dailyBooks - Summary of the Girl with Seven Names--by Lee Hyeon Seo | Conversation Starters

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Lee Hyeon Seos

The Girl with Seven Names

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First Published in the United States of America 2017

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Table of Contents

The Girl with Seven Names was published in 2015. It was written by Lee Hyeon-seo. The book is her story of escape, or defection, from North Korea. The story begins before her time, with a little bit of backstory about her birth parents, and then the man who eventually becomes her father. Her story begins in January of 1980, in Hyesan, North Korea. She is named Kim Ji-hae, and this is the first of her seven names. Her second name, Park Min-young, is given to her after her mothers second marriage. This is both to save her from being given to another family, and to secure her place in society.

Her brother is brought into the story when she is seven years old. This is also the age at which she witnesses her first public hanging. North Korea is a harsh world to live in, and the hanging is her first glimpse of the cruelty surrounding her. The story then goes on to detail her school years, during which North Koreas Great Leader, Kim Il-sung dies. The furor caused by his death clues her in to just how rigid the system really is in North Korea.

At the age of seventeen, Min-young as she is known by at that time, takes off across the Yalu River to China. She expects to spend a very short amount of time there, then come back into North Korea to attend university once she turns eighteen. But, her visit to China changes her life, forever.

She cannot go back home to North Korea. Her mother has reported her missing, and she is now an illegal alien hiding in China. She may have more freedom than she did in North Korea, but her life is now a big question mark. While staying with her aunt and uncle in Shenyang, she is introduced to a whole new world. To secure her safety while in China, she must once more change her name. Her third name is Chae Mi-ran, and she must learn Mandarin to survive. The feelings of guilt and abandonment of her mother and brother cause her to have nightmares, and this causes her relatives to become concerned for her.

They introduce her to a young man named Jang Geun-soo. The two, young people go out here and there, and she is introduced to his mother. Mrs. Jang starts dictating Mi-rans life, and she is expected to marry Geun-soo. He even shows her the new identification badge they have for her when they marry. Her fourth name would be Jang Soon-hyang. She cannot handle the feeling she is losing her freedom once again to marriage, so she leaves and strikes out on her own.

She heads to Xita, China, which is Shenyangs version of Koreatown. She figures she will be able to find a job there. Upon arriving in the city, she is almost immediately approached by a woman names Miss Ma, who offers her a job. Thinking she has happened upon good fortune, she goes with the woman. They end up at a mens hair salon, but its not the job she thought she would be doing. She learns she is to be an escort and a prostitute. She runs once again.

She eventually finds herself a job as a waitress. While working in a Koreatown restaurant, she is picked up by the police and questioned extensively in Mandarin. She is grateful she learned to read, write, and speak the language well. Her knowledge of Mandarin grants her freedom. However, just a short time after the interrogation, she is attacked and left for dead. Though she survives the attack, it makes her wary once again, to the point she no longer trusts anyone around her.

It is winter of 2001. She is lonely and distracted, and she misses her family. She contacts a Chinese broker to help her find her family in North Korea. This is what she thinks of as Plan B. Plan A consists of contacting the Ahn family who helped her travel to her aunt and uncles house upon arrival in China. Mrs. Ahn agrees to try to contact Min-ho and set up a possible meeting with him. Less than one month later, Mrs. Ahn contacts her via telephone, and she meets up with and talks to her brother for the first time in years. He is now a young man, not a little boy any longer.

The Chinese broker shows up at the Ahn house while she is there, claiming to also have found her family. To meet with them, she would have to pay them a large fee. Though she knows this is a lie, she leaves with them to ensure her brothers safety. She is held for four days before she can secure arrangements to pay the men. Miraculously, she is not harmed during this time. Once they let her go, she runs for her life to Shanghai. She once again changes her name to try to keep herself safe. Her fifth name is Chae In-hee.

Though she has run to Shanghai, she is still lonely and missing her family. She purchases an identification tag, causing her to take a sixth name: Park Sun-ja. It is now 2003. Sun-ja receives an out-of-the-blue phone call from her brother, asking for money and a cellphone. She quickly agrees. This leads to routine phone calls between Sun-ja and her family, and this leads her to act on her longing to have them reunite after so long. Approximately one year later, she learns North Korean defectors can seek asylum in South Korea. She starts planning to move to Seoul, and to get her family there as well.