[2] Her writing covers issues of identity for ethnic Koreans living in China and the diaspora experience.
In 2014, she became recognized in South Korea through her short story "Ok-hwa" (옥화), which is about North Korean defectors.
She received the Baek Shin-ae Literature Prize [ko] and the Shin Dong-yup Prize for Literature [ko] with her short story collection Sesange Eomnun Naui Jip (세상에 없는 나의 집; lit.
She also finished the Thirteenth Advanced and Middle-Aged Writers class at the Lu Xun Literary Institute in Beijing.
In 2009, she received attention for her short story "Paran ribongui mojareul sseun yeoja" (파란 리봉의 모자를 쓴 여자; lit.
The next year, she received the Grand Prize in fiction from Yeonbyeonmunhak for her novella Noran haebaragikkot (Korean: 노란 해바라기꽃; lit.
[3] The episodes of her books are influenced by the people around her who were refugee families from North Korea, a Joseonjok who married a South Korean exchange student and similar themes.
Furthermore, she also differs from the first- and second-generation ethnic Korean writers living in China, such as Heo Ryeon-sun and Kim Hak-cheol, as she specifically describes women's migration and paints multifaceted pictures of the identity of North Korean defectors who cannot be simply described as good or evil.
[9] In particular, she vividly describes the diaspora experience of people who choose to migrate for survival through a strong narrative and provides a detailed description of their psychological state.
She also captures the issues of the family system under capitalism, disintegration of agricultural communities, and the ethical degradation resulting from materialism.
At the end of the story, the narrator builds a house that has an atmosphere unique to ethnic Koreans living in China,[16] Geum Hee shows an alternative way to deal with the issue of identity.