What do you think?
Rate this book
White Badge
Han Kiju is an executive in modern Seoul, a Korean intellectual who has never adjusted to his postwar existence. When an old comrade-in-arms, a coward who crumpled in battle, begins to follow him, Han Kiju must finally deal with the ghosts of the past haunting his present.
- GenresFiction
344 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
13 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Ahn Junghyo
4 books3 followersAhn Junghyo (This is the author's preferred Romanization per LTI Korea) is a South Korean novelist and literary translator.
Ahn was born December 2, 1941 in Seoul, where he graduated from Sogang University with a BA in English literature in 1965. He worked as an English-language writer for the Korea Herald in 1964, and later served as a director for the Korea Times in 1975-1976. He was Editorial Director for the Korean Division of Encyclopædia Britannica from 1971 to 1974.
Ahn made his debut as a translator in 1975, when he published a Korean translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which was serialized in the monthly Literature & Thought. From that time until the late 1980s, he translated approximately 150 foreign works into Korean.
Ahn's first novel was Of War and the Metropolis, now known as White War (하얀전쟁), which was published in 1983 to a chilly critical reception. It discussed his experiences as a Republic of Korea Army soldier in the Vietnam War. Ahn translated it into English and had it published in the United States, where it was released by Soho Publishing in 1989 under the title The White Badge. In 1992 it was also made into a film, White Badge, shot on location in Vietnam. The book was then reissued in Korea as White War in 1993, and was received much more favorably than before.
In addition to his writing, Ahn is known as a translator.
(from Wikipedia)
Ahn was born December 2, 1941 in Seoul, where he graduated from Sogang University with a BA in English literature in 1965. He worked as an English-language writer for the Korea Herald in 1964, and later served as a director for the Korea Times in 1975-1976. He was Editorial Director for the Korean Division of Encyclopædia Britannica from 1971 to 1974.
Ahn made his debut as a translator in 1975, when he published a Korean translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which was serialized in the monthly Literature & Thought. From that time until the late 1980s, he translated approximately 150 foreign works into Korean.
Ahn's first novel was Of War and the Metropolis, now known as White War (하얀전쟁), which was published in 1983 to a chilly critical reception. It discussed his experiences as a Republic of Korea Army soldier in the Vietnam War. Ahn translated it into English and had it published in the United States, where it was released by Soho Publishing in 1989 under the title The White Badge. In 1992 it was also made into a film, White Badge, shot on location in Vietnam. The book was then reissued in Korea as White War in 1993, and was received much more favorably than before.
In addition to his writing, Ahn is known as a translator.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 16, 2015
probably a 3.5.....interesting look into a world (non-US fighters in Vietnam) that isn't covered much (in US or Korea). Dude certainly fears gay folks in a stereotypically Korean fashion, though suppose that could be the character and not the writer....perhaps...
reads like the Vietnam experience you've seen in many movies, but slightly different due to the Korean perspective.
reads like the Vietnam experience you've seen in many movies, but slightly different due to the Korean perspective.
March 15, 2014
Worth reading just for shedding light on a hidden corner of history, South Korea's involvement in the Vietnam War. Interestingly, Ahn originally published his novel in English due to its subversive content, and later translated that into Korean.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews