“What’s in the Year of the Monkey for us?”

What will the Year of the Monkey bring us? The Chinese lunar New Year does not kick in until February 8, but a heads-up won’t hurt.

But before diving in, let me re-cap an old Korean story about three Confucian scholars travelling to Seoul to take the Civil Service Exams (Thoughts of the Times, 1/5/2015, “Your Fortune for 2015?”: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2015/01/162_171134.html). When asked about their odds for the outcome of the exam, an ancient fortune teller merely held up one finger in answer. Each scholar believing that signified he would be the chosen one to pass the all-important exam, the trio happily took off.

Having watched this, the sage’s assistant asked, “Master, what’s the meaning of the one finger? Does it mean only one of them will pass the exams?”
“That is correct,” he replied.
“What happens if two of them succeed?”
“Then, the finger means only one of them will fail the exams.”
“‘What if all three of them pass?”
“That means not one of them will fail.”

In the absence of a sage within a driving distance to consult on the fortunes for 2016, I turned to my current master: the internet. It lifted two fingers. One for uhk-op (oppression) and the other choong-dol (conflict). Harsh. However, the internet “philosopher,” Wu Hyun, left a crumb of hope.

He said, “If S. Koreans can mobilize the traits of the monkey—smarts and agility—they’ll manage to have a good year.” He also had two words for North Korea, even without my asking: “oppression” from Kim Jong-un’s continuing need to crunch his people into submission and “conflict” from opposition forces, both domestic and international. He added the “roots” of N. Korea “can get shaken.”

Unfortunately, no internet sage paid attention to the fortunes of female babies waiting to be born in Korea. A year ago, before the Horse Year finally bit the dust and the Sheep Year baaa’d onto the world stage on February 19, I expressed my concern over the tragic ends of the Horse-Year girl fetuses (Thoughts of the Times, 2/1/15, “Girls Born in Sheep Year”: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2015/02/162_172821.html
). I re-checked the sex-ratio-at-birth chart produced by Korean National Statistical Office (2007) to see how the babies fared in the post-Korean-War Monkey Years (1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, and 2004). All of them showed the lowest numbers of aborted female fetuses for each of the12 years in the zodiac cycle. In contrast, the Horse Years had the highest rate every twelve years, with the 1990-1994 as the peak period with 30,000 females aborted in 1994 alone, as a result of boy preference. This phenomenon originates from a belief about Horse Year girl babies presumably carrying masculine trait, unwanted by Korean parents with patriarchal values.

Since late 1990s, for various reasons, including the dire shortage of brides and the influence of Christian anti-abortion perspective, S. Koreans began to slash the number of sex-selective abortions of females. For this, S. Korea is being held up as a model for China and India to follow. Korea moved from the ratio of 113 boys to 100 girls born in 1990 (CIA World Factbook, 2013), the highest jump from pre-Korean War rate of 98:100, to 107:100 in 2013. This still translated to about 9000 abortions of female fetuses as recently as 2013 and in the 2014 Horse Year, that number might have been overtaken. Still, S. Korea is close to realizing 104:100 ratio, generally considered ideal for a population.

If the girl babies waiting to join the world see a sage holding up one finger (between Feb. 8, 2016 and Jan. 28, 2017), they may go ahead and smile.

Bio: Maija Rhee Devine authored an autobiographical novel about Korea, The Voices of Heaven. (see TEDx Talk: http://youtu.be/GFD-6JFLF5A). The book won 4 book awards in 2014. Her works-in-progress are a nonfiction collection of stories of Korean Comfort Women based on their published testimonies and a novel, Journals of Comfort Women.

#comfortwomen #korea #apology #thevoicesofheaven #population #sexbias #abortion #koreanwar

https://www.facebook.com/MaijaRheeDevine/posts/450666568473936:0

The link to the KOAM TV news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT4UmKq5U9o&feature=youtu.be

KC Star announced on 9/20/2015 Maija’s keynote speech at the 37th Annual AAUW-KC’s Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award Luncheon to be held on 10/3/2015. http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/books/article35587245.html

Attended the Abroad Writers Conference in Lake Como, Italy.  Workshop leaders included Jane Smiley, Rae Armantrout, Alex Shoumatoff, and Nikky Finney.  I gave a reading from The Voices of Heaven, Long Walks on Short Days, and 2 new poems about comfort women.  The reading, I must admit, was a hit!  Photo with Alex Shoumatoff and Delta Willis, terrific writers and promoters for the Save African Elephants project!  Their panel discussion and their readings inspired us all!

98-14 Memorial Day column  Mark DePue, the oral historian of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, has written a news release in observance of the upcoming Memorial Day.  The release tells the childhood story of Maija’s first interaction with American soldiers during the Korean War.  It’s a story of essential human connections and of S. Koreans’ gratitude toward U.N. and American soldiers.  Americans can use some appreciation from abroad!  I hope the story will warm the hearts of thousands to whom Memorial Day brings extra special meaning, soul searching, and rejuvenation.  I wish all of you a wonderful Memorial Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byvSzo6sHsM

Kim Hyun Rho, a news reporter for Yonhap News (Korean AP) in Chicago, did an article on 08/14/2013 about the Kirkus review The Voices of Heaven received.  Here’s the link (It’s in Korean!).

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/international/2013/08/14/0601180100AKR20130814044700009.HTML

The Voices of Heaven, my novel/love story set during the Korean War, received this review from Kirkus Review.  The review is published in Kirkus Review website.  The link is:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maija-rhee-devine/the-voices-of-heaven-AuvWtfPI/

This review is already on Amazon and spd (small press distribution) and will be posted in the websites of Kirkus Review’s affiliates including Google, Amazon, Barns & Noble, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc.

KIRKUS REVIEW, 08/07/2013

TITLE INFORMATION

THE VOICES OF HEAVEN

Devine, Maija Rhee

Seoul Selection (316 pp.)

$16.00 paperback, $9.99 e-book

ISBN: 978-1624120039; May 15, 2013

BOOK REVIEW

In Devine’s debut novel, war and traditional Confucianism tear apart an idyllic Korean family.
Eum-chun and her husband, Gui-yong, have been married for 15 years and are deeply in love. Although they adore their adopted daughter, Mi-Na, they fail to produce a son—a serious problem in their deeply traditional society. Gui-yong eventually gives in to his mother’s wishes and marries a second woman, Soo-yang, hoping she will deliver a boy to carry on the family name. Although Eum-chun tries to bear the situation bravely, she’s devastated, and cracks soon begin to form in the seemingly perfect family. The novel, set against the backdrop of the Korean War, follows four main characters as they navigate their new family and the chaos that ravages the land. Devine’s prose richly describes everyday life in 1950s Korea, and the war effectively parallels the battle raging in the family home—an insurmountable rift divides the family, just as it does their country. It’s a realistic sketch of a Korea that few Westerners have seen, depicting a patriarchal society that limits women’s choices, and each character faces a unique battle stemming from that unfortunate situation. Each of their stories is rich with emotion, and their problems give the novel depth and complexity. Most compelling are the struggles of Eum-chun, Mi-Na and Soo-yang as they fight to create their own identities; although they all fight similar battles, they cannot fight them together, as their society has driven wedges between them. Their resulting stories are often melancholy and achingly beautiful.
A complex, uniquely Korean love story that shouldn’t be missed.

During my May/June of 2013 author-visit stay in Seoul, Korea, one of the highlights was my interview with KBS’s international news anchor June Chang.  She produced a series of interviews as part of the embassy’s oral history programming, “America and Me,” for the observance of the 60th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement of the Korean War.  My portion of the interviews, 3-minutes long, has been posted to the embassy’s website and also on YouTube.  I plan to go into the embassy website and view interviews of other Korean War survivors, especially that of Gen. Baek Sun-yop, who played an absolutely pivotal role during the war.  In the “Korean War” section of my website, I posted pictures of a meeting of him and Michael (my husband and director of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.)  Here’s the link to the interview.

*The “America and Me” video, a Korean War oral history program by the American Embassy in Seoul, includes an interview of Maija Rhee Devine.  It has been uploaded on YouTube and posted to the US Embassy website. It’s a little over three minutes long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-6-Qm-MtEg

I am also adding a link to my Korea Times article, published on 7/27, again as part of the English language newspaper’s  remembrance of the Armistice Agreement.

*A Korean War story, “My Brother and General MacArthur,” by Maija Rhee Devine was published in Korea Times, 7/27/2013: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/culture/2013/07/145_140002.html

I know I have this info. on the home page of this website, but I wanted to add my feeling about these two posts.  These stories are specific to the Korean War but the emotion of grief over lost and maimed lives, fury of many depths and reasons for them, and the joy of newly-formed bonding and forgiveness, given and taken–or the despair of it neither given nor taken–are common to all wars.  I’d like to see these messages reach all those whose souls have been touched by wars.  I feel extremely blessed to have been given the opportunity to participate in these programs.  Thank you, war veterans and their families!

7/30, I went into www.GoodReads.com and I found 9 reviews that gave 5-star rating to The Voices of Heaven!  6 gave 4-stars and 3 gave 3 stars.  There are 20 pages of people who marked the book as their “to-read.”