‘Uam and Dasan, Opening a New Path’ … Pohang Janggi Exile Culture Festival Opens April 1

Janggi-myeon Offers Enjoyable Activities Linked to Performances, Experiences, and Learning

220-Character Writing Contest for Elementary Students, Path of Contemplation Experience

The Pohang Cultural Foundation will hold the "Pohang Janggi Exile Culture Festival," which interprets the exile culture of Janggi in the form of culture and arts, from April 1 to 2 at Janggi Elementary School and the Exile Culture Experience Village.

Janggi-myeon was a representative exile site during the Joseon Dynasty and is the place where the largest number of exiles stayed within a single county area. Famous scholars such as Uam and Dasan stayed in exile in Janggi, leaving many poems and writings, and interacted with local residents, creating an exile culture unique to the region.

Poster of the 2nd Pohang Janggi Exile Culture Festival.

This year, under the theme "Uam and Dasan, Opening a New Path," the festival focuses on the exile culture where these two prominent scholars who stayed in Janggi interacted with the local community and blossomed academic and cultural achievements. The event is designed based on the idea that Janggi, as an exile site, is not a place of isolation but a space where diverse cultural contents are born.

On the first day of the Janggi Exile Culture Festival, an academic forum will be held with scholars from Pohang and Gangjin and other experts to exchange and highlight exile culture centered on Dasan. At the Janggi Elementary School playground, elementary students dressed in scholar costumes will participate in a 220-character writing program.

Following this, the festival's official opening at Janggi Elementary School will feature a grand exile procession performance of Dasan and Uam, followed by a musical performance themed on Jeong Yak-yong.

After the opening ceremony, various experiences and activities will be available, including a talk concert based on Dasan’s poems and writings, exile food tasting, tea ceremony experience, dancheong (traditional decorative coloring on wooden buildings) experience, and traditional cultural experiences, all involving direct participation from Janggi residents.

At the Exile Culture Experience Village, visitors can enjoy immersive hands-on programs. Notably, the "Janggi Exile Village Time Travel" is a learning-linked program conducted through an escape room kit utilizing the village’s buildings and spaces, along with a dedicated app.

Throughout the experience village, actors dressed as vivid Joseon Dynasty figures are stationed, allowing visitors to enjoy the festival vividly by engaging in various traditional experiences and games through them.

Additionally, at Janggi Eupseong, an on-site exploration program called "Path of Contemplation" will be held, where cultural tourism guides lead participants through major historical sites in Janggi-myeon, sharing stories embedded in the region. At night, the "Janggi Eupseong Romantic Concert" will take place on the outdoor stage of Janggi Eupseong, offering the audience a special memory filled with the ambiance of spring.

Pre-registration for the elementary students’ "220-character writing program" and the "Path of Contemplation program" is currently open on the Pohang Cultural Foundation website.

A representative from the Cultural Foundation stated, "The unique exile culture of Janggi-myeon is a representative cultural and historical asset of Pohang. Through cultural contents and performing arts programs utilizing its distinctive story, we hope citizens will feel pride and that it will grow into a representative cultural and arts festival based on exile culture."

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