Professor Kim Suhee of Seoul National University Lectures on "The Wisdom of Living Joyfully Learned from Ancient Chinese Songs"

Mapo Central Library Hosts 'Wisdom of Joyful Living Through Ancient Chinese Songs'... Collaboration with Seoul National University to Explore Overcoming Life's Sorrows Through Tang and Song Dynasty Poetry

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) Mapo Central Library has been selected for the ‘2021 Library Wisdom School’ contest hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Publication Culture Industry Promotion Agency, and plans to operate the program every Friday for a total of 12 sessions starting June 4.

The ‘Library Wisdom School’ is a humanities enrichment program linking libraries and local universities to support proactive humanities activities of the middle-aged generation, creating a mature and wise model of old age and spreading the social meaning and value of the humanities.

Mapo Central Library operated the ‘Library Wisdom School’ with the theme of ‘Wisdom of Coexistence’ in 2019 and ‘Wisdom of Art, Capturing the World through Images’ in 2020, receiving positive responses from residents, and will run the program for the third consecutive year this year.

This year, Professor Kim Soo-hee of Seoul National University’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature will give lectures under the theme ‘Wisdom of Living Joyfully Learned through Ancient Chinese Songs,’ allowing participants to glimpse the sorrows of life and the process of overcoming them through poetry from the Tang and Song dynasties in ancient Chinese musical literature, exploring Eastern wisdom in the process and reflecting together on attitudes toward life and ways to pursue joy.

In addition, by analyzing classical Chinese poetry together with the students, the program will help understand the political and cultural background of the time and the author’s situation, deeply examining the author’s creative intentions, and will include a Q&A and discussion session for in-depth understanding.

The program will be conducted online via Zoom to prevent COVID-19, and 20 participants will be recruited on a first-come, first-served basis through the Mapo Central Library website (Cultural Events section) starting May 12.

For more details about this lecture, please refer to the notices on the Mapo Central Library website or contact the Library Operations Team at Mapo Central Library for guidance.

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “We have prepared the humanities enrichment program ‘Library Wisdom School’ to support proactive humanities activities of the middle-aged generation, and hope it will be an opportunity to acquire life wisdom through classics and enjoy a rich second act of life.”

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