The Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee announce South Korean writer Han Kang win the Novel Prize in literature. She was recognized "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and expose the fragility of human life"
I am wondering how the North Korea will deliver this new to it's people. Nobel Prize is well-know in North, but this time a South Korean writer won this. In North Korea, Han's book may not allowed to publish, because the theme of Han's book are about democracy, rebellion and individualism.
In China the Korean literature is also not very popular. I still remember when I went one of the biggest bookstore in Xi'an at Qujiang area, there are few books on the Korea. Compared with Japanese literature and writers, we do not know much about Korean writers and their works. I hope Han's win the Nobel Prize will promote the spread of Korean literature and Korean culture in China. Weather like Korea or not, we need to understand this country first, reading the literature is one of good and best way to understand Korea.
The translation play very important role in the spread of non English written works. Han's first English translated book "The Vegetarian" was translated by Deborah Smith, who learned Korean by herself. This book won the International Booker Prize in 2016.
Han win the prize relatively young, because this year she was 53 years old. This means she have many times to use her influence to do some meaningful things. By the way, I heard Han's interview with the Nobel Prize committee, she speaks English pretty well, so in the near future, Han may become another Korean culture icon.
