Han Kang, the author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024, recently addressed the controversy surrounding the 5·18 Gwangju Uprising incident involving the baseball team from Baejae High School.
According to Yonhap News, Han spoke with Korean reporters during a public forum at the 80th Avignon Festival in France on July 15. He emphasized the need to reflect on how society has failed, stating, "How did we end up failing like this?" He urged that society should not merely consume incidents of hate as isolated events but should use them as opportunities for collective reflection.
During the forum, Han noted, "My friends who are teachers in the education field are also deeply contemplating this issue," adding that they discuss questions like, "What can we do?" and "How did we end up like this as the older generation?"
He stressed that significant events should not be overlooked in shock and surprise, saying, "We must capture the issues that surface and collectively think about how to move forward."
Han also remarked, "It is not good for one shock to cover another, and the next shock to overshadow the previous one," emphasizing that social issues should be viewed as communal challenges rather than one-time events.
He connected the recent incident to the growing problem of hate around the world, stating, "How we can overcome the issue of hate is an important task for us. It is time for us to think together about how to change direction in this era of hate."
Han expressed that recognizing hate as a problem is a positive step, saying, "If we all agree that hate is not natural but an issue, then there is hope in that."
This forum marked Han's first public Q&A with Korean media since the Nobel Prize ceremony last December. He shared, "Honestly, it was burdensome, so I withdrew a bit, but now it seems the interest has lessened, and I feel a bit lighter."
Later that evening, Han made a surprise appearance at a reading performance of his novel 'Farewell' at the Palais des Papes, a symbolic venue of the Avignon Festival. The performance featured French actress Isabelle Huppert and Korean actress Lee Hye-young reading monologues and dialogues from the work in French and Korean, respectively. Han took the stage at the end to read a passage from the latter part of the novel, which addresses the Jeju 4·3 incident and civilian massacres during and after the Korean War, receiving applause from the audience.
Han remarked, "While reading a book is a very personal experience, a performance is a shared experience. It is meaningful in that it allows us to savor the voices, movements, and expressions of the actors together."
According to Yonhap, the French audience showed deep interest in the tragedies of modern Korean history and praised the work. The reading performance 'Farewell' is set to meet domestic audiences at the Seoul International Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) in October.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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