Who Pays the Price in the Games of Power?

South Korea has emerged as a global cultural powerhouse, conquering the world through music, cinema, television and even literature. Now the world is asking: what drives the phenomenon behind the Hallyu wave?

But behind this phenomenal success lies a history riddled with scars. The post-colonial nation, having gone through a series of traumatic events including the division into North and South, the Gwangju Uprising and the Asian financial crisis, is now characterised by a neo-liberal society that is ultra-competitive yet charged with a defiant spirit at the same time.

Author Kim Young-ha is precisely a product of this milieu. Unlike earlier generations of Korean writers, whose works had borne the weight of social missions, Kim is emblematic of a generation less concerned with lofty ideologies than the ordinary people who have to live with them. His writing often deals, in vivid detail and a somewhat detached style, with the daily struggles and emotional paralysis of the common folk— his 2006 novel, The Empire of Light (known as Your Republic Is Calling You in English), is no exception.

Adapted for the stage by French director Arthur Nauzyciel in 2016, The Empire of Light follows Kim Kiyeong, a North Korean spy living a quiet life in South Korea, who is suddenly called back "home". What comes forth? Where does he truly belong?

While the protagonist's predicament is undoubtedly a Korean one, personal tragedies born of ruthless manipulation by those in power are universal. In fact, the ideological and geopolitical tensions between North and South Korea were never the central focus for Kim Young-ha and Nauzyciel—it is the fate of individuals behind grand narratives that concerns them.

Both the original novel and its stage adaptation devote considerable attention to the central character's encounters with revolutionary youth at a South Korean university, and how that generation ultimately abandoned its ideals to become part of the ruling elite—a poignant critique of the very system the writer himself hails from. In an interview with the journal Azalea, Kim observes: "The Korean family is a family in crisis, and lacks the communication skills and education necessary for confronting a new reality." For Kim, severing the sacred bond between this "family" and the individual, so to speak, may well be the only way for ordinary people to reclaim agency over their own destinies.

The Empire of Light

Date: 20-21 Mar, 2026

Venue: Lyric Theatre, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Details: https://www.hk.artsfestival.org/en/programme/The-Empire-of-LightDetails:

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Acknowledgement