Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen

Kye Yong-muk

nov 2014 · 20th Century Korean Literature Libro 23 · Literature Translation Institute of Korea

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“Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen” was first published in 1936 in Yeoseong (Women), a women’s interest magazine with an explicitly didactic, modernizing focus. The story is an ironic look at the traditions and superstitions that governed family life in pre-war Korea, from the perspective of a “daughter-in-law.” It is typical for Korean women to not change their name after marriage. In the case of the story’s Park-sshi, however, her last names serves as a constant reminder that she can never genuinely be one with the family she has married into. “Like a Chicken” follows Park-sshi over the course of two days, charting the ways in which she attempts to confront the disintegration of her family life as a result of her failing to provide her husband with a son and the arrival of her husband’s new mistress, Byeon-sshi.

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Kye Yong-muk (1904 - 1961), was born Ha Tae-yong on September 8, 1904, in Seoncheon, Pyeonganbuk-do, Korea. He attended Whimoon Normal School (present day Whimoon High School), and began his literary pursuits alongside the pioneers of modern Korean literature, including authors such as Yom Sang-seop, Nam gung-byeok, and Kim Dong-in. In 1928, he travelled to Japan to enroll in Toyo University.

The real beginning of Kye’s career as a writer began with the publication of his short story “Mr. Choi” (Choi Seobang) in the literary magazine The Joseon Literary Sphere (Joseon Mundan). His reputation as a writer would then be firmly established with the publication of works such as “The Human Arachnid” (Indujiju), “Idiot Adada” (Baekchi Adada).

Following independence, Kye attempted to maintain neutrality even as the Korean literary world was riven by an increasingly fractious left-right divide, and published the literary journal Joseon with Jeong Bi-seok. He passed away in 1961, in the midst of the serialization of a novel for Modern Literature (Hyeondae Munhak). His stories in this collection include “Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen” (Byeongpung-e Geurin Dalk-i), “Idiot Adada,” and “Counting Stars.”