In many traditional literary works, the image of the mother is mostly beautiful, industrious, authoritative, and may even be perfect. However, South Korean newcomer writer Kwon Ting-hyun's picture book "My Mother" broke the perfect mother image, refused to mythologize motherhood, and won the highest award of Korean publishing , the Korean Publishing Culture Award.
At the award ceremony, author Kwon Ting-hyun said: "I hope to let more people around the world realize that mothers are also living beings and are a human being like us." ”
In May 2022, Relay Press will introduce Chinese Simplified edition of the book. More readers will see Kwon Ting-hyun's portrayal of an embarrassed, lazy, and even a little embarrassed mother, the author uses real life scenes to pull all readers back to reality, so that everyone realizes that the new life form of mother is also an ordinary person living.
"My Mother" studies and records the mother from the perspective of the child, focusing on the real state of the mother taking care of the baby - because of the birth, so the figure is out of shape; because of the night feeding, so sleepy during the day; because of the need to take care of the baby all the time, so their own life has become embarrassing...
The author's baby, born in 2014, drew a line draft in 2017 and was officially published in South Korea in 2021. Kwon Ting-hyun said that because mothers are a relatively private topic and books are a more public space, there has been no reason to present such a private topic in the book. And looking back on the fragile time in the past, it is not very comfortable, so it is always repeated between looking at it and giving up, and I am also afraid that after disclosing my motherhood, being an author will have many limitations. But in the end, the psychology of "should say it" overcame the idea of "not worth saying", so "My Mom" was released.
Mothers, who are accompanied by the birth of children, are born together with the newborn group, and they may live a little depressed, but it is this kind of resignation that has achieved the greatness of mothers.
(Photo courtesy of publisher Wu Yanran)