“Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” by Cho Nam-Joo (translated by Jamie Chang)

Cho is a television scriptwriter turned novelist. She has written a new novel that has captured the zeitgeist of the age. The eponymous heroine, Jiyoung, was born into a country that has achieved first world economic success, but where all the gains have yet to be evenly distributed. Her life story is emblematic of the struggles that Korean women still face in society today. The inequalities of gender start at birth and multiply from there. “Jiyoung’s earliest childhood memory is of sneaking her brother’s baby formula. She must have been six or seven then. It was just formula, but it was so tasty she would sit by her mother when she was making it for her brother, lick her finger, and pick up little bits that spilled on the floor…. It was given that fresh rice hot out of the cooker was served in order of father, brother, and grandmother, and that perfect pieces of tofu, dumplings, and patties were the brother’s while the girls ate the ones that fell apart.” Things were even worse for girls of her mother’s generation, when Korea was still poor. “The unbelievably meager wages from working day and night, popping caffeine pills, and turning jaundiced went toward sending male siblings to school. This was a time when people believed it was up to the sons to bring honor and prosperity to the family, and that the family’s wealth and happiness hinged upon male success.” Cho uses footnotes throughout the book to embed real statistics within the story. “In 1982, the year Jiyoung was born, 106.8 boys were born to 100 girls, and the male birth ratio gradually increased, ending up with 116.5 boys born to 100 girls in 1990. (“Statistical Indicators and Ratios in Demography,” Statistics Korea.)” 

Jiyoung, just because of her gender, is made to feel a second class citizen in her society throughout the course of her life—within her family, at school, on the subway, and at work. The boss at her first job, Kim Eunsil, warns Jiyoung, “I’ve noticed this about new employees over the years. The women take on all the cumbersome, minor tasks without being asked, while the guys never do. Doesn’t matter if they’re new or the youngest—they never do anything they’re not told to do. But why do women simply take things upon themselves?” Once married, pressure from both sides of the family for a male heir is often suffocating. “Jiyoung’s mother said, “It’s okay, the next one will be a boy.” Daehyun’s mother said, “I don’t mind.” Jiyoung very much minded what they’d said. It wasn’t just the older generation.” As a stay-at-home mom Jiyoung is made to feel by society that she is a sponge off of her husband and called a “mom-roach” by nosy strangers in the park. She complains to her husband, “It’s nobody’s business what I do with the money my husband made. Am I stealing from you? I suffered pain having our child. My routine, my career, my dreams, my entire life, my self—I gave it all up to raise our child. And I’ve become vermin. What do I do now?”