KOREA FOUNDATION

Calligraphy & Ink Stones Boost Viet Nam–Boryeong City Friendship

On October 27 last year, the “Hangeul Calligraphy Contest” was held at the Temple of Literature in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. The contest was jointly planned and hosted by the Korea Cultural Resources Institute and people engaged in arts and cultural activities in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province.

More than 100 Vietnamese students aged 20 to 22 took part in the competition, writing the sayings of former president Ho Chi Minh—praised as the pillar of the country’s spiritual culture—in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet.

From November 28 to 30, a post-contest exhibition, featuring the award-winning works together with their seogak reproductions, was held at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum. Seogak is a form of art in which letters and paintings are engraved on wood or stone. Boryeong locals belonging to a seogak club spent three weeks re-creating 15 calligraphy works selected from the contest as wood engravings.

Also on display were nampo byeoru, inkstones produced in the rural area of Nampo in Boryeong. Korea and Viet Nam share the Confucian tradition of cherishing Munbangsawoo, or the “four treasures of the study,” namely ink, brush, paper, and inkstone. Vietnamese viewers showed a keen interest in the inkstones, probably because their production has almost ceased in the country as most inkstones are now imported from China.

On the day of the exhibition’s closing, inkstone masters and the seogak club members from Boryeong donated their works to the Hanoi Museum; it plans to hold a touring exhibition featuring the items at provincial museums across Viet Nam.

Vietnamese participants in the Hangeul Calligraphy Contest.

An award-winning calligraphy and its seogak reproduction.

Exhibition-related officials and visitors appreciating inkstone exhibits.

A nampo byeoru, or inkstone from the Nampo area.

Viet Nam–BoryeongHanoiHangeul Calligraphy Contestseogaknampo byeoruVietnam National Fine Arts Museum