Kyunghee Baek Character Analysis in Pachinko

Kyunghee is Yoseb’s wife, classically beautiful and “tenderhearted to a fault.” To her ongoing sorrow, she is unable to have children, but she pours her energy into making a comfortable home amidst the squalor of Ikaino, Osaka’s Korean ghetto. When Isak brings his bride to Osaka, Kyunghee and Sunja quickly develop a lifelong sisterly bond. Though Yoseb has always forbidden his yangban wife from working outside the home, she cooks kimchi and other confections for a food cart which Sunja runs in the Ikaino market. Later, both women work as cooks in Kim Changho’s restaurant. After the war, Kyunghee faithfully nurses the injured Yoseb and later cares for a dying Yangjin. Changho falls in love with Kyunghee, and Yoseb gives his permission for them to marry after he is dead, but Kyunghee refuses.

Kyunghee Baek Quotes in Pachinko

The Pachinko quotes below are all either spoken by Kyunghee Baek or refer to Kyunghee Baek. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Go-saeng,” Yangjin said out loud. “A woman’s lot is to suffer.”

“Yes, go-saeng.” Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.

All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer—suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother, die suffering. Go-saeng—the word made her sick. What else was there besides this? She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she’d drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the conditions of his birth.

[…]

Noa had been a sensitive child who had believed that if he followed all the rules and was the best, then somehow the hostile world would change its mind. His death may have been her fault for having allowed him to believe in such cruel ideals.

Related Characters: Yangjin (speaker), Kyunghee Baek (speaker), Sunja Baek, Noa Baek

Page Number and Citation: 414

Explanation and Analysis:

This quote sums up Sunja’s grief and guilt over Noa’s death, as well as the mindsets that help reinforce women’s burdens throughout the book. When Yangjin is bedridden, she and Kyunghee love to watch a television program called Other Lands, in which Japanese expatriates from around the world are interviewed. One day in an episode of Other Lands, an ethnically Japanese lady in South America repeats the proverb, heard elsewhere in Pachinko, “A woman’s lot is to suffer.” Yangjin and Kyunghee echo the sentiment, but Sunja is disgusted by this attitude. She suffered all her life to create better opportunities Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus

Kyunghee Baek Character Timeline in Pachinko

The timeline below shows where the character Kyunghee Baek appears in Pachinko. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Identity, Blood, and Contamination Theme Icon

...much of his food to the household servants. Still, Sunja’s circumstances are shocking. Yoseb’s wife, Kyunghee, has warned him to reserve judgment until they meet their new sister-in-law. (full context)

Imperialism, Resistance, and Compromise Theme Icon

Yoseb explains to them that he and Kyunghee own their house, but nobody can know this. Most Koreans rent, and Japanese landlords won’t... (full context)

...that “bad” Koreans know that the police won’t listen to Korean complaints. As Sunja helps Kyunghee prepare dinner, Kyunghee, who’s barren, expresses joy over the coming baby and assures Sunja that... (full context)

Love, Motherhood, and Women’s Choices Theme Icon

...Sunja finds her life in Osaka “luxurious” compared to life in Korea, because she and Kyunghee only have to care for their husbands and themselves. She and Kyunghee continue to develop... (full context)

One day as they do the marketing, Sunja tells Kyunghee she feels bad that she and Isak aren’t contributing anything to the household expenses. Kyunghee... (full context)

...payment. With interest, the payment is far more money than the women have at home. Kyunghee is intimidated, but Sunja thinks the men resemble the lodgers back home, and she speaks... (full context)

Sunja and Kyunghee go to a Korean pawnbroker’s office. Sunja gives the pawnbroker Hansu’s gold watch and negotiates... (full context)

Later, equipped with the money from the pawned watch, Sunja and Kyunghee go to the moneylender’s office to repay the debt. The moneylender is a professionally dressed... (full context)

...the police station, holding his month-old brother, baby Mozasu. Inside, Sunja is weeping; she and Kyunghee aren’t allowed to see Isak. Yoseb wonders why Hu made such a fuss about the... (full context)

...cash, so he allows Sunja to peddle kimchi in Ikaino’s open-air market, as long as Kyunghee does the cooking from home. When Sunja arrives at the market with her cart, the... (full context)

...whole jar of kimchi, and soon, she’s able to sell as much as she and Kyunghee can make. She starts taking a second cart with a coal stove to the market... (full context)

...He gives her his business card and promises to buy all the kimchi she and Kyunghee can make and procure scarce cabbage for them; they can even cook at his restaurant. (full context)

Sunja and Kyunghee take their cart, and a few weeks’ worth of kimchi, to the restaurant. If Kim... (full context)

Kim Changho isn’t at the restaurant yet, so Sunja waits outside with Kyunghee. When the man arrives, he talks to both women about the terms of the job.... (full context)

That night, Kyunghee tells Yoseb, who’s been more withdrawn and angry since Isak’s arrest, about the job offer.... (full context)

...boy, couldn’t you just tell them what they wanted to hear?” Isak sleeps as Sunja, Kyunghee, and Yoseb spend the evening shaving his gray hair and beard, filled with nits. (full context)

...even the restaurant is struggling. One day Kim Changho has a talk with Sunja and Kyunghee, explaining that the restaurant will close tomorrow. He asks Kyunghee to accompany him to the... (full context)

...down in the hospital and bring him to Tamaguchi’s farm on an American military truck. Kyunghee drops to her knees beside Yoseb’s stretcher when she sees his terrible condition, and everyone... (full context)

...of a home that no longer exists.” He also tells Yoseb that both his and Kyunghee’s parents have been shot by the Communists, but it’s actually a lie—he hasn’t bothered taking... (full context)

When Hansu coldly tells Sunja about the alleged fate of Yoseb’s and Kyunghee’s parents, Sunja finds him cruel and thinks that as she gets to know him, she... (full context)

...Changho out for a drink. He tells him that he knows Changho has feelings for Kyunghee. Changho has been living with Yoseb, Kyunghee, and Sunja. Hansu is worried that Changho is... (full context)

...Korea, so it’s far better, Hansu argues, to focus on something he can have, like Kyunghee. For the time being, he pays for an expensive Korean prostitute for Changho. (full context)

Yoseb and Kyunghee’s old house in Osaka had been destroyed in the bombing. When they returned from the... (full context)

The prostitute doesn’t distract Changho from his feelings for Kyunghee; he can’t stop thinking about her. The next day, he walks Kyunghee home from the... (full context)

One day in 1959, while Kyunghee is at church, Kim Changho is helping Yoseb do his therapy stretches. Yoseb tells Changho... (full context)

The next morning Kyunghee finds that Changho has left for Korea already. Sunja comforts her as she cries. Kyunghee... (full context)

Sunja returns to Osaka from Mozasu’s and Solomon’s house when Yangjin develops stomach cancer. Kyunghee has been nursing Yangjin ever since Yoseb died. One afternoon the three women watch Yangjin’s... (full context)

After the show, Kyunghee and Yangjin repeat the proverb about women’s suffering. Sunja feels disgusted. She has heard this... (full context)

Sunja and Kyunghee warmly welcome Phoebe. Phoebe loves being around Solomon’s family, who are more compact than her... (full context)

...war and poverty and can just enjoy having children, without laboring the way she and Kyunghee had to. She asks Phoebe when she and Solomon are getting married. Phoebe doesn’t mind... (full context)

...read, too. Sunja smiles at him, then finishes cleaning the grave and goes home to Kyunghee. (full context)

Kyunghee Baek Character Analysis

Kyunghee Baek Quotes in Pachinko

Book 3, Chapter 12 Quotes

Kyunghee Baek Character Timeline in Pachinko