Marriage is too crazy

Author: Li Wanjiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Winner of the 24th Today Literature Award in South Korea, where love and marriage are merely a game. South Korea has long been influenced by Confucian culture, leading to a traditionally serious and solemn attitude toward family and marriage. Traditional notions like hierarchical relationships between elders and juniors, and distinct gender roles are deeply rooted, with marriage considered a sacred act. However, the author strongly refutes this, believing that everyone is merely deceiving themselves. This book primarily reflects the thinking and romantic views of contemporary South Korean youth, making it akin to "Marriage Ecology." Although most still hold great fantasies about marriage and idealize married life, for the younger generation, marriage has become an economic transaction. The male and female protagonists in the novel are typical examples—they treat love and marriage as a game. On the night they met through mutual friends, they became "sexual partners" merely because the hotel cost less than a taxi. Despite frequently indulging in pleasure, they neither restrained each other nor maintained complex romantic relationships. Later, the female protagonist abandoned her impoverished part-time lecturer job and married a wealthy doctor. On their wedding day, the male protagonist, saying attending his ex-girlfriend's wedding had become fashionable.
Please accept my invitation to witness the lighting of the wedding candles in this fine spring day.
Li Gwenzhen, Song Yul Lee
"I can hardly imagine it," I said after reading it.
"Even I find it hard to believe," Gwenzhen agreed.
"You see, all these phrases—'a fine spring day,' 'wedding candles,' 'please attend,'" I looked up at him, "they're all so outdated."
"Forget it, are you afraid people won't know you're a lecturer? Haha!" Gwenzhen laughed it off.
"Anyway, you're getting married," I finished my coffee, saying, "I don't know how to comfort you."
Gwenzhen scratched his head, defending himself, "The other party is in a hurry; there's nothing I can do."
I continued, "To comfort you, just tell Yul Lee this!"
But he ignored my joke and said seriously, "You should get married too. Every time I call your house, your aunt keeps nagging about it. I almost wish you could marry me instead."
"To please my mother, I have to marry?" I retorted, and he repeated his old line: "How can parents be wrong? They're all for their children. Listen to your mother; in the end, you'll see it's all for our benefit."
I shot back: "Then you really should get married. If that's how we show filial piety to our mother, there are plenty of other ways."
"What ways?"
"Why?"