Choe Jeong-hui (1912–1990) was one of the most successful early women writers in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Life

She was born in

Dancheon Tanch'ŏn () is a port city in northeastern South Hamgyong Province, South Hamgyŏng province, North Korea. It has a population of approximately 360,000. Tanch'ŏn borders the Sea of Japan Sea of Japan naming dispute, (East Sea of Korea), into wh ...

South Hamgyong Province South Hamgyong Province (, ''Hamgyŏngnamdo''; ) is a province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the southern half of the former Hamgyong Province, remained a province of Korea until 1945, then became a province of North Kore ...

and was educated in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. She worked at a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and as a journalist in Seoul before starting her writing career in 1931; she worked for the magazine '' Samcheolli'' (삼천리) and the newspaper ''

The Chosun Ilbo ''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ) is a daily newspaper in South Korea and the oldest daily newspaper in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, the ''Chosun Ilbo'' has been audited annually since the Audit Bureau of Circulations w ...

'' (조선일보). She was associated with the Korean Artists' Proletarian Federation, and was jailed in 1934 as a result. Her daughters, Kim Ji-won and

Kim Chae-won Kim Chae-won (; born August 1, 2000), is a South Korean singer. She is the leader of South Korean girl group Le Sserafim. She is also a former member of the reality competition series ''Produce 48's'' resulting girl group Iz*One in 2018. Ear ...

, were also successful writers. She first married filmmaker Kim Yu-yeong in 1930, but they divorced a year later when she met her second husband, Kim Dong-hwan, in 1931 while working for ''Samcheolli''.

Selected works

* ''Earthly Ties'' (지맥), novella * ''Human Ties'' (인맥), novella * ''Heavenly Ties'' (천맥), novella

References

1912 births 1990 deaths South Korean journalists South Korean women novelists South Korean women journalists South Korean novelists People from South Hamgyong Province Writers from Seoul 20th-century journalists South Korean people of North Korean origin Jeong-hui {{Korea-writer-stub