‘Falling in Love Yongsan’ Special Performance... Orchestra, K-Pop, and Gugak Collaborative Concert

[Seoul District News] Yongsan-gu to Hold Concert at Yongsan Art Hall Grand Theater on the 15th at 7 PM to Support Residents Weary from COVID-19 and Cultural Artists in Need Featuring MPO, Singers Park Jaeran and Johnny Lee, Gugak Artist Jeongsinye, Clarinetist Kim Beomsun, and More... Jongno-gu to Host Exhibition "Starry Hill" at Yun Dongju Literature Museum Until February 28, 2022... Gwangjin-gu Expands Home Treatment Team Amid Surge in COVID-19 Cases... Dongjak-gu Continues Neighborhood Bookstore Revitalization through Village-Style Shared Office Resident Programs... '2021 Songpa-gu 10

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yongsan Cultural Center (Director Park Sam-gyu) will present the collaborative performance of orchestra, traditional Korean music, and popular songs titled ‘Falling in Love Yongsan’ at 7 p.m. on the 15th at the Yongsan Art Hall Grand Theater Mir.

This event aims to support artists and local businesses struggling due to COVID-19 and to provide residents with diverse cultural experience opportunities.

The Falling in Love performance features a stage composed of orchestral classics and invited singers. The Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra (hereafter MPO), singers Park Jae-ran and Johnny Lee, traditional musician Jeong Sin-ye, and clarinetist Kim Beom-soon will perform.

The performance lasts two hours and covers various genres including traditional Korean music such as Taepyeongga, the five pansori madangs, and popular songs like Goose’s Dream. To prevent COVID-19, the audience is limited to 100 people, and social distancing and other quarantine rules will be strictly followed. Admission is free.

This performance is part of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s support project for resident companies in performance venues. The project supports arts organizations to carry out creative activities in a stable environment.

MPO, responsible for the performance, was founded in 2003 as a pioneer in popularizing classical music. It has gained fame through active activities such as performing the complete Beethoven symphonies in 2012 and the complete Tchaikovsky symphonies in 2013.

Since 2015, the district has collaborated with MPO on cultural projects including concerts and lectures, and this year has continued with various performances such as the 3 Diva Concert and symphonic fairy tales.

Seong Jang-hyun, the district mayor, said, “This performance was prepared to comfort residents exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to support cultural artists facing difficulties. The district will continue efforts to enable local residents to easily access diverse performances and enhance their cultural sensitivity.”

Jongno-gu is holding a results report exhibition titled ‘The Hill Where Stars Fall’ at the second exhibition hall of the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum (119 Changuimun-ro) until February 28, 2022, reflecting on the year’s projects and honoring the poet.

The district has annually utilized the precious literary works left by poet Yun Dong-ju to conduct various festivals, performances, and exhibitions that promote his beautiful poetic world and spirit.

Earlier in June, the ‘Yun Dong-ju Literature Festival’ was held, where participants enjoyed the poet’s literary works and music and engaged in various experiential programs. In August, the ‘Walking with Dong-ju’ event, composed of a creative song and poetry painting contest themed on Yun Dong-ju’s poems, was successfully completed.

Additionally, diverse programs based on citizen participation, including educational projects for youth and night tours with guides, were operated and well received.

Despite the prolonged COVID-19 situation, this exhibition was planned to review the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum’s projects steadily carried out both online and offline throughout the year and to provide an opportunity to remember the poet once again.

Visitors can view photos and on-site videos related to the ‘2021 Yun Dong-ju Literature Festival’ and ‘Walking with Dong-ju under the Starry Night,’ with careful attention paid to expanding the flow of movement to clearly highlight the main achievements of each project.

The exhibition will continue until February next year. For more details, please refer to the Jongno Cultural Foundation website or contact the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum.

A district official said, “We hope many people will show interest in this exhibition that reflects on the life and spirit of poet Yun Dong-ju. In 2022, marking the 10th anniversary of the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum’s opening, we plan to carry out various cultural projects and programs that allow citizens to gain a deeper understanding of the poet’s works, so please look forward to them.”

Gwangjin-gu (Mayor Kim Seon-gap) has expanded its dedicated team for home treatment to respond to the transition to a ‘home treatment-centered’ medical system.

The district had been operating an existing home treatment team, but with the change that all confirmed COVID-19 cases became eligible for home treatment, it faced manpower shortages and difficulties in medical response, prompting a reorganization of the dedicated team.

Accordingly, the district expanded the existing public health center’s function of managing patients waiting for hospital beds and newly established an ‘Emergency Patient Management Team’ to address the manpower shortage caused by the surge in home treatment patients, reinforcing the existing home treatment team’s personnel.

The district increased the dedicated personnel from 16 to a total of 26 by adding 4 members to the home treatment team and hiring 6 for the emergency patient management team, with plans to further expand staff stepwise according to the trend of confirmed cases.

The reorganized home treatment team strengthens the emergency response system for existing home treatment patients while reinforcing the management system for patients waiting for hospital beds, ensuring 24-hour emergency patient bed allocation and transport management.

After the initial hospital bed allocation request for a patient, home treatment is the default for all confirmed cases. Patients waiting for beds who require medical management, such as severe or underlying disease patients, are managed by the emergency patient management team, while the home treatment team manages home treatment patients.

Kim Seon-gap, mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “Due to the recent surge in confirmed cases and the increase and extension of waiting times for hospital beds, rapid and appropriate response for patients waiting for beds has become necessary. Gwangjin-gu is expanding the home treatment team to respond to the transition to a home treatment-centered medical system and to establish a more thorough confirmed case management system.”

Dongjak-gu (Mayor Lee Chang-woo) announced on the 14th that since March this year, it has successfully conducted the village-type shared office project centered around three local bookstores: Cheongmaek Salon (Heukseok-dong), Daeryuk Bookstore (Sangdo-dong), and ‘Jigeum-ui Sesang’ (Sadang-dong) to revitalize neighborhood bookstores.

The village-type shared office project implemented youth team project programs, resident participation programs, and shared office operations centered on the three selected neighborhood bookstores.

In particular, youth startup teams were selected and supported with startup funds and capacity development education, and various youth and resident programs were operated, including producing and exhibiting cultural and artistic content based on residents’ daily lives.

On the 17th, youth and residents who participated in the village-type shared office project will present the content they created themselves at Cheongmaek Salon.

Residents who turned their stories into books will exhibit their publications and share their impressions.

A resident A from Heukseok-dong, who published and exhibited a book about their story, said, “This program was beneficial as it gave me time to look back and organize myself and my family. Especially, it helped heal the frustrated feelings caused by COVID-19 together with neighbors.”

Additionally, through the SNS utilization education ‘Village Teaching Artist’ course, participants will introduce blogs, YouTube content, and channels they created.

Also, a humanities special lecture titled ‘Living Daily Life as Art’ by writer Lee Dong-seop will be held to help participants reflect on themselves and their families.

On the day, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) will be signed between Cheongmaek Salon, the main bookstore of the village-type shared office, and the Dongjak-gu Village Autonomy Center to build a village network within the region.

The shared office project ‘Studying at Neighborhood Bookstores’ started on the 18th of last month and has been held three times at Daeryuk Bookstore and Jigeum-ui Sesang. On the 16th, a lecture and practice titled ‘Changing the Body and Enriching Life with Village Meals’ and on the 17th, ‘Reflecting on 2021 and Welcoming 2022’ will be conducted twice.

Jeon Hye-young, director of the Employment Policy Division, said, “The village-type shared office project is not a temporary use of neighborhood bookstores but aims to build a sustainable village network, revitalize it, and allow residents to share culture with neighbors and have healing time.”

Tancheon-gil Opening Ceremony

Songpa Dullegil, created as a core project of the 7th local government administration, was selected as the number one ‘2021 Songpa-gu Top 10 News.’ With this, Songpa Dullegil has won two crowns of popularity, following the residents’ survey in July, recognizing the project’s achievements.

Songpa-gu (Mayor Park Sung-soo) announced on the 14th that it selected the ‘2021 Songpa-gu Top 10 News’ through a survey conducted from the 1st to the 8th among residents and district office employees.

The ‘Songpa-gu Top 10 News’ is an event selecting projects that received significant attention from residents and the media over the year. For this, the district selected the final 10 projects through resident surveys via social networking services (SNS) and employee surveys via the internal intranet from 20 candidate projects.

A total of 6,351 people participated in this year’s survey, more than double the 2,933 participants last year, showing great interest from residents in selecting the top 10 news.

The survey results ranked the completion of Songpa Dullegil first (16.7%), followed by COVID-19 response efforts (12.6%), the comprehensive development plan for Geoye and Macheon areas (7.2%), Seokchon Lake enriched with culture and arts (7.1%), and on-site administration (5.8%).

Notably, amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Songpa Dullegil, which ranked second last year, overtook ‘COVID-19 response’ to take first place, attracting attention.

Songpa Dullegil is a 21 km circular trail connecting Seongnaecheon, Jangjicheon, Tancheon, and the Han River, which flow around Songpa-gu. Mayor Park Sung-soo led the project with the goal that ‘all roads in Songpa lead to Songpa Dullegil.’

In July, the previously disconnected Tancheon section, which had been cut off for 50 years, was connected, and currently, the ‘Songpa Dullegil Season 2’ project is underway. It meticulously connects local landmarks such as Seokchon Lake, Olympic Park, Namhansanseong, green spaces, and traditional markets. The July residents’ survey also showed the highest recognition (97.1%) and satisfaction (97.4%) for Songpa Dullegil.

The second-ranked ‘COVID-19 response efforts’ were evaluated as well-received proactive measures by the district, including improving congestion at screening clinics, same-day notification of test results, and developing the nation’s first ‘bye COVID app’ in preparation for the with-COVID era.

The third and fifth places were recognized for efforts to resolve recent local issues. The comprehensive development plan for Geoye and Macheon areas, which are relatively slow in development, ranked third. Mayor Park’s on-site administration efforts, including defending the original plan for Seongdong Prison development and attracting Korea National University of Arts, ranked fifth, gaining residents’ sympathy. Fourth place went to Seokchon Lake, which has been transforming into a cultural and artistic hub since 2019.

Other projects that received significant attention include the nation’s first ‘Songpa Coming-of-Age Support Fund’ paid to 19-year-olds (6th), ‘Songpa SSEM’ which filled the COVID-19 education gap (7th), strong urging to implement the original plan for the old Seongdong Prison site development (8th), ‘Hansung Baekje Cultural Festival Daebaekje Exhibition’ (9th), and the carbon-neutral city initiative ‘OnTree’ app (10th).

Mayor Park Sung-soo said, “All these projects are more meaningful because residents contributed and showed great interest. We will continue to communicate actively with residents and complete promised projects without delay to enhance the city’s value and residents’ quality of life.”

Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) announced that it will hold an online special lecture titled ‘The Language of Gardens’ for three days from the 14th to the 16th.

Prepared as a December special lecture by the Mapo Publishing Culture Promotion Center (hereafter Platform P), this educational program reflects the social trend of increased interest in companion plants due to more time spent at home after COVID-19 and changes in the publishing market. Accordingly, it presents a total of nine lectures on plant-related general knowledge books by creators, essayists, researchers, and bookstore MDs under the theme of ‘plant publishing.’

The program is divided into three sessions that alternate over three days: ‘Garden of Vision,’ where participants listen to stories from creators such as painters and illustrators who work with plants as a medium; ‘Garden of Writing,’ which reviews essays by plant caretakers and trends in plant books recently gaining attention in bookstores; and ‘Garden of Inquiry,’ which re-examines surrounding plants from the perspectives of a nature and ecology specialized publisher and a researcher who is both a botanist and botanical illustrator.

The first lecture, ‘Garden of Inquiry ? Becoming a Plant,’ will be held on December 14 at 2 p.m., led by Shin Hye-woo, a botanical illustrator. It will be followed by novelist Lee Jong-san’s ‘Garden of Writing ? Lazily Recovering with Plants’ at 4 p.m., and Sompress CEO Bae Hyun-jung’s ‘Garden of Vision ? Writing Walks Together’ at 5:30 p.m.

The special lectures will be conducted online via the Zoom platform and are free for anyone interested in publishing.

To participate, applicants must access the registration link by 10 a.m. on the day of the lecture. Each lecture is limited to 500 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Registered participants will receive the participation link via text message and email at 1 p.m. on the lecture day.

Platform P, established in July 2020 on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Hongdae Ipgu Station complex public office building with an area of 2,438㎡, is Mapo-gu’s representative creative hub space supporting small publishers and various workers in the publishing ecosystem taking their first steps.

It is a rare space in Korea where various small-scale creators in the publishing ecosystem work together. The 3rd floor is operated as an exclusive space for resident creators. Currently, 20 resident companies including publishers, designers, illustrators, and booktubers, as well as 32 individual creators, are pursuing their dreams here.

The 2nd floor is a cultural space where citizens and creators connect through books. In addition to a multipurpose room where various special lectures are held, there are cultural facilities such as a multimedia room and book lounge to help publishing creators communicate with readers both online and offline.

Yoo Dong-gyun, mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “Reflecting the trend of a rapid increase in people growing plants after COVID-19, we prepared a special lecture on plant publishing. We will continue to plan and promote high-quality educational programs that help those interested in publishing based on Platform P’s infrastructure.”

Gangnam-gu (Mayor Jung Soon-gyun) will present the children’s opera ‘I am Papageno’ twice at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the 19th at the COEX Grand Conference Room.

The performance is a children’s musical adapted from Mozart’s representative opera ‘The Magic Flute’ to suit children’s perspectives. It features famous pieces from the original work such as the Queen of the Night’s aria ‘The vengeance flame burns in my heart’ and Papageno’s aria ‘I am a happy bird catcher.’

This opera features 13 children from Gangnam-gu selected through auditions, along with baritone Choi Eun-seok, tenor Kim Doo-yeon, sopranos Hong Ye-won and Kim Hyo-joo, musical actors Lee Jo-eun, Choi Min-hyuk, Kim Hye-eun, and Seo Soo-ji.

Reservations can be made through the Gangnam-gu Office website from the 13th to the 17th, and admission is free. The performance is open to children aged 36 months and older (vaccine pass applies if accompanied by a guardian). The recorded performance will be released on the Gangnam-gu Office YouTube channel at 5 p.m. on the 24th.

Hong Jong-nam, director of the Tourism Promotion Division, said, “Gangnam-gu is reaching out to residents with cultural, artistic, and performance programs for the year-end. We will continue to uphold the status of ‘Gangnam, a city of refined culture’ with customized performances that residents want, including the ‘Gangnam Trot Festa’ which sold out in two minutes, ‘World Film Festival in Front of My House,’ and ‘Balcony Concert.’”

Gangbuk-gu (Mayor Park Gyeom-su) has installed LED floor traffic lights in children protection zones and major intersections.

Floor traffic lights are pedestrian signal aids with LED bulbs installed at the crosswalk waiting line that emit light. Red and green lights illuminate simultaneously with the existing traffic lights in the same colors.

Floor traffic lights have several advantages. They are useful when the crosswalk on the opposite side is not clearly visible. They inform pedestrians standing at the crosswalk who are looking down at their smartphones of signal changes, preventing sudden actions. At night, the long line of floor traffic light illumination encourages drivers to slow down.

The installation areas include intersections, accident-prone zones, elementary school fronts, and bus central lanes. The district plans to install floor traffic lights in a total of 161 zones, having completed 58 in the first half of the year and planning to add 113 more by the end of this month.

Especially in children protection zones, about 30 voice guidance systems have been installed alongside traffic lights. This system verbally warns children to prevent safety accidents. When the red light is on and a pedestrian enters the roadway, a warning voice is emitted. It also notifies when the green light has turned on.

Park Gyeom-su, mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, “LED floor traffic lights and voice guidance systems are facilities that proactively prevent pedestrian crossing traffic accidents. We will continue to increase traffic safety facilities to create pedestrian-friendly streets and safe school routes.”