Within the immigrant communities, there’s an enormous distinction of class… People often think of America as a classless society, but, of course, that isn’t true. Min Jin Lee, during the late 1990s, when she started writing, already had a son to look after and was juggling between the role of being a mother and advancing her professional writing career, so she knew firsthand the difficulty and importance the mother is to the child, which was why she felt all mothers needed to be better appreciated. Min Jin Lee crafted this quote in honor of all the mothers and their roles in the life of the family she believed these roles sometimes to be overlooked and neglected. We need to recognize how difficult and important being a mother is. Getting the final pieces for writing the epic ‘ Pachinko’ was possible thanks to her relocation to Tokyo, Japan, where she met with and interviewed several people who were, or had ancestors, tied to the book’s subject matter.

Min Jin Lee has always been one to express her love and fondness for Japan, even though her parent country Korea has had a fractious relationship in the past. At the same time, I have a complex relationship with Japan because I’m Korean. Min Jin Lee saw life in the same light, and this is the fact that in life, one experiences many tough times, trials, and even failures – but there’s no room for quitting or giving up because one doesn’t have much of a choice than to keep trying with the hope to succeed, even though there is a greater percentage of failure occurring. She compared real life to the shady activity perpetrated by the owners of such gambling companies, who would always make sure the house didn’t lose money. Min Jin Lee made this quote in connection to one of her bestsellers, ‘ Pachinko’ – a title which also stands for a shady gambling company. ‘Pachinko’, like all gambling, is rigged. This would then be followed by a series of flashbacks about even the tiniest collectible detail of her life, trying to adjust as an immigrant from a faraway country. However, as she advanced in age, she realized there are more sides to these experiences characterizing her life than she had paid attention to. Much of what transpired around her at the time was viewed with a naive, twofold eye, even though those experiences were hard for her. Min Jin Lee draws from her experience as a child of seven years old, immigrating from South Korea to the United States with her parents and two sisters. When you’re young, you think everything has to be binary, as that’s exactly how you feel at that age. Min Jin Lee’s quotes come especially needy for folks grappling with adjusting to a foreign environment – outside of their home country, still, they’ve proven to be a good resource for educating about life in general.

Min jin