of female legacies is a forceful theme in her writing
as she explores women’s relationships with their
families and communities.
Yun’s novels to date include House of the Winds
(2000) and Translation of Beauty (2004). Her
memory of standing in a cabbage patch during a
sunny spring afternoon, blissful and secure with
her mother, was Faulknerian in its power to inspire
Yun’s first novel. Readers first meet the girl narra-
tor, Kyung-A, in this dreamlike setting in Korea.
The novel chronicles the maturation of Kyung-A,
who begins to understand Korean women’s lives
through listening to traditional myths, neighbor-
hood women’s talk, and family stories. Her mother,
identified as Young Wife, weaves stories of magic
to create a world of possibility and security for her
children during the upheaval in the immediate
aftermath of World War II. Young Wife’s magical
tales for Kyung-A are tempered, however, by the
reality of women’s suffering, which is revealed
during other forms of female storytelling such as
Young Wife’s bitter conversations with her own
mother. To avoid the forced prostitution of young
Korean women by Japanese soldiers, Young Wife’s
mother had hastily arranged a marriage for Young
Wife, who protested against spending her life with
an unknown, older man. Ultimately her marriage
fails to provide security for her and their children
because he turns out to be a dreamer who pursues
financially fruitless schemes.
The strong mother and dreamer father appear
again as characters in the next novel, Translations
of Beauty, this time as the parents of South Korean
twin girls Inah and Yunah. When four-year-old
Inah’s face is tragically scarred, the family’s pain
and guilt force them to adopt the American dream
in hopes of remaking their lives. If a woman’s face
truly determined her fortune in Korea, then Inah
would never be accepted, so the family hoped that
their sacrifice of moving to America would enable
Inah to realize her potential by working hard. Re-
ality confronts the family’s dream, however, when
Inah suddenly drops out of graduate school at
Oxford University and backpacks to India. In an
attempt to bridge familial and geographical dis-
tances, the twins’ mother insists that Yunah find
Inah and tour Italy with her. In Italy, Inah earnestly
studies the museum exhibits while Yunah studies
her scarred sister juxtaposed against the glorious
art and landscape. Then Yunah learns to see be-
yond what the guidebooks instruct and recognizes
beauty in unexpected places and people. Since her
conversations with Inah are tense and terse, Yunah
communicates with her twin by writing letters. In
the process, she realizes that her family has been
using Inah’s scar as an excuse for their own unful-
filled expectations of their sacrifices.
The power of writing and articulated agency
are fruitful ways for thinking about Yun’s novels.
Yun intends for her novels to serve as bridges be-
tween the past and present and between individu-
als. Her stories present multiple voices of Korean
and Korean-American women who defy silence
and stereotyping. Both novels were first written
in English, a foreign language for the author. Yun’s
use of English to express Korean memories and
Korean-American experiences helps her to capture
the bilingualism and dual vision of immigrants. It
also points to the complexities wrought by the im-
migration experience.
Karen Li MillerYung, Wing (Rong Hong) (1828–1912)
The educator, reformer, and autobiographer
Yung Wing was born in the village of Nanping,
Guangdong Province in China. At the urging of
his father, Yung attended Mrs. Gutzlaff ’s School
in Macao and the Morrison Educational Society
School in Hong Kong, where English was the lan-
guage of instruction. Yung’s father, a poor farmer,
believed that such an education could lead to suc-
cess in a changing world. In 1847 Yung came to
America to continue his education, first at Mon-
son Academy in Massachusetts and ultimately at
Yale College, from which he graduated in 1854,
becoming the first Chinese person to earn a bach-
elor’s degree in the United States. Inspired by his
own educational experiences, Yung resolved to
reform China by making similar opportunities
possible for other Chinese.
After returning to China in 1855, Yung spent
several years as an interpreter and businessman,340 Yung, Wing