Min Jin Lee on "American Hagwon" and writing "social novels"
Summary
Min Jin Lee’s novel “American Hagwon” is the third book in her Diaspora Quartet, a series about Korean migration. The novel focuses on education, including hagwons, for-profit learning centers, and draws on thousands of interviews with people of Korean descent.Key Facts
- Lee’s novel “Pachinko” follows four generations of a Korean family living in Japan.
- “Pachinko” has sold more than two million copies in the United States and was adapted into an Apple TV series.
- “Pachinko” gained wider attention after it was named a New York Times best book of the year and became a National Book Award finalist.
- Lee describes the Diaspora Quartet as a series about the migration of Koreans around the world.
- Lee moved to the United States with her family in 1976, when she was seven, and grew up in Elmhurst, Queens.
- At Yale, Lee organized a letter-writing campaign that helped establish a Korean Studies program.
- Lee studied law and worked at a law firm before leaving to write fiction after her liver disease flared up.
- Lee says hagwons in South Korea offer paid instruction in subjects and career preparation, including English and K-pop.
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