KOREAN LITERATURE CORNER - May 2025
By Josh Kim
The most iconic image of Hong Gildong that nearly every Korean is familiar with, from the comic books by Shon Dong Wu that began to be published in 1965. From AAWW.org
In the spirit of those who fought injustice, this month’s myth is the story of Hong Gildong (홍길동) – a Robinhood-esque figure who dreamed bigger.
Born the illegitimate son of a nobleman and a concubine, Gildong showed incredible gifts from a young age: superhuman strength, genius-level intelligence, and even supernatural powers like teleportation, shapeshifting, and invisibility. But under the rigid social hierarchy of the Joseon dynasty, his talents meant little. As a seoja (child of a concubine; a “bastard”), he wasn’t even allowed to call his father "Father," much less dream of an official career.
Frustrated and hurt, Gildong left home. He soon gathered a group of outlaws (the “Hwalbindang”), using his magic and leadership to rob corrupt nobles and officials. Instead of hoarding the wealth, Gildong redistributed it to the suffering poor. Soldiers were sent to capture him, but he outsmarted them at every turn — slipping through walls, creating illusions, and leading daring raids that embarrassed the ruling class.
Recognizing they couldn’t defeat him, the king offered Gildong a low-ranking government post. But Gildong, seeing it as an empty gesture to pacify him without real justice, refused to be bought off. He vanished again — this time to seek something bigger than revenge.
Sailing across the seas, Gildong discovered a deserted island. There, he built Yuldo, a utopian kingdom where ability mattered more than birth. In Yuldo, corruption was outlawed, the people prospered, and society ran on fairness — everything he had been denied back home.
Even in his later years, Hong Gildong never turned his back on his homeland. When Korea faced foreign threats, he sent military aid, showing that despite the injustice he faced, he still cared for his country.
Today, Hong Gildong remains a symbol: the brilliant outcast who turned rebellion into vision, injustice into a new world.
A poster for the Hong Gildong movie, the first ever feature-length animation film in Korea (1967, directed by Shon Dong Heun, the brother of the comic book artist Shin Dong Wu). From AAWW.org
Fun Facts:
Hong Gildongjeon (The Story of Hong Gildong) is often considered the first Korean novel written entirely in Hangul.
The name “Hong Gildong” is the Korean equivalent to the US’s “John Doe”.
