Fans flock to Han Kang's seminar in Vietnam

Countries in Asia are showing significant interest in Korean novelist Han Kang, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for the first time as an Asian woman. In one case, some 600 people, including students, researchers, and instructors, flocked to a seminar titled "Han Kang and the Miracle of Korean Literature" hosted by the Korean Studies Department of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, on October 17, local time.

Hoang Hai Van (age 46), a Korean-Vietnamese translator who participated in the seminar as a panelist, said in her interview on October 22 with The Dong-A Ilbo that there was even a teacher from a local high school in Vietnam to ask Han Kang how to best teach her literary work to students, surprisingly demonstrating profound interest from a variety of sectors including films.

According to Hoang, Vietnam is one of the countries where Han Kang's representative novel "The Vegetarian" was first translated into a foreign language. During her years at Seoul National University to pursue a master's degree in Korean language and literature, Hoang began translating The Vegetarian immediately after it was published, unveiling the translated version in 2010. First connected with Korea in 1996 when she started majoring in Korean language at Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City; Hoang recalled she had to rely on both Korean-English as well as English-Vietnamese dictionaries because there were no Korean-Vietnamese dictionaries, making studying difficult but fun.

Not just Han Kang’s work but Korean literature in general has received much attention in Vietnam recently. Major Vietnamese media outlets also expressed interest multiple times in Korea's strategy for globalizing its literature. They noted that the Korean government spared no effort in supporting literary translation and nurturing translators, as well as committing long-term investment in Korean language education for foreigners. Hoang added that Han Kang's Nobel Prize win may serve as a springboard to broader and long-lasting global interest in Korean literature.


이지윤 기자 asap@donga.com