The Last of Hanako

Modern Korean Literature #13

by Yun Ch'oi, Bruce Fulton (Translator), Ju-Chan Fulton (Translator)

Bi-lingual Edition Modern Korean Literature. "The Last of Hanak'o" by Ch'oe Yun. ASIA Publishers present some of the very best modern Korean literature to readers worldwide through its new Korean literature series . We are proud and happy to offer it in the most authoritative translation by renowned translators of Korea literature. We hope that this series helps to build solid bridges between citizens of the world and Koreans through rich in-depth understanding of Korea.

Genres: Asia, Fiction

122 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Agnes Murr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neither a novel in the sense we are accustomed to, nor a short story, "The Last of Hanako" is universal enough to address human desire for deep, meaningful relationships, while making allusions to often tangled life paths of individuals belonging to Korean society.
Those who are acquainted with the latter - but also those who don't - will find themselves reflecting on the pattern of choices we take when it comes to relations with other people.

[Venla Vilhelmiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories were easy to read on my subway commutes, while still dealing with meaninful topics around relationships and womens position with context of Korean culture and history. I usually like emotional books and charachter development which of course a short novel can not fully offer, and that was the part that reduced the rating. Anyways, i hope to hear more of this authors books, especially "There A Petal Silently Falls" dealing with the Gwanju massacre of 1980.

[Ocean G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed both these stories quite a bit. I almost feel like it's a view of Korean society from the outside looking in, if that makes any sense.

UPDATE:
After re-reading the book, I can confirm that both stories are still enjoyable. The first story is more poignant than I remember it, while the second was pretty much as I remembered. I'm still amazed this is the same author as "Mannequin", which I didn't really enjoy at all. These stories are a very different style.

Since Goodreads doesn't specify it, the translation is by Ju-chan Fulton.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off kind of slow but in the end it made we want to keep reading and find out what happened to him/her. I would have preferred to know a little more at the ending but I guess that is the way the author wanted it. I would like to see if this author wrote anything else about these characters or not.

[maya 🦦 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for my Intro to Modern Korean Literature class. Another favorite. An enigmatic story that I absolutely did not like on the first read lol, but after discussing it in class and rereading, I loved it. The ending in particular was amazing. This story is a great conversation piece.

[tb-or-not-tb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Group #3 - "Women" also includes
- Chinatown- Oh Jung-hee
- The Place Where the Harmonium Was 풍금이 있던 자리 - Kyung-Sook Shin
- 인간에 대한 예의 = Human Decency - Jiyoung Gong
- Poor Man's Wife - Eun Hee-kyung

I tried reading this book once before in 2022 but things were busy and I never actually finished. My original intent was to read as many LGBT stories by korean authors as possible, and this one came highly recommended.

This is my first work by the author, so it's a totally new experience for me to read her style. She unmasks the story in an onion-like pace that feels just right for the subject at hand. Unlike many new short story writers, those in this series clearly plan what they intend to say beforehand, as opposed to suddenly changing the genre as and when the fancy strikes.

This is a story about a man on the verge of divorce, with no real relationships to speak of besides the one friend who also happens to be a colleague. On a business trip to Italy, he organises a short detour to Venice where he believes an old college friend, the titular Hanako, now lives. The revelation of why Hanako lives so far away from here home country, what prompted her to leave in the first place, and what motivates the mc to seek her out after years is revealed to us by very subtle and deft writing.

I do want to seek out more of the author's work to judge if this is common for her, because looking at the original text, this wasn't just a lucky consequence of Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton's great translation.

Recommended!

[Daniel Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ch’oe Yun’s The Last of Hanak’o is a quietly haunting meditation on memory, gender, and social conformity. Through sparse, elliptical prose and a fragmented narrative structure, the story unfolds as a recollection by a middle-aged man revisiting his youth and the enigmatic figure of Hanak’o—a woman who defied the expectations of her male peers and left behind a trail of unresolved tension. The author’s stylistic restraint is deliberate: names are withheld, emotions are muted, and meaning emerges through silence and absence. This minimalism allows Ch’oe to critique patriarchal norms and the erasure of female agency without overt confrontation, making the story all the more unsettling in its quiet power.

The other story included in the edition reinforces Ch’oe Yun’s thematic concerns, offering another lens on alienation, societal pressure, and the emotional cost of nonconformity.

Both narratives resist closure, inviting the reader to dwell in ambiguity and introspection. Ch’oe’s writing is not only literary but philosophical—her characters are less individuals than embodiments of cultural tension, caught between tradition and modernity, anonymity and selfhood.

Those two stories bring a synthesis of aesthetic elegance and sociopolitical critique.

[Norah Phillips]

Hanako was truly the OG city girl. Like imagine being gay the entire time but having this group of guy’s wrapped around your fingerㅠㅠ

[Barry Welsh]

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