New Writing Style: Portraying with the Headlight on One’s Car

New Writing Style: Portraying with the Headlight on One’s Car

 

“My work every day is first to write as well as I can, to get better as a writer, as opposed to “representing” anything/anyone in particular, or speaking for a particular group. “

                                                                        -Sonya Chung   

 

           Many people ask Sonya Chung, the writer of Long for This World, “How can you survive as a Korean-American writer in the land of United States?” She answers with determination that it is her writing that identifies her work; not her race. Indeed, Chung is correct. It is her writing that defines the characters of Sonya Chung as a writer. Her unique, yet soft style of writing has captured many readers’ hearts through her first novel, Long for This World.

           Sonya Chung’s debut novel Long for This World starts by two brothers after the Korean War-one deciding to be Korean and the other deciding to be Korean-American. The story starts from the point of the brother who has immigrated to the United States in the decision to becoming Korean-American, Han Hyun-ku.  His daughter, Jane, and he unexpectedly go to Korea after 40 years in the U.S. The story progresses by showing Korea-Americans trying to fit in the Korean society. They are awkward of the unfamiliar cultures and struggle to understand. Later the story moves on to the perspective of other characters and each character tells the story of how they are trying to fit in this family and the new world. Based on Sonya Chung’s own experiences of visiting Korea herself as a Korea-American, the story is told in lively languages. Her experiencing of visiting Korea has inspired to her write this novel. After all, she is a Korean-American herself.

 

Reasons why people need to pay attention to Sonya Chung

 

Many people are probably not familiar with Sonya Chung and her work yet, since she is a new-comer to the world of novels. However, her soft yet vivid use of language is receiving many attentions from the literature world in the United States. She has been the recipient of Pushcart Prize nomination, the Charles Johnson Fiction Award, and the Bronx Council on the Arts Writers’ Fellowship & Residency. Her strategy of writing in a step-by-step process is well praised by many people. Chung said that her writing will not feel like looking at the whole society on a sunny evening. Instead she said that the reader will probably feel like driving through a dark foggy night with only the headlights on. As the headlight only shines a little at a time, so does her writing as she portrays the characters’ mentalities. As well as she expands the psychology of characters, she introduced the Korean cultures to many Americans. At her meeting with fans at the University of Maryland Ulrich Recital Hall, American readers said that they have been able to learn about new Korean cultures through her novel. Today, she speaks of her work and exposes her hopes that Long for This World would get more popular in Korea; popular enough for someone to translate into Korean.  

 

 

Photo Credit: Robin Holland

 

Q. Could you introduce yourself to us?  

A. I am Sonya Chung, a writer and writing teacher living in New York City. I was born in Washington, DC, and have lived in Maryland, Seattle, and New York.  My first novel, LONG FOR THIS WORLD, was published (by Scribner) in March 2010.  My parents were both born in S. Korea; they emigrated to the U.S. in the mid 1960s.

 

Q. Why did you decide to write a novel based on a Korean and Korean-American Family in 'Long for this world’?

A. The initial inspiration for LONG FOR THIS WORLD was in 2002, when I visited Korea for the first time.  I was meeting relatives I’d never met before and seeing the places where my parents grew up.  In a small town near Pusan, one of my aunts (by marriage) was playing tour guide and hosting me, and I found her to be an intriguing woman.  She wasn’t very talkative, and because my Korean is not very good we didn’t communicate very well in words; but something about her intrigued me.  She had a quiet competence about her, a bit of mystery.  I wondered who she was and if she had a story.  (My family both didn’t know much about her background, and didn’t talk about it – I think this was because she is not a blood relative, and because she is a woman, her identity subordinate to her husband.)  So I started writing the part of LONG FOR THIS WORLD that takes place in Korea, and I imagined a story for a woman like my aunt.  

The Korean American part of the story was also there from the beginning.  I knew that the novel would be about the interesting relationships between immigrants and their native place, and that there would be parallel stories in Korea and the US which would collide/converge in some way.  In addition, I knew that Jane, the Korean American main character, would be someone who had traveled a lot, who was worldly (in the novel she is a photojournalist); I wanted the story to encompass more than just Korea and the US.

 
Q. Does being Korean have any kinds of effects on your writer life in American? (Positive or negative)

A. It’s hard to know what the effects are.  There is a wonderful Asian American writer’s community in New York, and across the country, which I am fortunate to be a part of.   Also, I think a positive aspect is that many American readers are interested in stories of cultures that are different from their own – writers like Chang-rae Lee, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, and Junot Diaz, for example, has a very wide readership in the US.  For the most part, though, I think of myself as a writer, not primarily a “Korean American writer.”  Which is to say that my work every day is first to write as well as I can, to get better as a writer, as opposed to “representing” anything/anyone in particular, or speaking for a particular group.    

 
Q.  Have you ever read any Korean literatures? If yes, what book and what do you think about it? If no, do you have any interest in Korean literatures?

A. I have wanted to read Hwang Sun-won’s work, and I am excited that Shin Kyung-sook’s work is now being translated into English.  (Unfortunately, I don’t read Korean well enough to read literature in Korean.)  Also, there is a book that was written about my great grandfather, Song Chang-keun, who was a well-known theologian; I wish I could read that book, or that someone would translate it!

 Q. How did you become a writer in America? Was there any hardships?

A. It was, and is, very challenging.  For immigrant families, the job of a writer is one that seems unstable and unfamiliar.  Many Koreans emigrate to the US with the hopes that their children will do well academically, professionally, and financially.  A writer’s life is not as easily accepted as that of a doctor, or an engineer, or a lawyer, for instance.  So the decision to become a writer was somewhat lonely for me; it wasn’t something that my family quite understood or for which they could offer much support.  

In addition, when you are starting out as a writer, and even later after you’ve published a book, it is very difficult to make a living from your writing.  So you have to always be figuring out ways to earn income while also writing books and stories.  These things are always in competition, i.e. your “job” and your writing.  In 2006, after I’d been working on LONG FOR THIS WORLD for two years, I quit my full-time job because I felt I needed time and space to finish the novel.  This was a big risk, and an anxious time, because I didn’t know if I could finish it, and I didn’t know if I could get it published.  I was happy and relieved that I was able to do both.

Lastly, writing itself is very difficult; it requires so much patience, and solitude, and you are always facing the blank page, figuring out how to tell your story.  It never really gets easier, and in many ways it gets harder.


 
Q.  Can you give words of cheers to anyone that is deeply interested in being a writer like you?
 
A. I would say: 1) Read a lot, read all the time, read the best writers; reading is your best teacher 2) Expect difficulties.  Writing well is difficult, getting published is difficult, getting your book to be recognized can be extremely difficult.  3) Because it’s difficult, you should pursue writing only if you love it, if you are someone who feels you MUST do it in order to fulfill your sense of purpose and your sense of yourself in the world.  The writing itself is its own reward; everything else is somewhat out of your control, so you can’t count on it.  Good luck!

 

 

 

 

This interview has been done by e-mail through the MIZY youth reporter MinKyung Kim and Sonya Chung.