KOREAN FOLKORE CORNER - oct. 2024
By Joshua Kim
October deserves a spooky story and we’re telling an eerie one called Green Onion or The Man Who Planted Onions. It’s also the first story in a new book called “Korean Folktales” by Kim So-un and Frances Carpenter, being released Oct. 29. Pick it up online or at your local bookstore!
The Story:
We’re in a land where the people have never seen an onion before. In this land, the people actually eat… other people. That’s because the people have a disease where they see other people as cows and can’t tell the difference between the two.
One day, a man mistakenly and tragically eats his own brother. He vows to find a land where people don’t see others as cows. He leaves his home and journeys all across the world for many years.
As a much older man, he finally comes across a new place where people see people as people and cows as cows. In this new place, the citizens tell him that they used to see each other as cows until they planted green onions and started eating them. Ever since, the people never saw each other as cows again.
“What is a green onion?” the traveling man asks in awe. The people show him the onion and teach him how to plant, prepare and eat it. The citizens give him onion seeds, and the old man starts his journey back home, eager to show his people this new cure.
The old man returns home and plants the onions in his garden. However, his old neighbors see him as a cow. He begs them to stop (“No, I am not a cow!”), but they catch him (“My what a noisy cow we have here!”) and eat him.
Soon after, the people see green stalks growing in his garden: the green onions. A resident plucks one of the stalks and eats it. They tell the others of the strange yet nice taste, and shortly all the other residents eat the onions too.
After eating the onions, the residents find that they no longer see each other as cows and have no desire to eat each other. They’re horrified at eating the old man, but his sacrifice remains with them forever as they’re cured from their disease. They never see each other as cows again.
To Think About:
When I first read this story, I was surprised at the nonchalance of its telling coupled with the grotesque details. Initially I took the old man to be a metaphor for people that are ahead of their time – whether artists, activists or anyone else – who aren’t appreciated in the moment or are even derided. It’s only until after they’re gone that we see the truth and their lasting impact.
There are also suggestions that this story came about during the times of famine that Korea suffered, displaying how starvation can morph what one sees.
What do you think?
