[Star’s Library-<8>Singer Gong Minji]

“I want to share my thoughts with someone I love…I’ll give you a wedding present”

Park Joon’s anthology ‘Your Name…’

Peculiarly witty set of styles

‘Human Disqualification’ ‘The Wish of the Hedgehog’

I’m going to look back on the meaning of solitude.



The 8th star of ‘Star’s Library’ former 2NE1 member Gong Minji is at Kyobo Bookstore at Gwanghwamun reading poet Park Joon’s ‘It Took Me A Few Days To Erase Your Name’.

[SEDaily] Girl group 2NE1’s maknae (youngest), Gong Minji (25 in the picture), who dominated the stage with challenging, provocative eyes and facial expressions. While boldly singing the lyrics to “I AM THE BEST”, she was irrefutably a top star of the day. Although 2NE1 disbanded, Gong Minji, who is still active here and abroad, was invited as the 8th star for “Star’s Library”.

When she visited the office of SEDaily for an interview, her image as the ‘tough unnie’ was nowhere to be seen. Her tender open eyes smiled shyly, and with a slight grace her two hands gathered subconsciously, she modestly presented herself as a maiden from a respectable family.

“Isn’t it so different from what you’ve shown on stage?”, I asked, as she smiled with laugh, “I think we dominated the stage with a powerful image. But I’m really a ‘homebody’ type, I like reading books, I also like to cross-stitch and knit.”, begins the story of 25 year old Gong Minji. “I couldn’t afford to look back on the ‘good times’ in my day, I made my debut so young that I didn’t have any friends. Even when I was face to face with someone, I felt alone because I had no one to tell my story to. Whenever that happened, I would read a book. I would write my impressions of books that I read, I’d collect these books, and I’d like to donate them. I’m thinking of the times when I sold coffee and books.” Whenever she talks about his life as a top star since her debut at age 15, she’s got more of a milder touch than flamboyant, and though she is now 25 years old, she seems to have mastered the principles of the world.

Gong Minji, who dreamed of becoming a poet as a child, said that she wanted to introduce Park Joon’s poem, ‘It Took Me A Few Days To Erase Your Name’. “I went to elementary school in Gwangju, and my homeroom teacher was a poet. I got a lot of assignments to write poems and a book report. I feel that I naturally like literature. Poet Park Joon wrote ‘It Took Me A Few Days To Erase your Name’ specifically for his wife. Park Joon’s style of witty writing was very touching.” Then she read the last part of the poem. ‘It hurt me that I made up your name and I ate for a few days.’ That’s the sentence I wrote in my diary. Even though we had the ability to do it, the feeling was that all the correspondences should always be beautiful.”

Gong Minji giving her impression of “It Took Me A Few Days To Erase Your Name”.

To Gong Minji, poetry is the place to meet her “outside self,” the means to express oneself, and the things to be shared with loved ones. She introduced a poem she had written in the past on ‘Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook’, she still writes poems when she’s feeling “sentimental”, she wrote a collection of poems for her boyfriend, and presented them as a gift. “I don’t remember when I was dating (laughs), but I wrote a poem and gave poems by Yoon Dong Joo and Na Tae Joo. I like Yoon Dong Joo’s ‘The Cross’. Yoon Dong Joo’s life was wonderful and amazing, so I feel humble when I read his poetry.” To explain why she gave her boyfriend a book of poems, and not a book of poems about love, ‘Ah…’, was the only reaction that came out naturally. “I want to share my thoughts with someone I love.”

Gong Minji, who wants to have a book meeting with non-fiction writers, has many books beyond imagination. After making her debut at a young age and becoming a top star, she had an unexpected break. In the meantime, she realized the nature of the public and popularity, and created a solid self through books.

The 8th star of ‘Star’s Library’ former 2NE1 member Gong Minji is an artist who has read deep books, including ‘It Took Me A Few Days To Erase Your Name’ is at Kyobo Bookstore at Gwanghwamun.

Her reading of “Human Disqualification” and “The Wish of the Hedgehog”, works of solitude, are like fate for the star. “In a word, ‘Human Disqualification’ is a grim story of being disqualified. In the end, the main character goes back to his life and says, ‘Is it possible for humans to live this tragic life?’ And I thought that life can change depending on what kind of life you make. In ‘The Wish of the Hedgehog’, with no friends, the hedgehog decides to invite the animals with courage, but it doesn’t. It can’t even send them an invitation, so it just imagines its’ friends coming to play. While reading the book, I really wanted the hedgehog to invite all my friends. And the sentence that hit me the most was ‘Silent but Safe.’ I think it means that you choose ‘safe loneliness’ to be lonely and not hurt.”

2NE1 is so big in the U.S. that Emma Stone of “La La Land” considered them to be her favorite K-pop singer. Gong Minji, who is popular not only in the U.S. but also in the English speaking world, like in the Philippines, applied herself to study English. “I read ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ with a translator while I was studying English. It was interesting to see people remember each other at funerals. I want to have a funeral like that before I die.”

Source: SEDaily

Translation: AyoMinzy!