Topic" Childhood Memories under the Korean War: Reading Kim Jung Sun's "Hide and Seek"

Text / Zhang Jingyi (Children's Literature Researcher)

Hide and Seek/Hide and Seek is a game that children love, and this game is about hiding and finding. On the cover of the book "Hide and Seek", a little girl is lying on a ridge, unfolding the back of the book, and a bright moon hangs high in the night sky. How can the child hide in the field at night? This hide-and-seek game looks very unusual.

Two girls with the same name live near Dalseong in Daegu, South Korea. One child is Park Shunde of the winery and the other is Lee Shunde of the bike shop. The two children are always tired of being together. Unfortunately, the civil war broke out, and people took refuge in droves. Usually, their brief separation was a small hiding. Now they are facing a big hiding of life and death. Tibetan.

At dawn, crowds of people rushed to the evacuation site. Park Shunde's parents were also busy making preparations, but they put their luggage in the cellar where the wine urns were usually stored, and the family planned to stay in place for shelter. The good friend Li Shunde's family has already set off. Feeling the unusual atmosphere, Park Shunde hurried to say goodbye to his good friend. Park Shunde, who stayed in his hometown, said reluctantly, "Let's play hide and seek? I'll be a ghost (catcher) first." , After Li Shunde set off, the text changed to "Hide and Seek" nursery rhyme, symbolizing that Li Shunde was hiding everywhere like a hide-and-seek.

On the way to escape, Li Shunde's ears were filled with the song of the captors, but this time the content was changed to, "Be careful to be found by the moon", "Be careful to be found by the sun"... The usual small game has now become a arduous journey of trekking through mountains and rivers. On the way to escape, the Li Shunde family slept in the open-air bean fields. During the day, they crossed the river. Because the bridge had been bombed, they hid in the grass when they were bombarded. People flock to the refugee camp near the Nakdong River. They are crowded in temporary tents. The refugee camp is crowded. Where is Li Shunde hiding?

The asylum is over, and now Li Shunde is going to look for Park Shunde. She happily returned to her hometown from the refugee camp. On the screen, the nursery rhyme "Hide and Seek" appeared again. Li Shunde found his own home and found his friend's puppy in the ruins full of bullet casings, but where is his good friend hiding? Is the game you hide me looking for over?

In the end, Li Shunde sat down on the hill and shouted, "I can't find it!" The seasons changed, until the snow covered the earth, and in the silver-white world, there were still only lonely footprints.

Pu Shunde, the child of the brewery, dropped a shoe in a hurry when he ran to find Li Shunde, who was about to take refuge. At the end of the evacuation, Li Shunde, who returned to her hometown, hurried to find Park Shunde of the brewery. She was so impatient that she lost a shoe while running. At the beginning, Park Shunde of the brewery lost his left shoe. Now, Li Shunde of the bicycle shop lost his right shoe. They were always together until the war separated them, and the two lost shoes meant that they were always in pairs, even if the war separated them forever.

Picture book writer Kim Jung-sun likened the two children who were temporarily separated due to the war to a game of "hide-and-seek". From the first appearance of the two little girls, "Hide and Seeker" heralded the atmosphere of the era shrouded in war. Behind the two children holding hands is a shadow that resembles a tank. The temporal and spatial background of the story is the story of refugees in Daegu, the last evacuated city during the Korean War. This is a rare record among the materials written about the Korean War. In the picture book, the refugees wading through the "Wokan Iron Bridge" and returning home after a brief refuge, revealing the important background of the Korean War, the "Battle of Nakdong River".

Kim Jung-sun wrote this book when his elderly mother said, "That day, I was lying in a bean field preparing to sleep, but I didn't expect the night sky to be so beautiful." The childish eyes may not understand the horror of war, but in the eyes of innocent children, seeing No fear and anxiety about war, until daily happiness is deprived.

The 20th century was the age of war, and this work is an adult's memory of the war they experienced as a child. A short picture book can never handle the intricate history of war, but the condensed scenes and unusual childhood experiences make war and childhood history into the vision of picture books. ●( The original text was first published on the official website of Openbook on 2022-09-10)

Hide and seek <br class="smart">숨바꼭질 by Kim Jung-sun (김정선)
Translator: Yin Jiaxuan Publisher: Qinglin Culture

About the Author: Kim Jung Sun

Because of my mother's words "that day, I was lying in a bean field preparing to sleep, but I didn't expect the night sky to be so beautiful." This "Hide and Seek" story was started. Because it's a story we need to know, we want to at least find a chance to tell it once. The books written and drawn by myself include "My Brother Golden Spots" and "Baseball", and the books that I am purely responsible for drawing include "Buy Daddy's Millet Wine", "White Rice and Barley Rice", "Aunt Tail Plays with Me", "Make Shoes" Trees" and other books (all the above are tentative names).