Starry Field by Margaret Juhae Lee

Author:Margaret Juhae Lee [Lee, Margaret Juhae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

DR. SHIN

On this day in Seoul, I am on my way to visit Dr. Shin, who I first met with my parents the day before my grandfather’s reburial ceremony in 1995. If anyone knows where my grandfather’s records are housed, it is my father’s former classmate, who is now one of the foremost experts on Korea’s colonial era and a government advisor.

The Seoul National University subway stop isn’t at the university like I expect it to be. I can see the buildings of the most prestigious school in Korea in the distance, miles up a steep hill. I call my research assistant Jungmin on my borrowed hand phone.

“Take a taxi up,” she says in her perfect English, honed by four years at UC Irvine. “That’s what I did. It’s a long walk up the hill.”

Without Jungmin I would be lost, that I know. I meet her in front of the history building and give her a list of questions I have prepared for Dr. Shin.

We walk up the dirt-streaked concrete stairway to the second floor. Why are all floors in Korean public buildings filthy? I wonder to myself. Jungmin firmly taps the knocker on the appointed door.

Dr. Shin greets us in his black socks and khakis with a hearty baritone. We take our shoes off at the door, and he leads us past half a dozen rows of packed bookcases to the buffed wooden desk at the back. He surprises us and booms in English.

“Your gr-r-r-randfather, he was a gr-r-r-reat man!”

Tony the Tiger flashes in my head. Jungmin’s palm flies up to her mouth to stifle an onslaught of giggles.

“He was a gr-r-reat leader. A gr-r-reat thinker. An idealist.”

Dr. Shin pauses to take a deep breath.

“If he hadn’t died so young, he could have been an official in the North Korean government. Maybe even second to Kim Il Sung!”

Jungmin stops giggling long enough to lean into me and whisper, “Or he could have been purged.”

I know that Dr. Shin is spouting hyperbole, but I smile and go with it. My grandfather might have been a member of the Communist Party, but he was no guerilla fighter. Although Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader, North Korea’s first demagogue, might not have been either, even though his “official” hagiography claims he was.

Dr. Shin is enjoying the moment. His arms wave, his chest swells. He is performing admirably for his audience of two single women. He trots over to the far bookcase and removes a well-read hardback, the same book he showed my father while he was on sabbatical almost fifteen years ago.

“See, look here. Here’s your grandfather’s name—Lee Chul Ha.”

I recognize the Korean characters of my grandfather’s name but little else.

“He staged demonstrations against the Japanese colonial government at his high school in Kongju. He was a student leader of the nationalist movement.”

WHEN I FIRST MET DR. Shin with my parents, I was twenty-eight, the same age as Jungmin. I was living in San Francisco then, the place where dissatisfaction reigned—with my art museum career, with my choice in men—but at the time I wasn’t ready to do anything about it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.