Kang Gyeong-ae

Kang Kyŏngae (; 20 April 1906 – 26 April 1944) was a Korean writer, novelist and poet involved with the feminist movement. She is also known by her penname Kang Gama.

Biography Kang Kyŏngae was born in Songhwa County, Hwanghae Province, Korean Empire and had an unhappy childhood. She was the daughter of a servant and lost her father at the age of five. She was then forced to move to Changyeon where her mother remarried a man with three children. All of these circumstances resulted in substantial unhappiness.

Kang was something of a prodigy and started teaching herself to read the Korean alphabet when she was eight years old using her step-father's copy of the Tale of Ch’unhyang at a time when female literacy was not greatly valued. By age ten, she had been nicknamed the “little acorn storyteller” ), and moved to Manchuria as a newlywed, married to a communist who had divorced his first wife. She lived as a housewife in Yongjin and began to churn out literary works. This period lasted seven years after which Kang ceased writing fiction altogether.

Works in English From Wŏnso Pond (Feminist Press 2009) The Underground Village (Honford Star 2018)

Works in Korean The Broken Geomungo (Pageum 1931) Mothers and Daughters ( 1931) Comet (Hyeseong 1931) The Front Line (Jaeilseon 1932) Vegetable Garden (Chaejeon 1933) Football Game (Chukgu jeon 1933) Existence, Nonexistence (Yumu 有無 1933) Fathers and Sons (Buja 1934) The Human Problem (Ingan munje 1934) Salt (Sogeum 1934) Drugs/Magic Medicine (Mayak) Mother and Child (Moja 1935) Writer's Fee: 200 won (Wongoryo Ibaekwon 1935) Layoff (Haego 1935) Underground Village (Jihachon 1936) Mountain Man (Sannam 1936) Darkness (Eodum 1937)