Back Home · The Hibiscus

 

 

Documented by An Qi

 

Back Home · The Hibiscus tells the life story of Mrs. Kim Soon-rong—a woman born in Korea, displaced by war, and later one of the extremely rare female underground miners in Shanxi, China. Her life spans multiple nations, ideologies, and eras.

 

 

Everyday Reality: A Generation Often Overlooked

 

Her day begins with warm radiators, a leaking bedroom ceiling, and an old TV looping “Arirang.”

These small details reveal a larger truth—the quiet realities of many elderly people shaped by history.

 

She lived through:

 

• Japanese occupation

• The founding of South Korea

• The founding of the PRC

• The Korean War

• The Cultural Revolution

• Reform and Opening

• And the digital age

 

She worked sixteen years underground as a locomotive operator—pregnant, nursing, exhausted—yet unwavering, carrying her family through hardship.

 

 

A Hibiscus in a Foreign Land: Displacement & Identity

 

Her family was tied to Korea’s independence movement.

War forced her to flee, change her name, lose loved ones, and start anew in China.

She became a daughter-in-law, a mother, a grandmother—yet she continued asking:

 

“Who am I, and where do I belong?”

 

After China and South Korea established diplomatic ties, she finally reconnected with relatives lost for decades.

In 2021, she shared her last wish with me:

 

“Before I die, I hope to find my true self.”

 

Core of the Project

 

This work is not only about her—it echoes the fate of many individuals shaped by turbulent times.

It explores:

 

• Identity and belonging

• Invisible labor of women

• How history shapes personal lives

• Dignity and tenderness within hardship

 

Mrs. Kim once said:

 

“I am a hibiscus blooming in a foreign land.”

 

This project is for her—and for everyone who has been searching for home.