Essay-writing and drawing contests set against the Songjeong sea, backdrop to “Seomjip Agi,” draw attention

[Financial News] An essay-writing and drawing contest inviting participants to capture in words and pictures the sea and natural scenery of Songjeong, Busan—the backdrop to the beloved Korean children’s song “Seomjip Agi”—has drawn attention.
The 2nd Seomjip Agi Village essay-writing and drawing contest, hosted by the incorporated Songjeong-dong Development Committee and organized by the Seomjip Agi Cultural Festival Organizing Committee, was held on the 17th around Jukdo Park at the eastern entrance to Songjeong Beach, where the Seomjip Agi poem monument stands, adding to the event’s significance.
The event also received sponsorship from the Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, Haeundae District, Haeundae District Council, Songjeong-dong Village Fund Management Committee, Han In-hyeon Memorial Association and Haeundae Blueline Park, among others.
The monument to the poem “Seomjip Agi,” erected east of Songjeong Beach in Busan, draws many visitors, including local residents and domestic and international tourists visiting Busan.
Han In-hyeon, the original author of “Seomjip Agi,” was born in Wonsan, North Korea. In 1946, while watching a woman gathering oysters at Songjeong Beach in Busan, he wrote the poem as he longed for his hometown, to which he could not return, and his late mother. Later, in 1950, Lee Heung-ryeol, who came from the same hometown, set the poem to music, giving rise to “Seomjip Agi,” a children’s song beloved across generations to this day.
The scenery of Songjeong in Busan, with its blue sea and sandy beach, was compared to Myeongsasimni in Wonsan, North Korea, Han In-hyeon’s hometown. As the story of how that landscape inspired a poem and song has once again come to light, the area where the Seomjip Agi poem monument stands is emerging as a new tourist attraction.
[email protected] Byeon Ok-hwan Reporter