Rice Paper Window

Korea Journal 1989

About

Christabel Choi enters South Korea in 1989 as a student of International Relations. She soon finds herself the only woman in the company of men in a Buddhist temple boarding house: as an honorary little brother.

At the university over the mountain, she realizes her classmates--who brought down the dictatorship only two years earlier--continue to lead the fight to eliminate the remnants of martial law and bring a decisive end to authoritarian rule. The next eight months pass in a contrast between the fight for democracy and the peace of the mountain and temple.

Recognizing this is an historic moment-both for Korea as a nation, and for herself newly immersed into Korean life-Christabel keeps a careful journal of her days. She records her frequent brushes with soldiers on the roads and mountain trails between her house, the campus, and throughout the city of Seoul. She shares a fresh glimpse of food, places, friendships, and customs as she encounters them for the first time.

This unforgettable memoir is both the coming-of-age story of a sensitive young woman, and the portrait of a country struggling to emerge from decades of occupation, war, and authoritarian rule into one of peace, democracy, and prosperity.

Praise for this book

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written coming of age tale

I so enjoyed this beautiful book. I learned about Korean culture, history and being the other through the eyes of a young woman. Personal tales combine with the backdrop of major changes in South Korea.

Ellen: Attleboro, MA, USA

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
Christa brings us into the enigmatic world of contradictions in the ROK's nascent democratization

Christa Choi offers a personal account of her trials and tribulations during a semester abroad in 1989 as an international student at Yonsei University, the center and hotbed of student demonstrations, while living and interacting with Korean students in the Yongam hermitage adjacent to Bongwon Temple on An Mountain behind the university. This was a pivotal period in Korea's process of democratization and nascent globalization. She presents us with thoughtful vignettes of her endeavors to bridge, understand and reflect on her cultural interactions with housemates, students, and monks, as well as policemen and soldiers tasked with quelling the activities of the demonstrators. She immerses us directly into her thoughts on the variety of experiences and sometimes convoluted interactions - between students and riot police, her and her various Korean acquaintances, between the secular and the profane. We accompany her as she grapples with her grasp of these interactions through her various “selves”; as a US citizen, an international studies student, a young woman patriarchal society, and a Westerner in the East. Christa brings us into a unique and enigmatic world of contradictions…. Dr. Ron Dziwenka, Salisbury University Department of History, U.S.A.

Dr. Ron Dziwenka, Salisbury University Department of History, Maryland, U.S.A.

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
An American in Korea, 1989

Christabel’s memoir makes me nostalgic for a place and time I’ve never been: South Korea in 1989. It reminds me of the hunger I had in my youth for new experiences, damn the discomfort. I did not know that tear gas was a powder and that the Buddha’s birthday was a day of celebration. Christabel said “yes” to everything, and I am so happy she is sharing it all with us now, thirty years later.

amazon customer, USA

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
Great book!

Amazing first book!

Sebrianne Moore, USA

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
FASCINATING AND BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN

Christabel Choi (SuJeong) has taken me on a Korean journey that has given me an adventure and immersion into a culture I knew little about; a time and place made real for me through her delightful and poetic writing; an experience I could never have had without this story of her vivid journal recollections.
It is a deeply intimate and personal telling, rich in meaning and a glimpse into a world I could not have had imagined otherwise.
It is an amazing accomplishment… so well done! It is not over, for I will read it again… and again… and again.
Highly recommended if you are interested in Korean culture and history, and in memoirs from fresh, absorbed eyes of international students abroad.

Stormy Weather, USA

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
Rice Paper Window powerful journal.

The author brought me along with her to feel and see that traveling to a foreign country can be enlightening and entertaining. It is an inspirational journey by a young woman and how it changed her world her views and her own expectations. An easy read for young adults in search of wisdom.

Maria, California, USA

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars
A charming, upbeat and fascinating read

This book is delightfully upbeat. It is a diary of an American student who lived in Korea in 1989 during a turbulent and fascinating time in that country's history. I was charmed by the author's curiosity about and keen eye for all aspects of Korean culture and everyday life, and by her voice that is both poetic and warmly unpretentious.

Bruce Esrig, USA