Dreamt I Found You: A Guest Post by Jimin Han

Inspired by Romeo & Juliet, this tale of star-crossed lovers is told through the eyes of one friend who will do anything to protect their love story. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Jimin Han on writing Dreamt I Found You.

 

From the critically acclaimed author of The Apology comes a contemporary retelling of Korea’s Romeo & Juliet, as the cousin of the star-crossed lovers helps them avoid a tragic fate. 

 

I’ve always been drawn to love stories. Maybe because I was lonely as a child. We moved every two years to a different house, and I dreamt of finding true love so I would never feel alone again. Or maybe stories of my grandmother who was disinherited from her family for marrying my grandfather affected me more deeply than I realized. In any case, I was obsessed with romances that showed individuals fighting to be together. Why do others get to decide who we love? The Tale of Chunhyang, a Korean story of forbidden love, similar to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, became popular during a time of political oppression and has endured for centuries.

  I wanted to write a version that brought both stories together: a tragic love story set in the United States, involving feuding families but make the characters Korean American and let a cousin of one of the heroes tell her side of the story. Plus I wanted to reconsider the way the story ends. To do that I had to think about how reading and hearing stories influences the choices we make in our lives. In Dreamt I Found You, two young girls, Channing and Dahee, are told the Tale of Chunhyang by their grandfather. One grows up searching for pre-destined love while her cousin fears it.

To write this novel I had to go to Namwon, South Korea, where the Tale of Chunhyang originated, but I was reluctant. The last time I’d been in South Korea was for my mother’s funeral. Like the main character in my novel, I turned to my cousin for emotional support. 

Sherry and I travelled to Gwanghalluwon Garden where the famous lovers, Chunhyang and Mongryong lived. It has majestic pavilions, plum and cherry trees, lotus blossoms and koi in clear ponds, a stone bridge that legend says was made by crows and magpies for another pair of doomed lovers. Set centuries before the Tale of Chunhyang, these celestial spirits reunite once a year on that bridge. I love the richness of layers of stories on top of stories.

With a long research wish-list in hand, we explored the seventeen-acre garden, the modern Chunhyang-themed amusement park, museums and streets of the town surrounded by a soaring Jiri mountain range. I wanted to understand the hero Chunhyang who was imprisoned by an evil magistrate for choosing love over her own freedom. It was uncanny how Sherry and I both felt wonder and unease. History was everywhere, the land itself holding the stories of all those who had walked upon it.

On our return to Seoul, we stopped in Jeonju for a little fun before we boarded the plane. A storekeeper helped us into traditional hanboks, put fancy clips in our hair, then directed us to Gyeonggijeon Shrine. A monument to the Joseon dynasty’s founder, it was surrounded by high fortress walls. Once on the other side, standing among others dressed from Chunhyang’s era, I realized how I’d thought she was so ancient, so far removed from us now. But she was right there with us, in my cousin and the other women around me, cell phones in hand, taking photos and talking with each other. We were the same; women who would fight for who we love.