채만식 蔡萬植
Satirical novelist of Ready-Made Life, Muddy Waters and Peace Under Heaven
| Life | 1902 ~ 1950 |
| Era | 일제강점기~현대 |
| Clan | 평강 채씨 |
Life & career
Chae Man-sik (July 21, 1902 - June 11, 1950) was a novelist, playwright and critic of the Pyeonggang seat, with pen names Baengneung and Chaeong. Born into a well-off farming family in Impi, Okgu County (today's Impi-myeon, Gunsan), he married Eun Seon-heung in 1920 while at Joongang school and entered Waseda University, but returned after the Great Kanto earthquake and was expelled for prolonged absence.
He debuted in 1924 in Joseon Mundan with the short story Saegil-lo and worked as a journalist for the Dong-A Ilbo, Gaebyeok and Chosun Ilbo from 1924 to 1936. In 1934 Ready-Made Life satirized an educated unemployed intellectual unable to find work suited to his schooling, and in 1938 he published Peace Under Heaven and the novel Muddy Waters. The satirical spirit continued in Mr. Bang and Policeman Maeng under the US military government.
However, his late-colonial works Beautiful Dawn (1942) and Biography of a Woman (1945) are assessed as pro-Japanese novels, and in 1943 he joined the Joseon Literary Patriotic Association as a councillor. After liberation, in My Sin Against the Nation (1947), he confessed and defended his collaboration, and he is on the 705-person list of the commission on pro-Japanese collaborators and the planned entries of the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities. He died of tuberculosis in 1950.
Debut and Journalism
He debuted with Saegil-lo in 1924, wrote while working as a newspaper reporter and became a full-time writer from 1936.
Major Satirical Works
In Ready-Made Life (1934), Peace Under Heaven and Muddy Waters (1938) he criticized colonial society with irony and satire; a Moonji edition notes some 240 degree theses on him since the 1970s.
Collaboration and My Sin Against the Nation
He was placed on official lists for late pro-Japanese works and Patriotic Association activity, and after liberation left the self-confession My Sin Against the Nation. This page records both facts.
Grave
The tomb was not confirmed here.