Why Chinese readers are falling in love with Korean fiction – books adapted for K-dramas and movies, sci-fi, women’s literature, zombie thrillers
- Translated contemporary Korean literature has been growing in popularity in China as novels deal with modern social issues that chime with Chinese fiction fans
- The popularity of K-dramas, K-pop and Korean movies in China has also led to a growing interest in Korean literature, one expert says
To gauge the popularity of contemporary Korean literature in China today, one need not look past Kim Cho-yeop’s short-story collection If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light (2019).
Published in Chinese in 2022, this year it won the Korean science fiction writer both the Chinese Nebula Award for Best Translated Work and the Galaxy Award for Most Popular Foreign Writer, an unprecedented achievement.
“I accompanied Kim to the Galaxy Award ceremony in October and I could definitely feel the hype surrounding her,” says Kim Hak-je, lead editor of Hubble, the publisher of If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light.
“In China, the majority of science fiction readers are male. But the organising committee said Kim opened the door for female readers. They seem to appreciate how Kim’s stories are focused on humanity compared with many other books that place emphasis on scientific accuracy and thought experiments.”
Contemporary Korean fiction has been gaining popularity in China in recent years despite the ongoing diplomatic tension between Beijing and Seoul, arising from the latter’s 2016 decision to deploy a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
