Cho Myong-Hi

Cho Myong-Hi 

(pen name, Posok). Born 1894; died Feb. 20, 1942. Korean writer. Born in the village of Pyogam-ni, Chinchón District, Chungchong-pukto (North Chungchong Province). One of the founders of modern Korean literature. Ideologist of the Korean Federation of Proletarian Art.

Cho Myong-hi, a participant in the March 1919 uprising in Korea, studied in the philosophy department of the Oriental Institute in Tokyo from 1919 to 1923. In the stories “To the Land” (1925), “Comrade” (1926), and “Low Atmospheric Pressure” (1926), he depicted his fellow countrymen and their lack of rights. The story “The Naktong River” (1927) reveals the basic features of Cho Myong-hi’s writing—subtle lyricism, sincerity, and optimism.

In 1928, Cho Myong-hi emigrated to the USSR. He wrote poetry, essays, stories, and publicist articles on the life of the land of the Soviets. In 1934 he was accepted for membership in the Writers’ Union of the USSR. In 1937 he wrote the novel Manchurian Partisans (unpublished), which dealt with the Korean partisan movement in northeastern China.

WORKS

In the series Hyon dae Choson mun hak son jip, vol. 1. Pyongyang, 1957.
Cho Myong-hi son jip. Moscow, 1960.
In Russian translation:
Naktongan: Sb. rasskazov. Moscow, 1966.

REFERENCES

Li, V. N. “Vzgliady progressivnykh pisatelei Korei na literaturu i is-kusstvo (20–30-e gg.).” In the collection Problemy teorii literatury i estetiki v stranakh Vostoka. Moscow, 1964.
Li San T’ae. “Cho Myong-hiui ch’an jak kwajon gwa ku t’ukson ae taehayo.” In the collection Hyon dae chakkaron, vol. 1. Pyongyang, 1961.
Hyon dae Choson mun haksa. Pvongyang, 1961.

V. N. LI