[1] While studying English literature at the University of British Columbia, Hong began translating with the short story, The Woman Next Door by Ha Seong-nan.
[5][6] Hong's work in the challenges of translating onomatopoetic phases and puns from Korean into English has been of noted success, such as the wordplay in Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun.
"One formidable translation challenge to which Hong rises comes just three pages in, when Sanghui ponders the nickname given to the suspected killer Han Manu.
Its source is Cho Yong-pil’s late-1970s ballad “Han-o-baeg-nyeon” (한오백년): to Manu’s classmates, “the opening words ‘ha-an-man-eu-eu-eun’ sounded just like his name.
If you slurred the n sound so that you said ‘ha-an-man-u–u–u‘ instead, it was perfect.”[7] She has credited in part the rise of translated Korean literature to the commercial success and visibility of Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook, as well as Han Kang's The Vegetarian winning the 2016 International Booker Prize.