“Before, I used to think people would
mistreat or take advantage of me because I’m from North
Korea, so I would be really aggressive about everything. But I realized that’s not the right way to go about things. Once I tried to be open and
understanding, I felt my relationships improving. Things aren’t perfect yet, but I can feel that I’m
slowly putting my roots down.”
These are words from North Korean defector
Park So Yeon [pictured, Image: Daily NK], who went from store employee to street vendor and now is the
owner of a handmade tofu shop. Park used to sell bracken and daily goods in a
small street stall at Sanbon Market in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, particularly harsh during the bitter winter months. During this time, she experienced immense difficulties due to the mistreatment she suffered from others.
What kept her going though was her dream to
successfully establish herself in South Korea. By opening her North Korean
style handmade tofu shop ‘Soybean Love,’ she was able to get one step closer to realizing that goal.
Word-of-mouth was everything to galvanizing
her business. Her diligence of lighting up the fire for her iron pot at 5a.m. every morning and the delicious tofu produced from it spurred recommendations among many urging others to go try out her product. “How could I
not care about even the smallest of things, when it took so much to secure this
life?” she says of the diligence and attention to detail that brought a steady stream of customers to her store.
Park maintains that for her, success is when one is able to – even to the smallest degree – look around and help others in need: the very thing she is now
able to do. “Just like the tofu that I make with these
hands, even if it takes a long time, my hope is that I can pour my heart into
everything I do this year as well,” she asserts.
Opening her tofu store and getting one step
closer to her dream
Before opening her shop, Park used to be a
street vendor at Sanbon Market. The money was not bad,
but working on the streets proved to be no easy feat. Market vendors used to bully
her, and the winter temperatures were painstakingly cold.
Staring at the shops inside the market, she
desperately hoped to one day to have a store of her own; that day finally came when
a shop was suddenly put on the market. Without any time to think, she signed the lease
and made a down payment. But as the day to settle the remaining balance
approached, she found herself with no money and without means to obtain any.
This is when she remembered reading an
article on how to receive loans in a magazine called, “Dongpo
Sarang,” published primarily for North Korean defectors
in the South. Rummaging through back issues, she was able to learn about the
Smile Microcredit Bank, through which Park was also put in touch with the Smile
Learning Center, which offers education about opening and running
businesses.
Leading a life of success: slow, but with
devotion, just like making tofu
 Image: Daily NK |
Park cites the longing for the taste of tofu from back home in North Korea as the driving force behind her decision to open the shop. Tofu in
the South differs in taste and flavor from that in the North because most
places in South Korea use machines to churn out the soybean blocks, and to foster a longer shelf life, add in a considerable amount of preservatives. With firm resolve, Park said she was confident that if she could make
tofu that satisfied her, others would love it as well.
She first opened shop in June 2011 and used
an iron pot to make the tofu like they did in the old days. By doing so, it
kept the taste clean and preserved the nutty taste unique to tofu. It requires
a lot more work, but guarantees a flavor entirely different from machine-produced
tofu.
Her tofu slowly but surely began to gain
more popularity, with the media paying visits to get a closer look at the process behind her work. Many times she ran out of supply before the evening hours. Ahead of
national holidays, dozens would stand in line waiting, but many would be forced to turn away empty-handed. The store can only produce about 100 blocks a day–sometimes even her regulars are unable purchase any due to its popularity.
She is grateful and feels sorry she cannot
do more, but as of now, Park has no plans to expand her operation. Rather than becoming greedy, she says she much prefers working hard but happily.
Instead, Park has added to the goods available at her shop: biji [leftovers from making tofu], soy milk, rice malt, scorched rice, and others.
During the day, she is busy selling her goods, and at night she spends many
hours soaking the beans and making rice malt. There is barely enough time for sleep, but she says thinking of her customers who come
from afar to buy her products and it makes it worth it.
As she continues to produce tofu made with continued hope and perseverance, more people around her in the market have come to extend a warm welcome and kind words–quite contrary to when she first began.
“I think I would call this success. I’m thankful about every single day,” she
said, adding, “It hasn’t been
that long ago since I started, but I’ve received so
much love.”
As the interview comes to an end, Park
says, “I hope this love and support continues on this
year and even in the distant future. That’s why today,
as I did yesterday, I will select my beans and make my tofu.”
*This article was made possible by support from the Korea Hana Foundation [the North Korean Refugees Foundation].
