Mirok Li

This is a Korean name; the family name is Li.

Mirok Li
Hangul	이미륵 (이의경)
Hanja	李彌勒 (李儀景)
Revised Romanization	I Mireuk (I Ui-gyeong)
McCune–Reischauer	I Mirŭk (I Ŭi-gyŏng)

Mirok Li (March 8, 1899 - March 20, 1950) was a Korean writer who spent much of the twentieth century in exile in Germany. Li was responsible for translating several Korean stories into German.

Biography

Growing up alongside four siblings, the youngest child and only son of a landowner, Li grew into the Confucian custom, guided by the strict social order of the old Cyrus. At the age of four, he was introduced by his father to the Chinese script and the Chinese classics. He attended the village school, and was taught in the ancient Korean style (sodang) in 1905 . After the change in 1910, education at Haidju-school changed according to the notions of Japan, which had recently completed the colonization of Korea. One year later, at age 11, he was married to his wife, Choe Mun-ho.

In 1914 he took a visit to the "new school" again, but had to stop his education due to a disease that would accompany him throughout his life. Nevertheless, in order to pass the entrance exam to the university, he got 2 years and could continue through 1917, a distance learning medical record at the Kyungsung School of Medicine in Seoul. During this time he had two children into the world in 1917 his son was born, and in 1919, Myung-ju, his daughter, was born.

In May 1920 he achieved his goal and set in 1922 in Würzburg, and a year later continued his medical studies in Heidelberg. However, even in Germany he remained ill and had to interrupt his studies for a long time.

It was not until 1925, he was able to resume his studies in Munich again, but changed his field of study and then studied zoology, botany and anthropology. In 1928 he submitted his doctoral dissertation on "Regulatory phenomena in the regeneration of planaria under abnormal conditions," and received a doctorate.

In 1931, Li published small articles, such as the publication of "Night in a Korean street" in Dame. He found support from Professor Seyler, who became his patron, and moved to after Gräfelfing. In 1946 he published his autobiographical novel, titled "The Yalu River flows", which debuted in 1959 also translated into South Korea and made him instantly famous. Li took the place of his birth name, Eui-kyeong for his literary activity to the Korean name "Mi-rok" of the Bodhisattva Maitreya.

The last two years of his life devoted to Li's work as a lecturer in Korean language, Chinese and Japanese literature and history in the East Asian Institute at the University of Munich. Li died on 20 March 1950 fern found its Korean homeland in Gräfelfing, his tomb is still on the Gräfelfinger cemetery. Large parts of his literary creation Li burned shortly before his death and therefore were not preserved for posterity.

Li's participation in the Japanese occupation protests of 1919

Li helped with printing and distributing leaflets in denunciation of the Japanese occupation. This got him into trouble and he fled at the urging of his mother in 1919 to Shanghai, China. There, he demonstrated in front of the Korean Provisional Government in exile and before continuing to Germany.

Legacy

Li is revered for his involvement in Germany, surrounded by his friends and supporters as "an ambassador between cultures" beyond the grave.

In the summer/autumn of 2008, there was a TV three-parter called "The Yalu River flows", which recounted Mirok Li's life. Contracting was South Korea's SBS TV station - in cooperation with the Bavarian Radio, executive producer is Starmax. For on location in Germany, the recreated scenes (Heidelberg, monastery Münsterschwarzach, Munich, Germany) were done by the Munich Film Production Naumann organization. It was directed by Lee Jonghan. Mirok Li is embodied in the 3 performers: Noh Min Woo as a child, as a young man (1920–1932) by Sung-Ho Choi, and in the scenes until his death (1933–1950) of Byok-Woo Song. When aired in South Korea, in November 2008, it was shown in three parts, each an hour. The German broadcasting is not yet clear.

Works

• The other dialect. Sungshin Women's University Press, Seoul 1984th.
• Iyagi. Korean short stories. EOS Verlag, St. Ottilie, 1996, ISBN 3-88096-300-2.
• Japanese poetry. Müller & Kiepenheuer, Munich, 1949.
• From the Yalu to the Isar River. Narratives. Benedict Press, Waegwan 1982nd.
• The Yalu River flows. A youth in Korea. EOS Verlag, St. Ottilie, 1996, ISBN 3-88096-299-5 (reprinted ed d. Munich 1946).

External links

• Dr. Mirok Li Homepage (in Korean)

Persondata
Name	Li, Mirok
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 8, 1899
Place of birth
Date of death	March 20, 1950
Place of death