From cosmetics to kimchi, K-pop to Gangnam Style, the popularity of South Korea’s cultural influence, known as the Hallyu or Korean Wave, has swept across the globe. It’s a wave reflected in rapidly growing appreciation for Korean literature.
In 2021, 180 literary works were translated into 29 different languages with assistance from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea). This reflects foreign publishers’ escalating demand for Korean fiction. LTI Korea puts this down to the Hallyu’s ever-growing global influence, and to Korean writers like Yun Ko-eun and Ma Yeong-shin winning international awards. In 2016, Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction for The Vegetarian, a novel which deals with a woman's decision to stop eating meat and its devastating consequences. ..
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