Song Yong

(pen name of Song Muhyong). Born May 24, 1903, in Seoul. Korean writer (People’s Democratic Republic of Korea).

Song Yong helped found the Korean Federation of Proletarian Art. His early short stories were the first works of Korean literature to depict the struggle of the working class (The Blast Furnace, 1925, and The Representative of the Stonecutters’ Association, 1926) and its international solidarity (The Indian Soldier, 1927’, and Between Shifts, 1930). Song Yong castigated feudal class prejudices and denounced the antipopular Korean bourgeoisie in the satirical comedies Why the Mosquitoes Die (1925), The New Manager (1934), and Hwang Cumsang (1937). In the comedy Cancel all Meetings! (1929), Song Yong revealed the true meaning of “class cooperation” in an exploitative society.

After the liberation of Korea (1945) from the Japanese colonial regime, Song Yong turned to the theme of the establishment of a people’s power in the plays The People Defend the Homeland (1947), Two Neighboring Houses (1948), and Sisters (1949). The anti-Japanese partisan struggle of the 1930’s was portrayed in the essayistic novel Mount Paektusang Can Be Seen From Everywhere (1956), the novella Again I Cross the River (1958), the dramas The Patriot (1956) and The Phoenix (1959), and the opera libretto Tell Me, Taiga! by Li Myong Sang and Sin Do Song (1958, the People’s Prize of 1959).