Background
Kim Sin Yong was born on April first, 1945 in Busan, of Korea. His father died when Kim was fourteen and his stepmother, older, brother, and sister abandoned him.
Kim Sin Yong was born on April first, 1945 in Busan, of Korea. His father died when Kim was fourteen and his stepmother, older, brother, and sister abandoned him.
Kim"s early life was difficult as he was exposed to poverty, separation and death. In his work Cast-Away Lives (1988), he describes his hand-to-mouth existence as an A-frame carrier, bicycle car driver, movie extra, and worker in a town being demolished for urban renewal. He also sold his blood for money, and engaged in petty thievery, which resulted in his working as a laborer in a prison gang.
Imprisonment, at age 16, came to Kim as a relief from the hardships of the outside world, as in prison he was federal, clothed, and allowed to read.
In fact, Kim called prison “my classroom, my workroom.”.