In 2017, Choi visited Cuba. One day, while she was sitting, lost in thought, the image of her maternal uncle leaving his sick mother for Kaesong swam before her eyes, leading to the writing of her debut full-length novel Bright Night, which was published in 2021.
Initially, she didn't intend to write a novel that spans four generations, but inspired by her own storytelling grandmother, she began the novel from the viewpoint of a grandmother, who shares tales about her own mother and life.
As she wrote the novel, Choi began to think that the grandmother character was probably telling her stories to someone, and came up with the idea of the listener being her granddaughter, Ji-yeong. The granddaughter then became the central character in the novel, alongside her mother, the daughter of the storytelling grandmother.
In many of Choi's short stories as well as her novel, the mother-daughter relationship stands out as one of the most frequent topics.
" (That is) because the relationship between myself and my mother is one of the issues that I have been wanting to resolve," she says, adding, "among all the relationships, the mother-daughter relationship is the most complex.
"It naturally became a topic in my writing because fiction seeks to portray the complexity and diversity of human beings."
Friendship between women is another important topic.
When she was young, Choi says she often heard sayings like, "Women don't understand true friendship", "Relationships between women are too cunning", "True friendship only exists between men", and "A woman's biggest enemy is another woman".
"However, as I truly experienced life, I found that this was not the case. Nobody wants to help women more than other women. This made me start to ponder why there are so many ideas in society disdainful of women," she says.
"As a novelist, we must authentically portray reality, so I hope to truthfully depict through novels that genuine friendship exists between women, as well as mutual love."
Many readers feel a sense of healing from the love and friendship between the female characters in the novel.
Commenting on Douban, Chinese reader "Qijiu" writes: "When I read similar books about women before, I would always cry because of the women's hardships, thinking about how difficult it is to be a woman. Although this book also talks about hardships, every time I cry, it is due to the love conveyed within it. This love transcends the book, as if healing the little rebellious me, the present me."
Contact the writer at yangyangs@chinadaily.com.cn
