Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win sparks Korean publisher stock rally
News of an author from the nation winning the award for the first time boosted most Korean stocks related to books or publishing
SOUTH Korean author Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win sparked excitement in the country’s books and publishing industry, with the reaction even spreading to the stock market.
Regardless of whether they have published Han’s works or not, the news of an author from the nation winning the award for the first time boosted most Korean stocks related to books or publishing on speculation that there will be increased global interest in Korea literature.
Shares of companies such as online book retailer Yes24, Hansae Yes24 Holdings and Millie Seojae, an online book-reading service provider, jumped by the daily limit of 30 per cent. Samsung Publishing and YeaRimDang Publishing surged at least 25 per cent.
The 53-year-old Han, author of The Vegetarian and Human Acts, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” the Swedish Academy said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 10). She’s also the first Asian woman to win the award.
Some online bookstores reportedly suffered from server outages from a spike in traffic after Swedish Academy’s announcement on Thursday night, as Koreans flocked to order Han’s books in droves.
“We were really surprised. People screamed,” said Lee Hyun Ja, editor in chief at major Korean book publisher Munhak Dongnae, which has published eight of Han’s works. “This will definitely be a moment that even people who were not interested in reading books would read more Korean literature. We worked overnight and came to work early in the morning, but everyone looks so happy.”
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South Korean culture and entertainment have been receiving growing global attention in recent years, with blockbuster hits such as Netflix series Squid Game and the 2019 movie Parasite, the first non-English-language movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. That trend has often translated to excitement in the stock market. BLOOMBERG
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