Han Kang facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Han Kang
Han Kang in 2017
Native name	한강
Born	(1970-11-27) November 27, 1970 (age 54) Gwangju, South Korea
Occupation	Writer
Alma mater	Yonsei University
Genre	Fiction
Notable works	The Vegetarian Human Acts
Notable awards	Yi Sang Literary Award 2005 International Booker Prize 2016 Prix Médicis étranger 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature 2024
Parents	Han Seung-won (father)

Han Kang (Hangul: 한강; born November 27, 1970) is a South Korean writer. She is best known for the novel The Vegetarian, which traces a woman's mental illness and neglect from her family. In 2016, in its English translation, it was the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction. In 2024, Han became the first Korean and first Asian woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Early life and education

Han Kang is the daughter of novelist Han Seung-won. She was born on 27 November 1970 in Gwangju and moved to Suyuri at a young age.

Han studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. In 1998, she was enrolled at the University of Iowa International Writing Program.

Career

Han's literary career began when five of her poems, including "Winter in Seoul", were featured in the Winter 1993 issue of the quarterly Literature and Society. She made her fiction debut the next year, when her short story "The Scarlet Anchor" was the winning entry in the Seoul Shinmun Spring Literary Contest. Her first story collection, A Love of Yeosu, was published in 1995 and attracted attention for its precise and tightly narrated composition.

In 2007, Han published a book, A Song to Sing Calmly, that was accompanied by a music album. At first she did not intend to sing, but Han Jung Rim, a musician and music director, insisted that Han Kang record the songs herself.

In her college years Han became obsessed with a line of poetry by the Korean modernist poet Yi Sang: "I believe that humans should be plants." She understood Yi's line to imply a defensive stance against the violence of Korea's colonial history under Japanese occupation, and took it as an inspiration to write her most successful work, The Vegetarian. The second part of the novel, Mongolian Mark, won the Yi Sang Literary Award. The rest of the series (The Vegetarian and Fire Tree) was delayed by contractual problems.

The Vegetarian was Han's first novel translated into English, although she had already attracted worldwide attention by the time Deborah Smith translated it. There has been some controversy over the translation, as scholars have detected mistakes in it; among other things, there is concern that Smith attributed some of the dialogue to the wrong characters. The translated work won the International Booker Prize 2016 for both Han and Smith. Han was the first Korean to be nominated for the award, and, in its English translation, it was the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction. The Vegetarian was also chosen as one of "The 10 Best Books of 2016" by The New York Times Book Review.

Han's third novel, The White Book, was shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize.

Han's novel Human Acts was released in January 2016 by Portobello Books. Han received the Premio Malaparte for the Italian translation of Human Acts, Atti Umani, by Adelphi Edizioni, in Italy on 1 October 2017. Her 2017 autobiographical novel The White Book centers on the loss of her older sister, a baby who died two hours after her birth.

Han's novel We Do Not Part was published in 2021. It tells the story of a writer researching the 1948–49 Jeju uprising and its impact on her friend's family. The French translation of the novel won the Prix Médicis Étranger in 2023.

In 2023, Han's fourth full-length novel, Greek Lessons, was translated into English. The Atlantic called it a book in which "words are both insufficient and too powerful to tame".

Adaptations

Baby Buddha and The Vegetarian have been made into films. Lim Woo-Seong wrote and directed Vegetarian, which was released in 2009. It was one of only 14 selections (out of 1,022 submissions) included in the World Narrative Competition of the North American Film Fest, and was noticed at the Busan International Film Festival.

Lim also adapted Baby Buddha into a screenplay, in collaboration with Han, and directed the film version. Titled Scars, it was released in 2011.

Personal life

Han has said that she suffers from periodic migraines, and credits them with "keeping her humble".

Awards and recognition

Han won the Yi Sang Literary Award (2005) for Mongolian Mark, the 25th Korean Novel Award for her novella Baby Buddha in 1999, the 2000 Today's Young Artist Award, and the 2010 Dong-in Literary Award for Breath Fighting.

In 2018 Han became the fifth writer chosen to contribute to the Future Library project. Katie Paterson, the project's organizer, said that Han had been chosen because she "expands our view of the world". Han delivered the manuscript, Dear Son, My Beloved, in May 2019. In the handover ceremony, she dragged a white cloth through the forest and wrapped it around the manuscript. She explained this as a reference to Korean culture, in which a white cloth is used both for babies and for mourning gowns, describing the event as "like a wedding of my manuscript with this forest. Or a lullaby for a century-long sleep".

She was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer in 2023.

The Vegetarian made it to place 49th in The New York Times's "100 Best Books of the 21st century" in July 2024.

In 2024 Han was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy for her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life". She is the first Korean writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Awards

• 1999 – Korean Novel Award for Baby Buddha
• 2000 – Ministry of Culture and Tourism Today's Young Artist Award – Literature Section
• 2005 – Yi Sang Literary Award for Mongolian Mark''
• 2010 – Dongri Literary Award for The Wind is Blowing
• 2014 – Manhae Literary Award for Human Acts
• 2015 – Hwang Sun-won Literary Award for While One Snowflake Melts
• 2016 – International Booker Prize for The Vegetarian
• 2017 – Malaparte Prize for Human Acts
• 2018 – Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award for Farewell
• 2019 – San Clemente Literary Prize for The Vegetarian
• 2023 – Prix Médicis étranger for We Do Not Part
• 2024:
  • Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for We Do Not Part
  • Ho-Am Prize in the Arts
  • Nobel Prize in Literature

See also

In Spanish: Han Kang para niños

• Korean literature
• List of Korean novelists
• List of Korean-language poets
• List of Korean female writers