Younghill Kang (June 5, 1898 — December 2, 1972, Korean name 강용흘) was an important early

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

writer. He is best known for his 1931

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

''The Grass Roof'' (the first Korean American novel) and its sequel, the 1937 fictionalized

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

''East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee.'' He also wrote an unpublished play, ''Murder in the Royal Palace'', which was performed both in the US and in Korea. He has been called "the father of Korean American literature."Seiwoong Oh. "Younghill Kang (1903-1972)." in ''Asian American Autobiographers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook'' pp.149-158.

Life and work

As a child in Korea, Kang was educated in both Confucian and Christian missionary schools.Bio
at ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition'' In 1921, he fled Korea because of his anti-Japanese, pro-independence activism; he went first to Canada (where he briefly studied at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

), then to the United States.Bio
at Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 1925 and an Ed.M. in English education from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1927.

Work

Kang at first wrote in Korean and Japanese, switching to English only in 1928 and under the tutelage of his American wife, Frances Keeley. He worked as an editor for the

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

and taught at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, where his colleague

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century. Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...

read the opening chapters of his novel ''The Grass Roof'' and recommended it to

Scribners Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...

publishing house. The book was admired by such other authors as

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

and

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

''The Grass Roof'' was well received in its time, since it seemed to confirm American disdain for Korea. ''East Goes West'', however, criticized the United States and therefore was less popular until the

multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

movement gave it renewed attention. In addition to ''The Grass Roof'' and ''East Goes West,'' Kang translated Korean literature into English and reviewed books for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. Kang also traveled in Europe for two years on a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, curated at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and worked as an Asian expert for the U.S. government in both U.S. Military Office of Publications and the Corps Office of Civil Information. Kang received the Halperine Kaminsky Prize, the 1953

Louis S. Weiss Louis Stix Weiss was a name partner of the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a firm that traces its roots to one founded by Louis's father Samuel W. Weiss in 1875. He was best known as one of banker Marshall Fie ...

Memorial Prize, and an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from Koryo University.

''The Grass Roof''

''The Grass Roof'' uses the character of Chungpa Han to depict Kang's life in Korea and to explain his decision to leave. Han chooses to leave Korea rather than join the popular

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

fighting for independence from the Japanese; he has been influenced by Western literature and prefers the promises of individualism in the West to the mass movements and nationalism and emphasis on family connections that he sees in Korea, which he views as dying.

''East Goes West''

''East Goes West'' continues the story of Han (standing in for Kang) and his life in the United States, where he notices how involved his fellow immigrants are in Korean independence and how much they hope to return to their native land. His distance from his fellow immigrants increases his sense of loneliness in his new country; Moreover, his hopes for a new life in the West are never realized, as his dreams exceed the reality of American opportunity at that time. He befriends two other Koreans—Jum and Kim—who are also interested in becoming truly American, but they too have never been able to enter fully into American society. He hopes that furthering his schooling will be the solution, but even a scholarship to college does not solve his problems. As the novel ends, Han has found most of his dreams dashed, except for the Buddhist hope of a life beyond this one.

References

Critical studies

#Jeon, Joseph J. "Koreans in Exile: Younghill Kang and Richard E. Kim." IN: Srikanth and Song, ''The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2015. pp. 123–138.
Roh, David. "Scientific Management in Younghill Kang’s East Goes West: The Japanese and American Construction of Korean Labor.” ''MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States'' 37.1 (2012): 83-104.
#Kuo, Karen J. ''Lost Imaginaries: Images of Asia in America, 1924-1942.'' Dissertation, U of Washington, 2006. #Szmanko, Klara. "America Is in the Head and on the Ground: Confronting and (Re-)Constructing 'America' in Three Asian American Narratives of the 1930s." ''Interactions: Aegean Journal of English and American Studies/Ege Ingiliz ve Amerikan Incelemeleri Dergisi,'' 2006 Fall; 15 (2): 113-23. #Sorensen, Leif. "Re-Scripting the Korean-American Subject: Constructions of Authorship in New Il Han and Younghill Kang." ''Genre,'' 2006; 39 (3): 141-156. #Lee, A. Robert. "Younghill Kang" IN: Madsen, ''Asian American Writers.'' Detroit, MI: Gale; 2005. pp. 159–62 #Knadler, Stephen. "Unacquiring Negrophobia: Younghill Kang and Cosmopolitan Resistance to the Black and White Logic of Naturalization." IN: Lawrence and Cheung, ''Recovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP; 2005. pp. 98–119 #Todorova, Kremena Tochkova. ''"An Enlargement of Vision": Modernity, Immigration, and the City in Novels of the 1930s.'' Dissertation, U of Notre Dame, 2003. #Oh, Sandra Si Yun. ''Martyrdom in Korean American Literature: Resistance and Paradox in ''East Goes West'', '' Quiet Odyssey'', ''

Comfort Woman Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese '':ja: ...

'' and ''

Dictee ''Dictee'' is a 1982 book by Korean American author Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Considered to be Cha's magnum opus, the book, a genre-bending poetry collection, focuses on several women: the Korean revolutionary Yu Guan Soon, Joan of Arc, Saint Thér ...

''.'' Dissertation, U of California, Berkeley, 2001. #Lee, Kun Jong. "The

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Presence in Younghill Kang's ''East Goes West''." ''CLA Journal,'' 2002 Mar; 45 (3): 329-59. #Lew, Walter K. "Grafts, Transplants, Translation: The Americanizing of Younghill Kang." IN: Scandura and Thurston, ''Modernism, Inc.: Body, Memory, Capital.'' New York, NY: New York UP; 2001. pp. 171–90 #Knadler, Stephen. "Unacquiring Negrophobia: Younghill Kang and the Cosmopolitan Resistance to the Black and White Logic of Naturalization." ''Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies'', 2000 Spring-Summer; 4 (3): 37 paragraphs. #Livingston, James. "Younghill Kang (1903- )." IN: Nelson, ''Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood; 2000. pp. 127–31 #Huh, Joonok. "'Strangest Chorale': New York City in ''East Goes West'' and ''

Native Speaker Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 novel by Chang-Rae Lee * ''Native Speaker'' (album), a 2011 album by Canadian band Braids * Native speaker Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 nov ...

.''" IN: Wright and Kaplan, ''The Image of the Twentieth Century in Literature, Media, and Society.'' Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, University of Southern Colorado; 2000. pp. 419–22 #Kim, Joanne H. "Mediating Selves: Younghill Kang's Balancing Act." ''Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism,'' 1999 Fall; 6 (1): 51-59. #Lew, Walter K. "Before ''The Grass Roof'': Younghill Kang's University Days." "Korean American Fiction" special issue of ''Korean Culture'' 12.1 (Spring 1998): 22-29. #Strange, David. "Thomas Wolfe's Korean Connection." ''The Thomas Wolfe Review,'' 1994 Spring; 18 (1): 36-41. #Lee, Kyhan. "Younghill Kang and the Genesis of Korean-American Literature." ''Korea Journal'', 1991 Winter; 31 (4): 63-78.

Life and work

Work

''The Grass Roof''

''East Goes West''

References

Critical studies

See also