Fond memories of Spain
By Choe Chong-dae
The 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, drew much attention from around the world to its host country, including from Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who participated on June 29 and 30. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Spain's accession as a NATO member state.
It is a positive sign that an increasing number of European students have been learning Korean language and culture. Fever of the Korean wave is not hard to find anywhere in the world now. Currently, K-pop has gained international popularity transcending space and time. Spain is one of the countries with increased demand for the Korean wave such as K-pop, K-food, K-culture and K-dramas. This tremendous popularity has led many students of Spain as well as Latin Americans from Spanish-speaking countries to study Korean culture and language.
For me, it is hard to think of Spain apart from Miguel de Cervantes, a legendary writer who created “Don Quixote,” one of the world's greatest and immortal literary masterpieces, in the early 1600s. Although it has been more than four centuries since that novel was written and published, it remains one of the most widely read classics of Western literature.
In particular, the modern musical “Man of La Mancha” has been loved for over six decades since its Broadway premiere in 1965. Thanks to the soulful, extraordinarily powerful melodies, it has attracted a great number of fans from around the world, enriching the lives of literary lovers everywhere. Notably, the Korean musical version of "Man of La Mancha” that was released in Korea in 2018 was so inspiring that it attracted a continuous stream of patrons. It portrayed in more detail Don Quixote's utopia and dream.
The novel “Don Quixote” was first introduced and translated into Korean by Choi Nam-sun in 1915. As Korean translations of “Don Quixote” had been based largely on the Japanese version of “Don Quixote,” it had subtle discrepancies compared to the original Spanish version. At that time, there were not many Koreans studying Spanish or other foreign languages besides Japanese.
I myself am fascinated by Spain in many ways. To begin with, there was the first contact with our country, when a Spanish missionary landed on the Korean Peninsula in the late 16th century. Over a decade prior to Don Quixote's creation, Gregorio Cespedes, a Spanish Jesuit priest, visited Korea at the request of the Roman Catholic Church in 1593, accompanying a Japanese Christian general, Konishi Yukinaga, during the 1592-98 Japanese invasions of Korea. Cespedes was one of the earliest Westerners to arrive in Korea. He stayed for about one year in Jinhae (now part of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province), where Japanese troops were stationed. Although he mostly stayed with the Japanese and did not have much contact with Korean people, he played a significant role in introducing Korea to European countries.
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Cespedes' visit to Korea, Cespedes Memorial Park was created in 2015 in Changwon, and today a memorial stands there.
Personally, I have had the opportunity to establish a close friendship with Duke Maura, who served as Spanish ambassador to Korea from 1983 to 1985. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Korean culture, art and history. While in Korea, Duke Maura joined my family's events including my brother's ceramic art exhibition, and he invited me to many receptions at his residence. Ever since then, my longstanding friendship with Spain has flourished and been maintained until today through Juan Ignacio Morro Villacian, the current Spanish ambassador to Korea. He is witness to how the bilateral ties have prospered since 1994 because he served at the Spanish Embassy in Seoul from 1994 to 1997.
My friendship with this European country will last forever.
Choe Chong-dae (choecd@naver.com) is a guest columnist of The Korea Times. He is president of Dae-kwang International Co., and director of the Korean-Swedish Association.