The 'Nobel Prize' Han River Book Is a Deadly Book?... Gyeonggi Office of Education Dismisses the 'Vegetarian'

ⓒYonhap News Agency

While author Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the fact that elementary, middle and high schools in Gyeonggi Province classified Han Kang's "vegetarian" as harmful books last year is being re-examined.

After the announcement of Han River's Nobel Prize in Literature on the 10th, online said, "A book discarded by the school library in Gyeonggi Province received the Nobel Prize in Literature." "I'm curious about how you feel at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education," a post has become a hot topic.

This is a reference to the scrapping of 2,528 books, including "The Vegetarian" by Han Kang, at the library of elementary, middle and high schools in Gyeonggi Province last year in the name of "inappropriate sex education books for teenagers."

In May, the Democratic Party of Korea's Kang Min-jung's office said that according to the "Status of Abandoning Sex Education Books" submitted by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, the discarded books included "vegetarian," Choi Jin-young's "proof of the sphere" who won the ideal literature award, and "City of the Blind" by the Nobel Prize-winning subject Saramagu.

However, only one of the 2,528 discarded books was found to be designated as harmful books for juveniles in the Publication Ethics Committee's deliberation.

In this regard, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education said, "Some organizations sent letters to schools indiscriminately to demand the disposal of sex education books," and "The Office of Education simply investigated how it was managed at the school site, not instructed to dispose of it."

Internet users criticized, "Do you accept all malicious complaints?" "It's a revolutionary library that discarded the representative work of Korea's first Nobel Prize winner," and "Korea's education is far away."

Among them, a netizen filed a complaint with the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education saying, "We strongly urge the 'vegetarian' of Han Kang, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, to be re-arranged in elementary, middle and high school libraries as soon as possible and designated as recommended books for teenagers."

On the same day, the Swedish Academy announced that it had "selected Korean writer Han Kang" as the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the second time that a Korean has won a Nobel Prize after the late former President Kim Dae Jung, who won the Peace Prize in 2000.

Winners will be awarded 11 million krona in prize money, about 1.34 billion won in Korean money, medals, and certificates.

Reporter Lee Yu Na from Digital News Team.