Best-selling author returns with a mission to educate

Helie Lee By Kim Hyung-soo

Helie Lee, 42, is the bestselling author of “Still Life with Rice,” a nonfiction account of the life of a grandmother whose son lives in North Korea.
She recently came to Korea as the co-director of Korea Academy for Educators, a non-profit organization that aims to educate American teachers about Korean culture and history. She talked about the recent massacre at Virginia Tech.
“Koreans don’t need to feel pressured because of an extraordinary act by an individual with mental problems, but I hope this marks an opportunity for Korean American communities to reflect on their identity issues,” Lee said.
“In the United States, the history of Japan or China is well known but Korea’s is not,” she said. “It is urgent to educate Americans, especially American teachers, on Korean history.”
She came to Korea to promote the organization in Korea and her new book, “Macho Like Me.”
Her third book is about men’s identity issues from a woman’s point of view. To understand men, she lived like a man, wearing men’s clothes for six months in 2003.
She immigrated to the United States with her family when she was four years old. She studied political science at the University of California in Los Angeles and later worked as a scriptwriter for NBC. In 1996, her book, “Still Life with Rice,” sold over 500,000 copies in the United States. In 2002, she caused a sensation with her second book, “In the Absence of Sun,” a story about saving the life of her relatives in North Korea. In 2004, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and talked about immigrants and North Korean defectors.

By Lee Jae-hoon JoongAng Ilbo [jbiz91@joongang.co.kr]