Yeonmi Park Penguin Book Blogger Event
I've seen 22-year old human rights activist Yeonmi Park telling her amazing story everywhere recently; on the news delivering a talk to the UN, being hugged by Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner at the Women of the World conference, and across several magazines. So I was honoured to have the chance to meet her myself at Penguin's event for book bloggers and booktubers, and to hear more about her inspiring memoir, In Order To Live. This is the amazing true story of a young woman who escaped the cruel regime in North Korea only to fall into the hands of human traffickers in China. Whilst we enjoyed some wine and cupcakes (with Yeonmi's face on them!) she went round and chatted to everyone.
During her interview Yeonmi amazed me by being so sweet and humble, and also quite philosophical about her experiences. She kept laughing, and never seemed bitter about the things she'd faced as a child; starvation, forced labour, imprisonment, and rape. Talking about her childhood in North Korea was like hearing about a parallel universe where people are brought up and brainwashed to believe that their supreme ruler has the power to perform miracles and read everyone's mind. No citizen can choose their own job, let alone their own haircut, and they live under the very real threat of imprisonment or execution for the smallest of 'bad' deeds. We didn't know what cake was, Yeonmi chuckled, and now my face is on cake!
Yeonmi's life after her ordeal is as fascinating to hear about as her brave escape. She lived in New York, the land of the people she was brainwashed into hating. She learnt English through watching endless episodes of Friends, and also by reading books - three in particular she holds dear; Nelson Mandela's autobiography for his own tale of courage and forgiveness, a biography of Oprah Winfrey who Yeonmi feels a connection with over their childhood struggles, and a copy of Orwell's Animal Farm. Yeonmi tells us she chose the latter book because it was thin, and because she thought it would be a nice tale about a farm. She couldn't believed it used a simple yet powerful allegory to tell a story about a powerful few robbing the freedom of many, and the echoes of what has happened to North Korea. Yeonmi said she cried as she recognised her mother and her grandmother in the novel.
Yeonmi's life as a political activist couldn't be more different from the indescribable fate she faced back in North Korea. No one knows what a passport is in North Korea she tells us, Yeonmi is getting full use of the one she now owns, travelling everywhere to promote human rights. She tells us she likes London, and has watched Dr Who, though she found it scary. Amidst the laughter, Yeonmi's message is that she believes in humanity and in the progress many societies have made. She talks about how we learn from history, and how we can use the internet to make our voices heard. Yeonmi once escaped across a desert, everyone is going through their own desert she says.
As we left we were given immense goody bags with some unreleased novels (oooh!), an issue of a book journal, some cute postcards and a bookmark, a copy of #GirlBoss which I am over the moon about as I've wanted to read it for ages, and of course - a copy of Yeonmi's book, which I cannot wait to read.
This was an excellent event, and a chance for Penguin to tell us about their new Penguin Platform which aims to get young people sharing blog posts, tweets and YouTube videos about books, and to watch Penguin's own booktuber channel. I'm really excited to have teamed up with Penguin to run a book blogger event of my own next month in London. Bloggers and booktubers will learn how to work with brands and grow their blog or channel, and will also have the chance to have tea and cake with Penguin, talk about publishing, fiction, and how Penguin would like to work with bloggers who love books! Make sure you sign up!