"Spring Breeze Cuts Deep, I Want to Give You a Tiring Day"

Seoul City Selects Winning Entries for 2020 Spring Seoul Dream Billboard Slogans

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The outer wall of Seoul Library's 'Seoul Kkumsaegimpan' has been dressed in new clothes to welcome spring. Seoul City selected the winning work, "I want to cut the spring breeze sharply and give it to your weary days," by Lee Yoorin (26, female) as the result of the '2020 Spring Edition Kkumsaegimpan Phrase Contest' held in February, and unveiled it to the public on the 1st.

The contest, themed "Words of hope and comfort resembling the vitality and warmth of spring," received a total of 1,730 entries. Among them, Seoul City explained that many phrases contained hope and encouragement to overcome the anxious and stagnant situation caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Lee Yoorin, the grand prize winner, said, "I was inspired by the perspective that our lives cannot always be spring." She added, "Everyone inevitably faces moments when they need comfort, and I wanted to offer comfort at those times." She also added a message of consolation: "It is difficult to convey human feelings, but the spring breeze that blows is easy to feel, so I hope everyone is well by recalling the spring breeze on weary days."

The Seoul Kkumsaegimpan Phrase Selection Committee commented, "The expression of cutting the spring breeze 'sharply' is impressive, and it expresses the desire to gift the warm spring breeze itself, containing comfort that feels seasonal." They evaluated it as "a phrase that conveys warmth to comfort the tired and weary hearts of citizens."

In addition to the winning work, five pieces were selected as runners-up: "Flowers are beautiful because they bloom again (Moon?Dam)," "Saying goodbye to winter and asking spring hello (Lee?Ra)," "After trembling so much and enduring, you finally bloom. Both flowers and you (Lee?Sook)," "In the voice of mom asking if I'm doing well, spring is included. The warm spring that was curled up all winter (Park?Hyun)," and "If not spring days, when else would I try to be like a butterfly (Kim?Jeom)."

The Kkumsaegimpan, operated by Seoul City, is a large phrase board installed on the front outer wall of Seoul Library since June 2013 to deliver warm messages of comfort and hope to citizens in their harsh and busy daily lives and to share empathetic messages within citizens' lives. So far, phrases within 30 Korean characters of pure original creation have been selected through public contests.

The 2020 summer edition Seoul Kkumsaegimpan contest is scheduled to be held in May.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.