Rice Paper
Window
A country on the edge of democracy;
a young woman paying attention.
What readers are saying
이 책은 금발머리 소녀 크리스탈이 한국 서울 용암사 절에서 머물며 연세대학교 어학당에서 한국어를 배우며 보왔던 아름다운 한 편의 동화 입니다. 1989년 그 해 여름은 무더위 만큼이나 뜨거웠던 민주화 시간이였습니다. 그 시대를 잘 알 수 있는 소중한 글 입니다. 한국에 유학 온 학생과 한국문화에 관심있는 해외 모든 사람들에게 귀중한 지혜의 글이 될 것 입니다. 이 책을 적극 추천 합니다.
용암사 주지 법현스님
“A beautiful tale — a valuable book of wisdom for all who are interested in Korean culture.”
This book is a beautiful fairy tale that Crystal (Christabel) wrote while staying at Yongamsa Buddhist Temple in Seoul and learning Korean at Yonsei University Language Institute. 1989 was a period when Korea was going through democratization as fervent as that year’s steaming hot summer. This writing helps us understand the era very well. It will be a valuable book of wisdom not only for those who come to Korea for Korean studies but also for the international community interested in Korean culture. I strongly recommend this book.
Head of the Department of Korean Music, Dongguk University
Abbot of Yongamsa Temple · Seoul
“I will read it again… and again… and again.”
A deeply intimate and personal telling, rich in meaning — a glimpse into a world I could not have imagined otherwise.
“Nostalgic for a place and time I’ve never been.”
It reminds me of the hunger I had in my youth for new experiences, damn the discomfort. Christabel said “yes” to everything.
“Riveting — and has really come out beautifully.”
I recommend this book to everyone who is a free spirit and an adventurer. I love this book when I want to relax with a cup of tea anywhere.
“For those who were there — it will hold a particularly poignant resonance.”
Scene after scene brought back moments I hadn’t thought about in decades. It doesn’t just remind you of how things were — it reminds you how it felt.
“Into the enigmatic world of contradictions in Korea’s nascent democratization.”
She immerses us directly into her thoughts on the variety of experiences — between students and riot police, her Korean acquaintances, the secular and the profound.
“Really interesting and fun read.”
I learned a lot and remembered a bit about being 18! Highly recommended for young adults heading to Korea to study and tour.
“Beautifully written coming of age tale.”
I learned about Korean culture, history and being the other through the eyes of a young woman. Personal tales combine with the backdrop of major changes in South Korea.
“Charming, upbeat, and fascinating.”
Her voice is both poetic and warmly unpretentious — a keen eye for all aspects of Korean culture and everyday life.
“문화의 다리 — A cultural bridge”
Paper Angel Press에서 출판된 이 잊을 수 없는 회상록은 성년이 되는 감수성이 예민한 젊은 여인과 수십년간의 식민지 생활, 전쟁 그리고 독재 체재로부터 평화, 민주주의 그리고 번영으로 가기 위해 투쟁하는 나라의 초상화를 잇는 문화의 다리다.
This unforgettable memoir is a cultural bridge — connecting the portrait of a young woman coming of age with a nation struggling toward peace, democracy, and prosperity after decades of colonization, war, and dictatorship.
Full article available in print · Link forthcoming
A country on the edge of democracy;
a young woman paying attention.
Christabel Choi enters South Korea as a student of International Relations in 1989, boarding at a Buddhist temple on the mountain above the university. She soon finds herself the only woman in the company of men in the boarding house: welcomed as an honorary little brother. At the university over the mountain, her classmates are leading the dangerous fight to eliminate the remnants of dictatorship and bring a decisive end to martial law.
The next eight months pass in contrast — the turmoil of the democracy movement and the peace of the mountain and temple. Every week the campus erupts with demands for political freedom, fair wages for workers, and accountability for atrocities like the Gwangju Massacre and the April Uprising.
Recognizing this is a historic moment — both for Korea as a nation, and for herself newly immersed in a Korean life — Christabel keeps a careful journal. She records her frequent brushes with soldiers on the roads and mountain trails, and shares a fresh glimpse of food, places, friendships, and customs as she encounters them for the very first time.
Where to Buy
Also available to order at your local independent bookstore.
“I admire the determination of my classmates and the Korean people from all walks of life who fought fiercely for human rights and democracy. At the same time, it was the little things that brought happiness and hope: tea with friends, blossoming trees in the mountains, and waking to the sound of bells and the chanting of monks who gave us respite from the turmoil.”
— Christabel ChoiSeoul, 1989 — a nation on the edge
In the late 1980s, the whole world was changing, including Korea. I was a student at Yonsei University, where my housemates and classmates were actively dismantling authoritarian rule and ushering in democracy. I lived in a historic traditional home in a temple, at a time when such houses were disappearing. Realizing I was present at a historic moment, I kept a careful journal. This memoir is focused on 1989, compiled from my contemporary notes.
The title of this book is inspired by a 1973 book by another American in Korea, Michael J Daniels of Sogang University, who said that although foreigners cannot see Korea clearly — as if we are looking through “A Rain-Spattered Window” — we gain a great richness in making the effort.
An excerpt from
Rice Paper Window
I kept a journal in Seoul because I felt — even at the time — that I was living inside something larger than myself. My classmates were risking arrest and worse for the right to vote, to speak freely, to hold their government accountable. I was a guest in their struggle: an American, a woman, an outsider the temple had welcomed as an honorary little brother.
The field notes sat in a box for decades. I wasn’t sure they were anyone’s story but my own. Then, slowly, Korea became a country the whole world was watching — for its cinema, its music, its history. And I realized: I had been there, in that inflection point, and I had written it down.
I wrote it because those mornings on the mountain deserved to be remembered. Because my classmates deserved to be seen. And because, if you keep a careful enough journal, the world you lived in doesn’t disappear — it waits for you.✽
Christabel Hudson Choi
Author · Memoir · Historical Fiction
Discussion questions for
Rice Paper Window
Rice Paper Window works beautifully for book clubs interested in memoir, history, travel writing, cross-cultural experience, and the craft of journaling. Christabel is available to join your group — in person or online — to discuss the book and answer questions.
Christabel enters Korea with the Communist Manifesto in her bag, unaware of the risk. What does this tell us about the gap between knowing history in the abstract and living inside it?
She is welcomed into the temple as an “honorary little brother.” How does this liminal position — neither insider nor outsider — shape what she is able to observe and record?
The book holds the contrast between the peace of the mountain and the upheaval of the campus below. How does Christabel inhabit both realities — and what does that tension reveal about daily life under political crisis?
The field notes were written in real time, decades before publication. How does the distance between the young woman who wrote them and the author who shaped them affect how we read the story?
Rice Paper Window is both a personal coming-of-age and a portrait of a nation in transition. Which thread felt more central to you — and did they reinforce each other?
Do you keep a journal, or have you in the past? How did reading this book change or affirm your sense of what a journal can become over time?
Several reviewers say the book made them nostalgic for a place and time they’ve never been. What is it about Christabel’s writing that creates that sense of vivid immediacy?
Christabel describes her classmates risking arrest for democracy. As a Western observer, how does she navigate telling their story — and what responsibilities does that carry?
In-person (Bay Area) or online — free for groups of 6 or more.
Submit a question for
Christabel’s Journal page
You may spark a new entry. Questions about Korea 1989, the democracy movement, life in a Buddhist temple, the writing process, journaling, or anything the book raised for you — all welcome.
Order Rice Paper Window
Available in hardcover, paperback, and digital editions — order direct from Paper Angel Press or wherever books are sold.