“The kind of person who has a transcendent willpower, who loves the art of written letters, and a writer who breaks down religious boundaries with written pieces, and who brings to light our society and reality with intellectual, brilliant written words.”

These are some assessments of the late novelist Yi Chong-jun (1939-2008).

“Both life and writing are like strolling along a mountain path in the deep, dark night,” Yi said in an interview, “I feel a bit sorry that I’ve not yet found the right path and am still on the journey to find it.”

Throughout his roughly forty-year journey, he has produced many great works. Among them is “Your Paradise,” a full-length novel published in 1976.

That volume reached a global audience and was published in English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese.

The novel, set in a leper hospital on Sorokdo Island in Jeollanam-do (South Jeolla Province), concerns the conflict and reconciliation that takes place between leper patients and a greedy hospital director.


The leper patients have been taken advantage of by the current and previous hospital directors who are themselves blinded by self-interest and desire. As the title indicates, the island, as well as the hospital that is on it, is a paradise for the directors, not for the leper community.

Due to a deep-rooted distrust, the patients have resisted opening their minds to any of the directors. And then one day, a new director, Jo Bak-heon, comes to the hospital.

Jo vows to transform the island into a paradise for leper patients. The patients, however, laugh at him and dismiss his intentions as merely attempts to seek out his own benefits, just as his predecessors did.

The new director, though, never gives in and tries hard to win over their hearts, by forming a soccer team consisting of leper patients. It really helps to revitalize the island. He also proposes that an area of reclaimed land across the island be developed to create vast farmland and also that a bridge be established to connect the island to the mainland.

Due to his hardworking nature and sincere efforts to make the island a better place for them, the islanders slowly open their hearts and increase their level of trust in him.

Through this work, the writer expresses his serious skepticism and deep feelings of doubt against the world he lives in, a world that has been programmed only for “you,” not for “us.”

“At some point in my life, I wished that I could transform ‘Your paradise’ into ‘Our paradise,’ and I was sure that the day would come,” said the writer. “When the day comes, the expression, ‘Your paradise,’ or the book itself will become useless. When the day comes, does it mean that it’s the time when we can go from saying ‘your’ paradise to saying ‘our’ paradise? The answer depends on you. The answer is yours,” he added.

Born in 1939 in Jangheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, (South Jeolla Province), Yi Chong-jun graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in German literature. In 1965, as a senior at university, he made his literary debut with a short story “Leaving the Hospital.“ After graduation, he began his career as a writer in earnest. In 1999, he also served as a chair professor of creative writing at Sunchon National University until he passed away in 2008.

His works include the novellas “The Falconer” (1969) and “Seopyeonje” (1993), as well as short stories, “Stupid and Fool” (1967) and “The Cruel City” (1978).

By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
jiae5853@korea.kr