In this Issue
The Spring 2016 issue of the Asia Literary Review is a celebration of contemporary Korean literature from the country's most exciting young writers.
This issue also includes an essay on Korean Literature by Deborah Smith, translator of Han Kang's The Vegetarian, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Click here for launch events and PHOTOS.
This is not a story about Li Xiaolong, also known as Bruce Lee. And I'm not saying that my uncle is Bruce Lee. My uncle was simply one of the countless ordinary people who admired Bruce Lee. At that time, we were all fans of Li Xiaolong. Was there ever a boy who hadn't hit himself on the back of the head while having a go with those nunchucks? We wanted to have a fist as fast and powerful as his, and back muscles as broad as a straw floor-mat...
My mother and father were seventeen when they had me.
I turned seventeen this year.
I have no idea if I will live to see eighteen or nineteen.
That isn't something I can decide.
All I can be sure of is: there isn't a lot of time.
Children grow bigger and bigger.
And I grow older and older...