President and First Lady Guide Minecraft Blue House... Encouraging and Supporting Children Participating in COVID-19 Overcoming Efforts
[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] President Moon Jae-in celebrated Children's Day by inviting children to a virtual Blue House space in the style of 'Minecraft,' delivering messages of encouragement and support.
On the 5th, the Blue House explained, "President Moon Jae-in and First Lady Kim Jung-sook sent congratulatory greetings to children through a 'Blue House Online Special Invitation' video in celebration of the 98th Children's Day on May 5th," adding, "To allow children and families spending much time at home due to COVID-19 to watch together, the Blue House was recreated in a virtual space for a special invitation."
Every year, the Blue House invited children to spend time with the President on Children's Day, but this year, due to COVID-19, it was difficult to hold such events, so they utilized an online virtual space familiar to children.
The special invitation video tells the story of a child attending online classes who receives a mysterious invitation. When the child clicks the invitation, they are drawn into the screen and embark on a tour of the Blue House.
Upon arriving at the Blue House lawn, a welcoming stage with a military band and balloons unfolds before the puzzled children, and characters representing the President and First Lady appear to deliver Children's Day greetings. Then, the virtual space showcases the Blue House’s main building, guesthouse, school playground, and quarantine sites. The President, First Lady, and children move to the main building’s office for a conversation.
The Blue House explained, "Viewers can see the interior of the Blue House main building and office, the briefing site of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and subway disinfection scenes, which were previously only seen on the news. Additionally, there are performances by a traditional Korean music band playing Zico’s 'Any Song' (Korean traditional version), the painting ‘Geumsugangsan-do’ (by artist Kim Sik) displayed on the main building stairs, Jjingjingi (a Blue House resident character), and children washing their hands."
The Blue House added, "An English-subtitled version of the video is also available. English subtitles are simultaneously distributed for children worldwide in similar situations, and closed captions are provided for the hearing impaired."
The Blue House stated, "Although outdoor Children's Day events cannot be held, this was created with the hope that children can take off their masks and freely play with many friends in the online space," adding, "We used the Minecraft format to make it friendly for children to watch, aiming to vividly recreate the Blue House’s exterior and interior."
Minecraft is a sandbox game known as the Lego of the gaming world, where players build and explore virtual worlds using various blocks. For this video, President Moon and the First Lady personally participated in voice recording and filming. They appear as characters in the video, guiding children and conveying messages of encouragement and support.
The Blue House expects children to have a special virtual experience by following the President and First Lady into the main building and exploring the office. The Blue House plans to release the ‘Blue House Minecraft Map’ as open source, allowing any Minecraft user to directly experience the Blue House virtual space.
In the video, President Moon and the First Lady spend much time expressing their gratitude to the children who are bravely and brightly overcoming difficult circumstances. President Moon comforted children who want to play with friends but cannot meet and are unfamiliar with online schooling, saying, "Thanks to your patience, we are overcoming COVID-19."
President Moon asked, "Please remember that adults are also working hard to overcome COVID-19, which is new to all of us," and urged, "Let’s all stay strong a little longer together." The First Lady introduced handwashing and mask-wearing as important ways to overcome COVID-19. President Moon and the First Lady emphasized, "All our people are heroes overcoming COVID-19," and said, "Let us remember you, the proud children of 2020, and ourselves."
Meanwhile, the ‘Children’s Day Blue House Online Special Invitation’ was produced in collaboration with the startup Sandbox Network Inc. Popular creators loved by children, such as Ddotty TV, made surprise appearances. To share the project’s purpose, special video content will be released twice on the 5th at 12 PM and 1 PM.
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