 | Write on: Calligrapher Kim Sun-won (left) presents a calligraphic piece – one of 50 works based on Ho Chi Minh's Prison Diary by 25 South Korean calligraphers – to Chu Duc Tinh, director of the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Ha Noi, on Thursday. The works will be displayed at the museum through next Saturday before touring to HCM City, Vinh and Hue. — VNS Photos Huy Thong |
 | Seoul brother: A calligraphic work based on a poem in Ho Chi Minh's Prison Diary. |
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HA NOI — A calligraphy exhibition by South Korean artists based on the content of President Ho's Prison Diary has just opened at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Ha Noi.
The exhibition features 50 calligraphic works by 25 leading South Korean calligraphers including Kim Sen-won, Park Jung-sook and Kim Young-ki.
Each of the works, which are expressed in either Korean or Chinese characters, contains four verses from a poem in President Ho's Prison Diary.
The works are from a collection displayed at an exhibition entitled Admiring a Great Person's Desire for Freedom and Independence held in Seoul since last December. The rest of the collection will continue its tour of other major South Korean cities including Busan, Daegu, Daecheon, Kwangju, Cheonju and Ulsan until the end of this year.
"The exhibition will show Vietnamese how South Korean calligraphers have reflected on Ho Chi Minh's Prison Diary through painting," said Kim Sun-won, head of the Prison Diary Calligraphy group, "The exhibitions in South Korean are expected to attract around 200,000 people. This is a good opportunity for South Korean people to learn more about President Ho's poetic work as well as for artist circles in the two countries to get to know more about each other."
"The audiences will also be given a free book of the calligraphic works on show," he added.
"President Ho was a great Vietnamese revolutionary, a unique ideologist and politician," calligrapher Choi Chang-joon said, "He is a perfect personality admired by Vietnamese people and the whole world. His Prison Diary is a work full of artistic value, which fully expresses his spirit of fighting for freedom and independence."
"The youth in both countries have and will learn a lot from his patriotism and sacrifice for the nation through the poems in Prison Diary," he said.
The exhibition will run until next Saturday at 19 Ngoc Ha Street. The works then will be given to the museum as a gift before moving to HCM City, Vinh and Hue.
The exhibition is a cultural event celebrating the 120th birthday of President Ho (1890-2010) and the 18th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between South Korea and Viet Nam.
The Prison Diary features President Ho entire diary in poetic form written during the time the leader was imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek's regime in China's Guangxi province from August 1942 to September 1943.
More than 100 poems record the routine and feelings of the prisoner as well as his hopes for the success of the future revolutionary process, which express humanity, optimism and energy in overcoming difficulties to live a healthy and spiritually meaningful life with a long-term objective.
In 2003, Prof Ahn Kyong-hwan translated the Prison Diary into Korean and published the book in South Korea, which 30 South Korean calligraphers then used as inspiration. Their works were then on tour from Seoul to Busan, Gwangjin and Mokpo. — VNS