Nobel laureate Han Kang urges world to 'overcome' hatred

Nobel laureate Han Kang on Wednesday called the deepening hatred in Korea and around the world “a challenge we must overcome,” stressing the need to move forward beyond division.

Han made the remarks as she met Korean reporters in France on the sidelines of the Avignon Festival, one of the world's most prestigious performing arts festivals, where Korean has been invited as an official language to mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France.

“How we can overcome the issue of hatred is an important challenge for us,” Han said. “We are at a time, in which we have to put our heads together to discuss how we can change the course and move forward in another direction.”

In such a context, Han noted the recent controversy surrounding a Seoul high school baseball team, which came under fire and eventually received a six-month ban for mocking their opponent.

Baseball players at Pai Chai High School yelled slogans, such as “Let's go to Starbucks!” and “Tank Day!” at their opponents from Gwangju Jeil High School during a late June tournament game in Seoul.

Their chants were linked to a controversial Starbucks Korea promotion on the anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement which drew strong criticism for allegedly mocking the movement.

“When a significant incident like this arises, we should not simply let it pass amid the shock and surprise,” the novelist said. “If this event is sending us a signal, we need to recognize the problem it has brought to the surface.”

At the same time, Han underscored the importance of taking events like this as an occasion for social reflection instead of being too consumed in each case.

On a bright note, Han said it is optimistic that hatred is jointly recognized as an issue.

“If we share the consensus that hatred is not something natural but a problem, perhaps hope lies there,” she said.

During the Avignon Festival, a lecture-performance titled “Oiseau,” based on Han's novel “We Do Not Part” (2021), was presented in both Korean and French by French actor Isabelle Huppert and Korean actor Lee Hye-young.

Han made a surprise stage appearance near the end of the performance, where she read out lines from the novel, which depicts the tragedy of the 1948 Jeju massacre, as well as civilian massacres that took place around the 1950-53 Korean War.

“If reading a book is a deeply personal experience, attending a performance is a shared one,” she said. “The sentences I envision and the musicality that actors bring to them through their own interpretations and express through their bodies are two different things.”

“It is meaningful that people who have only read 'We Do Not Part' through a book can experience the work in a different way,” Han said.

Yonhap