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The Cultural Frontline: Cho Nam-Joo: The untold story of Korean women

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Cho Nam-Joo: The untold story of Korean women

08/02/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, Cho Nam-Joo: The untold story of Korean women

How the novelist helped spark Korea’s #Metoo movement

As the rise of feminism and the #MeToo movement continue to make a big impact in Korean society, we meet the women who are defying tradition in order to write their own narratives with their art. 

Cho Nam-Joo is the author behind the controversial novel, Kim Jiyoung, born 1982, at the centre of Korea’s new feminist struggle. She discusses how her book sparked a national discussion and why she’s telling the story of a very ordinary woman in order to challenge the country’s restrictive gender norms. 

K-Pop has long been entangled in the debate about sexist attitudes in Korean culture, and some women from within are speaking out. Amber Liu made her name as one fifth of the Korean girl group f(x), where she was both loved and scorned for her unique androgynous style. She tells us how she’s continuing to break the mould with her new solo music. 

While some are tearing traditional culture down, visual artist siren eun young jung is fighting to keep it alive. But her focus is a form of traditional performance theatre that is only open to women - yeoseong gukgeuk. Siren tells the Cultural Frontline why she’s spent a decade preserving this lost art and staging new performances. 

A city and its communities divided by race. The Korean-American author Steph Cha reflects on the continuing legacy of the 1992 Los Angeles riots in her new novel Your House Will Pay.  

Presented by Tina Daheley

Image: Cho Nam-Joo
Image credit: Choi Seung-do

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