Seesaw Girl (8 page)
Authors: Linda Sue Park
She wanted to see their colors change in the fall, and the snow frosting them like rice powder in the winter. She wanted to paint them rising like ghosts from the fog and blazing with glory in a sunrise. And one day, perhaps very soon, she would see for herself the long snake of people climbing the mountain on an ancestral feast day.
In the flush of her success Jade even thought wildly that she might one day be able to glimpse over the mountains themselves, to whatever lay beyond them.
Its not enough,
she thought.
But I will learn to make it enough.
And she felt as though she had wings on her feet as she hurried with the bowl of rice so the men would not have to wait for their evening meal.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Beginning in the sixteenth century, Korea followed a policy of isolationism. For nearly three hundred years contact was maintained only with China and, to a lesser and more hostile extent, with Japan; Korea acquired the nickname "The Hermit Kingdom."
In the 1600s, when this story is set, Dutch explorers reached Korea for the first time. Attempting to sail from China to Japan, the
Sperwer
(Sparrow), with thirty-two sailors aboard, lost its way during a storm and ran aground at Cheju Island off the south coast of Korea. The sailors were detained in Korea from 1653 to 1666, when a handful of them escaped to Japan.
Among them was Hendrik Hamel, who kept a journal about his experiences. For the purposes of the story, I have taken a slight liberty with the actual dates of certain events recorded by Hamel. The Dutch sailors were taken to Seoul in 1654 and lived under house arrest for nearly two years; it was not until 1656 that a final decision was made to allow them to live.
Communication with the sailors initially took place via the interpretive efforts of a Dutch sailor who had been shipwrecked some twenty-five years earlier. Jan Weltevree had also been forbidden to leave the country, and had settled into life there as an adviser to the military, introducing the cannon to Korea.
Korea continued to repel foreign visitors until 1882, when its first treaties with the Western world were signed. It would have been not Tiger Heart himself but his descendants who eventually brought about this change.
***
The lives of aristocratic women and girls throughout the Choson period in Korea (1300–) were severely circumscribed. A girl lived in her family home until she married, after which she moved to her husbands home. She might be permitted to visit her parents' home for special celebrations, and she usually attended their funerals; however, after marriage a woman was considered a member of her husband's family, not the family in which she had grown up. This is why there is no mention of Jade's maternal grandparents in this story.
Sometime during the Choson period, a policy was instituted requiring all men to be indoors after dark. Women were then allowed to walk the streets without fear of being seen by strange men. The women would throw long coats over their heads in case there were men about who disobeyed the law. Many visitors to Korea in the nineteenth century remarked on this custom; however, Hamel does not mention it in his journal, so perhaps the policy was not in place at that time. In telling Jade's story, I tried to imagine a life with as little access to the outside world as possible, so the nighttime excursions were not included.
The artists and writers in Jade Blossom's time were all men. Girls received no formal education; practically their only artistic outlet was embroidery. But while she would not have been able to read or write, a girl did not need a formal education to become a painter. It would have been a great struggle for her, but in every place and age there have been people possessed of such courage.
There is a famous image in Korean art of the mountains as seen in the distance from behind the walls of the city. I like to think that at least a few of the anonymous renditions of this image were painted by women—women who, as girls like Jade, had a great yearning to see beyond the wall.
***
The "standing and jumping" seesaw has been used in Korea for hundreds of years; indeed, the "sitting-down" seesaw was unknown there until the years of American influence after World War II. As indicated by Bear's enthusiasm, the seesaw was popular among both young girls and boys, although by the time boys reached their teenage years, they disdained it as a girls' game. In a further refinement, a third person squats in the center of the board to keep it from slipping off the fulcrum.
When I was growing up, my mother made a Korean seesaw in the backyard of our Chicago suburban home. It took a lot of practice, but once my brother and I learned how to use it, we had great fun sending each other flying into the air. And I have a Korean seesaw in my backyard for my own children.
Jade Blossom's seesaw is still used in Korea today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carpenter, Francis.
Tales of a Korean Grandmother.
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LINDA SUE PARK was born in Urbana, Illinois, and has degrees in English literature from Stanford University, Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of London. She has worked as a journalist and a food writer and has won awards for cooking. She currently teaches English as a second language. She has lived in France, Ireland, and England, and has traveled widely in Europe and Asia.
As a child, Ms. Park read about the Choson period (1300–1900), when Korean girls were not allowed to leave their homes. The idea horrified and fascinated her, and was the starting point for the story that became
Seesaw Girl.
"Sometimes people ask me how long it took to write this book," Ms. Park says. "I answer, 'Either six months or thirty years!'"
Linda Sue Park lives in Rochester, New York, with her husband and their two children.
JEAN AND MOU-SIEN TSENG are a wife and husband team who came to the United States from Taiwan. They have illustrated nearly two dozen books for children, many on Asian subjects; this is their first for Clarion. The Tsengs live in Glen Cove, New York.
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