The more I write the better I write?
Interview with Kim Youngha
Interview by Esther Klung; Photo by Dongha Choe
K
im Youngha is a bestselling writer in Korea. His
irst novel “I´ve the right to destroy myself ”
was a shocking piece of literature in 1996.
Since then his writing has changed. One of his latest
works “Black Flower” is a historical novel about the irst
immigrants who let Korea in 1905 to start a new life in
South America. We met Kim Youngha on his reading
tour through Germany and talked with him about
“Black lower”, New York, where he currently lives and
his writing.
irst. he other thing is that I was a Catholic. In Korea
all the imported religions had some trouble with the
shamanistic religions. When I irst read the non-ictional
book about their emigration history I found out that
there was a shaman and a priest on the boat. At that time
a Catholic was rarely seen in Korea and a shaman was
really common. In Mexico they were on the same boat
and on the same hacienda.he country itself is a land of
mixed religions, such as the Catholics, the Mayans and
some other native religions.
K: Why were you so atracted by this story?
KYH: At irst I heard this story of a friend of mine. He is
a ilm director and he was on his way from Los Angeles
to Seoul and there he heard this unbelievable story that
a small country was built in Guatemala, in the jungle.
He thought it´s just a rumor, but he passed the story
to me and I investigated out of curiosity. I found a clue,
a newspaper article that w