Limited Air Shipment to Vancouver
Author: Lee Chang Dong
Translator: Kim Ran
Publisher: Enlighten & Fish
Burning Paper(soji) is a collection of short stories written by novelist and filmmaker Lee Chang Dong between 1983 and 1987. The collection contains eleven stories, written during a period of social unrest and historical transformation in South Korea, including the years following the Gwangju Uprising and a series of pro democracy movements.
Before becoming an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, Lee Chang Dong established himself as a novelist, using literature to document the fractures of his time and the subtle details of human life. His stories intertwine the sweeping backdrop of history with the everyday lives of ordinary people, creating a narrative style that remains close to reality while carrying a profound sense of compassion.
The collection focuses on ordinary people who are easily overlooked and forgotten amid the currents of history. Their labour, struggles, and silence form an authentic portrait of society at its margins. Continuing his characteristic realist approach, Lee Chang Dong not only presents social problems but also attempts to find possible ways forward through his narratives. Like his later films, these stories are marked by deep humanistic concern and reflective power. The eleven short stories resemble eleven condensed films, using words to construct delicate yet powerful snapshots of an era.
Literary creation differs from historical documentation. Rather than directly presenting events, literature allows meaning to remain embedded within the narrative, gradually revealing itself as time passes. Like a seed buried beneath the soil, it may eventually blossom into unexpected understanding and emotion at some moment in the future.