VOL.74/2024.09

Flowers of the Orient
– Bringing Korean Gems to Polish Readers

2023.05.02

Sixteen years ago, immediately after a fellow Korean Philology student and good friend, Edyta Matejko-Paszkowska, and I decided to establish a publishing house that was centered around Korean literature, people were perplexed. ‘Why?’ they asked. Few believed it was a great idea at the time, and some attitudes could now be considered mocking. However, now that the Korean wave (Hallyu) has reached Poland, they are no longer laughing. The popularity of Korean cuisine, language, dramas, and K-pop has extended to Korean literature.
Up until around 2007, a total of seventeen titles of what could be classed as modern or classical literature had been translated from Korean into Polish - extremely low compared to the likes of Japan or China, which both ran into the hundreds. Several key factors explain why Korean literature translations weren’t widespread. Firstly a lack of knowledge of the Korean language - Only a handful of Poles could speak Korean, and only a fraction (perhaps two or three) were suitably qualified and willing to take on the subtly challenging task of translating literature. Secondly, it was very difficult to persuade anyone to publish anything. Translation was rather a hobby or an academic project without a hint of commercial venture. Thirdly, it was extremely challenging to reach Korean writers to negotiate copyrights without their agents representing authors outside Korea. When you stop to consider the chasm between Polish and Korean cultures, it’s easy to appreciate the challenge faced by Kwiaty Orientu.
In 2008 we published three books from Korea; Oh Jung-hee’s Short Story Collections, Kim Young-ha’s The Vampire and other short stories, Pak T’aewon’s A Day in the Life of Kubo. The initial take-up wasn’t particularly encouraging, and interest from bookshops and journalists to write reviews was limited at best. However, an early turning point in our journey was when The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly (Sakyejul) by Hwang Sun-mi received an award -The Best Book Of The Year 2012 by portal granice.pl - The book gained wide recognition through various media and sales improved tenfold. As a result, more interest was drawn toward Korean books and our publishing house. We even recently released a second edition of this title:

Around this time, Shin Kyung-sook won the Man Asian Literary Prize for Please Look After Mom (Changbi). While still heavily with an Asian focus, Shin went on a World trip, which included a visit to Poland, to promote the novel, resulting in further success for the author and us, so much so that our fourth work under her name will be released in May 2023.

Perhaps the highest achievement to date for Korean literature on the global stage arrived in 2016 when Han Kang received the International Booker Prize for The Vegetarian (Changbi). We actually published this title two years prior!
The recent success of “The Parasite” winning the best picture Oscar, the global phenomenon that is “Squid Game,” K-pop sensation BTS, and several other influences have also helped the popularity of Korean literature. Consistently now, the Booker Prize includes nominations for Korean works, and large publishers are all-of-a-sudden after Korean titles. The sales of Korean books is growing fast.
But what makes us different is that Kwiaty Orientu is cooperating with the most experienced translators who are not only masters of both languages but also possess a comprehensive knowledge of Korea and its culture. Moreover, translating directly from the Korean language rather than English gives the company further superiority and uniqueness in the Polish market.
While initially extremely challenging to say the least, since we established the company, we have managed to craft key relationships to open up communication channels with Korean agencies and publishers to negotiate copyright and so forth.
Furthermore, at the beginning of our journey, only traditional media was available for promotion, and we were limited to literary magazines or specialist TV and radio broadcasts. However, the introduction of social media like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, along with our efforts to cooperate with their numerous and approachable specialist influencers, as well as now offering titles in e-book format, has put us on a positive trajectory into the future. Examples of famous influencers:

Written by Marzena Stefanska (Co-CEO of Kwiaty Orientu Publishing)