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Women in Motion: Sport and Self-Discovery in Korean Literature scrap download
움직이는 여성들: 한국문학이 그리는 스포츠와 자기발견
A popular saying on Korean social media holds that “kindness comes from stamina.” The idea is simple: to be kind and good-humored toward other people, you need energy left over after studying, working, and simply getting through the demands of everyday life. The phrase struck such a chord that it even inspired the title of a bestselling essay collection on the importance of exercise, Kindness, Too, Comes from Stamina, by the Korean-born former Google executive, Lois Kim.
Stories about women and sports that began as an effort to build a strong and capable body rather than a slim, beautiful one are not about winning and losing—they are records of personal growth, recovery from emotional hardship, and experiences of forging communities through running, competing, and sharing the physical give-and-take of sports. Since Kim Honpi’s Elegant and Cheerful Women’s Soccer became a bestseller in Korea after its publication in 2018, and has steadily been introduced overseas, “women who play sports” have become an enduring presence in Korean publishing.
Across both fiction and memoir, these books about women and sports explore how strengthening the body transforms the way they inhabit their lives, making them more active and assertive. Some learn to swim, while others discover running. Some take up martial arts, while other falls in love with boxing. The books introduced here are just a handful of Korean titles centered on women in motion. Rather than leaving women on stadium stands as spectators, they place them on the field, exploring how physical movement becomes a path toward self-discovery and solidarity. The selection favors the latest publications.
There Are Times When Everyone Needs a Kick is an essay collection by Do Jehee, who unexpectedly takes up Teukgong Musul, a Korean martial arts known for techniques that are applicable in real life. An ordinary office worker, Do suddenly finds herself training alongside a stern instructor and classmates young enough to be her nieces and nephews. As she stumbles her way into life at the gym, the quiet wisdom about life, as suggested by the chapter titles—“Friendship Has No Age,” “When You Hit Bottom, Rise Again,” “Pay Attention to Your Opponent’s Signals”—naturally emerges through training. By embracing unfamiliarity and seeking out discomfort, Do shows how exercise can reshape not only the body but one’s entire outlook on life.
Lucky Punch is a young adult novel by Lee Song Hyun, who has written children’s fiction and poetry. The protagonist is seventeen-year-old Nagyeom, who along with her friends, signs up at the Lucky Gym, determined to finally succeed in losing weight this time. Instead, the shabby old boxing gym becomes a place where they discover unexpected sides of themselves and of one another. As one memorable line in the novel puts it, although they come to learn boxing, they find themselves opening their hands to pat the backs of those beside them far more often than raising their fists. Warm and funny, this novel blends sport, comedy, and coming-of-age to remind us that sometimes friendships grow strong through an exchange of a few blows.
The essay collection Countryside, Women, Soccer captures another quietly flourishing phenomenon in Korea: the growing popularity of women’s amateur soccer. Like the hit television variety show Kick a Goal, it follows women who become devoted to the game. The book first attracted attention after winning the grand prize in the 11th Brunch Book Project, where it was selected from over 8,000 submissions. Living in Hongdong-myeon, a rural village in South Chungcheong Province, author Noh Haewon begins playing soccer alongside local women, most of whom have never kicked a ball before. She vividly recounts three years of training and matches, from the exhilaration hidden inside sheer physical exhaustion to the joy of gradually learning to move in harmony with her teammates.
Super Rookie, a young adult novel by Kim Youngri, winner of the Proon Literature Award for young adult fiction, turns its attention to women’s volleyball, a sport with one of Korea’s most passionate fan bases. Its protagonist, Gu Nain, is a rising star whose promising career in volleyball is interrupted by a serious injury during her first appearance for the national youth team. Haunted by the fear of getting hurt again, she loses the joy she had once found in playing with others. Super Rookie follows her journey as she overcomes trauma, rediscovers her dream, and learns to trust her teammates once more. With warmth and emotional strength, the novel suggests that team sports ultimately require learning to recognize and accept that everyone moves at a different pace.
The final book, The Brain on the Road, is an essay collection by Dr. Jung Se Hee, a rehabilitation physician and professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine. Having been a dedicated runner for more than two decades, she writes about her experience of running, arguing that a healthy brain depends on a healthy body, and that maintaining physical fitness requires “workout savings”: reserves of health that sustain both body and mind. She encourages readers to run—for our brains to run on the road—as an investment whose returns accumulate over a lifetime. Writing this book has brought Dr. Jung to a wider audience through appearances on YouTube channels and television, including the popular Korean talk show You Quiz on the Block. This book, in particular, makes readers’ ears perk up, as it is a personal memoir about running and health written by a medical doctor.
Written by Lee Dahyeh
Lee Dahyeh is a writer, translator, journalist, and podcaster specializing in books and film. She is the author of essay collections including Jokes from an Old World, A Spell for the Morning Commute, and The Language of Cinema, and has translated works including 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet into Korean. She is a staff writer for the film magazine Cine21 and hosts Reading Chemistry, a literary podcast produced by the ebook platform Millie’s Library.
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