[ENG] What is Busan High School of Art, Jimin's alma mater?

 

 

Original Link/원문 링크: http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/41593

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[Reading Out] Things which Loving BTS brought to me (G. Writer Jeong Ji-hye)

Reading out – Oh Eun's Onggie-Jonggie(note: Huddling) (Episode 132)

『Loving Mind Will Save Us(좋아하는 마음이 우릴 구할 거야♥/Joahaneun Maeum-i Wooril Guhal Geoya)』

 

Writer Jung Ji-hye who thinks that the bookstore is not a space but a person, and likes the word "attempt" rather than "challenge" is right next to me. (2020.04.23.)

 

Written by Shin Yeon-seon, Oh Eun(poet) Photographed by Producer Lee Ji-won

(note: The name of this interview “책읽아웃(Chag-Ilg-Out)” means ‘Reading out’ in English. 책(chag) means book, 읽(Ilg) is etymon for the verb ‘read’, and it sounds like check it out.)

 

[Channel Yes]

Things like the play-list on which I only gathered my favorite songs, a luxurious walk when I savour the scenery that can only be enjoyed in that season, Einspanner coffee that I drink at my patron cafe, a time when light stays in the bookstore for a moment or a time when I lie on my bed reading my books before I sleep.

Hello, I'm Oh Eun from Oh Eun's Onggie-Jonggie. I read a part of 『Loving Mind Will Save Us♥』 which is the 2nd book for writer Jeong Ji-hye who is the operator of "Private Bookstore(사적인 서점/Sajeok-in Seojeom)" for one person and looks at her Loving Mind like an "Archeologist to herself." Writer Jeong Ji-hye who said that "I've healed my wounded heart by being a fan of idol for the first time in 15 years." The writer says that she hopes readers reading her books to be happy too while looking on her loving mind. I'm going to invite writer Jung Ji-hye to<Reading Out – Oh Eun`s Onggie-Jonggie> to talk about her loving mind such as loving idols, books, and music today. Today's broadcast might definitely bring back ‘Loving Mind’ that we've forgotten in the meantime. Please look forward to us.

<Interview - Jeong Ji Hye>

Oh-eun: That's the greatest cheer of all time.(laughing)

 

Jeong Ji-hye: Yes, I brought my fan club.(laughing)

 

Oh-eun: In September 2018, there was news of the end of season 1 of the book prescription bookstore 'Private Bookstore'. I heard that you are consigning the management of the local bookstore called 'Mariseosa' in Gunsan. Did you receive the offer in advance?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: CEO Lim Hyeon-joo, who runs Mariseosa, was originally the editor of the publishing company that published my favorite book. From then on, she wanted to open a bookstore and a few years later, she really opened the bookstore in Gunsan. She ran the bookstore for 2 years and then she wanted to have a sabbatical year. So she contacted me to get a recommend for someone to run her bookstore and I said I'd go there.

 

Oh-eun: I think it's bothering because you're consigning the management. You shouldn't be told that less people come than before.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I had that kind of burden too. Also I felt pressured that I should not cause any trouble since the CEO had been running the bookstore so well. Actually, the person who used to come often at that time doesn't come often now.(laughing) Instead, I can see many new faces so I think I created customers.

 

Oh-eun: How do you feel about going between Seoul and Gunsan?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: It feels like I`m living while traveling. I guess it's because I think by myself that I'm resting.

 

Oh-eun: I'm sure you're also preparing for season 2 of your ‘Private bookstore’, so please tell me some news about it

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I'm planning to open my book store again in July this year. I used to get a reservation through my blog, but now I guess I'll get a reservation through the web-site in a similar way. We'd give you specific guidance, maybe in June. You won't miss the news if you look into the Instagram of ‘Private Bookstore’ carefully.

 

Oh-eun: There was an “ARMY” among the casts of <Reading Out – Oh Eun`s Onggie-Jonggie>. ARMY is here again after writer Kim-dal.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: There was a message from writer Dal. When she was on the show, she said that her ‘bias’ is Jimin. One fan recorded and posted it on Twitter. She asked me to tell you that it was translated into Arabic and spread all over the world.

 

Oh Eun: Writer Jeong Ji-hye will also confess her affection for Jimin, and I hope this will spread in more languages. I`ll ask you.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: Our Jimin is (laughing) He is a person who really fits well with these four letters, “Sarang-doongie“(note: It means lovely boy in Korean. Sarang means love and doongie is an affix used to express person‘s characteristics). Also we call him Gapsaicin(Gap+ capsaicin). He has the fairy-pitt like charm which cross over between sexiness and cuteness, and from kindness to masculiness. He's the one who makes me smile only by watching him.

 

Oh Eun: The moment when she became a fan of BTS, the moment when BTS "saved" writer Jeong Ji-hye, and other details will be discussed at the full-fledged talking about the book. Let me introduce the writer now. "Writer. Book director, A Positive Romanticist . Her parents ran a supermarket, a stationery store, and a snack bar. She spent her childhood reading the complete collection of learning cartoons from Geumseong publishing company, which was bought by dual-career parents. Next to her elementary school, there was a public library so she borrowed books by compacting the loan limit, returned them without reading half, and spent her school days in the library like that. It was a time when she underlined on Yoshimoto Banana's novel and watched the movie "Love Letter" until the video tape was warped. She is the prodigy of sensitivity who started her unrequited love even before entering elementary school, and a romanticist who is keep loving without being tired of it.

 

Jeong Ji-hye, who stamps her feet to tell others when she's into something, has lived as an editor who makes books, a bookstore clerk selling books, and a bookstore owner who runs a bookstore by the side of a book she's loved for the longest time. "Private Bookstore," a book prescription bookstore for one person that opened on Oct. 1st, 2016, was the result of agonizing about a bookstore where she can work as much as herself, joyfully and as much as she wants. The most frequently prescribed book is 『The Frontline of Writing(글쓰기의 최전선/Geulsseugi-ui Choijeonseon)』 by writer Eun-yu. The book of life is Kim Yeon-soo's 『The Novelist's Work(소설가의 일/Soseolga-ui Il).』 She thinks that having a heart loving people is most needed to work for a bookstore for a long time.

 

She can't read books without pencils and post-its. It is also good to read in bed before sleeping, but reading in the bed in a leisurely morning is best. What she must do in April is to watch Iwai Shunji's movie <April Story>, and to repeat Noh Young-sim's song <April is crying(4월이 울고 있네/Sawol-i Ulgo Idne)>, indefinitely." Why did you recommend writer Eun-yu’s book mostly?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: The most common misconception people have when I say I prescribe books is that I must have read a lot of books. Actually, I don`t prescribe one book for only one concern. I think the same book can go for 10 different worries depending on how we read it. The reason 『The Frontline of Writing(글쓰기의 최전선)』 prescribed mostly is because I told people who are confused because they can't organize their thoughts or understand their feelings well, or those who are overwhelmed with too much grief to write with their own language, citing the expression "Give the language to my sorrow" in 『Macbeth』. I told them this book is not about how to write well, but about how to write as I am.

 

Oh-eun: In fact, the writer yourself seems to have been influenced a lot by the book, too. I think that's how the book, 『Loving Mind Will Save Us♥』, came out.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: Yes, you introduced me as a writer at first. I don't have a writer in my identity. I think I can call myself as the author, but I don't think I`m a writer. I also wrote that in the epilogue, but rather than being a creator, I think I'm a person who likes to take good writings that I found and decode my thoughts about it or my experiences that were hard to shape up. As I was writing my book with that in mind, there were many moments thinking, "Why would the person like me write a book?" Especially when I was writing the first book, that kind of thought came up a lot so I really left 『The Frontline of Writing(글쓰기의 최전선)』 like a Bible.

 

Oh-eun: It's time for you to introduce your 『Loving Mind Will Save Us♥』 by yourslef.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I love books so much so I have jobs related to books. I tried to work harder because I liked it, so I got a big burnout. During those difficult times when I was too strenuous because I've never thought that it can be hard because of what I like, I found another feeling of love. That was BTS, and as I started to be a fan of idols when I was over 30, I realized that my love can save me. I express right that story into my book. If you are going through a difficult time like me or if you are hoping for your life to be alive, I hope you to read this book.

 

Oh-eun: You also wrote the article on social media showing your affection for the editor. What was the 'relationship beyond editor' like? Did you become a fan of BTS?(laughing)

 

Jeong Ji-hye: No, that`s not. We met for the first time as a bookstore clerk and a publishing editor, in other words as a client, and we became a relationship which supports each other. I used to travel a lot to Japanese bookstores, so she suggested me to publish a book about it. That's how it went, and the design of the plan was changed to tie up what I published serially in the newspaper, and it became the book what it is now after I went to BTS' Wembley concert in London.

 

Oh-eun: There`s a line "I hurt my heart a lot in 2017" (page 20). This is when you were running a “Private Bookstore”, right? What time was that?

 

Jung Ji-hye: Maybe it's not long after the book fair. I opened a bookstore and worked almost nonstop for 9 months. It was my first bookstore, and I was so anxious to rest because I wanted to do well. But aside from being tired, I felt like I was losing myself. It`s also a thing that I didn't expect. As I saw, I found out that I'm working on something that shows myself although I`m a bookstore clerk. As the owner of the bookstore, I got a lot of attention, and I'm exposed a lot. So I felt like the evaluation for the book store was the evaluation for me. Right after the book fair, it was a time when people thought that “Private Bookstore” was running well, but actually I even just sat down and cried while walking on the street. It was the first time for me to feel the unbearable depression.

 

Oh-eun: Then you happened to see BTS on YouTube, and that's what changed the writer Jeong Ji-hye`s life. I wonder what you did when you were a beginner of fan.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I liked them alone and got a blind date. I was on a Fan-mate blind date. Usually, people mostly get close to strangers through Twitter. But my close acquaintance introduced me to a BTS fan, saying that it would suit me well. It was a senior who became a fan of BTS before me. She`s been to many overseas tours. She instructed me how to sign up and how to get to the concert. She's my Fan-mento.

 

Oh-eun: In the book, the story of BTS, books, and walks come out as what you like. I think each person has a different time, how do you think about it?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: Time for reading books is my favorite time, but for now I also feel that it's work. It's combined with my living, rather than being purely fond of it, so there's a feeling of love and hatred for now. I'm doing it consistently, but there's a mixture of my mind that I want to do it and that I have to do it. When I`m being a fan, I wonder if I can be this happy. The time being a fan of BTS is like a childhood when we never have worries and doesn't care about anything. The world was achromatic, but now it really feels like it's shining colorfully and dazzlingly. Walking is a time when I get healthy stimulation.

 

Oh-eun: What has changed the most before and after being a fan?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I feel I've become brave. I have lots of fears and I always want to be new, but I can't do it easily. But what I felt after being a fan was that loving mind was really invincible. I‘ve really thought a lot that there's nothing that can beat this loving mind. I thought I could never go abroad alone, but I went to London and Malta for the first time after I liked BTS. That way, I became not to be afraid of traveling alone.

 

Oh-eun: One of the really good expressions is to be an 'archaeologist for myself.' We normally think that I know myself the best. We think there's anything else to excavate. But like an archaeologist, it is saying that I can find myself more. Did the writer yourself had an experience that yoy keep popping up while being a fan?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: Yes, I get to do something I haven't done before. I've never donated blood before. And on Jimin's birthday, I donated blood for the first time as the birthday support. Since then, I've been donating blood almost every two to three months recently. It's something I've never done before in my life, but I'm trying to do a lot of things that are funnier than I thought and things that I`m more willing to do than I thought.

 

Oh-eun: If there's a book that consoled you as much as BTS do, it`d be nice to introduce it to us.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: This is a book I read recently, novelist Lee Seung-woo`s 『Living in a Novel(소설을 살다/Soseol-eul Salda)』. I thought it was a book about creation theory when I first read it. It's a similar story, but the main story in the book is about deficiency or sense of identity. One of my concerns was whether I was having overinflated ego. I had a really hard time operating the “Private Bookstore”. I thought a lot about which bookstore owner would agonize about showing herself to others this much and I thought I'm a really funny person. But the book tells the story of an artist who draws a self-portrait. The reason why they don't or can't draw landscapes is that they can't turn their attention to the outside world because they have such a big universe inside them. The story really comforted me because it sounded like, "You're not having overinflated ego or a person who loves you too much, you're not just a landscape painter but a self-portrait." Thanks to the book, I no longer seem to hate my appearance which seemed to be ugly and hateful.

 

Oh-eun: Let me ask you the official question of <Oh-eun's Onggie-Jonggie>. Is there a single book you would like to sell to listeners? But I will exclude Eun-yu and Kim Yeon-soo's books. Since I'm jealous.(laughing)

 

Jeong Ji-hye: This question was difficult. There are so many favorite writers. Actually, I have several life books. So I thought a lot about it. I wanted to introduce the most unexpected book. It's a book called 『Ask European Picture Book Writers(유럽의 그림책 작가들에게 묻다/Eurob-ui Geurimchag Jaggadeul-ege Mudda』 by writer Choi Hye-jin. The writer worked as a magazine editor for about 10 years, and the Burnout came so bad that she stayed in France. While she was staying in France, she couldn't speak in French so she got to read picture-book. She thought that picture books were books that children read, but she felt that there was tremendous thinking and imagination in them. She became curious about what kind of life these people had in their lives was so creative. So she met 10 European picture book writers. It's a book about the interview with them. Anyone who wants to make their lives creatively will love it.

 

Oh-eun: If you had only one copy of 『Loving Mind Will Save Us♥』, who would you like to give it as a gift?

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I want to give it to BTS as a gift (laughing) but if I think about the answer excluding them. In fact, I think everyone once had a loving mind on something. We fall in love easily when we are young. But as we get older, we`re busy making a living, or we get to forget or lose our loving mind because we don`t know know what we like. I want to tell those people that if we live with the loving mind, our life will be this rich.

 

Oh-eun: It reminds me of a line in the book. "I'm living with a feeling that I'm alive more vividly than ever before in my life." I think liking and loving something makes me feel have that kind of mind. Thank you for coming today.

 

Jeong Ji-hye: I feel it was a time to feel talking about things I like is always good. Loving feeling is an universal feeling. I would appreciate you if you read my books coming up with things you like.