Cho Nam-Joo

Jamie Chang

Who is Kim Jiyoung?

Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own.

Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night.

Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn't get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity.

Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely.

Kim Jiyoung is depressed.

Kim Jiyoung is mad.

Kim Jiyoung is her own woman.

Kim Jiyoung is every woman.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century and raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all. Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

82년생 김지영

Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (Korean: 82년생 김지영) is a novel by Cho Nam-Joo. A former scriptwriter for TV programs, Cho took two months to write the story as according to her, the title character "Kim Ji-young's life isn't much different from the one I have lived. That's why I was able to write so quickly without much preparation." Published by Minumsa in October 2016, it has sold more than 1 million copies as of 27 November 2018, becoming the first million-selling Korean novel since Shin Kyung-sook's Please Look After Mom in 2009.

While offenders were in fear of losing a small part of their privilege, the victims were running the risk of losing everything.

She couldn't win: exercising all the rights and utilising the benefits made her a freeloader, and fighting tooth and nail to avoid the accusation made things harder for colleagues in a similar situation.

The world had changed a great deal, but the little rules, contracts and customs had not, which meant the world hadn’t actually changed at all. 

“Smart women are taxing” they say. And when she passed the law exam all on her own without any help from the college? They fly banners and toot horns. “Proud alumni!”

Everyone was jealous of his three children, his eldest a teacher, his second attending university in Seoul, his youngest, a son.

Entering high school meant a sudden expansion of her geographical and social world, which taught her that it was a wide world out there filled with perverts.

The world wants our uterus to be drug free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.

She’d thought until then that mothers could only be mothers

Aborting females was common practice, as if “daughter” was a medical problem 

aemouh

Do laws and institutions change values, or do values drive laws and institutions?

Aurore

Help out? What is it with you and ‘helping out?’ You’re going to ‘helpout’ with chores. ‘Help out’ with raising our baby. ‘Help out’ with finding me a new job. Isn’t this your house, too? Your home? Your child? And if I work, don’t you spend my pay, too? Why do you keep saying ‘help out’ like you’re volunteering to pitch in on someone else’s work?”

I may not be Korean but I understand this sentiment with every cell of my body. Different nationality, same feelings

Autumn 

When asked why she picked those places, Eunyoung said she wanted to go someplace with few Koreans. The mother knew what the stickers meant.

Always warm and relaxed before he entered the army, the boyfriend was now a tightly wound coil of nerves that unraveled at the slightest provocation.

The percentage of female employees who use maternity leave has increased from 20 percent in 2003 to more than half in 2009, and four out of ten still work without maternity leave.

 Of course, there are many women who have already left their jobs due to marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth, and have not been included in the statistical sample of maternity leave. The percentage of female managers has also increased steadily but slowly from 10.22 percent in 2006 to 18.37 percent in 2014, but it’s not even two out of ten yet.

Doesn’t matter if they’re new or the youngest—they never do anything they’re not told to do. But why do women simply take things upon themselves?”

People who pop a painkiller at the smallest hint of a migraine, or who need anaesthetic cream to remove a mole, demand that women giving birth should gladly endure the pain, exhaustion, and mortal fear. As if that’s maternal love.

Lindy

She couldn't win: exercising all the rights and utilizing the benefits made her a free-loader, and fighting tooth and nail to avoid the accusation made things harder for colleagues in a similar situation. 

Lindsay Ornedo

Jiyoung was standing in the middle of a labyrinth. Conscientiously and calmly, she was searching for a way out that didn’t exist to begin with. Baffled and ready to give up, she was told to try, try again; to walk through walls if it came to that.

Onto the feelings left unsaid for so long that they were desiccated and crackling, a tiny spark of a flame fell and instantly reduced the most shining romance of youth to ashes.

Seungyeon always said girls don’t need special treatment—they just want the same responsibilities and opportunities.

She knew better than anyone what it was like to give up on one’s dreams for the sake of the family, having made that sacrifice herself. 

“You’re right. In a world where doctors can cure cancer and do heart transplants, there isn’t a single pill to treat menstrual cramps.” Her sister pointed at her own stomach.

“The world wants our uterus to be drug-free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.” 

tuna

What do you want from us? The dumb girls are too dumb, the smart girls are too smart, and the average girls are too unexceptional?

at times this felt more like a non-fiction book and i really enjoyed how factual and upfront it was about societies ingrained sexism. i feel like a lot was lost in translation unfortunately but still a good read. the ending honestly felt bleak with the therapists pov of him initially claiming to now be more open minded towards women’s struggles… only for the last line to be sexist asf “i’ll have to hire an unmarried woman next time” bruh. but really effective because!! things truly have not changed

didn't bring up anything i wasn't already aware of, so it kinda feels like i've read it before, but i also love this kind of book so who am i to complain!

Stas

Nastenka

being a woman </3 pain </3

cried loads <3

I know this book is supposed to show you the reality of the misogyny is South Korea, but I really can't feel the struggle from this book. The writing is so dry and uninspiring, I feel like the writer try so hard to be 'raw' but it doesn't quite capture the emotion.

catto fishu

Danniella

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT ENDING WHATTTTTTT 

elinabel hidalgo 

The multi-million copy international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation that has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all. A GUARDIAN 'ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR 2020' A RED MAGAZINE 'CAN'T WAIT TO READ' BOOK OF 2020 Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. “This is a book about the life of a woman living in Korea; the despair of an ordinary woman which she takes for granted. The fact that it’s not about ‘someone special’ is extremely shocking, while also being incredibly relatable.” Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own. Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night. Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity. Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Kim Jiyoung is mad. Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Kim Jiyoung is every woman. ‘A touchstone for a conversation around feminism and gender […] Kim Jiyoung can be seen as a sort of sacrifice: a protagonist who is broken in order to open up a channel for collective rage. Along with...Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film Parasite, her story could change the bigger one’ Guardian 'This witty, disturbing book deals with sexism, mental health issues and the hypocrisy of a country where young women are “popping caffeine pills and turning jaundiced” as they slave away in factories helping to fund higher education for male siblings.' The Independent 'A treatise and a howl of anger […] it describes experiences that will be recognisable everywhere. It’s slim, unadorned narrative distils a lifetime’s iniquities into a sharp punch. The books demonstrates the unfairness of the female experience and the sheer difficulty of improving it.’ The Sunday Times

cee 

Kim Jiyoung's experience is one shared universally, so writing about it honestly isn’t anything new or surprising to any other woman, but it’s difficult and honest and radicalizing nonetheless. Written in a tone that’s emotionally numbing and clinical, backed with real news articles from South Korean presses, Cho Nam-joo illustrates the journey of a woman going mad from a powerlessness and a downward-projected fate she’s possessed since even before she was born. She details the unspoken and openly demanded expectations of women in the home, workplace, and society. Everywhere, women are viewed as both too much and not enough, mentally and physically stretched far too thin to maintain a sense of self. 

And yet in Cho’s depiction of the tragedy that is the female experience, there exists a glimmer still in the fact that this is very much real and shared. Beauty exists in daughters that help their siblings out when they realize what their mothers carry, in strangers that recognize a scared girl’s call for help in crises that don’t otherwise concern them, in one woman’s demand for action for the sake of all the women beside her affected by injustice. Beauty exists in the light of a community that uplifts and heals each other. Ultimately, as bleak as the circumstances are, I don’t find this story or its message to be as such. In the eyes of Kim Jiyoung, I see hope in a future still being molded by women unafraid to get their hands dirty if it eases the load of those beside her in a common struggle. And that’s the most beautiful thing.

joana ashley

Kim Jiyoung's experience is one shared universally, so writing about it honestly isn’t anything new or surprising to any other woman, but it’s difficult and honest and radicalizing nonetheless. Written in a tone that’s emotionally numbing and clinical, backed with real news articles from South Korean presses, Cho Nam-joo illustrates the journey of a woman going mad from a powerlessness and a downward-projected fate she’s possessed since even before she was born. She details the unspoken and openly demanded expectations of women in the home, workplace, and society. Everywhere, women are viewed as both too much and not enough, mentally and physically stretched far too thin to maintain a sense of self. 

And yet in Cho’s depiction of the tragedy that is the female experience, there exists a glimmer still in the fact that this is very much real and shared. Beauty exists in daughters that help their siblings out when they realize what their mothers carry, in strangers that recognize a scared girl’s call for help in crises that don’t otherwise concern them, in one woman’s demand for action for the sake of all the women beside her affected by injustice. Beauty exists in the light of a community that uplifts and heals each other. Ultimately, as bleak as the circumstances are, I don’t find this story or its message to be as such. In the eyes of Kim Jiyoung, I see hope in a future still being molded by women unafraid to get their hands dirty if it eases the load of those beside her in a common struggle. And that’s the most beautiful thing.

Mira <3

A very important book content-wise but still meh. Maybe a lot of nuance is lost due to translation. I also never realised the full extent of how much Korea just sucks ass, esp if you're a woman

Eva Ströberg

This book is the story of Jiyoung, a 30-year old something mother who suffers from some sort of nervous breakdown and her background story gives a lot of insights about how does it feel to be a woman in a strong patriarchal society in South Korea. Must read for women!

Kim-Ji Young, nata nel 1982

Camilla

4.5 ⭐

someone add this book to both the korean literature canon and feminist literature canon

safs

I desperately wanted to love this book. It centres the mundane to detail the effects of systemic misogyny on one woman's life in South Korea so covers a very important topic and one I am particularly passionate about. But there is one huge issue with the book! It is *very* dry!!!! Whilst the reasoning behind this becomes quite clear towards the end, I found it really difficult, even painful, to actually get through the book. I found myself putting it down repeatedly and reaching for others in the long month that it took me to finish it. This is really unfortunate because the book invites you to reflect on the countless ways misogyny impacts women's lives and could have made for a very important read for anyone, especially men (and women who have yet to grapple with this topic).

Louisa

I love how Korean fiction seems to have gotten me out of my last two stress/anger-induced reading slumps ! Also I for once can say I literally read this book in one afternoon, probably my lowest time to page ratio ever

** spoiler alert **
           Such a greaaaaat book!! I loved every single chapters from it. Feels like i haven’t read a book this good in a long time and i couldn’t be more grateful to have read this one because all the sexual harassment topics were very real & raw in working/office environment for women up to this day.

Madrid

The multi-million copy selling, international bestseller. Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own. Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night. Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn't get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity. Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely. Kim Jiyoung is depressed. Kim Jiyoung is mad. Kim Jiyoung is her own woman. Kim Jiyoung is every woman. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation that has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and institutional oppression that are relevant to us all. Riveting, original and uncompromising, this is the most important book to have emerged from South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian. "This is a book about the life of a woman living in Korea; the despair of an ordinary woman which she takes for granted. The fact that it's not about 'someone special' is extremely shocking, while also being incredibly relatable." Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman 'I loved this novel. Kim Jiyoung's life is made to seem at once totally commonplace, and nightmarishly over-the-top. As you read, you constantly feel that revolutionary, electric shift, between commonplace and nightmarish. This kind of imaginative work is so important and so powerful. I hope this book sells a million more copies.' Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot (shortlisted for The Women's Prize) 'After reading Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, I started to think about things in a way I hadn't thought about them before. It reminded me of the unfair treatment I had experienced being a woman and I felt like I was caught off guard.' Soo-young, member of Girls' Generation "A book with unique implications; I was so impressed." BTS RM "Written with unbearably clear-sighted perspective, Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 possesses the urgency and immediacy of the scariest horror thriller -- except that this is not technically horror, but something closer to reportage. I broke out in a sweat reading this book." Ling Ma, author of Severance

armoni mayes

I feel bad about giving this book 3 stars, it’s more 3.5 stars to be exact. The book portrayed real-life scenarios that anyone can experience at the hands of men which was insightful but the actual plot of the book was a little boring.

Natalia Cerrillo

Anjorin Molayo 

i really enjoyed reading this book. it’s a very relatable one as this still happen in the world we live in today where men are better options other than women.

Bria

the fact that this isn’t a real biography is wild

kim jiyoung, born 1982 is a very moving story about what misogyny feels like and how much of a toll it actually is on a woman. 

kim jiyoung (and the other women around her) have faced misogyny before they were even born. from the regret of unimportant relatives that the child is a daughter, from the mistreatment of daughter in the family with a son, to sexual harrassement and double standards in school to the glass ceiling and other mistreatments in the workforce, a woman is born to suffer in the society that we know of.

this is a great start if you want to further your understanding of feminist theory; not that this piece is a theory text, but it makes you angry and frustrated and it can be a segue to other reading and doing the work to understand the patriarchy and why feminism is still a necessary movement. 

what is deeply unsettling, but very real, is that in the end the male psychiatrist talks about how hard it is being a woman and how he wasn't aware of it before his wife had to deal with social 'consequences' of being a mother. and yet, on the very last page, he is still a misogynist acting like a woman leaving her job is more of an inconvenience to him than it is devastating to the woman in a predominantly misogynistic society.

kim jiyoung, born 1982 is a very moving story about what misogyny feels like and how much of a toll it actually is on a woman. 

kim jiyoung (and the other women around her) have faced misogyny before they were even born. from the regret of unimportant relatives that the child is a daughter, from the mistreatment of daughter in the family with a son, to sexual harrassement and double standards in school to the glass ceiling and other mistreatments in the workforce, a woman is born to suffer in the society that we know of.

this is a great start if you want to further your understanding of feminist theory; not that this piece is a theory text, but it makes you angry and frustrated and it can be a segue to other reading and doing the work to understand the patriarchy and why feminism is still a necessary movement. 

what is deeply unsettling, but very real, is that in the end the male psychiatrist talks about how hard it is being a woman and how he wasn't aware of it before his wife had to deal with social 'consequences' of being a mother. and yet, on the very last page, he is still a misogynist acting like a woman leaving her job is more of an inconvenience to him than it is devastating to the woman in a predominantly misogynistic society.

Lisa Wright

** spoiler alert **
           I read this book within 24 hours, just squeaking in my book goal for this month. 👌

I admittedly picked this up because I was born in 1982 and was curious about parallels and differences between my life and that of this fictional/real-ish character who would've experienced the same life phases when I did.

The prose is simplistic, but elegant. The one English word I didn't know wasn't spare - while niche, it was creatively used. That word was "antediluvian," by the way. The book didn't need dressing-up with big words. I found it more convincing with less flowery language - it felt like a diary written about the main character by an interested observer. 

The simple language lays bare all the little sexist microaggressions this character experiences day after day, from birth to death. They're not agonized over, though, which indicates how normal that sexism is. Nobody's clutching pearls here, not even the narrator. However, we know Jiyoung's inner dialog shows she's infuriated and sick of it, but feels trapped. A majority of women in the book avoid "making trouble" by brushing aside all the little jabs and offenses over time. I only wish the author went into Jiyoung's present more so we could know how her life continues and how her condition progresses or changes.

someone add this book to both the korean literature canon and feminist literature canon

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

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