螢雪之功 (Yíng xuě zhī gōng) ( 형설지공 in Korean ). An interpretation of the four character idiom is achievement by firefly and snow. It is a reference to two Chinese classical stories in which poor children without the means for candles or lamps of some kind, study diligently in their absence. The stories are said to have originated in the Jin Dynasty. One story is that a prominent scholar Che Yin as a poor child gathered fireflies in a cloth bag and studied by their light. In another tale that a different scholar Sun Kang studied during winter nights by moonlight reflected from snow. Both passed local and provincial examinations and became prominent government officials. These legends reflect the traditional value placed upon scholarship and sustained effort in Chinese and Korean cultures. The four character idiom and those similar are a reference to the Chinese classical stories.*
Along this line, there is a song in South Korea, that was rated in a cultural column as the first or second most popular Karaoke song in South Korea in 2025. I heard the song last week for the first time, which interested me because Firefly is a poem composed during the dictatorship period in South Korea, that I was already familiar with. I may have even mentioned it here some time ago. I've had the tab open in my old laptop since. A Firefly by Kim Nam-ju
As fate would have it, Hwang Ka-ram, the singer who popularized the song, I'm a Firefly, actually lived it: "I thought I was a star, but I was just a firefly." His career, if you could call it that, was for fourteen years, abysmally unsuccessful. At the outset, in his late teens, he was actually homeless and slept in the streets for months. As he recounted, his weight fell to 60 kilos. Later after saving some funds from labor jobs and part time work, with his friends, he bought a small storage building which they used for a sound studio. It had no running water. After years since his debut busking on the streets alone, Hwang got a small job as a singer on one song after an audition. Then a songwriter-singer friend Jeong Jung-shik gave Hwang a song that he had written and performed, I'm a Firefly, apparently inspired originally by a firefly festival in Muju County. Their duet performance is also below. I understand that Jeong's career and personal life were no picnic either. Hwang's solo performance went on to became a hit in late 2024, after further delay attributed to the covid slowdown.
Original singer-songwriter, Jeong Joong-shik, (right) and Hwang Ka-ram (left) the solo artist and friend who popularized the song, perform the 2020 song I'm a Firefly together below.
정중식X황가람의 감동 듀엣! ＜나는 반딧불 MBC
Below is a karaoke type presentation of the popular remake by Hwang below with English translation. The song sounds awkward in English, in part. But the song sounds great in Korean and is filled with emotion. An amusing double entendre is that the other older term for firefly is "dog poop bug," 개똥벌레 gaettongbeolle. The name was based upon a common belief that fireflies flourish in manure, or poop. Is this true? Another that fireflies are as common as dog poop. So the singer goes from his self image as star to firefly, dog poop bug as it were, and then when he meets the love of his life, he's a star again. At least in his own mind. The song is focused on the failed aspirations of youth, particularly in the most recent younger generation, which haven't met the great expectations which seemed possible for the earlier generation. The difference in expectations goes from that of a rising economy with a future, to a mature economy imposing limits, frustrating aims, and favoring those born to wealthy circumstances.
There was an earlier song Firefly which was a hit during the dictatorship period: it was a bit more upbeat, and humorous in a self deprecating way. The title used the "dog poop bug" synonym for firefly, rather than "flashing bug light" 반딧불 ban dit bul, the later 15th Century Korean usage. "No matter how I flash, it's of no use, See that pile of dog poop, that's my house. Even when my heart reaches out, I don't have any friends...Even the birds that sing, fly far away." By comparison, the poem Firefly which also used the dog poop bug synonym, was written by an author imprisoned for dissent during the dictatorship period. There the firefly represented hope however distant or small for a better future. Much more serious in tone, unlikely to get past the censor. That one firefly morphed into the "morning dew," now a symbol of the revolutionary spirit of the democracy movement in South Korea reflected in the song of the same name.
Here is the earlier Firefly song from the seventies:
Singer Hwang Ka-ram's heartfelt song resonates across generations
Despite its recent surge in popularity, "I Am a Firefly" was originally written and released in 2020 by indie band Lunch. The song’s creator, Jeong Jung-shik, described its origins as an inside joke that turned into something much bigger.
"A friend working in Muju County in North Jeolla Province jokingly told me that if I wrote a song like 'Yeosu Night Sea,' it would get played everywhere," Jeong recalled. Taking the remark as a challenge, he completed the song in just one day.
For years, the song remained relatively unknown — until 2023, when Hwang Ka-ram, who had become close to Jeong while appearing together on MBN’s audition program "Oppa’s Generation," rerecorded it. The new version catapulted it to mainstream success.
Though originally inspired by Jeong’s personal experiences, the song’s themes of struggle and resilience mirror Hwang’s own journey. Having spent decades in obscurity, "I Am a Firefly" finally gave him the recognition that once seemed out of reach.
This Times of India article at the link below on I'm a Firefly distinguished the grassroots hit from the commercial idol group output from corporate world dominating the music market in South Korea.
How 'I am a firefly' by Hwang Garam and composer Jung Joong-sik ..became an anthem of resilience
Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/123471670.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
*Related idiom- 囊萤映雪 A bag of fireflies and bright snow. (Che Yin and Sun Kang nicknames respectively)
US
Fireflies in the Garden
Robert Frost
Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.
Japan
火垂るの墓 Hotaru no Haka (Graves Of The FireFlies)
In the renowned anime version of Grave of the Fireflies, the fireflies are initially represented in the first few minutes as American heavy bombers over Kobe, Japan, dropping incendiary bombs to burn the city, among scores of others. There is this 1988 anime version, then a 2008 movie (at least one), then followed by a drama series all more or less based on Akiyuki Nosaka's short story "Hotaru no Haka." The story is characterized as autobiographical, with fictionalized elements, cleaned up to a certain extent, because his real experience was too bitter and horrible to contemplate. In the story, after losing their mother in the bombing raid, the protagonist and his younger sister ( Seita and Setsuko respectively) find themselves homeless a second time, take to living in an abandoned bunker in the countryside. They had become unwelcome after weeks in a relative's home. They had no where else to go. Seita's workplace, school and home were destroyed in the bombing raid. His aunt regarded Seita and Setsuko as useless mouths to feed. Setsuko required care as an infant child, and cried habitually at night, disturbing the relatives much needed sleep at night. After moving to the bunker to live, (at 51 minutes), the fireflies emerge, and become a source of light at night. The short lived insects soon die; Seita prepares their grave site in accordance with Setsuko's wishes.
Akiyuki Nosaka's short story "Hotaru no Haka,"
I thought this presentation on the anime was quite good. At 37 minutes much shorter than the anime. Presents a the historical background on the story with excerpts of the video.
Watched the anime and the movie and several reviews. It's an amazing story and subject matter which should generate universal interest. I could imagine some western historical pundit criticizing Nosaka as a jaded or corrupt intellectual or some other pejorative because of his moral failings, having been a thief and a pimp in the immediate aftermath of the fire bombings and occupation. These were the events in his formative years. Does a teenager in a traumatic lord of the flies type survival setting know how to care for an infant? Is it possible? This story is an examination of the human condition. The sexual explicitness of some of his other works invited disapproval. There was long lasting obscenity litigation in this respect that resulted in a largely symbolic outcome.
Nosaka was critical of prime ministers Koizumi and Abe up to his own death, and regarded their thinly disguised desire for remilitarization and emperor worship as a danger to Japan.
Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,And here on earth come emulating flies,That though they never equal stars in size,(And they were never really stars at heart)Achieve at times a very star-like start.Only, of course, they can't sustain the part
In the west, the medieval concept of nobility for all its inequity was ideally characterized by reciprocity between the lord and the peasants. The movement to industry involved the elimination of the commons and the commodification of people. The commons represented the mutuality of ruler and those ruled. Enclosure or elimination of the common interest is in fact, a conversion, a tortious interference with the commons, by the corporations against reasonable governance. The appropriation of the commons by a tiny class of pirates appropriating the world to themselves necessarily implies climate change, data centers with their surveillance, propaganda and repression, non-stop wars, and environmental and social disasters. Kim Jong-tae is brilliant.
