VOL.93/2026.04

 

Zeen Scene

The true essence of everyday moments hidden in authentic scenery

 

2025.08.04

 

When we encounter a rare or exceptional moment or scene, we often say, “I’ve encountered something authentic.” In a literal sense, it refers to something rarely seen, but when interpreted through emotion, the term conveys both delight and joy. Perhaps that’s why books from the publisher ‘True Scenery’ spark the curiosity of readers simply by their existence. Those who open the books may find themselves encountering the true essence of spaces, objects, and daily life. In this issue of K-Book Trends’ Korean Publishers, we spoke with Zeen Scene’s CEO, Kim Jin-Hee, about the reality she sees and how she hopes to convey it through her books.

 

 

It’s a pleasure to have you with us on K-Book Trends. Please introduce to our international readers about publisher Zeen Scene, along with the meaning of its name.

 

When I was asked to do the interview, my first thought was “Wow, it’s K-Book Trends ? would it be okay for me to do it?” But, I’m thankful that your warm welcome helped me muster up the courage. 진풍경 (Jinpoongkyeong) in Korean is described in the Korean dictionary as “a rare scenery, an uncommon scenery that is worth seeing.” Here, I added “Jin (縝),” one of the letters in my name, so it also has the meaning of “the kind of scenery that an editor would like to see and convey through his/her books.”
Zeen Scene has published a total of 5 titles ? Tokyo Curation; Yesterday’s Movie, Today’s Director, Tomorrow’s Conversation; The Romantic Observation; Fashion Makers; and this year’s Books are Space-Time Machines.

 

Zeen Scene’s first book, Tokyo Curation, published in 2022, must be a significant release. Why did you choose Tokyo Curation as your first book, and how did you go about the process from planning to production to marketing? We would also like to know what you focused on in terms of promotion, especially since it was the first book of a new publishing house.

 

I was lucky in some ways with the outcome of the first book. Traveling got so difficult at the time of that book due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was worried that the city of Tokyo wasn’t going to be that new. So, I designed Tokyo Curation as a business book, not a travel book - so people could look at Tokyo as a brand, not a tourist destination. That decision made it different from other Tokyo-related books during the editorial process. As for the cover, I think it stood out because the book’s cover was rather plain, whereas most business books tend to be colorful and have large titles.
Also, traveling to Tokyo started to take off at a rapid pace around the time of publication. Plus, the book was put into the center of attention because it was my, and the author’s, first book. I believe that when a new book comes out, it should be picked up by at least one person (MD) at a major bookstore. That pick-up can expand the book’s reach to a wider audience. Promotional opportunities arise along the way, and the book takes on a life of its own.

 

 

Many readers often choose a book based on the publisher’s reputation. As a new publishing house, how are you working to build awareness of Zeen Scene’s name and identity?

 

I once pondered about the “books and responsibilities” that go with the name of a publishing house. Under the name Zeen Scene, I didn’t expect to publish a series of books with photographs and drawings like this. I feel amazed with each book, thinking that perhaps it’s the responsibility created by the name of the publishing house. So, I think carefully about whether images should really be included in a book. For example, I started to look at whether the moment the photo captures is more than just being pretty, whether it captures a sense of life, and whether readers can feel the message it’s trying to convey. When I post photos on social media, I try to speak to people with such photos first, as if they were a trailer before they turned into a book.
When I make a book, I spend a lot of time thinking about the layout of the text and images, as well as the cover. I organize the pages and arrange the images as if I were building a house. The first image, sentence, or phrase that the reader encounters when they open the book is also what I want to say in each book. The cover of Tokyo Curation was designed with the idea of walking into a landscape that unfolds when you open a small door. The covers of Yesterday’s Movie, Today’s Director, and Tomorrow’s Conversation are doubled, which I hoped would make readers feel like they were heading to the screen in the theater when they opened them to meet the director of the day (the image on the title page). As for The Romantic Observation, I put it in hardcover, though it wasn’t an art book, as I wanted it to be a more collectible book. The logo for Zeen Scene and all the covers of the five books were done by designer Gyu.

 

 

The second book, Yesterday’s Movie, Today’s Director, and Tomorrow’s Conversation, is a collection of interviews that film critic Min Yong-Jun has conducted with Korean filmmakers since 2021. It’s rare to see a book compiled of interviews, and it’s even more unusual for a new publishing house to produce one. The film industry has also been on a downward spiral since the COVID-19 pandemic. Was there a reason for this bold decision?

 

Well, I never thought of it as a bold decision. I actually remember being nervous around the time it was about to be published because film essays by some of my favorite writers were being published in succession; I found solace in the fact that this book was not a film essay. The image I had of the book was more of a work of art than an essay. I think an author’s first book should be the one that best expresses and represents his or her work. I always hope the first book will be successful.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 70 ? Find more about the books recommended by film critic Min Yong-Jun

 

 

The first image, sentence, or phrase that the reader encounters
when they open the book is also what I want to convey in each book.

 

 

The book, The Romantic Observation, by physicist Professor Lee Kie-Jin, who is widely known as the father of 2NE1 member CL, is also unique. The cover design and illustrations inside the book are as distinctive as the author’s background. How was the planning process for the book? Which aspects of Professor Lee’s work did you think would appeal to readers?

 

The book was initially contracted as a basic concept book that summarizes physics terms for teenagers. I changed the direction of the planning because I wanted to convey the human side of Professor Lee rather than a physicist who has already published various books in the field of science. I wanted to show the positive character of the professor who loved people and work. Like the first sentence of the book, “Painting was another universe for me (...) It made me look at the world with a curved perspective,” the book is an illustration of the positive way a physicist looks at the world. We had numerous conversations during the planning phase, particularly regarding the style of the drawings.
Because all of the books published so far have been illustrated essays, I initially wanted to make a complete change in the style of the illustrations. I even tried some with just simple pencil lines, but in the process, I realized that instead of making changes, it would be better to highlight the artist’s colorfulness in a more stylish and sophisticated way. So, I didn’t add any other design elements to the illustrations so that they could show their characteristics better, and printed them on green-light paper. I think the cover really captured the artist’s artwork and the designer’s layout beautifully ? it’s the cover on which we received the most compliments for its beauty at the time of publication. I wanted to express the intense moments of the season, like the most natural romantic feelings. I wanted it to look artistic rather than a cute illustration.

 

 

Fashion Makers grabs our attention with its intuitive title. It’s also interesting to see how it was produced in a smaller size than the shingukpan (신국판; new standard size: 152 × 225mm), as opposed to the larger format that many fashion books choose to showcase their many images. Of course, it’s not intended to be a book about images, but we wonder if there was any desire to make it a bit larger.

 

No, there wasn’t. (Laughs) I keep being surprised by all the detailed questions you ask about the books by Zeen Scene. Thank you. At first, I was thinking of smaller formats, either narrower or more compact, so that it could fit in a fashionable bag. I wanted the book to look like a fashion accessory, too. It’s because small bags were trendy at the time, and we were starting to see essays in more boldly small formats. However, seeing these extremely small books made me rethink my idea. I wanted it to be a little bit bigger, based on what I had in mind.
First, I wanted the drawings and photographs to be bigger and more visually appealing; second, I kept the basic idea that the book should be easily recognizable on the display shelf. However, I didn’t want the book to be too large and overwhelming when it was placed on the shelf. Specifically, I didn’t want to present Kim Cham-Sae’s paintings in a scaled-down format. Shingukpan was a modified format because I thought it would be boring to call it a fashion book. I was more worried about the paper than the format, because I, and the designer, also liked and used non-glossy green-light paper. Since the book is a mixture of drawings and photographs, and the photographs are of different tones and resolutions, I thought of and chose a paper that would balance and hold the middle ground.

 

 

You recently published Kim Jung-Hyuk’s Books are Space-Time Machines. The description, “A new hybrid universe of fiction and non-fiction,” is as intriguing as the title itself. Is this a sign that Zeen Scene will be publishing narrative books as well in the future?

 

I have been asked this question quite a lot. I think it’s more of a sign - I tend to be interested in bringing together things that happened in different fields and at different times in one book, but I’m also conscious of the fact that books that have a clear focus are the ones that sell. I started putting that curiosity and the conflicting elements within me in Fashion Makers. First of all, in terms of visuals, I wanted to showcase the arrangement of drawings and photographs, as well as the different themes and ideas about fashion, all in one book - so that they could coexist as distinct elements, while preserving a not-so-uncomfortable rift. This book was the beginning of the “entanglement.” (Laughs)
And, such aspects were further expanded in the book by Kim Jung-Hyuk. It wasn’t a plan of mine, but rather an opportunity given to me in the manuscript. This book was an attempt that was only possible because of the author’s text and photographs. I often felt like I was reading an essay or sometimes a self-help book while reading his novels. I don’t, of course, consider the stories told in his novels to be autobiographical, but as a reader, I found them entertaining, moving, and even instructive with that perception in mind. In the end, I was able to create a book that didn’t fall into the genre of fiction or essay, but rather into the genre of Kim Jung-Hyuk. It wasn’t something I could plan.
I would love to bring the genres of fiction and non-fiction back together in one book in a different format. I’m not a publisher that specializes in fiction, so I can’t say for sure if there are any plans or opportunities for me to publish a novel ? it’s not my current plan either. However, I tend to be fascinated by disparate disciplines and seemingly disconnected subjects being woven together, and the time and narrative that lie between them. It’s because I can see the person who must have been fumbling around in that jumble of time. So, I would like to find those signs, even if I cannot take the lead in creating them, by discovering authors.

 

 

What do these five books have in common, and what is the story that Zeen Scene is trying to tell the reader through them?

 

It’s a really hard question. They don’t seem to have anything in common, but they seem vaguely similar. When I’m planning a new book, I often think that I want to make something radically different from the books I have made in the past. So, I try to give books some intentional tonal differences - but ultimately, in retrospect, they don’t turn out to be that different. I had an author who told me that even though the covers of the five books were different, the story I was trying to tell was the same. I hadn’t noticed that until then, so I was grateful for the comment. Now I don’t intentionally try to make changes. However, I do feel like if I talk about something too dark or serious, it doesn’t seem real. Someone’s joke about how “it might be pretentious for you to make a book like that” really sounded true.
Following fashion, I’m working on books about food and home, and a publisher friend of mine called Zeen Scene a lifestyle publishing house - and I loved it. I want to introduce people who are living their lives with integrity, taking each day as it comes. I want it to be a book that just hints that there’s this interesting way of living, even if it might not be perfectly beautiful. I hope to deliver books that make people feel better, even if I won’t be able to give them a lot of happiness. I’m making the book in the hope that just looking at the photos or drawings will make readers feel better.

 

There is a gap of approximately one year between each new release, which is a relatively long interval. Is there a particular reason for this?

 

I posted my New Year’s resolution on social media that I will make Zeen Scene a publishing company that frequently releases books, rather than being rarely active. There is no particular reason for the interval - perhaps it is because I do not have any special talent. (Laughs) I don’t think I’m good at rushing things. However, recently, I made a resolution to wait calmly while preparing for the future with a better attitude than before. I want to be more patient with my own judgment, not only in the author’s writing but also in the process of making books. The period during which a book can be properly sold is getting shorter and shorter, and once a book is published, it has to live on in its given form and appearance. So, I thought I should be more diligent in the process of making it.

 

 

I wanted to be more patient with my judgment not only in the author’s writing
but also in the process of making books.

 

 

Please tell us about the image and identity that Zeen Scene aims to establish as a publishing company.

 

I definitely like beautiful things, but the realm of beauty is so vast. I like cuteness and naturalness, but sometimes I also fall for artificial beauty. I have to make decisions because I spend a lot of time thinking about what kind of beauty to choose and how much to show. So, I rely on the images of the authors to envision the images of the books and try to complete them. I look at the authors in the books I want to present and discover their identities in them. There have been moments when I wanted to exaggerate the beauty I like, but instead, I ended up wanting to distance myself from it.
The beauty I usually think of is not just an image of a single scene. When I look outside from inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, I often think of the layers of Korean architecture and modern buildings as the charm of Seoul. So, seeing the places that are disappearing in Seoul, I began to think more about the things that will never disappear. Through books, I want to show a more positive side. Looking at Seoul with its many disappearing places with a sense of dissatisfaction, my thoughts led me to reflect on the identity of places and books. What is the true scene I want to show through books? I want to reflect on this in my city, where I live, without going elsewhere in the world.
Everyone lives within the concept of time, but recently, the boundary between the present and the past has lost its meaning for me. If past content has survived to the present and continues to influence me, I would like to take the courage to compile it into a book. The cookbook I am currently preparing is such a book. It is the story of a person who used to develop recipes and run a brunch shop (caf?), but now raises children at home, cooks meals, and supports her family (household). Though the shop is gone, the wonderful work that person created has simply moved to another dimension, her home - so I don’t think it’s gone forever. I thought these recipes were worth preserving as a book, both for myself and to share with others. Could such scenes come together to form the identity of a true scenery? I can’t be sure, but I keep finding myself drawn to that image, wanting to see the true scenery that transcends the boundaries of past, present, and future. (Laughs)

 

We will continue to support Zeen Scene, which offers a diverse range of pleasures through books. Could you please share your plans for new titles and future goals?

 

Thank you. It was an opportunity for me to reflect on my sense of responsibility while answering your questions. Recently, I often think about capturing the scenery of everlasting things in this capricious city. As for my future plans, I am currently preparing a curated series of books on Seoul and Northern Europe. I will be able to introduce cookbooks and humanities books about homes soon. The book about homes will be Zeen Scene’s first book without any photos or illustrations. It always feels like making the first book.

 

 

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