Event hosted by Asia Society in cooperation with Museum Rietberg as part of the exhibition "Hallyu! The Korean Wave"
 
Bora Chung has made a big entrance to the international literary scene with Cursed Bunny.  Her short story collection – the first to be translated into English – was shortlisted for both the International Booker Prize in 2022 and the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2023. It has been hailed as genre-defying, somewhere between horror story and science fiction, full of darkness and humor. It gives insight into modern Korean society, rendering everyday situations into miniatures of absurdity: a woman who is pregnant from taking too many contraception pills and faces pressures from society; short-lived romances with android companions; animals plaguing families over generations as revenge.
 
Bora Chung provides us with a take on South Korea that differs wildly from both the glittery world of K-Pop and the straightforward criticism of society as shown in the Oscar-winning movie Parasite or the hit series Squid Game. The questions she tackles range from: How to be (a woman) in contemporary South Korea? What is it like to have sense of self as a machine? Which of our actions will come back to haunt us?
 
Find out more about the event here.
 
Venue: Debattierhaus Karl der Grosse, Kirchgasse 14, 8001 Zurich
Tickets: here