Kim Jiyoung is an ordinary woman who extraordinarily embodies every woman: a daughter, sister, businesswoman, wife, and mother. Her story brutally captures the inescapable gender inequities across the world through a Korean lens.
The first page of Cho Nam-Ju’s 2016 novel “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” drops the reader into a world of chaos as protagonist Jiyoung navigates a period of psychological distress. She alternates personalities, imitating the women she has been surrounded by throughout her life. As she assumes these roles, her husband’s growing concern lands her in therapy.
This explosive beginning pulled me in from the first paragraph, proposing the question: Who is Jiyoung? Does she actually believe she is all these women? Perhaps in an attempt to answer my inquisitions, the author dives in at the very beginning: her childhood.
Jiyoung’s youth is filled with gender discrimination both at home and at school. From being called greedy by her grandmother for eating more than her younger brother to having to wear dress shoes to school (because girls don’t play like boys at recess), the gender inequalities simmer to the surface.
When Jiyoung graduates from college and enters the workforce, she is met with the shattering reality of discrimination. She accumulates a laundry list of “justifications” for her rejection, among them future maternity leave, being a distraction, and having an innate sensitive personality.
“What do you want from us,” the author writes to sum up the experience. “The dumb girls are too dumb, the smart girls are too smart, and the average girls are too unexceptional.”
Although “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” takes place in Korea, Jiyoung’s experience in the workplace mirrors many American offices. The setting: men in glass-doored offices with one to five women hired for diversity statistics looking in. Throughout the novel, footnotes supplying statistics and facts that reveal the fiction to be harsh reality.
I know, I’ve just recited a plethora of devastating moments — but there are scenes of beauty in the book, too. “The job did not pay well or make a big splash in society, nor did it make something one could see or touch, but it had brought her joy,” Jiyoung writes, aptly portraying the independence her job provides her. “It afforded her a sense of accomplishment when she completed tasks and climbed the ladder, and gave her a sense of reward knowing she was managing her own life with the money she earned.”
However, as in most patriarchal societies, Jiyoung is expected to leave the workforce and become a mother shortly after she marries. “Jiyoung said they weren’t planning on having children yet, but the elders were convinced, regardless of Jiyoung’s input, that she couldn’t get pregnant, and proceeded to investigate,” Jiyoung writes, describing the immense pressure to have children. “She’s too old. … She’s too skinny. … Her hands are cold. … She must have bad circulation. … The zit on her chin is a sign of an unhealthy uterus. … They concluded the problem was her.”.
Thus, Jiyoung becomes a mother and the next chapter of her life —and the book— begins.
One of the most heartbreaking moments of the novel is when Jiyoung wishes to return to work but cannot because of her expectation to stay home and care for her daughter. When an exhausted Jiyoung goes for a walk to the park with her daughter in a stroller and buys a coffee, she is called a “mum-roach” by local businessmen.
This offensive term merges mom and cockroach, distorting the realities of motherhood. The men view her as a caricature— an image of a lazy mom with a peaceful baby in her arms while her husband devotes his life to his career. The reality is the polar opposite: a mom cooking family meals, cleaning the house, and expressing endless love for her newborn.
Now, what I am about to say is a bit of a spoiler … so skip this paragraph if you would like to.
The novel ends where the story began. Through her husband’s eyes, Jiyoung has lost her mind.
However, I propose an alternate interpretation: What if the many roles Jiyoung sampled throughout her own life (daughter, sister, businesswoman, wife, and mother) are simply who she has become? What if by just living an ordinary life, Jiyoung truly is every woman?
In conclusion, I would recommend “Kim Jiyoung, Born in 1982” to everyone. The novel captures the challenges of the modern-day woman with searing accuracy.
As such, I would be remiss not to mention the implications this novel had in Korean society. The book was published in Korean on January 1, 2016, and in English on March 2, 2021 (translated by Jamie Chang). The author Cho Nam-Joo wrote the story in three months with the aspiration to historicize the experience of a Korean woman in the 2010s.
The ordinary nature of the story made to believe that it would be difficult to land a book deal. H, however, the novel has received international acclaim and success. “Kim Jiyoung, 1982” aided in sparking #MeToo and Escape the Corset (a movement dedicated to rejecting unattainable South Korean female beauty standards).
This novel is a remembrance of the past and a call to better the future. “Kim Jiyoung, Born in 1982” is a must-read, carrying a history and legacy to be remembered for decades.
Caroline Kelly (PO ‘27) is from Boston, Massachusetts. Her ideal afternoon involves reading and cold brew.
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