Yeongyang Multicultural Family Support Center Holds "Gunjagyoyuk with Jang Gyehyang" Program

The Yeongyang-gun Multicultural Family Support Center in North Gyeongsang Province held the "Gunja Education with Jang Gyehyang" program for about 30 members of multicultural families at the Seokbo Dudeul Village Jang Gyehyang Cultural Experience Center on June 11 and again on June 13.

Yeongyang County Multicultural Center Conducted the Gentleman Education Program with Jang Gyehyang.

This program was organized to learn the wisdom of the female scholar Jang Gyehyang. The center invited lecturer Lee Youngwoo (Chairman of the Yeongyang Festival Tourism Foundation) to lead activities such as a tour of the traditional houses in Seokbo Dudeul Village, Gunja-style meditation, sharing stories while searching for traces of Jang Gyehyang in Dudeul Village, tea ceremony experience, and trying out small table settings from Eumsikdimibang. The aim was to enhance understanding of local culture and instill pride in cultural assets.

Jang Gyehyang (1598-1680), who authored "Eumsikdimibang," the first Korean cookbook written in Hangul, was the only daughter of the mid-Joseon scholar Jang Heunghyo (1564-1633) and a woman from the Andong Gwon clan. From an early age, she excelled in poetry, calligraphy, and literature, and her poem "Hakbalsi," written at the age of 13, is also well known.

At the age of 19 (in 1616, the eighth year of King Gwanghaegun's reign), she married Lee Simyeong of Seokgye, and at 43, in 1640, she moved to Seokbo-myeon, Yeongyang-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, where the Jaeryeong Lee clan’s head family is now located.

Mustonova (33, Uzbekistan), who participated in the program, said, "It was great to learn the wisdom of the female scholar Jang Gyehyang, who wrote the Eumsikdimibang in Hangul, and to experience the tea ceremony as part of character education."

County Governor Oh Dochang said, "I hope that marriage migrant women living in Yeongyang will have the opportunity to understand the excellence of our food and food culture through the Jang Gyehyang Eumsikdimibang experience."