In the Korean artist’s debut, Raging Clouds (Fantagraphics, July), two women connect in 16th-century Holland across lines of class and race: the wife of a Dutch merchant and an Asian woman her husband brings home as a slave. This “fierce” historical fiction manhwa, per PW’s starred review, brings “16th-century Europe to life with a crisp line that turns elegant and sinuous.”
Why did you choose this setting?
I’ve never been to the Netherlands. But, for example, Ikeda Ryoko, creator of the manga series The Rose of Versailles, never went to France. It’s almost a shojo manga tradition to write about a place you’ve never been to.
I grew up in Korea, but I spent a year in the Philippines, and then I moved to America. My husband is British, so I live in England now. It takes research and conscious empathy to imagine life from someone else’s perspective, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.
What was the most surprising thing you learned about the period?
Women had a lot of respect in the Netherlands compared to other European countries around the same time, but also had responsibility. There was an expectation that women, no matter their class, would work. I also learned how the slave trade worked, how sometimes Asian slaves ended up in places like Lisbon or Mexico. There’s an Asian population in Mexico that’s been there forever.
In Raging Clouds, we don’t learn much about the enslaved woman called Sahara. Do you have an idea of her background?
I do, but I like the idea of leaving it ambiguous. She could explain herself, but she chooses not to. When I first went to America, I got a lot of questions: are you from Japan, are you from China, what are you, who are you? There’s a kind of beauty in taking control of what you let people know, even if that might compromise your status.
Why was it important to you to tell this story?
I had this story in my mind since I was about 19. It’s funny what we see as science. In the Western canon, we say the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot-air balloon. But that’s highly debatable, because a lot of different cultures had the same technology. China had that technology for centuries.
A lot of feminist narratives focus on successful women, how they overcame all odds, got recognition, and married
the love of their life or whatever. But it’s also important to talk about women who failed, who tried hard and didn’t get what they wanted. There’s so much more to history than who gets named.
This article has been updated with further information.
