Novelist Han Kang (54) attended the Nobel Prize in Literature ceremony on the 10th (local time). It is the first attendance by a Korean and the first by an Asian woman.
Han Kang attended the ceremony held at the Concert House (Konserthuset), Stockholm's landmark, at 4 p.m. that day.
As the king entered, the orchestra played Mozart's march, and Han Kang, in a black evening dress, entered with other laureates and took a seat prepared on the left side of the stage at the ceremony venue.
According to the order of the institutional sector awards, Han Kang receives the Nobel Prize medal and diploma fourth from the king. The awarding order is physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economics.
Since the Nobel Prize ceremony began at the Concert House in 1926, it is the first time in about a century that a Korean has walked the 'blue carpet' here. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for the late former President Kim Dae-jung is held in Oslo, Norway, not at the Concert House.
Han Kang is the 121st overall and the 18th female Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. The last time an Asian received the Nobel Prize in Literature was 12 years ago in 2012, when Chinese novelist Mo Yan received it.
The Swedish Academy selected Han Kang as the laureate on Oct. 10, praising his works as "intense poetical prose against historical trauma and revealing the fragility of human life."