Hangeul Party held in Vietnam to spread value of Korean characters

Participants pose with their Korean writing at Lac Hong University in Vietnam, at a Hangeul Party event. (Hangeul Planet)

Hangeul Party, an event aimed at promoting the Korean writing system, was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from Sept. 27 to Friday. The event was hosted and organized by nongovernmental organizations Hangeul Planet and Global Hope, and sponsored by The Korea Herald.

At the event, 370 students who major in Korean language at six Vietnamese universities -- Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, HCMC University of Economics and Finance, University of Foreign Languages-Information Technology, Hong Bang International University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education and Lac Hong University -- and 30 children from Ho Chi Minh City Namoo Library participated. Namoo Library is a facility for disadvantaged urban children operated by Global Hope Vietnam.

At the four-day event held at seven locations in Ho Chi Minh City, renowned calligrapher Park Byoung-chul and other authors attended and enjoyed meaningful experiences of sharing the beauty of Hangeul with Vietnamese college students and children. The artists and authors helped students create artwork using Hangeul and to experience Korean calligraphy. Artists also presented every participant with their name written in Korean.

"Hangeul Party will be remembered as a precious time. We hope to have meaningful events again, and we always welcome you," said the dean of the Department of Oriental Languages at the University of Foreign Languages-Information Technology.

The initial Hangeul Party was a simple event hosted by the Korean Consulate-General in May 2015 at the University of Chicago and University of Minnesota. Currently, Hangeul Planet annually hosts the event in various countries to introduce Hangeul through entertaining experiences.

So far, Hangeul Party has been held in Minnesota, Atlanta, Chicago, Sao Paulo and Ho Chi Minh City, and it is set for Paris next year. In November this year, non-fungible token content will be launched in collaboration with Art Token, an art NFT platform company, to promote Korean content globally.

By Lee Jung-Youn(jy@heraldcorp.com)