“Kim Ji Young Born 1982” was published in October 2016, and has sold over 270,000 copies since. It’s a story, but it’s also a testimony of being a woman in Korea. It may be fiction, but Kim’s life is no figment of Cho’s imagination every detail and incident in the story has been based on statistics by the government, newspaper articles, research and interviews. The popularity of the book symbolizes the anguish of Korean women that has accumulated over the years. Female readers see the subtle hardships they have to endure while reading about Kim’s life and male readers see a side of the story that they have previously only seen in little pieces. Ji-young is a common name in Korea, as well as the surname Kim. Rather than depicting extreme situations for the sake of the plot, the book calmly describes common experiences that happen in the everyday lives of Korean women - things that have always been there, but have never been thought of as problematic until recently. On May 19, after Roh Hoe-chan, the floor leader of the Justice Party, gave the book as a gift to President Moon Jae-in with a message that read, “Please embrace ‘Kim Ji-young Born ’82,’” the book’s sales shot up.Įven though the book lacks spectacular twists in the plot or extreme adventures fought by the protagonist, it has touched the hearts of readers of diverse backgrounds across Korea for its subtleness. It wasn’t an instant sensation at first, but started gaining attention in early 2017 when readers posted reviews of the book on social media. “Kim Ji Young Born 1982,” written by Cho Nam-joo and published by Minumsa, was released in October 2016 and has sold over 270,000 copies as of Aug.
Over the course of 192 pages, readers follow Kim’s typical Korean life from her early childhood to her adulthood and see how she ends up needing to get psychiatric treatment from all the damage she had to endure during her life.
Kim Ji-young is a 33-year-old housewife who went to university like everyone else around her, got herself a decent job, met a nice man and quit her job to take care of her loving family. The book was initially aimed at those oblivious to the idea of feminism and gender equality. She wanted to show people how, living as a Korean woman, she faces subtle discrimination every day. Cho Nam-joo, author of the best-selling book “Kim Ji Young Born 1982,” speaks about how she came to write the book.
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