Luke Davies
After Gwangju
Human Acts
By Han Kang (Translated by Deborah Smith)
Portobello Books 224pp £12.99 order from our bookshop
Following the assassination of the South Korean military dictator Park Chung-hee in 1979, his protégé Chun Doo-hwan extended military law, banning political protest and closing universities. This resulted in the now infamous Gwangju Uprising in May 1980, in which students and factory workers joined forces to protest against government violence and censorship. The army responded ruthlessly and the resulting massacre left six hundred dead, as well as large numbers of people physically and psychologically damaged by the torture, imprisonment and bereavement that followed.
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