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The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Kindle Edition
by Hyeonseo Lee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 38,076 ratings
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom.
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told “the best on the planet”?
Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.
Print length
322 pages
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English
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On Kindle Scribe
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William Collins
Publication date
2 July 2015
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One of the tragedies of North Korea is that everyone wears a mask, which they let slip at their peril.
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North Korea is an atheist state. Anyone caught in possession of a Bible faces execution or a life in the gulag. Kim worship is the only permitted outlet for spiritual fervour.
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The Kims rule by making everyone complicit in a brutal system, implicating all, from the highest to the lowest, blurring morals so that no one is blameless.
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The sessions taught me a survival lesson. I had to be discreet, be cautious about what I said and did, and be very wary of others. Already I was acquiring the mask that the adults wore from long practice.
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Product description
Review
‘The most riveting TED talk ever’ Oprah
‘Harrowing’ Wired
‘A sad and beautiful story of a girl who could not even keep her name, yet overcame all with the identity of what it is to be human’ Jang Jin-sung, author of ‘Dear Leader’
‘Stirring and brave … true, committed, unvarnished and honest. Lee has made her own life the keyhole to the present, inside and outside of North Korea’ Scotsman
‘Remarkable bravery fluently recounted’ Kirkus
About the Author
Hyeonseo Lee grew up in North Korea but escaped to China in 1997. In 2008, after more than 10 years there, she came to Seoul, South Korea, where she struggled to adjust to life in the bustling city. Recently graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, she has become a regular speaker on the international stage fostering human rights and awareness of the plight of North Koreans. She is an advocate for fellow refugees, even helping close relatives leave North Korea. Her TED talk has been viewed nearly 4m times. She is married to her American husband Brian Gleason and currently lives in South Korea.
Product details
ASIN : B00JD3ZL9U
Publisher : William Collins (2 July 2015)
Language : English
File size : 2895 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 322 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 822 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)1 in Emigrants & Immigrants Biographies
1 in Political Freedom (Kindle Store)
1 in Practical PoliticsCustomer Reviews:
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 38,076 ratings
D. B. John was born in Wales. He is the co-author of THE GIRL WITH SEVEN NAMES, Hyeonseo Lee's New York Times bestselling account of her escape from North Korea (2015); FLIGHT FROM BERLIN, a thriller set during the 1936 Nazi Olympics (2012); and STAR OF THE NORTH, a thriller set in North Korea, the US, and China (2018). He lives in London.
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Hyeonseo Lee
A huge honor. THE GIRL WITH SEVEN NAMES is nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Memoir & Autobiography! THANK YOU to all our incredible #TheGirlWithSevenNames readers who made this possible. *cries* *flails* *dances* Thank you to everyone who has voted or is planning to vote! And if you loved the book and haven't voted for it yet, please do! https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-memoir-autobiography-books-2015
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Scott Kay
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing enthralling readReviewed in Australia on 28 February 2024
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Very well told. Kept me turning pages all the way to the end.
Should be recommended for everyone just to understand what it would be like to grow up in North Korea.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Page TurnerReviewed in Australia on 25 November 2016
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The author paints amazing pictures with words. I found it hard to put this book down and now that I've finished it I am a bit sad. Definitely worth reading if you're a fan of a gripping non fiction story
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Darryl Greer
5.0 out of 5 stars A REMARKABLE STORY BY A REMARKABLE LADYReviewed in Australia on 20 September 2020
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North Korea, a country less than a fifth the size of Texas, is probably the most secretive, yet most fascinating country on the planet. According to the CIA’s World Fact Sheet, it is one of the world’s most centrally directed and least open economies which faces stagnation, underinvestment and chronic shortages, largely as a result of large-scale missile and nuclear programs. Human rights abuses are rife and every aspect of the North Korean’s life is monitored and organised by The State. They are spoon fed propaganda and shielded from outside news and information, so that, according to their keepers, they are the most privileged people on earth. Freedom of movement outside the country is severely restricted, reminiscent of that line in The Eagles’ song, Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” So when someone does “check out” – unlawfully -- it’s a big deal. Hyeonseo Lee (her seventh name) checked out. Her autobiography, "The Girl With Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story" explains how. A New York Times bestseller, the book gives an extraordinary insight into one of the world’s most ruthless dictatorships; at the same time it chronicles the author’s harrowing journey from her humble home near the Chinese border, through China, Laos, and South Korea, being forced to double back at times, helping her family -- her mother and brother -- to escape as well. It was a journey that took years in circumstances that would probably lead most people to give up or even take their own lives. Assisted by David John, Hyeonseo Lee has written a masterful, gripping story that will have its readers turning pages as quickly as they would a fast paced thriller. It is a remarkable story by a remarkable lady.
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Dee
5.0 out of 5 stars wowReviewed in Australia on 27 January 2024
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book, so much that it was hard to put it down, I ended up reading it in a day.
You hear stories about N.Korea but wow, the outside world will never really grasp how bad things are for the people there, and how much suffering they endure.
Thank you to the author for sharing her and her family’s journey to freedom. One can hope that one day, all the citizens of N.K get their freedom
I highly recommend this book
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5.0 out of 5 stars What an incredible story.Reviewed in Australia on 23 June 2023
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My heart was beating in fear at every checkpoint she had to pass to get to freedom. A truly incredible story of an incredible young woman.
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Lis
4.0 out of 5 stars Griping ReadReviewed in Australia on 25 February 2017
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I thorough enjoyed this book. It gave a great first hand insight into life in North Korea and what an incredibly brave girl to achieve the freedom she achieved for herself, her mother and brother, not to mention the 3 other defectors. She deserves the best that life has to offer from now on!
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emma
5.0 out of 5 stars Different from other North Korean Escape storiesReviewed in Australia on 29 May 2023
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Amazing story and quite different from other North Korean defector stories. There are so many twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, gripping, compelling readReviewed in Australia on 26 July 2022
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A well written depiction of this courageous woman and her family's life, and presented in an almost detached manner, but it is totally heartfelt. Very thought provoking.
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Jaz
5.0 out of 5 stars FelizReviewed in Mexico on 5 April 2024
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Lo compre por qué me lo recomendaron...llegó en perfecto estado.....
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Pete V
5.0 out of 5 stars The Hermit Kingdom revealedReviewed in Canada on 12 February 2024
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Great read on what it's like growing up in a country you're brainwashed is the best, yet you have no idea what goes on in the rest of the world. Then her escape from it...
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Luvdapups30
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking, insightful, and complexReviewed in the United States on 15 January 2024
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Easy read, interesting and enlightening. I’ve read a couple of other books about NK, but none as detailed as this one. The author does a great job of explaining the complexity of leaving NK, not only in regard to logistics but in the emotional toll it takes on those who leave family behind.
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AmazonCustomer
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interestingReviewed in India on 27 July 2023
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An excellent book, where the content and the story telling are both captivating. Nobody should go to NK ever. It should be erased from tourist maps.
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RachelSophia
5.0 out of 5 stars without a shadow of a doubt, the best book i have ever readReviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 May 2022
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This wasn’t my usual type of book, however it was recommended to me and i first read the sample on my amazon kindle app. I was keen to read on.
As i started reading i could not put the book down! At the end of each chapter i felt compelled to read on. The story is incredibly shocking to me, I frequently relayed specific parts to my boyfriend and just had no words to describe it other than ‘crazy’.
The way it is written is wonderful, it feels as though you really get to experience the author grow up and change with each chapter. By the end of the book I couldn’t hold back tears, such an incredible story to share.
It’s certainly though provoking and raises awareness on the struggles of those who are defecting, the regime, and the importance of simple acts of kindness towards strangers.
I will forever recommend this book to people.
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Sung Jin
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August 30, 2015
Full Disclosure: I am a South Korean and I have encountered with a number of readings, TED-talks, Youtube videos on life in North Korea, testimonies of North Korean defectors on horrific lives in our neighbor country. However, I found this book intriguing, unique and inspiring.
What Hyeonseo offers in this book is quite different from other N.Korean defector's story. She's from a family with high class, had a relatively comfortable life to North Korean standard, and did not leave her country and family with the intention of never going back and in search for freedom. It is the realities of the ruthless, harsh regime that twists her path back to her country and she is thrown into a new universe where she had to make her own way. With more candor than emotion, she tells how she found the new world with freedom was also a world full of challenges and hardships, and how she navigated them to find her way through and found her identity as herself.
This book is also unique in a way it tells N. Koreans life in free countries can be challenging and not as rosy as many may simply imagine. How profound the propaganda is engraved in people's mind and perspectives, now the capitalistic life can be menacing, and how the sudden exposure to this unknown terrain could be as dangerous as to most defectors. All important topics and questions that deserve more attention among people in South Korea as host nations and be discussed to find better answers.
All in all, I think this book is a must read. Whether you want to 1)learn about the world's most ruthless dictatorship regime and how it systematically abuse its power for the benefits of the few and most people suffer not knowing life could be different elsewhere, 2) like to be inspired by a young woman who had the strength to navigate through series of life-changing, often life-threatening challenges, preserve the belief in herself and love for family, reunite with her family and herself in the end. Believe it or not, you will find both when you finish this book.
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Miranda Reads
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In North Korea the only laws that truly matter, and for which extreme penalties are imposed if they are broken, touch on loyalty to the Kim dynasty.
Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
Hyeonseo Lee grew up as a loyal and happy citizen of North Korea - the greatest country on earth.
Lee grew up believing that her leaders were gods - that they can be in two places at once, that stars appeared in the sky when they were born, that they (single-handedly) led their people to victory.
Sure, food was a bit scarce and there was always the danger of informers, but westerners were starving in the streets and US soldiers used South Korean children as target practice.
The older she grew, the more those beliefs began to crash around her.
One of the tragedies of North Korea is that everyone wears a mask, which they let slip at their peril.
Thanks to her mother's smuggling business, Lee was exposed to Chinese goods, fashion and Korean music.
All these things were deeply puzzling - if North Korea was the greatest, then how could these other countries produce such things.
Kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea. There is risk in helping others. The irony was that by forcing us to be good citizens, the state made accusers and informers of us all.
When she turned seventeen, Lee decides that she will cross over to China - just once - to see what it was like...only for her brief trip to turn into a decade-long journey.
She could never return but with rumors circling that her family is in jeopardy, Lee knows that she will have to go back...and get everyone she can out.
This is when I understood that we can do without almost anything – our home, even our country. But we will never do without other people, and we will never do without family.
I am absolutely blown away - and completely disgusted - with the way North Korea is.
Reading about her struggles and what she overcame was riveting.
I just can't get over how terrible her life was and the emotional upheaval she went through to get out.
It is one thing to read the bland newspaper headlines or news hosts reading off their prompts and it is completely a different thing to read a personal struggle.
Her writing was unapologetically honest and portrayed a heartfelt depiction of her personal battles.
Lee's life was truly amazing - I cannot do it justice.
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Read by Josie Dunn - who gave it just the right tone and inflection. Beautifully read.
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Dem
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January 2, 2018
What an interesting story and its so hard to believe that in this day and age that a whole nation of 25.5 Million people could be so cut off from the rest of the world and its leader could controll and dictate everything about peoples lives from birth to death.
I had read a couple of books on North Korea over the years and came across The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story and another book which I felt were both worth reading.
This book is easy to read and Hyeonseo Lee is certainly a lady with a lot of courage and if you enjoy reading about different culture and traditions then this is interesting and a great insight into one young woman's struggle to gain freedom. I watched a couple of you tube clips of this lady giving talks and she certainly is an inspiring and interesting woman and her book is an excellent insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships.
There were times in the story where I struggled with the authors choices and found myself wondering why she made some of the crazy choices she did and yet the more I though about it the more I realised she wasn't brought up as I was where making choices is something I take for granted, in her world life is dictated to you and you dont get to crave your own path in life so therefore choices and decisions must be very difficult to make when its never been part of your life.
Each chapter ends in a sort of cliff hanger which I found a little bit pointless as the book didn't need to be written in this format as the story is so compelling in itself but its only a small thing and doesnt take a way from the book.
The one thing this book really brought to light is just how confusing and challenging life in the free world can be for those who make the journey and the guilt and worry over family left behind.
An easy and insightful read and I think this would make a wonderful bookclub read for those looking for something a little different.
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Barbara
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November 29, 2023
Hyeonseo Lee
This is the true story of Hyeonseo Lee, a young woman whose escape from North Korea to South Korea - by way of China - was a daring and dangerous adventure. During her extended journey, Hyeonseo had to deal with liars, thieves, extortionists, and gangsters, some of whom were crooked cops/guards and some of whom were government personnel. But Hyeonseo was also assisted by extraordinarily kind souls, including friends, relatives, and a VERY generous stranger.
Hyeonseo grew up in northernmost North Korea, in Hyesan - a small city right across the Yalu River from China.
North Korea abuts eastern China
The city of Hyesan is across the Yalu River from China
Residents of Hyesan wash their clothes in the Yalu River, and can see China right across the way
Hyeonseo's family was fairly well-to-do; her father traveled to China for business and her mother brokered goods between China and North Korea - a job that required myriad contacts and bribes.
Like everyone in North Korea, Hyeonseo's family was indoctrinated into believing their country was the best place on Earth and the Supreme Leader was a god. In fact children thought the Supreme Leader didn't even sleep or urinate.
Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung was the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994
As part of their brainwashing, North Koreans were taught that South Korea was steeped in poverty; South Korean people were depraved; South Korea started the Korean War (North Korea started it); and western nations - especially the United States - were evil incarnate.
Other areas of education were equally poor, and adolescent Hyeonseo thought she could get pregnant by holding hands with a boy.
Because Hyeonseo's parents did profitable work and were loyal citizens, they had good 'songbun' - a status determined by the political, social, and economic background of oneself, one's direct ancestors, and the behavior of one's relatives. Good songbun confers access to better education, better jobs, and more food, while bad songbun can lead to hardship and deprivation. Thus, since all North Koreans (including children) are taught to spy on their neighbors and report any wrongdoing, everyone is concerned about their freedom, lives, and songbun.
After Hyeonseo's father died her mother had to support the family, so mom took a government job to supplement her income from trading. Things went pretty well until the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s. Reduction in Soviet food exports led to famine and starvation in North Korea, and - though Hyeonseo's family was able to trade for food - Hyeonseo saw terrible sights during this time, like skeletal parents and children starving in the streets.
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to famine in North Korea
The food shortage was blamed on South Korea, which is North Korea's favorite scapegoat for their problems.
Living right across from China, which was a few meters away, was too much of a temptation for Hyeonseo. So in 1995, when she was seventeen, Hyeonseo put on her best dress shoes, sneaked away from her mom, and - with the help of a friendly border guard - walked across the frozen Yalu River to China. Hyeonseo only planned to visit a distant aunt and uncle for a few days, but she never returned to North Korea.
Hyeonseo's first mistake was miscalculating how far away her relatives lived. During her first stop across the border, at the home of family friends, Hyeonseo learned her relatives in Shenyang were hundreds of miles away.
Shenyang is hundreds of miles from Hyesan
Since a train trip, with Chinese guards checking identification papers, would be too risky, one of the family friends took Hyeonseo to her kin by taxi....a ride of eight hours. Once there, Hyeonseo was told the North Korean authorities had learned she was 'missing' and her return would result in questioning and possibly torture and prison.....not to mention wrecking the family's songbun.
So, with the help of her aunt and uncle, Hyeonseo remained in China, hiding her identity and learning Mandarin. After a couple of years Hyeonseo's aunt and uncle arranged an engagement to a weak-willed Chinese mama's boy who played video games all day long. Hyeonseo couldn't abide the thought of marrying this loser and being under his mother's thumb, so she ran away without even leaving a note for her relatives or fiancé. Years later Hyeonseo called to apologize for the hurt and humiliation she'd caused.
After Hyeonseo left her aunt and uncle, she spent the next decade moving around China. Hyeonseo worked at a series of bad (even dangerous) jobs; pretended to be Korean-Chinese; and continually changed her name. Hyeonseo lived in constant fear of exposure, since being caught would result in immediate deportation back to North Korea.
North Korean agents in China report on countrymen who sneak over the border
Hyeonseo is candid about her stay in China, writing about her apartments, jobs, and friends, as well as the gangs and thieves that target illegals like herself.
After a time Hyeonseo managed to get a false Chinese identity, which increased her safety in the country. She also met a rich handsome South Korean businessman who worked in China. The couple embarked on a serious relationship, and Hyeonseo hoped for a marriage proposal. To make this more likely, and because she's an ethnic Korean, Hyeonseo decided to make her way to South Korea and ask for asylum. This was an audacious enterprise that required cleverness and nerve.
South Korea was a HUGE surprise to Hyeonseo, During her stay in China Hyeonseo had learned that South Korea wasn't the poor slum filled with demons depicted by her government, but - like other North Koreans - she didn't REALLY believe it. Thus Hyeonseo was shocked by the freedom and wealth of South Korea, especially the ubiquity of cars.
Hyeonseo was surprised by the wealth of South Korea
When Hyeonseo saw autos in a South Korean movie or soap opera, she thought all the cars in the country were brought to the set for that scene. Instead, South Korea is chock full of automobiles. 😊
To her dismay, Hyeonseo also found that South Koreans were intensely competitive and class-minded, and she was low on the totem pole due to her lack of a university degree.
South Korea is a very competitive society
So Hyeonseo devised a plan to go to school and become a professional, hoping her boyfriend's parents would allow him to marry her.
In the meantime, Hyeonseo - who'd been pining for her mother and brother since she left home - hatched a plan to bring her family to South Korea. This complicated scheme - which involved scheming, bribery, danger, crossing thousands of miles of China, entering Laos, and getting to the South Korean embassy - is narrated in minute detail.
The journey from Hyesan, across China, to Laos is long (and dangerous for defectors)
At one point Hyeonseo's mother and brother were imprisoned in Laos, and it was then that a complete stranger - a hiker from Australia named Dick Stolp - gave Hyeonseo thousands of dollars to get them out.
Hyeonseo Lee with her mother and brother
Hyeonseo Lee reunited with Australian good Samaritan Dick Stolp
One sad truth I learned from the book is that many North Koreans who escape to South Korea feel like fish out of water. Rather than being ecstatically happy, they long for their homes, friends, and relatives - and would even return to live under the repressive regime of their home country.
Though things didn't turn out exactly as Hyeonseo had hoped, she has a happy ending - with a western husband and a bright future.
Hyeonseo Lee and her husband Brian Gleason
Brian Gleason
Hyeonseo Lee has a fascinating story to tell, and provides interesting tidbits about North Korea, China, and South Korea. In truth though, Hyeonseo's life in North Korea was relatively privileged, and I didn't get the details about the horrors of the regime I'd hoped for. That said, this is an excellent story, highly recommended.
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Sarah Far
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- Only one person enjoys and enjoys human rights, and that is none other than leader Kim
- the leader is the only person in North Korea who enjoys freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of action.
- The leader has the right not to be tortured, imprisoned or even executed without trial.
- The leader has the right to have the best food and health care at his disposal.
- Most of the poems we read in class were about unifying Korea
- no ordinary person from North Korea is allowed to travel abroad, let alone emigrate
- these situations are just part of life in North Korea .
What is the threshold of human tolerance and how much can he become the lowest creature through torture but still know that he is human.
Perhaps this spark, that humans have thoughts and can change, has caused changes in the world and revolutions.
But whose name is the lottery of suffering?
The loves that are in captivity or because of the infamy of your country that will not end with you forever and freedom that changes its definition.
Is freedom what we see in our country or other countries?
I always think that our need for education
is always necessary and necessary.
We have even the smallest things such as feeling, critical thinking, expressing the right opinion, doing the right thing, and today I realized that literacy alone is not enough. Even if you have the highest degrees, but you haven't been trained or trained to live better, that degree won't do you any good.
Celine says: Even misfortune only has a buyer in good taste.
Not everyone is as lucky as this girl. When you were a child, your father taught you Chinese, which you hate, but he came to your aid in the most critical moments of your life. A merchant's mother who did illegal business and a person with sufficient understanding and bribed every guard and officer, which is common in North Korea.
But is everyone rich? Everyone has a chance to learn another language?
Certainly not. Because of this, many people lost their lives to achieve freedom and not suppress the human spirit.
I think of the title of Nikos Kazantzakis's book:
Freedom or death,
which is our choice?
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December 9, 2022
"My name is Hyeonseo Lee."
In all honesty, this book is a light read compared to other tales of leaving North Korea. The author must be one of the luckiest people alive; I can't imagine it going that well for anyone else. It makes for one of those harrowing stories that stresses you out (but only a little) because you know it turns out all right in the end.
I am not, by any means, trying to downplay her experience; it must've been terrifying. Personally, I would've been an absolute wreck--caught and thrown in a prison cell certainly. The fact that she made it out is extraordinary, and is undoubtedly due to her amazing resourcefulness, intelligence, and inner strength. Unfortunately, it was her selfishness, impatience, and poor judgment that got her and her family into the whole mess to begin with.
While I understand that this was life or death for her, I struggled the most with how she was willing to hurt, use, or bring shame upon others for her own personal gain. I also felt a strong emotional disconnect between her words and the horrendous events she experienced, which I'm guessing was cultural due to her being raised to either hide or control her emotions. Ultimately, I spent the book torn between being angry at her for risking everyone's wellbeing, and feeling empathy, because who wouldn't want to get out from underneath oppression that severe.
I would say that this is worth a read, especially if you don't know much about North Korea and the horrors happening there. It's particularly useful if your heart can't handle any of the gorier or more traumatizing stories others have experienced, but the subject matter still interests you.
"She would surely also have been astounded, as Brian and I were, to see her asking a waitress, in English, for another cup of coffee, and humming to herself, gazing across the sunlit canyon of skyscrapers, completely at her ease."
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Julia
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November 26, 2015
I did enjoy this but I also feel like she made a lot of really incredibly dumb choices that really made no sense. For example she stayed with relatives in China for 2 whole years (!!!) and didn't think of maybe using that time to get a job to save money, or to learn a vocation? Then she runs away penniless on the spur of the moment and has no plan of what to do. You had 2 years to think about it and relied on the kindness of distant relatives to support you, but you didn't think ahead of what to do next??
She seemed really naive in general, especially when she constantly turned to brokers for help, even though she clearly says again and again she didn't trust them. She was incredibly lucky and fortunate to have people around her who had a lot of money to constantly bail her out and those connections clearly helped her.
Also the fact that she didn't even know at first that people were starving in the 90s in N. Korea and she was eating meat daily, makes it clear that she lived a very insulated life there, and probably had a very different experience from the average N. Korean. I'd really love to know her mother's story, because to be honest, she sounds like a much tougher cookie than her daughter, cleverly supporting her 2 children and getting them through famine as a single mother. Wow, hats off to her!
I did enjoy this book because I'm fascinated with any books from N. Korean defectors in general, but my sympathies with her were limited. I'm glad she got out, and that she was able to help her family as well, but this is probably not the experience of most N. Korean defectors. I do wish her all the best and hope more people learn about what is going on in N. Korea.
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Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell
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THE GIRL WITH SEVEN NAMES is an amazing memoir written by a woman who defected from North Korea into China and then, later, into South Korea. The book starts with her family life in North Korea, which could be uncomfortable but was still livable. Then her father was arrested and later died, and the infamous famine following the collapse of the Soviet Union made things very difficult for her family. They moved several times, until finally, after coming full circle to Hyesan, a small city across the river from China, Hyeonseo Lee decided impulsively to leave.
China wasn't much easier. Hyeonseo had to hide her identity. Her aunt and uncle wanted her to marry a slacker who played video games all day, so she fled before the wedding and was nearly forced into prostitution on the pretense of working at a "salon." At one point, she was reported as a North Korean, and since China deports and repatriates people who flee there from North Korea, she had to convince the authorities that she was a citizen.
Once in South Korea, her life should have settled. She had a rich South Korean boyfriend and a much better job than she did in China, working off the books. But she had gotten so good at speaking Mandarin that they thought she was actually Chinese, trying to live in Seoul illegally, so this time, she had to convince the authorities that she was North Korean, seeking asylum. In the meantime, she was kept in a jail with women who were abusive and mean.
When she brings her mother and brother over, things get even more tense. Initially only her mother was supposed to stay, but then her brother got a call from his wife that the authorities were looking for him and knew he'd brought a woman over. They gave him a choice: he could come back with both women and get off lightly, but if he came back alone he would be in huge trouble. With a heavy heart, Hyeonseo's brother decided that he probably shouldn't come back at all, leaving his wife behind. But then, while trying to get them into South Korea from China via Laos, her family ended up getting arrested and imprisoned in an absolutely disgusting jail while Hyeonseo was stalled by corruption and red tape from the process of getting them out. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
The book does end happily. Hyeonseo, after breaking up with her Korean boyfriend due to differences in station, ends up dating an American man she met at an event. Her brother and mother eventually get over their homesickness and stop asking to return to North Korea. They overcome their racial biases towards Hyeonseo's new boyfriend/eventual husband, and all become closer because of it. Hyeonseo starts giving lots of talks about North Korea and defection and reconnects with the man who helped get her family out of Laos. It does end happily, but there is so much tragedy and suffering on the road to that happy ending that it feels absolutely exhausting.
I can't imagine what this woman went through. Her memoir is simply amazing. I loved her descriptions of the day to day life in North Korea, and could understand why her family didn't want to leave. Here in the U.S., we tend to only hear about a certain side of North Korea, and that country does have serious problems, but to the people who live there, it's home. The many small kindnesses people did her and her family, no matter where she was, will give you faith in humanity. And as for Hyeonseo herself, her quick-thinking and street smarts got her-- and her loved ones-- out of so many potentially hazardous situations that I really admired her all the more because of it.
Read this book if you want an inside look at North Korea and what it's like to live there, as well as what it's like to defect. This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a while and it would be a perfect book to pick up for Asian Pacific American Heritage month.
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Darryl Greer
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September 20, 2020
North Korea, a country less than a fifth the size of Texas, is probably the most secretive, yet most fascinating country on the planet. According to the CIA’s World Fact Sheet, it is one of the world’s most centrally directed and least open economies which faces stagnation, underinvestment and chronic shortages, largely as a result of large-scale missile and nuclear programs. Human rights abuses are rife and every aspect of the North Korean’s life is monitored and organised by The State. They are spoon fed propaganda and shielded from outside news and information, so that, according to their keepers, they are the most privileged people on earth. Freedom of movement outside the country is severely restricted, reminiscent of that line in The Eagles’ song, Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” So when someone does “check out” – unlawfully -- it’s a big deal. Hyeonseo Lee (her seventh name) checked out. Her autobiography, "The Girl With Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story" explains how. A New York Times bestseller, the book gives an extraordinary insight into one of the world’s most ruthless dictatorships; at the same time it chronicles the author’s harrowing journey from her humble home near the Chinese border, through China, Laos, and South Korea, being forced to double back at times, helping her family -- her mother and brother -- to escape as well. It was a journey that took years in circumstances that would probably lead most people to give up or even take their own lives. Assisted by David John, Hyeonseo Lee has written a masterful, gripping story that will have its readers turning pages as quickly as they would a fast paced thriller. It is a remarkable story by a remarkable lady.
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