Younghill Kang
Younghill Kang was a significant figure in the early Korean American literary scene, born on June 5, 1903, in Hamkyung, Korea (now North Korea). His early education included Korean and Chinese classics, and he actively participated in the March First Independence Movement against Japanese occupation, leading to his imprisonment. After escaping to Canada in 1921, he pursued further education at Dalhousie University and later at Boston and Harvard universities, where he earned a master’s degree in English education. Kang began his writing career in English following his marriage to Frances Keely, contributing articles to various publications, including the Encyclopedia Britannica.
His notable works include the autobiographical novel *The Grass Roof*, published in 1931, recognized as the first Korean American novel, and *East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee*, released in 1935. Despite the latter's mixed reviews, Kang's literature provided critical insights into the immigrant experience and American society. In addition to his writing, he held teaching positions and served as a curator of Asian art. Kang also worked as a political analyst during the U.S. Occupation of Korea after World War II. His legacy includes promoting Asian literature in the U.S. and earning an honorary doctorate from Korea University in 1970. Kang passed away in Florida in December 1972.
Subject Terms
Younghill Kang
Korean-born novelist, writer, and scholar
- Born: June 5, 1903
- Birthplace: Hamkyung, Korea (now North Korea)
- Died: December 11, 1972
- Place of death: Satellite Beach, Florida
Early Life
Younghill Kang was born on June 5, 1903, in the province of Hamkyung in Korea (now North Korea). He learned Korean and Chinese classics from the early age and, in 1914, traveled to Seoul to pursue a higher education. He briefly taught at a women’s high school established by Canadian missionaries in Seoul, but he soon quit the job to help Mrs. H. G. Underwood, the wife of famed missionary Horace G. Underwood, translate Christian apologist John Bunyan’s allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. In 1919, Kang participated in the March First Independence Movement to protest Japan’s occupation of Korea, which had begun in 1910. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese police. After his release, Kang attempted to flee from Japanese-occupied Korea and finally succeeded in 1921 with the help of a Canadian missionary. He first went to Canada and studied at Dalhousie, a missionary college in Nova Scotia, from 1920 to 1922.
Kang eventually settled in the United States and attended Boston University and later Harvard University, where he received his master’s degree in English education in 1927. He did not start writing in English until he married Frances Keely, a Wellesley graduate from Virginia, who helped Kang embark on his career as a writer. In 1928, he began writing articles for the Asian art and literature section of the Encyclopedia Britannica and contributing to various magazines and newspapers.
Life’s Work
In 1928, Younghill Kang began to write his first autobiographical novel. Meanwhile, he taught in the Comparative Literature Department of New York University, where he socialized with well-known intellectuals such as Thomas Wolfe. In 1931, with Wolfe’s help, Charles Scribner’s Sons published Kang’s novel, The Grass Roof, which was based on his childhood in Korea. The well-received book was the first published Korean American novel.
In 1933, with a Guggenheim Fellowship, Kang traveled to Europe with his family and worked on his second novel. While he was in Europe, The Happy Grove, a children’s version of The Grass Roof, was published.
Kang returned to the United States in 1935. Two years later, his second autobiographical novel, East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee, was published, again by Scribner’s. Unlike his first novel, it failed to receive favorable reviews due to its critique of American society and race relations. Unable to obtain a stable position in the academia, Kang also worked as a curator of Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
After the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in 1941, Kang quit his jobs and worked for the US Army to support war efforts. When World War II ended, he visited Korea as a civilian employee of the US Occupation Army, taught briefly at a Korean university, and contributed as a political analyst and adviser for the United States. He eventually returned to the United States in 1948 and continued holding various teaching positions in the East and the Midwest, lecturing on English literature, Asian history and culture, and Latin American studies. Kang also had a passion for writing plays; in the 1960s, he completed a play entitled Murder in the Royal Palace.
In addition to writing his own works, Kang introduced English translations of Korean and Japanese literature to the American public. With his wife, Kang translated Korean poet Han Yong-woon’s Meditation of the Lover into English in 1948; however, it was rejected by Scribner’s and not published until 1970. In 1954, he translated Michiro Maruyama’s nonfiction account Anatahan, which became the basis of the Josef von Sternberg film about Japanese mariners marooned on a Pacific island in the late 1940s.
In 1970, Kang received an honorary doctorate from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. He died in Florida in December 1972 after suffering a massive stroke.
Significance
Younghill Kang, a pioneer of Korean American writing, shed light on immigrant experiences as well as political and social aspects of American society through his literary career. His eloquent writing style and critical views offer valuable commentaries and resources to understand Korean and Asian American communities in the early and mid-twentieth century. Kang also made significant contributions as an academic; he helped establish comparative literature programs at New York University to promote knowledge of and interest in Asian history and literature.
Author Works
Fiction:
The Grass Roof, 1931
The Happy Grove, 1933
East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee, 1935
Drama:
Murder in the Royal Palace, pr. 1964, pb. 1974
Bibliography
Fenkl, Heinz Insu, and Walter K. Lew, eds. “Younghill Kang.” Kori: The Beacon Anthology of Korean American Fiction. Boston: Beacon, 2002. 85–101. Print. Includes a biography of Kang and excerpts of his novels.
Kang, Younghill. The Happy Grove. New York: Scribner, 1933. Print. A children’s version of The Grass Roof, Kang’s first autobiographical novel.
Kim, Elaine H. “Searching for a Door to America: Younghill Kang, Korean American Writer.” Korea Journal 17.4 (Apr. 1977): 37–48. Print. A short article that introduced Kang and his English novels to American readers.
Kim, Wook-Dong. “Murder in the Royal Palace: A Four-Act Play by Younghill Kang.” Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, 2017, pp. 152–68. MLA International Bibliography, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2017420360&site=eds-live. Accessed 30 June 2017. Explores how Kang wrote Murder in the Royal Palace and discusses the play as political satire.
Knadler, Stephen. “Unacquiring Negrophobia: Younghill Kang and the Cosmopolitan Resistance to the Black and White Logic of Naturalization.” Rediscovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature. Ed. Keith Lawrence and Floyd Cheung. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2005. 98–119. Print. Focuses on Kang’s East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee and analyzes American race relations based on Kang’s own experiences and fictional characters.