Black Flower: A Literary Epic of Star-Crossed Love – Korean Emigrants and Revolution in Mexico

by Young-ha Kim, Charles La Shure (Translation)

“‘Can a nation disappear forever?’ . . . [In] a tale of collective loss, political revolution and the individual quest for self-determination . . . Kim brings us the souls caught up on the ground of this larger drama." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

In 1904, facing war and the loss of their nation, more than a thousand Koreans leave their homes for the promise of land in unknown Mexico. After a long sea voyage, these emigrants — thieves and royals, priests and soldiers, orphans and entire families — discover that they have been sold into indentured servitude.

Aboard the ship, the orphan Ijeong fell in love with a nobleman’s daughter; separated when the hacendados claim their laborers, he vows to find her. Then, after years of working in the punishing heat of the henequen fields, the Koreans are caught in the midst of a Mexican revolution. A tale of star-crossed love, political turmoil, and the dangers of seeking freedom in a new world, Black Flower is an epic story based on a little-known moment in history.

“Kim is at the leading edge of a new breed of South Korean writers.” — Philadelphia City Paper

“Spare and beautiful.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review

"Readers who remember the historical fiction of Thomas B. Costain, Zoé Oldenbourg and Anya Seton will appreciate [Kim’s] extensive research and empathic imagination." — Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Asia, Historical, Asian Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Kim Young-ha is the author of seven novels, including the acclaimed I Have the Right to Destroy Myself and Black Flower - and five short story collections.

He has won every major Korean literature award, and his works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He lives in Seoul, South Korea.

Reviews

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Korean books, there is mostly this feeling of "Han", a word which is very typical for Korean and mostly can be described as: "as an internalized feeling of deep sorrow, resentment, grief, regret and anger. In fact, it's so Korean that there's no equivalent for it in the English language." (taken from Google)
This book definitely incorporates Han and embeds it into the fates of approx. 1000 Korean refugees in Mexico who are actually sold to slavery. The loss of their home, their family and even their own identity leads to a chaotic mix of despair and violence in a country which is also burning from its own revolution.

If you are interested in learning about Korean culture and history with bits of Mexican history, this will be something for you. But it's hard to pinpoint this one as historical fiction or just any category. This book also deals with religious, political, social and cultural ideologies and crisis. Without a basic knowledge in Asian/Korean literature/history, you may lose the interest in the book within the first pages or you will have a hard time to go through the story.
And if you need a happy, everyone-will-be-good, ending, this is definitely not for you.

I love his short story collection 오직 두 사람 and I still think his writing style is impeccable. I can't imagine how any translation may catch his writing style and the subtle notes of Korean language into any other language. As someone with Korean roots: The feeling to lose a place to call a home, to have nowhere to go back and to not be able to even love just anyone; all these paired with rather dry reporting language, made it harder not to care. It's like watching someone who is in so much pain and sadness, but still can't cry.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed Kim's previous novel in translation, Your Republic is Calling You, and eagerly picked this up as soon as I heard the premise. Following the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1905, a number Koreans emigrated to other countries, including more than 1,000 packed on the British steamer, Ilford. Having eagerly signed contracts with the Continental Colonization Company, they were bound for Mexico, where they believed high wages and a better life awaited them. (Several thousand Koreans came to Hawaii around the same time for the same reason.) However, the passage across the Pacific (which the first 1/4 of the book details) was their first hint that their new life might be harder than expected. Packed below decks in conditions only marginally better than an Atlantic slave ship from a century before, the Koreans underwent gruesome hardships. Once in Mexico, they were transported to the Yucatan and sold into indentured servitude on large henequen plantations or haciendas, to work alongside native Mayans.

Kim attempts to dramatize all this through the eyes of several fictional characters, including a poor teenage boy, a family of the royal clan (including a comely teenage daughter), various ex-soldiers, a thief, a former Catholic priest, a eunuch musician, and even a shaman. The short sections alternate among the characters, as the reader learns what drove them to the desperate decision to leave their homeland, and how their sense of social order is upended in their new circumstances. Although the book more or less makes the two teenagers and their love story its center, it suffers from too many shifts in perspective. This gets worse in the last third of the book, when he periodically leaves the Korean workers to zoom in on some diplomatic efforts being made on their behalf, as well as various Mexican aristocrats plotting during the Mexican Revolution.

These all feel like the mistakes of a writer trying historical fiction for the first time -- there's often the sense of research getting shoehorned in, simply because the author had facts at his disposal. Several times, the book totally grinds to a halt for an info-dump that reads like a cleaned-up Wikipedia entry (for example, the details of the henequen plant, or the background to the Mexican Revolution). It's a fascinating little historical episode, and Kim is very effective at portraying the suffering, but it never really worked for me. While it might be true that Koreans fought alongside Pancho Villa and Zapata, and founded the short-lived nation of New Korea in the jungles of Guatemala, those threads arrive so late in the book and are given so little space, that they are robbed of their potential. A fascinating piece of history, disappointingly told.

[Olga Kowalska (WielkiBuk) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very original and historically accurate story of a small group of Korean immigrants that on the beginning of the 20th century ran from occupied Korea to Mexico. Almost incredible, mixing true facts with simple, emphatic prose it is a real treat for every reader who wants to experience something new and worth knowing.

[yelenska · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author's note: Why did I call the novel Black Flower? Black is a color created by combining all the other colors. Similarly, everything is mixed together in this novel - religion, race, status, and gender - and what emerges is something completely different. The feudal order of Korea collapses in an instant. But there is no such thing as a black flower; it exists only in the imagination. In the same way, the place that the characters in the novel hoped to go to is a utopia that does not exist in reality. They arrive in the wrong place and live out their lives there.

This book was excellent, very well-written. I strongly disliked Diary of a Murderer, but this book made me reconsider the author's talent lol. My favorite part has got to be the first quarter of the book, the one happening on the ship. Just as it is hinted at in the author's note, once all these people are on board, class distinctions are no more. Some are peasants or soldiers, but there are also literari and aristocrates. Those from the higher classes obviously expect the other Koreans to treat them as they would have on Korean soil, but they rapidly understand that it will not be the case anymore. On the ship, there is no distinction, everyone lives and sleeps together, everyone eats the same food after having queued for it, everyone goes to the same toilets. No privacy for anyone, even the rich; from now on, they will share everything, including sea sickness, strong promiscuity and bad hygiene.

The book leans very strongly on the historical side of fiction so, if you don't like a book that has a lotttttt of reminders about what happened in history (during the 20th century in Korea, Japan and Central America, but also during the modern period with Spanish colonizers) then you should definitely skip this one. Although it was well written, I have to admit that, in the end, there was so much history that it just made me want to finish the book once and for all - that, and also the fact that the book is heavy in many ways, there are just so many traumatic experiences in this book. That's the only reason I lowered it to a four-star read; otherwise, it would have been a five star read by far.

The author definitely shows a good understanding of human nature and knows how to portray different mindsets, different personalities, all living a common experience, but in a different way. For example, on the ship, aristocrats are apalled by the living conditions on board, whereas peasants are kind of happy about it because, even though it is clearly dirty, for the first time in their lives they don't have to work - and they even get a meal! Without doing anything! Another example that comes to mind, that shows the author's ability to portray very different people and mentalities is how, at first, the Mayans are the one who work fastest (obviously they know the soil and the plants better than Koreans as foreigners), but after a few weeks, Koreans start surpassing these people. Why should you ask? The Mayans have been stripped from their nation, from their home, whereas the Koreans in this story have a nation, a home to get back to (or so they think). It's that spark of hope that drives them.

The book also raises questions on identity and the idea of a nation. What is a nation? What is identity once you are far away from home, with no hope of ever returning? Can you feel at home in another place than the place you came from? Should you try to force yourself to adjust to this new place, or should you seek to create something else?

[Kimia ⛥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب درمورد یکی از رویدادهای کمتر شناخته‌شده در تاریخ مهاجرت کره‌ای‌ها به آمریکای لاتین در اوایل قرن بیستم نگاشته شده است. داستان با الهام از مهاجرت واقعی بیش از هزار کره‌ای در سال ۱۹۰۵ آغاز می‌شود؛ زمانی که این افراد، در پی قحطی، فروپاشی امپراتوری کره و سلطه‌ٔ روزافزون ژاپن، از بندر جمولپو (اینچئون امروزی) عازم مکزیک می‌شوند. آن‌ها که فریب وعده‌های دروغین کار پرمنفعت و زندگی بهتر در مزارع سیسال را خورده‌اند، پس از رسیدن به یوکاتان، درمی‌یابند که عملا به عنوان کارگرانی قراردادی فروخته شده‌اند و با شرایط سخت، استثمار و تبعیض در مزارعی بیگانه مواجه‌اند. و این تازه اول ماجراست ...
عنوان «گل سیاه» استعاره‌ای از آرمان‌شهری است که در ذهن مهاجران شکل گرفت؛ جایی که در واقع وجود نداشت، اما در تخیل آنان مفهومی روشن و نجات‌بخش یافت. این رمان با تلفیق روایت احساسی، ساختار روایی قدرتمند و پژوهش تاریخی، به یکی از آثار برجستهٔ ادبیات معاصر کره تبدیل شده و برای خوانندگانی که به داستان‌های تاریخی، مهاجرت، هویت و تقابل انسان با تقدیر علاقه‌مندند، تجربه‌ای عمیق و به‌یادماندنی خواهد بود.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, fascinating novel based on real, obscure events that I had never heard about or even considered. Kim's documentary, seemingly unorganized style and construction may be off-putting to some, but it drew me in. I've also read his novel "Your Republic Is Calling You," which is nothing like this one. Hard to believe the same author is responsible for both works. You can take or leave "Republic," but I strongly recommend "Black Flower."

[Blugoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I was supposed to love this book, but it just didn't do it for me..
My mom said the book's language was beautiful and poetic in Korea, so maybe it was a translation thing? It was eye-opening, but in terms of how much I enjoyed the plot, it was just ok

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it difficult to engross myself in this novel and read it straight through for two reasons. First, although the book is touted as "an epic story of star-crossed love" there is no main story or main characters. The narration's perspective switches back and forth between a dozen characters or so. Second, historical background is frequently and abruptly inserted into the story. I understand that the historical background is necessary to understand the environment the characters are living in. The way the history is shared with us, however, reminds me of my grade school history books - dry, dull facts of names, dates, and places I have no knowledge of and very little interest in, except for how it affects the story. Every time I found myself becoming interested in a particular character's story, the perspective would change or a history lesson would occur, and I would have to abruptly switch my frame of my mind.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the book and found it interesting. I will probably try reading other books by the same author.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read historical fiction in a long while, and I definitely haven't read anything like this. It's a pretty wild story: ~1000 immigrants leave Korea for Mexico just before Korea is absorbed as a Japanese colony. The story skips around a lot from character to character as the Korean immigrants move from plantation life to freedom to being caught up in the Mexican revolution. Some characters we get to know better than others, sometimes to a fault. I think that might just be a trope of the genre, though. Despite the lack of intense characterization, we get a strong feel for the community as a whole and its individual members drives and desires. It's a very interesting read, and I definitely learned a lot along the way.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough book to unpack. It is very well written. Multiple characters are well developed. But, it is a slog. In part it bogs down a bit because there are multiple characters to keep up with. The Korean players range from a yangban literati and his family, a shaman, a thief, former soldiers, to a priest and more. To a lesser extent there are Mexican characters, landowners or hacendados, overseers, generals and more. Lastly, there are Mayans. There are really no main characters, but perhaps an argument could be made that Yeonsu (the yangban daughter) and Ijeong (a commoner) are a bit more main than other characters. You need a scorecard to tell the characters apart.


All the characters suffer. The Pacific crossing is somewhat reminiscent of slave ship crossing with the marked difference being that the Koreans are not chained. The conditions they endure in Mexico make the conditions that indentured servants endured in colonies like Virginia seem like a cakewalk.


The strength of the book is that it is uniquely Korean. Shamanism is a part of Korea’s heritage. The Shaman’s predictions are used as a unifying device in the book. Many Koreans have or know someone who consults with fortune tellers. The Confucian tradition was and is still evident in Korea. It shows in most strongly in prescribed rituals for births, deaths, weddings and so on. But, whereas a classically educated Yangban might have been respected in Korea, knowledge of the Confucian classics was of little or no use to those who signed on to work in Mexico. Similarly, although one character was described as a priest, the depth of his Catholicism was, at best, shallow. A crucifix he was wearing was stolen and the thief who took it meets a special form of karma as the book draws to a conclusion. Some might see this as “twisted” but the Christian tradition that exists in Korea is unique and -- in my opinion -- a bit superficial. The only tradition that is a bit neglected is Korean Buddhism.


There are strong overtones of a desire for independence. The book covers more than a decade and starts in 1904. Japan is in the process of colonizing Korea and stripping her of her natural resources and brutalizing the Korean people. As the novel unfolds Mexico devolves into a bloody civil war. Some of the Koreans find themselves involved in the fighting and killing. This is a very dark novel. There is enough brutality to last for quite a while.


Not sure the average reader will like this book. It almost requires an understanding of Korean culture and history to be fully appreciated. It is not a light read. Still it is well written, well researched and based on an actual historic event. The characters – although fictional -- are well developed with authenticity and grit.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fleeing the encroachment of Japan as it swallowed up the Korean Empire, a group of some thousand emigrants fell prey to a fantasy of land and hope in far off Mexico. This mix of rich and poor, thieves and aristocrats, priests and soldiers, only discovered they’d been sold into indentured slavery when they arrived in the Yucatan—a place totally unlike anything they’d imagined in their homeland.

Though the main focus of the plot is the experience of the small party of Koreans who journeyed to a foreign land where they encountered a culture clash and unanticipated hardships, it is also an exploration of diaspora in general.

Kim tells his story from a multitude of viewpoints, which may be a drawback for his American audience. I’m sure some readers would have preferred he stay with the story of the orphan Ijeong and his romance with Yeonsu, daughter of a noble, who dreamt of independence in a new land. Their tale is told, but it is only part of the wider story of the brave souls who interact in this epic account of an actual historical event.

The Koreans are a resilient people who have overcome oppression by the Japanese, Chinese, Russians and many other invaders over the centuries. This hardy band in Mexico exhibited that same tenacity and succeeded in finding their own place here despite the odds.

Having lived and worked in Korea and been married to a Korean I thought I was familiar with the history of the nation. This story was totally new to me and, as he reveals in an afterward, it was to Kim prior to a chance meeting which inspired the novel.

Kim, whose novel won Korea’s prestigious Dong-in Literary Award in 2004, also explains the unusual title in that afterward, noting that black is a combination of all other colors and resembles the mixing of gender, race, status and religion of the various characters in the story.

Charles La Shure, the translator, holds an MA in classical Korean literature and is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. In an interview in the Korea Herald, Kim said La Shure volunteered to do the translation after reading and falling in love with the story.

[David Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive work of historical fiction that manages to explore a spectrum of themes. Kim's detached, objective prose works well here and saves the mostly bleak plot from slipping into the maudlin. While the diverse cast of Korean immigrants was a lot to keep track of at first, they all felt real to me by the end, as fleshed out as they were with their own backgrounds, motivations, and suffering. I imagine the perspective jumps--between the various characters and to cover historical details--could turn off some readers, but again, Kim's controlled tone worked well. The novel reads as though he were presenting a story to us that he himself had discovered. The writer disappears behind the story, and that's a great achievement.

Then the history itself is fascinating, and you get a double dose: Korea during the Japanese annexation, and Mexico before and during its revolution. Different sides of the world, but the juxtaposition of these historical moments adds to the thematic richness of Black Flower.

I don't think it would be a 5-star for everyone, but I'm feeling pretty darn good about it.

[fallendevil17 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, another proof that wars indeed destroy people. I love the author's writing style - simple, descriptive, paints a vivid picture in readers' mind. I also love how he transitions one scene to another so smoothly.

Maybe because I'm not well-versed with Mexican history, I was lost among the revolutions and rebellions happening throughout the timeline. But still, I really appreciate the fact that the author had done his research thoroughly as he wrote this book.

It didn't really leave a deep impact but it was a good read :)

[Barry Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeRuc...

Read my review on Substack here - https://barrywelsh1.substack.com/p/re...

Watch my interview with translator Charles La Shure on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_wP...

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Flower is based on the true story of roughly 1000 Koreans who left Korea for Mexico at the turn of the century, mostly in hopes of avoiding the conflict between Korea and Japan and in search of a better life. Instead of a better life, they were sold into servitude at the Mexican haciendas, doing backbreaking labor until their term of service was over. This was a very interesting read about an element of history that I knew nothing about. It felt, though, more like a documentary (not sure if that is a due to the translation) and I didn’t connect as much with the various characters’ storylines. There is an element of sadness in here from hopes that don’t come through, families that are separated, and isolation from the characters’ culture. Almost everyone thought that at some point they would return home, but almost none did.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, this story has been told before. In particular, author Young-Ha Kim had his reasons for retelling it in "Black Flower."

This is a tale of misbegotten folk who were sold a bill of goods about a rich land where they could elevate their lives, erase their present miseries, and live prosperously.

The author's interest here is in the plight of approximately 1,000 Koreans who fled their crumbling kingdom for Mexico in 1905.

After a harrowing three-month journey in which disease overtakes the boat, they are sold to various hacienda owners in the Yucatan Peninsula and bound to a four-year contract.

The group is dotted with aristocrats, thieves, farmers and anything else Korea was producing at the time. Kim (Young-Ha?) makes threads of certain passengers' stories in varying degrees of detail.

There's a young aristocratic women whose scent of deer roe blood drives the male passengers to distraction, the solitary teenage boy who falls in love with her, a common thief, a disgraced Catholic priest, the last eunuch to serve a Korean imperial court, a reticent shaman, and a slew of former soldiers.

Back-breaking toil for paltry wages spent at the company store, physical abuse, evisceration of their own beliefs by Catholic maniacs, and death for those who escape, are the unfortunate pilgrims' lot.

Young-Ha provides nice historical backdrops both to the simultaneous subjugation of their Korean homeland by Japan (so that they've no place to return to), and the Mexican revolution, which upends the henequen haciendas in which they work and absorbs them in its senseless cycles of murder.

Sent to differing haciendas, theirs is the progress of a mini-diaspora that ultimately extends from San Francisco to Guatemala. Few come out of their contracts with enough money to return home. Some open small shops in Mexican cities. Others marry their indigenous coworkers and begin melting into their new land.

Another band join Mayan revolutionaries in Guatemala and found the nation of New Korea in the tropical jungle. Spoiler alert: It doesn't go well for them.

According to the back cover of "Black Flower," Young-Ha Kim is a popular and respected writer in South Korea. He'd heard the inklings of this story about a boatload of Koreans who disappeared into the Mexican landscape and took on the job of recuperating their memory through this narrative dramatization of their star-crossed plight.

"While I was writing," Kim explains in the epilogue, "I thought of myself as a sort of shaman. The desires of those who had left for a distant place and been completely forgotten came to me like letters in bottles cast into the sea, and I believed that the emigrants directed me to write their stories."

The translation is a straight-ahead, serviceable English stripped of literary device and much poetry. It does not lag, nor get confusing, and successfully imparts an interesting history lesson, a portrait of human cruelty, and cautionary tale for utopian seekers.

[Anders Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5 stars] This was a fascinating little slice of history that so easily could've been lost to time like I'm sure many similar stories are. It almost felt like the novel version of Cards Against Humanity - put together two random scenarios and make something intriguing from it (just minus the humor). Either that or the start to a really bad joke... a priest, a soldier, and a thief from Korea walk into a Hacienda...

The power of this book is in inspiring imagination of lives so bereft of both fortune and control that pure survival and all the eccentricities and ingenuity that come with it is the only path. I would knock a few points off for getting a bit scattered at times and in the translation sometimes needing to take a bit more liberty in its style/editing to avoid the matter-of-fact descriptions and history dumps that read choppy and amateur-ish to me. And maybe a few points for continuously mentioning that a girl smelled like Roe deer blood - seriously, what? Otherwise, it was a singularly unique story and an interesting drive down one of history's many sad, strange cul-de-sacs.

[Bobby D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel relates a little known true story that in 1905 some 1,000 plus Koreans boarded a British ship and sailed from Korea to Mexico ending up not in the new utopia they expected but instead being sold into four years of indentured servitude as field hands. They arrived in the Yucatan and were separated into groups sent to various large haciendas harvesting henequen (which was used to make robe). The journey and destination was both ugly and depressing as they left behind a Korea that had ceased to exist as it had been annexed by Japan. It was my interest in learning more about this history that drew me to choose this book.

The publisher in part is also marketing the book in part as “…an epic story of star-crossed love…” It is true that the book does have two young characters that meet ship board and a small part of the story follows their fate and separation. But this is not in any way a love story. The book is mainly a history lesson. Its multiple characters are interesting but lightly drawn and only provide the reader with a cross section of the 1,000 plus passengers. They are mainly a plot device in service to tell the history rather than their own stories. It is a question of emphasis. In my view the book is written as if it is non-fiction and has no real plot beyond the actual history of events. I did love the epilogue that brings the characters fate up to date but the novel has a lot of weaknesses that distract from a rave on my part. Mine is a guarded recommendation.

The biggest weakness is the writing style or maybe it is with the English translation from Korean. The book in the original Korean did win Korea’s Dong-in Prize. The style when translated into English is a very simple journalistic offering of the facts and characters’ actions. It’s that these short declarative sentences don’t flow or deliver any internal reasoning, emotion or visual sensory experience. I found the style takes some getting used to.

No doubt many people are going to give up on the book early and my only comment is to recommend one stays with it as you will be rewarded with some very interesting history of Mexico (some revolutions) and these Korean’s who got swept up by history because they made a decision to seek a better life. Theirs is a story common to refugees who in this case thought they were sailing to freedom and bit of utopia. And some even formed a new country, New Korea on the Yucatan peninsula which became a little known fact of this tragedy.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not articulate enough to point out what precisely what is missing from this book. I can say that you will not find any one else more interested in this particular time in history. Late 1800s/early 1900s Korean history is kind of my thing, so it's not as lack of content or interest. It's just that something tangible is missing that would have made this a great novel. Kim Young-ha is an accomplished writer and someone whose work I actively seek out. Having said that, this was my least favorite of his works.

Part of what doesn't work are the lazy info dumps that make this painfully confused book practically cry from its pages "I'm historical fiction. See?". Also, lopsided story arches favor some characters and snub others deserving of a full treatment. Awkwardly and inconsistently inserted historical context feels more like Wikipedia copy-and-pastes instead of meaningful background flourishes.

Scathing as it may sound, the subject material is intriguing. There is surely no other book based on the true story of 1,000 Koreans sold to Mexico prior to the formal annexation of Korea by Japan. Their story is exceedingly worthy of being told, but as the author mentions in the epilogue, source material is scarce and unreliable at best. Frankly speaking, there were more pressing events to be talked about at the time. After all, Korea as it was known was disappearing from the planet by a stronger, invading force. The fascinating but unfortunate fate of a random ship full of emigrants got placed on the back burner. Kim does the people justice by exhibiting their tale but fumbles in the execution.

I contend that with a more critical editor, this book could have been great. Really. But as it stands in its diamond in the rough form, I can barely call it recommendable. No one wanted to love this book more than me, so please go easy on the attacks. I liked the book but I'm biased because of the niche historical context; the casual reader will likely not be as accepting.

[Az Martgu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando recién me adentré en este mundo de la cultura coreana, nunca me imaginé que hace muchos años al estado de Yucatán habían llegado alrededor de más de mil coreanos a trabajar en las haciendas de henequén en Mérida.

Esta es la historia que Flor Negra nos regala en una lectura por más interesante, llena de cultura y sentimientos encontrados.

Cuando tuve en mis manos el libro contemplé la idea de que fuera una lectura histórica pesada, incluso aburrida, pero fue todo lo contrario.

Nos situamos en un tiempo en el que ambos países vivían conflictos políticos y sociales que marcaron el rumbo de su historia. Conocemos la incertidumbre que genera el llegar a un mundo nuevo, porque eso era México para la comunidad inmigrante coreana, un nuevo horizonte en el que buscaban otra oportunidad.

Si bien los personajes son ficticios, considero que este libro es ideal si quieres comenzar a conocer un poco sobre la historia coreana y es aún más interesante porque te ayuda a recordar o tener nuevos conocimientos sobre ese lado B de nuestro pasado que muchas veces no conocíamos.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Lost in translation," or at least one hopes that this book reads much better in Korean and/or appeals to the Korean psyche in ways it does not to this American reader. Too many undeveloped characters interspersed with clumsy history lessons. The inspiration of this novel is fascinating: Korean immigrants forced into indentured servitude on Mexican haciendas and their subsequent involvement in the Mexican Revolution. Makes me realize how little I know about our southern neighbor's history during the 19th and early 20th centuries other than Manet's "Death of Maximilian."

[Taylor Pirrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many characters, so many narratives. Hard to care about any of them when we don’t focus on them. Also why was the beginning so sexual like I really didn’t need to know most of that

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

When starting this book, I wasn't sure what percentage of this was true and how deep the novel would go into true events, but I can say with certainty that I have learned so much history from this book in a very clear and easy-to-follow timeline.

I'm not sure if I learned more about this event in history, which I had never heard of, or Mexico's Revolution period, but I think it's safe to say that this book has it all.

I'm glad to have found this book and to have learned about this period in time.

[Monika | ms_muleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about Koreans escaping Korea under Japanese rule in 1900s. It is written in a very straightforward manner, that is why I got engrossed in it very quickly.

I respect people who, just like Young-ha Kim, do the research and write about rather unknown topics such as this one. It is good to preserve history in various forms for future generations.

[enyanyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Flower is a moving fictional account based on the true historical one of 1000+ Koreans who were brought on a ship to work in the henequen fields in Mexico in the early 1900s. It was definitely educational for me as I did not know a lot about Korean history prior to this read. I was most invested in Yeonsu’s story. I did struggle with keeping up with the names of the characters and had to keep going back to previous chapters when a character was re-introduced. Still, I found this a gripping read.

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Occasionally didactic in style, but it's too interesting a true story not to share all the background information!!

[Guille Puerto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fruto de un excelente trabajo de investigación sobre el destino de un grupo de coreanos que son engañados para ir a trabajar a las haciendas de henequén de Yucatán a principios del s. XX
Cuenta de forma muy realista cómo sobreviven el maltrato horrible, la anexion de su país por parte de Japón, el sentimiento de desamparo total de un inmigrante que ya no tiene ni país de origen.
Muestra pequeños esbozos de la Mérida de 1905, y hasta de los sucesos de la Revolución Mexicana, causada en parte por el mismo abuso de los hacendados.
Desafortunadamente el estilo narrativo y la traducción lo hacen bastante difícil de disfrutar como novela.
Los personajes se sienten siempre esquemáticos porque muy pocas veces les dedican suficiente tiempo para profundizar en sus intenciones y sus motivos. Se siente como un conjunto de acciones que cualquiera de los personajes podría haber realizado.
Es el segundo libro que leo de un extranjero que toca Yucatán, y como yucateco quiero agradecer la dedicación y el esfuerzo de representar de una forma auténtica nuestra historia y cultura. Solo me quedo esperando mejores traductores al Español

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read, and I was engaged in the story. I appreciated and learned a lot from the historical blurbs in between the plot-lines. Partly because I enjoy learning about history I don’t know, and partly because I think they were relevant to the story. Yes, the story could have happened without all the political/historical narrative, but it was almost like setting the scene for each chapter.

I will say though, this is a very masculine book. Despite entire families making the trip from Korea to Mexico, the story revolves around the men. Yeonsu is the only prominent female character, but it seems her purpose is mainly for sex. Even the description of her as a child is how her scent and aura is sexually irresistible to men. Her sexual appeal could have been used as her power, it could have lead to her using this sexual energy in a constructive way, but instead she just gets taken advantage of again and again and again. The “star crossed lovers” story the descriptions of this book eludes to just fizzles out in the most anticlimactic way.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the story for its historical and cultural value, and the plot for what it actually was. But I think the way the plot is previewed is inaccurate. This book isn’t about two lovers, they’re simply a small subplot that turns out to not even be so important to the story. It’s more a broad examination of the lives of various different Korean emigrants in Mexico.

If you had no idea this event happened, just like I did, and are even a little bit curious- I recommend this book. Not only did I learn a lot about Korean history and culture, but I learned history of the Yucatán region and the Mexican Revolution.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1905, 1033 Koreans left Korea on a British ship to work in the haciendas of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Later, a small number joined the guerrillas fighting the Cabrera regime in Guatemala, where they founded a short-lived government of New Korea in the jungle before being wiped out by the government forces. This historical novel tells their story. The main characters are Kim Ijeong and Yi Yeonsu, respectively a poor orphan boy and a daughter of the ruling family, who fall in love aboard the ship. The personal stories of these two and the other emigrants are told against the background of Korean and Mexican history. The historical elements are interesting; Kim Young-ha obviously knows Korean history and has researched the Mexican and Guatemalan history, although he seems to have a rather abysmal knowledge of world history in general -- for example, he has "Trotskyites from Germany" fighting in Pancho Villa's army in 1915. The personal stories have some interesting twists, but also a lot of clichéd situations. In all, an exciting but somewhat uneven novel.