Han Sorya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Han Sorya
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| Vice Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly Standing Committee | |
| In office 2 October 1958 – 22 October 1963 Serving with Yi Kuk-no, Ko Chun-taek and Paek Nam-un.
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| Chairman | Choe Yong-gon |
| Minister of Education and Culture | |
| In office 11 May 1956 – 29 September 1958 |
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| Premier | Kim Il-sung |
| Preceded by | Kim Chang-man |
| Succeeded by | Yi Il-gyong |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Han Pyŏngdo
3 August 1900 Hamhung, Korean Empire |
| Died | 6 April 1976 (aged 75) Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| Resting place | Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery |
| Citizenship | North Korean |
| Nationality | Korean |
| Alma mater | Nippon University |
| Occupation | novelist, short story writer, literary administrator, politician |
| Awards | Order of the National Flag (second class, 1951), People's Prize (History, 1958), title of People's Artist (1958) |
| Korean name | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | |
| Hancha | |
| Revised Romanization | Han Seol-ya |
| McCune–Reischauer | Han Sŏrya |
| Birth name | |
| Chosŏn'gŭl | |
| Hancha | |
| Revised Romanization | Han Byeongdo |
| McCune–Reischauer | Han Pyŏngdo |
Han Sorya (Korean: 한설야, born Han Pyŏngdo; 3 August 1900 – 6 April 1976) was a famous Korean writer and politician. He spent most of his life in North Korea. Many people see him as one of the most important fiction writers in North Korean history. Han also managed all of North Korea's literature as the head of the Korean Writers' Union. He was also the Minister of Education, meaning he was in charge of schools and learning.
During his career, Han faced many challenges. He was able to stay in power even when other political groups tried to remove him. He became a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, a very important political group. Han sometimes caused problems for other writers because of his own disagreements with them. However, he himself was later removed from his positions in 1962.
In his books, Han Sorya was one of the first writers to praise Kim Il-sung very highly. This helped create the idea of Kim Il-sung as a great leader. Even today, Han's influence is still felt in North Korea, even though his name is not often mentioned in official history books. His most famous work, an anti-American story called Jackals, has been talked about again in recent years.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Han Sorya was born on August 3, 1900, in Hamhung, a city in the northern part of Korea. His father was a local government official.
After finishing middle school in 1919, Han went to Nippon University in Tokyo, Japan. He studied sociology there from 1921 to 1924. In 1925, he moved to Manchuria, a region in Northeast Asia. He returned to Seoul in southern Korea in 1927. In 1944, he went back to his hometown of Hamhung. After Korea gained freedom from Japan, he settled in Pyongyang, which became the capital of North Korea.
A Writer's Journey
Han Sorya became one of the most important fiction writers in North Korean literature. He was even called "the greatest writer of modern Korean literature" and a "living classic." His career was most successful between 1955 and 1957. Han, along with another important figure named Kim Tu-bong, helped shape North Korea's cultural rules.
Joining the Literary Scene
Before Korea was divided and became independent from Japan, Han Sorya was not a very well-known writer. He became famous later because he joined a group called the Korean Artist Proletarian Federation (KAPF) in Seoul in 1927. This group was the only left-leaning Korean writing group after Korea's freedom. Because of this, Kim Il-sung supported writers like Han who had been part of it. He even made their achievements seem bigger than they were.
In the early 1930s, Han briefly supported leftist ideas. But later, during World War II, he wrote things that supported Japan. He also joined writing groups that supported Japan. After the war, he quickly changed his image. He also tried to distance himself from a political group called the Domestic faction. However, some experts still believe he was part of that group. From his position, he played a big role in opposing another group, the Soviet Koreans faction, in the late 1950s.
Moving to North Korea
After Korea became free, writers had to create a new national literature. Some writers, like Kim Namch'ŏn, wanted to bring together many different writers to create "democratic national literature." A writers' group called the Headquarters for the Construction of Korean Literature was started in 1945.
However, Han Sorya did not agree with this idea. He felt it ignored important social class issues. Han had already had personal problems with these writers from southern Korea since the 1930s. Their disagreements grew worse as they fought for control in the North Korean writing world. In response, Han and other writers, including Yi Kiyŏng, started their own group called the Korean Proletarian Literature Alliance. Han's fellow writer, Yi Kiyŏng, was respected but not very interested in politics, so he wasn't a threat to Han's own goals.
The two groups later joined together to form the Korean Writers' Alliance in late 1945. Han did not like this, so he moved to the northern part of the country. He was one of the first writers to do so.
Life and Work in North Korea
Soon after moving to North Korea, Han Sorya became one of the first and most eager supporters of Kim Il-sung. He met Kim in February 1946. Han's writing helped create the idea of Kim Il-sung as a great leader. He was like an official historian who wrote only good things about Kim. In fact, the idea of Kim as a great leader started as early as 1946 when Han called Kim "our Sun." Han was also the first to use the phrase "Sun of the Nation" for Kim. Because Kim supported him, Han survived when other political groups were removed from power.
Writers who opposed Han were removed from their positions. This happened to Yim Hwa because of his connections to South Korean communists. When a political group called the Domestic faction was removed, Han attacked writers who were connected to them. This happened from 1953 onwards. Later, between 1955 and 1957, Han attacked another group, the Soviet Koreans faction. He accused them of causing problems and not showing enough love for their leader.
It's possible that Han influenced Kim Il-sung to focus his campaign against the Soviet Koreans' group on literature. This led to Kim's famous "Juche speech" in 1955. The speech praised Han for finding "serious mistakes in literature." This showed public support for Han. However, in later versions of the speech, after Han was removed from power in 1962, his name was taken out or replaced with "prominent proletarian writers."
During his career, Han held many important jobs in literature and politics. Since 1946, Han edited a newspaper called Munhwa chonsŏn (Korean for 'The Cultural Front'). He was also the chairman of the North Korean Federation of Literature and Arts (NKFLA) starting in January 1948. During the Korean War, he was the chairman of the united Korean Federation of Literature and Arts (KFLA).
From 1953, Han was the chairman of the Korean Writers' Union. This made him the most powerful person in charge of culture in the country. He controlled how literature was published and how writers were supported. Han also wrote for the Rodong Sinmun newspaper in the 1950s.
In 1946, Han became a member of the first Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea. He kept this important political job until 1969. Han became the Minister of Education in May 1956. He also kept his job as chairman of the Writers' Union. As minister, Han started a plan in 1956 to make Russian language teaching less important in North Korean colleges. He also began to find and support writers who came from working-class families.
Later Years and Removal from Power
In 1962, Han was accused of "being too narrow-minded" and "having bad, old-fashioned ideas" by the NKFLA. Because of this, he was removed from the political party and lost all his important jobs. This happened around the same time as the third election for the Supreme People's Assembly. The next year, he was sent away to a village in Chagang Province.
Han was probably allowed to return later, in 1969. His name appeared again as a member of the party's Central Committee. However, Han never got back any of the jobs he had lost. He was not at an important political meeting in November 1970. Some people thought he might have died between late 1969 and late 1970. But Han's gravestone in the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery in Pyongyang says he died on April 6, 1976. Because North Korea keeps many things secret, it's hard to know for sure when he died.
After Han was removed, other cultural figures were also removed from their positions. Han's writings were still useful for the government, but his name was now seen as bad. So, his name started to be separated from his work, which was still widely shared. In the future, North Korean publishers would often publish works by groups of writers without naming individual authors. This was especially common in the 1970s and started to change only in the 1980s.
Han Sorya's Legacy
Even though Han Sorya's name is mostly forgotten in official North Korean stories, he had a big impact on North Korean literature.
As a writer, Han's style was sometimes experimental. He used different ways to tell stories. Some experts, like Andrei Lankov, think Han was an average writer. They believe his rivals were "slightly more talented." However, Lankov describes North Korean literature of that time as "boring and very political." Lankov also calls Han "unscrupulous" because he was always looking for ways to get ahead in his career. The writing styles of Han and his rivals were often very similar. Han's success was more about political struggles than about who was a better writer.
Yearn Hong Choi believes that "Han is not a typical North Korean writer" because he was so focused on pleasing Kim Il-sung. Another expert, B. R. Myers, compares Han's impact to that of a poet named Cho Ki-chon. In Han's works, Kim Il-sung showed traditional Korean good qualities. In Cho's works, Kim was more like a leader based on Soviet ideas. Han's style, which focused on Korean ethnic nationalism, eventually became the main way propaganda was written. Myers thinks Han was not a writer of "socialist realism" (a style of art that shows the goals of communism). Instead, he was "his own man." Yearn Hong Choi disagrees, pointing out that Han praised the Soviets and Kim Il-sung and used propaganda to describe a "perfect" North Korea.
There is one exception to Han's forgotten legacy in North Korea. A multi-part film called Nation and Destiny not only shows him but makes him a hero. This was the first time someone who had been removed from power was shown as a hero in a North Korean film. In South Korea, Han's works were banned by the government.
Famous Works
History (Ryŏksa) was the first long North Korean book to talk about Kim Il-sung during the fight against Japan. One political figure, Yi P'il-gyu, strongly criticized History. He said Han was too close to Kim Il-sung and called him "Kim Il Song's sycophant, a bootlicker."
Jackals
Jackals is a short novel from 1951 by Han Sorya. It is known for being anti-American and anti-Christian.
Jackals tells the story of a Korean boy who is murdered by American missionaries with an injection. In North Korea, people believe this story is based on a real event. Some experts think it might have led to North Korea's claims that the U.S. used biological weapons during the Korean War. It is called "the country's most lasting work of fiction." It is still important in North Korea, where the word "jackals" has become another word for "Americans." Newspapers like Rodong Sinmun often use language from the story.
This emotional story was inspired by Maxim Gorky's novel Mother. That book is seen as the first socialist realist novel, and Han knew it well. Some experts believe the story's ideas came from anti-Christian stories in colonial Korea and from fascist Japan. The idea of showing the bad guys as animals is also similar to Japanese wartime propaganda.
Jackals was republished in magazines like Chosŏn munhak and Chollima in August 2003. This was one year after the Bush administration called North Korea part of the "Axis of evil." After a computer hack in 2014, North Korean media used similar strong words against Secretary of State John Kerry. One article compared Kerry to a jackal many times. Jackals was also made into a play and performed in Pyongyang in 2015. It is one of the few North Korean fiction works that have been translated into English.
Other Works by Han Sorya
- Transition Period (1929) – Short story.
- Wrestling Match (1929) – Short story.
- Erosion Work (1932)
- Dusk (1936) – Novel.
- Pagoda (1940) – An autobiographical novel about his own life.
- At a Guard Post (1950)
- Path of Blood (1946)
- Mining Settlement (1946)
- The Hat (1946)
- Growing Village (1949)
- Brother and Sister (1949)
- The Taedong River (1955) – A series of three novels.
- Man'gyŏngdae (1955)
- Love (1960)
- Emulate the Leader (1960)
See also
- Cho Ki-chon
- Korean literature
- North Korean literature
