Ha Ji-won uses "Pink Bug" metaphor to explore actress identity

During a poetry writing class on JTBC's "Jiwon, Class of 2026," actress Ha Ji-won presented a poem titled 'Pink Bug' to express the existential weight of constantly transforming into other personas. Professor Park Eun-ji noted the actress's literary sensitivity after she used metaphors to reflect on her professional identity and family emotions.

Actress Ha Ji-won has expressed her contemplations regarding her identity as an actress through poetic language. While auditing a poetry writing class through JTBC's "Jiwon, Class of 2026," Ha Ji-won took time to look into her inner self using metaphors.

"Whose persona am I living as?"... An actress's ego expressed as a pink bug

In the poetry writing class led by Professor Park Eun-ji, students performed an assignment to express their individual concerns through metaphors. Ha Ji-won presented a poem titled 'Pink Bug' containing her worries and emotions. Through the poem, she posed existential questions regarding the professional nature of being an actress.

While humbling herself as "the smallest being on Earth, like a bug," Ha Ji-won mentioned the fate of an actress who must constantly live as the persona of others and undergo transformations. "I am always living as someone's persona, and I always have to show, express, and transform," she said, defining the color she set for herself in that process as "pink." The poem's content, which asks, "Today, my consciousness has begun to operate," is interpreted as a personification of the professional anguish of an actress who must constantly explore her self through the unfamiliar image of a "pink bug."

Daily life facets unraveled through metaphor... "I want to visit my mother's garden"

The concerns of other participants were also materialized through metaphors. Various attempts were made, such as comparing the 'FOMO' syndrome—the fear of being left out of employment trends—to "a sea that rises to your ankles just by breathing," or likening the heart that accepts even the imperfections of loved ones to "delicious Bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastry) even if it has burnt parts."

In particular, Ha Ji-won captured honest emotions related to her mother's garden in her poem. After expressing the sense of friction felt when her mother plants flowers that do not fit a vase, she continued with the line, "So that it is not so, I will visit your garden today," showing subtle family emotions and a will for reconciliation. She also poetically connected her feelings toward her parents by mentioning 'Kintsugi,' the art of joining broken ceramics with gold to create a work of art.

"Has poetic talent"... Professor surprised by Ha Ji-won's literary sensitivity

Upon reading the poem written by Ha Ji-won, Professor Park Eun-ji evaluated, "It is good that you set the speaker as a pink bug to create many questions and look into yourself." The professor particularly noted Ha Ji-won's literary sensitivity, stating, "It seems you have poetic talent."

This class, which looks at the familiar through a lens of strangeness via metaphor, is meaningful in that it showed the process of Ha Ji-won reflecting on the weight of the persona she carries as an actress and translating it into language.

Source: original video (YouTube)