Love to see it. - grandson of a North Korean defector https://twitter.com/wsj/status/1324886807692107776

This past year, I’ve been doing some family history research. I’m the descendant of slaves and North Korean refugees, so it’s been pretty difficult. But I’ve still been able to dig up some interesting stuff.

For starters, my gramps Kyu Man was a G.

What’s wild though, is that my great grandmother, Kim Myeong-Sun, is regarded as Korea’s first feminist author.

In 1925, under a pseudonym she sold a book called the Fruit of Life, making her the first woman in Korean history to have a book of poetry published.

“Myeong-sun was born in 1896 in Pyongyang, Korea. She debuted in 1917 when her short story A Girl in Doubt appeared in Youth [Chungchun]. In 1919, she joined Korea’s first literary circle Creation [Changjo], which is reputed as the harbinger of modern Korean literary style.”

“Kim was known as quinti-lingual, and she introduced works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire to Korean readers for the first time. Along with the literary movement, Kim was also a central figure in the feminism movement of her time...

“She argued that the world would achieve peace rather than war if women could play a major role in sociopolitics. Moreover, she openly supported free love, and her practice of free love subjected Kim to severe criticism...

She was the daughter of a prostitute and my grandfather was likely the product of date rape. Which led to lots of criticism from within the community. She fled for Japan and spent rest of her life in Aoyama psychiatric hospital in Tokyo where she died penniless and alone.

My mom never met her grandmother and knew almost nothing about her. When I showed her everything I dug up, she cried. Then she told me she could see where I get my penchant for storytelling, social activism, and bucking authority from. Talking shit is in our genes.

The last time my mom saw her biological mother was as an infant. She’s got sisters and brothers who she hasn’t seen in 60 years. They’re all likely dead now.

The Korean War destroyed so many lives and fractured so many families.

“Whether I love or hate, life merely flows.”

- Kim Myeong-Sun