Gwangju cuts budget for this year's Zheng Lücheng Music Festival

On the morning of the 17th, the busts are gone and only the base is left on Jeongyulseong Street in Yangnim-dong, Nam-gu, Gwangju. Go Gi-han Reporter

Gwangju has cut the entire budget for this year's Zheng Lücheng Music Festival, which the city has supported for nearly 20 years. The city’s Nam-gu district office, which had planned to build a “Zheng Lücheng Exhibition Center,” also withdrew its plan and changed its name to “Yanglim Literature Center.” This is the result of an ideological debate fomented by the government.

According to a report by Kyunghyang Shinmun on January 17, Gwangju city government did not allocate a budget for this year’s music festival, which had been held annually. The city has supported the festival since 2005 with the aim of promoting Korea-China friendship and cultural tourism. Since 2007, the local government has been hosting the event directly on behalf of Nam-gu district office.

Over the past 19 years, Gwangju has invested between 200 million and 400 million won every year, totaling 6.89 billion won for the music festival. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, the festival continued online.

The festival, which is named after Zheng Lücheng who is a former anti-Japanese militant and one of China's top three major musicians, consists of Zheng Lücheng Music Festival, Vocal Competition, and Foreign Artists Performance. It has been so popular that an average of more than 500 people visit every year.

An official from the Gwangju city government said, "There was an internal consensus to review the project and no budget was allocated. However, there is a possibility that the city will support the festival again with supplementary budget as soon as the justification for the project is secured."

The project to create a Zheng Lücheng Exhibition Center was also canceled. Nam-gu district office purchased a site near Zheng’s birthplace in Yanglim-dong and planned to decorate it as an exhibition center, but recently decided to change its name to “Yanglim Literature Center.” The project, which cost more than 250 million won, is expected to begin construction soon.

The reason why commemorative projects related to Zheng Lücheng are being disrupted one after another is because of the ideological debate encouraged by the government.

On August 22 last year, Park Min-sik, then Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, criticized the commemorative projects, including the Zheng Lücheng Historical Park, saying, "Are they trying to create a North Korea’s Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery?” It is a national cemetery in North Korea located in Pyongyang.

Civic groups criticize the government for fueling the ideological debate and pouring cold water on local cultural tourism projects that have been going on for about two decades. Kang Kyung-sik, a member of a civil group said, "Zheng Lücheng is a person who fought for independence against Japan and we should not highlight only negative aspects of his life. I feel sad because the government’s sabotage of the Zheng Lücheng memorial projects has succeeded in some way, returning the local cultural and tourism industry to 20 years ago.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.