"Filial Piety" Author: [Korean] Zheng Shilang Publisher: CITIC Publishing Group

【Editor's recommendation】

★ China has "Zhao Di" and Korea has "Xiao Jin". How should I live when the world is not what I want?

"효진" is a common female name in Korea. If there is no special explanation, it is often translated as "Xiaozhen". In the book, the father of "효진" emphasized when naming her: Xiao means filial piety and Jin means trying her best, and he wanted the child to try her best to be filial to him.

——“Xiao Jin” is the ordinary girl with a heavy life in East Asian society.

★The first short story collection of Zheng Shilang, a brilliant novelist of the middle generation in South Korea, 8 years after his debut

She is one of the few people in the Korean literary world to have won two major honors: the Chuangpi Novel Award (2013) and the Hankook Ilbo Literature Award (2017). Her profound history combined with her light imagination have left a unique mark on her writing.

—Jung Se-rang: “Sometimes I don’t know where to escape to, but I think this book can be a safe haven.”

★They are not brave, they just have no way out.

"Thank goodness you married me. I'm not chauvinistic at all."

"Suddenly everyone was saying to me: 'You should', which is something you haven't heard for a long time growing up, but you hear it again straight away when you get married."

"That's the patriarchy. You can't feel it but I can, and there's so much that only I can feel."

——The true face of life, which has not been beautified, devalued or hidden, is embedded in every story like a mosaic.

★ “I believe I have heard the whispers of history. I will pull her to the surface of history.”

The author Zheng Shilang graduated with a degree in history, which gives her a broad vision and a tolerant writing attitude. The aura of history also appears in every corner of her novels.

★Since there is a "toxic" relationship, there must be an escape to "detoxify". They overcame the constraints and started a new writing.

★Highly recommended by Korean mainstream media

——Recommended books for 2018 by Kyobo Bookstore, Korea’s largest book chain;

——Korean professional literary organizations share recommended books for 2019;

——Good book recommendations from Korean media outlets including Kookmin Ilbo, Seoul Shinmun, Munhwa Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Korean Minjoo Ilbo, and Kyunghyang Shinmun.

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【Content Introduction】

The richness of the characters and the diversity of the subjects he writes about are like a glass jar filled with assorted candies.

This collection of short stories includes 9 stories in total, with history and fantasy wrapped in bitter reality, focusing on East Asian social culture/workplace pressure/social anxiety/intimate relationships/original families...

★ "You don't have to give me freedom, I will get my own freedom":

The three stories, Wedding Dress 44, Divorce Sale, and Filial Piety, focus on women and marriage, reflecting the patriarchal society’s discipline of women and women’s self-awakening and pursuit;

★ “Fantasy is political”:

The three stories "Forever 77 Codes", "Happy Biscuit Ears" and "See You on the Roof" are full of fantasy, using black humor to show the cruel reality of life for ordinary people in South Korea;

★“We are each other’s courage”:

The three stories "Boni", "As We All Know, Yinre" and "Ima and Sha" combine history and imagination, embodying the author's "community thinking" and expressing her ideals of friendship, mutual assistance and desire for peace.

How long will we continue to be dictated by such vulgar standards of “femininity” and “masculinity” defined by who knows who?

If you are determined to change the world and yourself, then you have made the right response to Jung Se-rang’s novel.

Author: Zheng Shilang: The backbone of Korean literary world

"I believe that a society where conflicts can erupt is a healthy one. If there are no conflicts at all and the society is peaceful, it means that the weak are silently enduring it."

Zheng Shilang was born in Seoul in 1984. He entered the literary world with the publication of "Dream, Dream, Dream" in 2010. In 2013, he won the Chuangpi Novel Award for "So Close" and in 2017, he won the Hankuk Ilbo Literature Award for "Fifty People". He is the author of the short story collection "Filial Piety" and the novels "Starting from Poetry and Goodness", "Only Han Ya on Earth", and "Health Teacher Ahn Eun-young".

She describes her novels as "stories that can be read for healing when you are tired." Her stories are of diverse styles, including social novels that reflect reality and lovely science fiction stories full of light imagination. With her gentle writing style, she sharply points out the world's urgent but rarely raised issues.

Translator: Zhao Yang

Born in 1971, he is a professor of Korean language, and his research direction is Korean literature. He has published 3 monographs, nearly 50 papers in domestic and foreign academic journals, and 3 translations, many of which have been reprinted in Readers and Youth Digest.