New York mayor-elect taps Pachinko author for inaugural committee

Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Indian American Muslim and New York City mayor-elect who will lead the United States’ largest city for the next four years beginning Jan. 1, has appointed Korean American author Min Jin Lee, 57, best known for her novel “Pachinko,” to his inaugural committee.

Mamdani’s mayoral transition team on Dec. 25 local time released a list of 48 members of the inaugural committee, including Lee. The group includes prominent figures from the cultural and arts community, such as actor Cynthia Nixon of the television series “Sex and the City” and actor John Turturro, who appeared in “Raging Bull.” The transition team said the committee members, all New York residents, bring creativity, leadership and a wide range of life experiences, and are expected to provide meaningful support to the incoming mayor.

Mamdani is scheduled to take the oath of office at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 1 in front of New York City Hall in Manhattan. Members of the inaugural committee, including Lee, will jointly host the inauguration ceremony.

Lee was born in Seoul in 1968 and immigrated to New York with her family in 1976. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in history and later earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She married a Japanese-American husband and lived in Japan for several years beginning in 2007, where she found inspiration for “Pachinko,” a novel depicting the lives of Zainichi Korean families in Japan.

During that time, she interviewed numerous Zainichi Koreans and conducted extensive research on modern and contemporary Korean history, spanning the period from Japanese colonial rule through the 1980s. “Pachinko,” published in 2017, was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice that year and was later adapted into an Apple TV+ series, drawing widespread attention. Her debut novel, “Free Food for Millionaires,” published in 2007, also focuses on a young protagonist raised in a Korean immigrant family.

Lee has also spoken out against anti-Asian sentiment in the United States. In a March 2021 New York Times opinion essay, she criticized anti-immigrant attitudes in American society, writing that many people are despised and rejected for characteristics they cannot change. Observers say her long-standing focus on minority and immigrant issues overlaps in many respects with Mamdani’s political vision, as he has described himself as a democratic socialist. Mamdani has promoted policies under the slogan “Affordable NY,” including a freeze on public housing rents, free bus service, universal child care and the introduction of publicly run grocery stores.


Hyun-Seok Lim lhs@donga.com