How Artist Na Hye-sok Became a Threat to a Sexist Korean Society
She believed that for Korea to experience true liberation, women had to be freed first
In 1918, 22-year-old Na Hye-sok published Korea’s first feminist short story, Kyonghui. It’s a semi-autobiographical piece about a woman who returns home from Japanese university to be confronted by family members and neighbors who doubt the worthiness of educating girls. In Kyonghui, Na processes her own feelings about being an educated Korean woman and her frustration with the rigid gender roles in her home country:
“I’m a woman, and I am a Korean woman — a woman shackled by Korean society’s family conventions. If a woman tries to stand on her own, she will feel pressure from all quarters, and if she aspires to accomplish something, she will be criticized from all sides.”
Kyonghui would prove unfortunately prescient for Na Hye-sok.
Na was the daughter of a wealthy Korean family and graduated from Tokyo Women’s College of Arts in 1918 as the first Korean woman to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Western painting. A year after she published Kyonghui, when she was back in Korea, Na joined four other women, Kim Won-ju, Pak In-dok, Sin Chul-lyo, and Kim Hwal-lan, as they gathered in secret to launch the first issue of a new…
