Poet Yang Seong-woo publishes memoir

Poet Yang Seong-woo publishes memoir. February. 23, 2017 07:14. by Jong-Yeob JO jjj@donga.com. Yang Seong-woo (73), who is widely known as a poet and democracy activist, has published a memoir entitled “I Have Things that Transcend Tme with Me Now (Ilsong Book),” which presents stories about his fight against dictatorial military government during his youth. Yang was fired as teacher due to an incident in which he recited his poem “Winter Republic” in 1975.

“I don’t have much to take pride or brag about, but I hoped to inform readers and future generations that there is a life like mine,” Yang told reporters at a press meeting on Wednesday.

Yang Seong-woo (73), who is widely known as a poet and democracy activist, has published a memoir entitled “I Have Things that Transcend Tme with Me Now (Ilsong Book),” which presents stories about his fight against dictatorial military government during his youth. Yang was fired as teacher due to an incident in which he recited his poem “Winter Republic” in 1975.

“I don’t have much to take pride or brag about, but I hoped to inform readers and future generations that there is a life like mine,” Yang told reporters at a press meeting on Wednesday.

The memoir delivers accounts about him taking the lead in May 19 (1960) Revolution as a high school student, and his arrest in the classroom and eventual expulsion from the school soon after the May 16 (1961) military coup. It also presents panoramic stories during the democratization era, including those of literature movement and democratization movement he led and participated as a Chunnam National University student, the formation of the association of freedom writers with poets Goh Eun and Shin Gyeong-rim, his encounter with Prof. Lee Young-hee and Rev. Moon Ik-hwan and struggles for democracy, and the registration of his marriage with his wife while in jail. Poet Yang was indicted for the charge of publishing full-length novel "Slave’s Dairy” in the Japanese magazine "Sekai" in 1977, and handed a three-year prison sentence, before being paroled in 1979.

In 2015, the Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional the charge ‘defamation the nation’ he faced under the Criminal Code of the past, which he made appeal in the retrial of his case.

Yang, who served as the chairman of the Publication Industry Association of Korea from 2009 to 2012, expressed his opinion about the so-called "black list of people in the culture field" on the day. “As long as the sky drops rain evenly to this plant and that plant and as a result, create a thick forest, assistance for arts and culture should be provided to all,” Yang said.

The memoir delivers accounts about him taking the lead in May 19 (1960) Revolution as a high school student, and his arrest in the classroom and eventual expulsion from the school soon after the May 16 (1961) military coup. It also presents panoramic stories during the democratization era, including those of literature movement and democratization movement he led and participated as a Chunnam National University student, the formation of the association of freedom writers with poets Goh Eun and Shin Gyeong-rim, his encounter with Prof. Lee Young-hee and Rev. Moon Ik-hwan and struggles for democracy, and the registration of his marriage with his wife while in jail. Poet Yang was indicted for the charge of publishing full-length novel "Slave’s Dairy” in the Japanese magazine "Sekai" in 1977, and handed a three-year prison sentence, before being paroled in 1979.

In 2015, the Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional the charge ‘defamation the nation’ he faced under the Criminal Code of the past, which he made appeal in the retrial of his case.

Yang, who served as the chairman of the Publication Industry Association of Korea from 2009 to 2012, expressed his opinion about the so-called "black list of people in the culture field" on the day. “As long as the sky drops rain evenly to this plant and that plant and as a result, create a thick forest, assistance for arts and culture should be provided to all,” Yang said.