Author of ‘Misaeng,’ famous Korean TV drama of 2014, Yoon Tae-Ho, is visiting Seattle. A popular cartoonist of K-Manhwa (Korean Cartoon), Yoon Tae-Ho is having his very first “meeting with the artist” event abroad—in Seattle.
He is attending as a lecturer of “K-Manhwa: graphic narratives from paper to screen,” hosted by the UW Korean Studies Library, from March 28th to April 1st.
As a first event, he will be lecturing at Booksori—an educational program for Korean Americans, hosted by the UW Korean Studies Library. On March 28th, he will be describing his cartoon in Korean, as well as answering questions, starting at 1:30pm, on the third floor of the East Asia Library.
In addition, he will be giving a keynote speech at the reception on March 30th. This reception will be held from 4pm, in Kane Hall, Room 225.
Consul General Moon Duk-ho will be attending the event as a sponsor of the festival, joined by a number of UW professors. Yoon’s lecture will be translated and shown through Powerpoint.
On March 31st, starting at 4pm, there will be a special event—and perhaps an autograph event, held with Korean readers at the UW Allen library lobby.
The UW Korean Studies Library, consisting of 15,000 donated copies of 1980~90’s “Manhwa” (donated by an American), will exhibit its K-Manhwa collection in a reproduced set of the Korean traditional Manhwa-bang: a room full of Manhwas.
Once Yoon spends some time with readers here, he will watch the drama version of ‘Misaeng’ in the Auditorium, a room next door.
On the last day of the festival, April 1st at 4pm, the ‘Workshop on Graphic Texts: Medium, Politics, and Culture’ will be held in the Allen Library. This festival will end with an overall analysis of K-Manhwa and web cartoons, by Professor Cho Hee-Kyung of the UW Asian Language Studies department.
The drama ‘Misaeng,’ displaying sorrows of Go (Chinese board game) and part-time workers, created a syndrome among Koreans and Korean Americans. Yoon, who spent a difficult time in his 20s, became one of the popular cartoonists when his work, “Moss,” turned into a movie in 2008.
After meeting UW Korean Studies Librarian Lee Hyo-Kyung last summer, Yoon decided to begin attending events abroad, starting with this first event in Seattle. Librarian Lee suggested the K-Manhwa festival in Seattle, since the UW Korean Studies Library has 15,000 copies of K-Manhwas.
Asiana Airlines also supported Yoon to introduce K-Manhwa to others in Seattle, with sponsoring airline tickets.
As a director of the festival, Lee stated, “It is a big issue that a university in America contains 15,000 copies of K-Manhwa…in order to introduce K-manhwa as one of the Korean waves, Yoon Tae-Ho was invited to be part of this festival.” She requested that many Korean Americans attend and support the K-Manhwa festival.
