A number of ambassadors and senior diplomats attended the Namwon Seong Chunhyang Festival in Namwon City, Jeollabuk-do Province on May 26, 2023. It was the official Opening Day of a five-day gala cultural-historical event beginning on May 25 and running through May 29.

One of the most interesting folk events of Korea, the 93rd Chunhyang Festival was held in the Namwon city of Jeollabuk-do Province, the hometown of Chunhyang, on May 26, 2023, which was attended by the ambassadors and many other international dignitaries as well as local leaders and residents.

 (Mayor Choi Kyung-sik of the Namwon City), invited foreign ambassadors in Seoul and their families to attend and observe the opening ceremony of the Chunhyang Festival to help the Festival further shine and develop abroad in the world as well as in Korea.

For the first time of the history of the local event, many ambassadors and other senior diplomats attended the Festival, among whom were ambassadors Sierra Leon, Turky, Czekia, Kenya and Zambia together with senior diplomats from Panama and other countries. (See list at end of this report.)

The event was also attended by important personalities from many other countries around the world, such as the United States and Japan, including mayors of the sister cities of Namwon around the world.

Mayor Yoshitaka Nagayama of the Hioki City of Japan won the warm attention from the participants in the event for his wonderful speech, which, in the opinion of many participants, was surely contributing to further promoting the relations, friendship and cooperation between Korea and Japan.

From the sister cities and other friendly cites of Namwon, came many mayors and representatives who included Mayor Chung Myung-keun of the Hwaseong city of the Gyeonggi Province.

The Chunhyang Festival is a representative folk festive event in Korea.

The story of romance between a young man and a young woman during the erstwhile days of Korea is very famous because at the time when men and women were not allowed to stay together as soon as they became seven years in age.

Against this backdrop, the love story between Seong Chunhyang and Yi Mongyong, who bravely shared their love, is loved by all the people in Korea even today—as well as in the erstwhile days.
 

 The story of how Chun-hyang, the daughter of a socially lowly-rated Gisaeng (entertainment woman), and Yi Mongyong, the son of an aristocratic family (magistrate of Namwon City at the time), fell in love with each other at the first glance, and then overcame all obstacles and difficulties to achieve a happy ending, which is rated to be truly dramatic in Korea.

If ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is the representative Western romance story of the century, then Korea’s representative romance story is ‘Sung Chun-hyang and Yi Mongyong.’ The tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet of the West poses a striking contrast with the happy ending of ‘Seong Chun-hyang and Yi Mongyong.’

The young woman and man, Seong and Yi, had to be separated because the young man had to leave Namwon to take the then most important state examination, Gwageo, conducted in Seoul, the capital city of Korea—before the presence of the King.

During Yi’s absence, the new magistrate of Namwon, Byeon Hak-do, commits all kinds of atrocities against Chunhyang to entire her and have her, but Chunhyang, with unmatched courage, patience, and frosty response, resists all kinds of threats and appeasement made by Magistrate Byeon Hak-do.

Chunhyang even was ready to give her life in order to keep her first love, Yi Mongyong. This development became the target of admiration and encouragement from everyone in Korea—contributing to the prestige and dignity of women in Korea at the time, which became the envy of women and raised the dignity of the Korean women.

Details of participation is as follows:

Ambassador Kathos Jibao Mattai of Sierra Leon

Ambassador and Mrs. Murat Damer of Turkey

Ambassador Gustav Slamecka of the Czech Republic

First Counsellor Ann Wangui Mwaura of Kenya

Charge d'Affaires Wray Mulendema Ham Weene of Zambia

Cultural Attache Mme. Ana Pstrica Castillo of Panama