KOREA FOUNDATION

'Fifty People'
Chung Serang, 2016, Changbi Publishers

Fifty People is a novel that depicts the stories of fifty people — actually fifty-one — whose lives revolve around and intersect at a university hospital in a metropolitan area. The stories, each of which centers on a different hospital worker, visitor, or person in the neighborhood, seem to end as brief episodes, but as the reader turns the pages, it becomes obvious that all of the characters’ lives cross each other at unexpected moments. Unknowingly connected, the characters happen to be gathered in a building when a fire erupts. The novel comes to an end as they join forces to overcome the crisis.

Author Chung Serang says, “I think what keeps the world from falling apart is a loose and transparent net connecting people who unconsciously brush past one another.” In the midst of the prolonged social distancing period incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like quite a long time since we were able to meet face to face. I recommend reading this book while looking back upon your relationships — both short and long — to pass the unusually long hours at home. It would be particularly fun to map out the characters’ relationships in a diagram. I look forward to the day when we will again venture out into the busy streets and encounter our neighbors, who might share moments of human contact with us.

Written by Yoon Jiyoung, Deputy Director, Economic Cooperation Team, Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat

Next month’s “KF Culture Walk” will be written by Lee Eun Ji, Assistant Director, Invitation and Fellowship Department.

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