Korean Literature Review – My Innocent Uncle
Just pages into Ch’ae Man Shik’s My Innocent Uncle the reader is exposed to an opinion rarely voiced in Korean literature, one so at odds with the prevailing view that it is sure to jar. Though it is delivered amid an effusive stream of praise for the Japanese colonizers, it still manages to stand out and command our attention. What I’m referring to is nothing less than an attack on Joseon womanhood delivered by the story’s benighted narrator.
Although this may seem less than shocking, it’s worth considering that the Joseon woman is regarded with roughly the same level of reverence Catholics hold for the Virgin Mary. Chaste, modest and faithful, she is an archetype of Korean culture that to disparage – even for the purpose of satire – risks crossing the line into bad taste. In the tale in question, the Joseon woman is none other than the narrator’s aunt who has been abandoned by her socialist husband in favor of a modern, free-thinking woman. Though rejected and left to languish on the brink of starvation, she later comes to his rescue when, upon being released from a stint in prison, he find himself without a home. The long-suffering wife willing to sacrifice anything and everything for her husband is portrayed here as a mug, a stepping stone or fall-back measure for men on their way to bigger and better things.
The men portrayed in this book seem genuinely perplexed by women – what they are or ought to be in a modernizing colonial society. In A Ready-Made Life, the narrator, P, ponders what seems to him to be an irresolvable paradox. How is it that some women are prepared to kill themselves over the loss of their virtue while others are content to part with it for the paltry sum of 20 jeon? Although he seems genuinely conscience-troubled by seeing his countrywomen degrade themselves for want of money, there is an entire dimension to the situation that escapes his reckoning. He never once ponders the role of men in degrading women (he has just himself emerged from a brothel). Nor does he seem to recognize his own failure to serve as a provider for his estranged wife. The only insight we can salvage from his ruminations is the sudden realization that ‘proper sexual mores have yet to be established in our time.’
Sexual politics aside, the three stories contained in My Innocent Uncle are brimming with insights into many of the more prosaic realities that have long puzzled foreign visitors, such as: why are there so many tailor shops, shoe stores, print shops and bookstores in older neighborhoods? The origins of more significant cultural tendencies are also revealed, such as why Koreans crave stability in their jobs and what’s behind the national obsession with education. Anyone reading with an aim to enhancing their understanding of Korean culture is sure to walk away satisfied. Without doubt, My Innocent Uncle stands among my most interesting and enlightening forays into Korean literature.
You stated that this story was an “effusive stream of praise for the Japanese colonizers”, this isn’t accurate. Ch’ae Man Shik is known for satirical work. He made the mockery of Japanese colonial rule by having the narrator be unreliable. For example, he berates all things korean (name, schools, women, household style ect) and even though extended family is highly important, the narrator won’t help his aunt when she says she has no food, though she raised him. He also lacks education past 4th grade, judges all others harshly except himself and his Japanese boss. All of this lends to his unreliability. So we learn that the narrator is the idiot, and the author makes fun of him indirectly, and through that, colonial rule. If you don’t believe all that, Ch’ae Man Shik was arrested for his political activities (like uncle) and got sick from tuberculosis (like uncle). See the parallel?