Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Museum features 'Hangeul in novels'
.jpg?w=728)
A visitor looks at material on display at the exhibition “Hangeul in Novels” at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, July 20. / Courtesy of National Hangeul Museum
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
Ever since King Sejong of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) created “Hangeul” or the Korean alphabet in 1443, the phonetic alphabet has been used by Koreans in everyday life.
In the present day, writing in Hangeul is taken for granted but it wasn’t until a few decades ago that Korean people became free to use their own script because the nation was under Japan’s colonial rule (1910-1945).
To celebrate Korea’s 70th anniversary of liberation and to shed light on the value of Hangeul, the National Hangeul Museum provides a glimpse into the development of the process of writing literature with a special exhibition “Hangeul in Novels.”
Nestled beside the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan, Seoul, the museum opened last October with the mission of enabling Korean culture to flourish around the world.
Though the means of writing a novel has evolved from using pencils to using keyboards, the exhibition shows how a novel is made following a process of writing, revising and rewriting material repeatedly in order to fine tune words into a whole piece, featuring prominent novelists including Kim Hoon, Yun Hu-myong, Bae Sang-min and Kim Jung-hyuk,
“The exhibition presents the beauty of Hangeul and shows the importance of writing novels in Hangeul,” a curator at the museum said during a press preview on July 20.
Most parts of the exhibition hall show every process how a book is made ranging from novelist’s brainstorming to copy editing and completing the writing into a book. The exhibition also displays “timeless” novels loved by Koreans.
Visitors will be provided with a space to read those Hangeul-written novels and have a hands-on experience with the Korean alphabet.
The exhibition runs through September 6. Admission is free. The museum is located near exit 2 of Ichon Station, subway line 4 and Jungang line. For more information, visit
or call 02)2124-6200.