闵贞莉放弃了传统意义上的成功之路，辞去了企业法律工作，花了十多年时间创作她的处女作《Free Food for Millionaires》。
Min Jin Lee gave up climbing the ladder of conventional success by quitting her corporate-law job and then spending more than a decade working on her début novel, “Free Food for Millionaires.”
十年后，她出版了历史巨著《Pachinko》，该书被翻译成三十多种语言。
Ten years later, in 2017, she published “Pachinko,” a historical epic that was translated into more than thirty languages.
又过了近十年，她推出了《American Hagwon》，这部小说讲述了一个家庭从首尔搬到悉尼再迁往南加州的经历，他们致力于为孩子提供最好的教育。
Nearly another decade later, she released “American Hagwon,” which follows a family as they move from Seoul to Sydney to Southern California in pursuit of the best possible education for their children.
闵贞莉与大卫·雷姆尼克讨论了“hagwon”这一教育机构的意义、她对研究的热情，以及如何让世界各地的读者理解韩国的文化体验。她说：‘我的使命是让所有人都能了解韩国文化，大卫。我认为韩国人非常了不起，我希望你们也能成为韩国人。’
Lee talks with David Remnick about the institution of the hagwon, her love of research, and making Korean experiences legible to readers around the world. “It’s my job to make everybody Korean, David,” she says. “I think Koreans are awesome. I want you to be Korean.”