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Jinwoo Park

@jinwoo-park.com

4K followers 1.8K following 470 posts

Writer, Translator (Kr-En), Debut novel, Oxford Soju Club, coming in Sept 2025, 111k on TikTok https://linktr.ee/jinwoopark0721

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Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · Feb 4

Reposting to replace Amazon links

Oxford Soju Club, Sep 2025

An NK spy, a Korean CIA Agent, and an SK restauranteur get entangled in a spy game. A metaphor for the diaspora

Indigo: www.indigo.ca/en-ca/oxford...

Bookshop: bookshop.org/p/books/oxfo...

B&N: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oxford-soj...

Reposted by Jinwoo Park

Anton Hur @antonhur.com · 2d

“the nobel can’t possibly award an Asian lady after it awarded an Asian lady last year”

and ofc they’re kind of right? it just tells you what kind of prize it is

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 3d

I see a lot of people in Montreal blaming bike paths for their small businesses not doing well.

Have they considered that their business just suck?

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 5d

Happening tonight in Philadelphia. Last event for a while until November.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 7d

A good friend who helped me in Chicago needs a few more participants for their dissertation research on discrimination and social anxiety felt by Asian Americans. If you're Asian American, over 18, and currently in the US, please try this short survey - luc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 11d

Next stop is Chicago!

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 11d

Reminder during this Canada Post strike.

It's a service, not a business. Should the fire department make profit?

If anything this is a sign that it should be a government agency like the USPS.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

And shout out to all the Korean women born in the year of the White Horse who had sensible parents.

Or mothers, because in many cases it was the father and the family on the father's side that pressured the mother.

Keep that fire inside you burning brighter than ever.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

To me, that sums up why feminism in Korea was not only direly needed, but was inevitable.

Because as recently as 1990 and 2002, women were considered so worthless by huge swaths of Korean society, that many aborted them than to risk bringing completely made-up misfortune to men around them.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

Important side note.

When there is a gender imbalance with less women than men, birth rates tend to go down. This is because birth rates are inherently limited by the number of women.

Yet another reason why it's not women's fault that the birth rate is low.

It's the patriarchy, stupid.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

And let me tell you, they never aborted boys for reasons like this, if at all.

Had I been discovered to be a daughter in my mother’s womb, there's a good chance I would not be here.

That, my friends, summarizes how Korean society regarded women with such little value.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

Now superstitions aside, the real issue here was, patriarchy:

1. They didn't want strong-willed women, considering girls worthless if they weren't submissive.

2. They cared more about the well-being of men so much that they aborted girls who could bring imaginary harm to men in the future.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

1990-1996, gender imbalance of babies got so bad, that there were worries about a future with no women. But this didn't end.

In 2002, the Year of the Black Horse saw 109.9 boys to 100 girls.

Only by 2014, the Year of the Blue Horse, the birth ratio improved to 105.3 boys to 100 girls.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

Not everyone went to abort their girls. Some went to elaborate lengths to avoid having a White Horse daughter on paper. Girls born in early 1990 were sometimes registered as late 1989, while those born near the end of the year had their paperwork delayed until 1991.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

As a result, in 1990, South Korea’s birth ratio for boys to girls hit a record level of 116.5 to 100.

And this was while South Korea was already suffering from a big problem of gender imbalance, with each year seeing less girls than boys born.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, technology like ultrasounds made it easier for parents to learn whether they'd have a son or a daughter beforehand.

So, when families found out they'd be giving birth to a girl in the year of the White Horse, many decided to abort their babies.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

But 1990 was a special year. It was the Year of the White Horse that comes every 60 years.

This was considered to be the worst year to have daughters. This was the worst of all the Horse years. Girls born in this year would have the strongest will, and would bring disaster to the men around them.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

In Korea there used to be widespread belief that if a girl is born on certain years in the Zodiac cycle, that girl will have a strong will and therefore bring misfortune to their husbands, even shorten their husbands’ lives. They were mainly the years of strong animals, like the Horse and the Tiger.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 13d

The year I was born, 1990, was the year when tens of thousands of girls were aborted for no other reason than being girls.

This is the story of the Year of the White Horse.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 14d

Edmonton was a blast. See you soon Calgary at @shelflifebooks.bsky.social

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 16d

In 1981 Korea under Chun Doo-hwan's dictatorship, 22 people were arrested and tortured in a bunker for being in a bookclub with made up charges that were nothing but a blatant attempt to create terror for the citizenry in order to uphold and stabilize Chun's power grab.

Reading is political.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 18d

See you soon Winnipeg

Reposted by Jinwoo Park

Anton Hur @antonhur.com · 19d

"Emerging literary translators often come up and tell me how much they want to be like me. They mean well, and more power to them, but I do find myself thinking: Are you sure about that?"

I wrote an article about burnout for KLN:

KLWAVE - Magazines | Korean Literature Now | Articles | Articles View

KLWAVE brings together Korean literature information about rights, publishers, authors, titles, and translators all on a single website.

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 21d

See you at Nooroongji tomorrow!

Free tickets are all gone but if you pre-order a book from the shop, you can reserve a spot!

www.eventbrite.ca/e/book-launc...

Book Launch: Oxford Soju Club ft. Authors & Vanmak

Join us to celebrate the launch of Oxford Soju Club with author Jinwoo Park, in conversation with Eddy Boudel Tan!

www.eventbrite.ca

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 22d

Some details from a Hyundai worker who was detained:

- Forced to sign arrest warrants
- Cells for 72 people with 4 toilets and 2 urinals, all exposed
- Moldy bunk beds
- Given spoiled water
- Put in prison uniforms

No wonder the Korean government is launching a human rights abuse investigation

Jinwoo Park @jinwoo-park.com · 24d

There's success. And then there's 'you get on your hometown Korean community's newspaper' level of success