Rereading Kim Kwan-young, Twelve Years After We Met

When I wrote this in December 2023, Kim Kwan-young was serving as governor of North Jeolla Province. I knew him first as someone who had gone to my university before me.

We met during the fall festival at Sungkyunkwan University in 2011. The school had invited several speakers, including author Kim Rando and baseball manager Kim Sung-keun. I missed both talks because of class.

I did make it to Kim Kwan-young’s. I knew less about him than the other speakers, but students who had heard of him already knew the story of the alumnus who passed three of the country’s most competitive exams.

The talk I nearly missed

I had been ready to go home after class. A friend who was in his final semester and had a job lined up at Kim & Chang was going, and I found myself going with him.

I heard Kim tell his own story and took home a copy of the book he had written. As I read it, I kept recognizing the episodes he had told us from the stage.

The book had his voice in it. I could hear the talk again as I read.

From Gunsan to the accounting exam

The story starts in Gunsan, where Kim grew up. He describes the family he came from and the habits and attitudes he picked up from his parents.

They raised six children. Reading about what that asked of them made me think of my own parents and of feelings they may never have had a reason to put into words.

Kim went to Sungkyunkwan University and joined its study group for the certified public accountant examination in his first year. He writes about passing at 18, unusually young, and gives a surprisingly close account of how he prepared.

He names the people who helped him. The years had passed, but the details have the immediacy of something that happened yesterday.

From the civil service to the bar

Once he had passed the accounting exam, he began preparing for the higher civil service exam. Later, already in government, he studied for the bar exam as well.

Again, the steps come with names and acts of help. Those details stayed with me more than the list of exams did.

Choosing Kim & Chang

Passing the bar and entering the Judicial Research and Training Institute left him with a decision about what to do next. Having passed three exams that are each difficult enough on their own, he had options.

An acquaintance approached him about Kim & Chang. His explanation for joining was the part I remembered. He hoped eventually to organize charitable work, perhaps along the lines of the Community Chest of Korea. Knowing people in a position to help could make that possible.

I received the book on October 6, 2011, and came back to it on December 29, 2023. I did not know how far the plan had come in those years. On the page, it gives a personal reason for a decision that can otherwise look like a straightforward career move.

Two concerns that outlasted the book

Kim also writes about corporate governance and the place of large conglomerates in South Korea’s economy. He was already worried about low fertility when the book came out.

South Korea’s total fertility rate was 0.72 children per woman in 2023, according to official annual figures. Reading an earlier warning after seeing how far the rate had fallen gave that section more weight.

My own thought was that the economics of raising children had changed. Families face a different set of expectations and costs, and I could see why the subject had been hard to address, even after years of debate.

Rereading the book in 2023

I read the book once after the talk and left it alone for years. In that time, I rarely heard Kim’s name.

It came back to me during the 2023 World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum. Kim was governor, and I saw him interviewed amid coverage of the problems at the event. It was a very different encounter from the one I remembered.

After the Jamboree, I opened the book again. This time, it took me back to a room at the university and to a story I had heard almost by chance.

Aren’t You Glad to See Me?

• Author — Kim Kwan-young
• Published — August 31, 2011
• ISBN-13 — 9788994342023