Fans of K-pop music will recall the latest visit to Thailand of the Korean pop group SHINee. Journalists discussed what the stars were carrying in their luggage. Choi Min-ho, the singer and actor better known as Minho, carried a copy of the American novel The Catcher in the Rye in his bag. Those who follow the career of Minho know that he has repeatedly told interviewers that his favorite book is The Catcher in the Rye. The Thammasat University Libraries own copies of The Catcher in the Rye in the original English and also in Thai translation. The TU Libraries also have circulating copies of books about The Catcher in the Rye and its author, Jerome David Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951. Its main character, Holden Caulfield, expresses much anxiety about his problems adjusting to challenges in his school work, social life, dating, and other worries for teenagers, then as now. Although the story of The Catcher in the Rye happens in and near New York City, many of its problems apply to young people everywhere. Naturally, some of the things it describes are also old fashioned or no longer relevant for teenagers of 2017 who live in other places. Yet if the Korean rapper Minho was so impressed with the book and still values it highly, some of his fans might consider looking at it to see if it might interest them as well. The Catcher in the Rye has been translated into most of the major languages of the world, including in Thai language in 2009. The most recent Thai translation of Catcher in the Rye is by S.E.A. Write Award-winning author Prabda Yoon, published by Lighthouse Publishing. Previous translations into Thai language of Catcher in the Rye were published in 1983, under the title My Life, and one in 1988 entitled Ghost. Across the world, the novel still sells about one million copies annually, for total sales of over 65 million copies. The title of the book may be confusing to some readers. The Thai translation makes the meaning clearer, by changing it to จะเป็นผู้คอยรับไว้ ไม่ให้ใครร่วง, or something like I Will be Waiting. No One Falls. This is more or less the meaning of the title, which is confusing even to English-language readers. It means that Holden Caulfield wants to protect people, especially children like his little sister. He dreams of acting like a goalkeeper in a football game. In his dream, the game is played in a field where rye is grown. Rye is form of grain, closely related to wheat and barley. If the children run too close to the edge of a mountain, then Holden hopes he will be able to catch them before they fall. This wish to protect others is the main significance of the Thai language title I Will be Waiting. No One Falls. There is a further complication in the English title, which few young readers know about. It refers to a romantic poem by the Scots author Robert Burns, Comin’ Thro’ the Rye. This poem, written in the 1700s, describes two lovers meeting in a field of rye. It includes the words:

If a body meet a body comin’ thro’ the rye.

Holden does not remember these words exactly, and instead he thinks the poem goes:

If a body catch a body comin’ thro’ the rye.

So, Holden thinks of his fantasy of catching the young children in the field of rye, and saving them from danger. This is not necessary to know in order to appreciate The Catcher in the Rye, but it does show that even if the meaning of the title of a novel is not clear, it may still become very popular. Robert Burns is a cultural hero for Scottish people, and the TU Libraries own many books by and about him. Returning to the mystery of why Minho of the group SHINee, loves The Catcher in the Rye so much, we find that he is not alone in Korea. Many other young Koreans love this book, and not just because the superstar Minho enjoys it. In 2010, a teacher of American literature in Korea posted an article online about his experiences of teaching The Catcher in the Rye to Korean students. Assistant Professor John Eperjesi, who teaches English at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, is the author of The Imperialist Imaginary: Visions of Asia and the Pacific in American Culture. Assistant Professor Eperjesi writes that Holden Caulfield’s feeling of not fitting in an educational system was shared by some young people in Korea:

My students and I have had a lot of fun reading Salinger’s classic coming-of-age novel. They have an easy time identifying with Holden’s anger and frustration toward an education system that treats students as objects to be disciplined and punished. One of the most shocking things I witnessed after moving to Seoul was seeing long lines of school buses waiting outside academies at 11 p.m. on Friday nights. After students finish their regular school,dishevelled zombie kids stagger into cram schools and academies for extra tutoring in science, math, and of course English. Students spend the first 18 years of their life memorizing stuff, being talked at, and preparing for the university entrance exam, so that by the time they finally make it past the main gate, the idea that learning could be fun, interesting or relevant has been paralyzed… For many students, there is simply no time for digression, no time for wandering or play, either in their studies or personal lives.

While the pressure of schoolwork is only one of Holden’s problems in the novel Catcher in the Rye, apparently some students in Korea identify with this issue. As we know, countries in Asia expect different workloads of students. An article posted online in 2014 revealed data from a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on how many hours teenage students around the world are expected to spend each week doing homework. Teenagers in Shanghai are expected to spend 14 hours per week doing homework assignments. In Singapore, students are assigned an average of 9.4 hours per week. In Hong Kong, the number is 6, in Vietnam 5.8 and in Thailand 5.6. In Japan, teenagers have an average of only 3.8 hours of homework assignments weekly, and in Finland, which is considered an advanced place for the education of youth, the average hours of homework assignments weekly is only 2.8. In South Korea, teenaged students are assigned 2.9 hours of homework weekly,mbut as the ajarn mentioned in his article, they are also expected to attend hours of personal tutoring each week, as well as long after-school classes.

Assistant Professor Eperjesi also points out that in Catcher in the Rye, Holden often complains that people and things in life are phony, meaning that they are not real, or do not correspond with reality. Among the list of things that Korean students also feel are not close to reality are the following:

pop music, plastic surgery, social networking sites. A few examples are more locally specific: idol groups, the Miss Korea contest …

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)