowned Western authors in
bookstores abroad. Flipping through the pages, they hope the book will be good:
good enough for them as well as readers of other ethnicity.
Alexander Chee, a Korean-American novelist who was named one of the 100 most
influential people by the U.S. magazine "Out" in 2003, is one such figure that
makes many Korean literary devotees proud.
With his debut novel "Edinburgh," the 42-year-old author won several acclaimed
awards including the Asian American Writers Workshop Literary Award, Lambda
Editor's Choice Prize, Michener/Copernicus Fellowship Prize and Whiting Writers'
Award.
In an email interview with Yonhap News Agency, the author said he believed the
future is generally bright for Korean-American fiction.
"There certainly are more books (by Korean-American authors) now than there were
five years ago, and so, one may say there is a surge of interest here," Chee
said.
Dubbing several emerging Korean-American novelists, including Nami Mun, Paul
Yoon, Ishle Park and Elaine H. Kim, as "future stars," he added, "There's just so
much still to be written by us."
One trend of the Korean-American authors is the fact that they tend to write more
about Korea, their motherland, compared to other Asian-Americans, Chee said.
"Korean-American authors write about Korea while other Asian-Americans write more
about America," he said. "It seems to me, at least for now, most Korean-American
writers have their minds turned back towards Korea due to the events including
the Korean War (1950-53) and the civil democracy uprising in Gwangju (in the
1980s)."
"Korea, like Iraq, was a territory caught in between two international forces
that were intent on expressing their ideological agendas globally," Chee added.
"For us, Iraq may be our next Korea, and this has drawn in many writers."
Chee, too, reveals much of his own ethnic background and personality in his
haunting novel "Edinburgh" which portrays a young Korean-American boy who comes
to face his sexual identity and the brutality of adulthood after witnessing his
first love being molested by a pedophile.
The boy Aphias Zhe, who slowly realizes he is "in love with boys," appears to be
the alter-ego of the author who himself is gay. Written in first person and
present tense narrative, many confuse the fiction for Chee's own story.
"I wanted to invent a character like me but not me -- with the same life
circumstances but not its events," Chee said. "I think I wanted immediacy (by
writing the story in a first person narrative). Even my brother-in-law, who knows
me very well, was fooled briefly into thinking he was reading about my life."
Being a gay, Korean-American author initiated challenges that other writers may
not face, but Chee said "being Korean" gave him the strength to overcome them.
"People are not as able to see, for some reason, the things they do not expect.
So for my whole life, I've had to be my own role model," he said. "But my Korean
father raised me to never feel sorry for myself because of my circumstances. The
values of that upbringing helped me overcome all of the related challenges."
"I guess I'd say, while it is difficult to be Korean and gay, being Korean
prepared me to face it."
Chee warned against standardizing what Korea-American authors should be like and
what they should write about.
"It is impossible to generalize the situation of Korean-Americans. We're
Americans, members of a heterogeneous group," he said. "Some speak Korean
fluently, some don't. Some care about Korea and being of Korean ancestry, but
some don't. So, you can't really have any expectations of us."
"Some people would ask all Korean-American authors to express only versions of
their specific ethnography, but telling writers what to write has never gone
well," Chee added. "We live in a world of varied cultures in the U.S. and writers
should write what comes natural to them."
Born in Rhode Island, Chee spent three years of his childhood at his
grandfather's house in Jongno, central Seoul, from the age of nine. With a Korean
name Suk-hyun, Chee expressed deep affection for his family and his father's
country.
Running a small firm Bukyang Fisheries Co., Chee's family was described as an
"old and distinguished family" by the author. The late Chee Choul-keun, his
grandfather, served as the former minister of fisheries in Seoul, and his uncle
Chee Choung-il was the first Korean elected to the United Nations' International
Law Commission.
"I am proud of my family and there is so much about them to write about," Chee
said.
Chee is busy putting the final touches to his second novel "The Queen of the
Night" which portrays an American opera singer who believes her voice is cursed.
The imaginative author has also begun his third novel, "Saint Spencer of the
Lost," which will be about a Korean orphan raised in the United States returning
to his motherland to help reunify the two Koreas.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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