美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Pachinko' Is A Family Saga Of Exile, Discrimination ... And Japanese Pinball

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

If you've ever been to Japan, you've probably seen these crazy-looking video game centers all over. They've got lots of fluorescent¹ flashing lights, and it's where businessmen often unwind after work. The game is called pachinko, and it's a multibillion-dollar business in Japan, a business dominated by Koreans.

Min Jin Lee has written a new novel called "Pachinko." And in it, she explores the history of that community and one family's struggle to fit into a society that treats them with contempt. Here's NPR's Lynn Neary.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE²: Min Jin Lee got the idea for her second novel when she was still a college student. The year was 1989. She went to a lecture by an American missionary³ who had been working with the Korean-Japanese in Japan. He told a story about a 13-year-old boy who committed suicide. After his death, the boy's parents found his school yearbook.

MIN JIN LEE: And in this yearbook, several of his classmates had written things like, go back to your country. And they had written the words, die, die, die. And the parents were born in Japan. The boy was born in Japan. And I think that story just really could not be more fixed⁴ into my brain.

NEARY: Lee, a Korean-American, was determined⁵ to tell the history of Koreans in Japan. She lived there for a while and interviewed many Korean-Japanese to get a sense of what life was like for them. She decided⁶ to tell their history through a multigenerational family story.

LEE: I was very interested in history, but I also thought, you know, history's not that interesting sometimes. And it can feel a bit medicinal. And I wanted it to be really fun, and I wanted it to be really exciting. And I also wanted to give these people kind of flesh and blood in the same way the people that I know have contradictions and betrayals and deaths and marriages and the kind of texture⁷ of life.

NEARY: The story begins in the early 20th century, when Korea is already under Japanese rule. A young girl named Sunja is growing up in a small fishing village on a tiny Korean island. She falls in love with a good-looking older man from the mainland. When she becomes pregnant, he tells her he is already married. Sunja is saved from disgrace by a Christian⁸ minister staying at her family's boarding house who offers to marry her and takes her to Japan.

LEE: She's a child. She's 16. And when she goes to Japan, she has simply no idea what's going to wait for her. And to be frank, most Koreans really didn't know that the history would turn out this way.

NEARY: The impoverished⁹ Koreans who left their occupied homeland didn't find life much easier in Japan. Sunja has two sons, and her husband takes care of both of them. But when he's arrested for preaching Christianity, her life becomes even more difficult. She and her children survive World War II, but then the Korean War breaks out.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A highly trained and well-equipped North Korean army swarmed¹⁰ across the 38th parallel to attack unprepared South Korean defenders¹¹. Caught off guard, they were all but overwhelmed.

NEARY: With the war and the partition of Korea, it becomes almost impossible for Sunja to return to her homeland. Twenty years later, she still yearns¹² for what she has lost.

LEE: (Reading) Even the memory of the moon and stars in Korea seemed different than the cold moon here. No matter how much people complained about how bad things were back home, it was difficult for Sunja to imagine anything but the bright, sturdy house that her father had taken care of so well by the green, glassy sea, the bountiful garden that had given them watermelons, lettuces¹³ and squash and the open-air market that never ran out of anything delicious. When she was there, she had not loved it enough.

NEARY: After the war, pachinko parlors¹⁴ start popping up all over in Japan. Both of Sunja's sons find work in the noisy pinball dens¹⁵, which are often run by Korean-Japanese.

LEE: And the reason why the Korean-Japanese are involved in this business is because they could not find legal employment for - I don't know - seven or eight decades. And even now, they have great difficulty finding jobs in certain sectors¹⁶. So in pachinko, they were able to find a kind of employment haven¹⁷.

NEARY: Employment and in many cases, financial success, but not necessarily respect. Despite its popularity, the Japanese looked down on pachinko parlors as gambling¹⁸ dens with connections to the criminals known as the Yakuza. Even so, one of Sunja's sons thrives in the business. But her firstborn never comes to terms with the circumstances of his life.

LEE: I think that my character Noa really is symbolic¹⁹, and he is an emblem²⁰ of so many people that I met who wanted very desperately²¹ to just belong. And they would do everything they possibly could within legal channels to be considered a respectable human being.

NEARY: As a naturalized American who feels she belongs in this country, Lee says it's hard for her to understand that generations of Koreans have never been fully²² accepted in Japan. But many of the Japanese-Koreans she interviewed dismissed her concerns. They have adapted to living in Japan, even if their presence there is still not fully embraced.

Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

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1 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

5 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

11 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 yearns   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Every man yearns for sympathy in sorrow. 每个遇到不幸的人都渴望得到同情。
• What I dread is to get into a rut. One yearns for freshness of thought and ideas. 我害怕的就是墨守成规。人总是向往新思想和新观念的。

13 lettuces   

n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶

参考例句：

• My lettuces have gone to seed. 我种的莴苣已结子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Are these lettuces home-grown or did you buy them in the market? 这些生菜是自家种的呢，还是你在市场上买的？ 来自辞典例句

14 parlors   

客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店

参考例句：

• It had been a firm specializing in funeral parlors and parking lots. 它曾经是一个专门经营殡仪馆和停车场的公司。
• I walked, my eyes focused into the endless succession of barbershops, beauty parlors, confectioneries. 我走着，眼睛注视着那看不到头的、鳞次栉比的理发店、美容院、糖果店。

15 dens   

n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋

参考例句：

• Female bears tend to line their dens with leaves or grass. 母熊往往会在洞穴里垫些树叶或草。 来自辞典例句
• In winter bears usually hibernate in their dens. 冬天熊通常在穴里冬眠。 来自辞典例句

16 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

18 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

19 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

20 emblem   

n.象征，标志；徽章

参考例句：

• Her shirt has the company emblem on it.她的衬衫印有公司的标记。
• The eagle was an emblem of strength and courage.鹰是力量和勇气的象征。

21 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

22 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。