'PyeongChang Olympics is chance to let world reflect on filial piety'

Kwon Hyuk-sung, author of “The Light of the World, Mother’s Love,” stresses the importance of filial piety or “hyo,” during an interview with The Korea Times. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Baek Byung-yeul

In Korean society, filial piety towards parents, “hyo” in Korean, has for generations been encouraged as a primary duty to fulfill.

As parents may well love their children, it has been regarded extremely important for each generation to respect parents and ancestors.

Amid growing attention on the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, which will take place at the resort town PyeongChang in Gangwon Province, one former journalist Kwon Hyuk-sung, stressed that this spiritual virtue held most dear by Koreans should be propagated during the Olympic coverage.

“Of course, across the ages and in all countries of the world, being respectful to parents has been a core obligation of every generation,” Kwon said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

“However, Koreans, in particular have emphasized the value of filial piety towards parents for a long time. Korea is probably the only country that uses portraits of a son and his mother on the country’s banknotes. This shows how much value Koreans place on ‘hyo,’” Kwon said.

Book covers of “The Light of the World, Mother’s Love”

On Korea’s banknotes, portraits of Yi I, a great scholar in Joseon Kingdom period (1392-1910) and his mother Shin Saimdang, also famous as a female calligrapher and painter, were featured in the 5,000 won and 50,000 won bill, respectively. Koreans also remember Yi as a person who showed deep filial piety toward his parents.

“To make a memorable Olympics for all, PyeongChang Games should have its own brand of nature. And I think it will be great to share this spiritual value with people from different countries at PyeongChang,” the 83-year-old journalist said.

From that perspective, the former managing editor of the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, recently published a book compiling literary works themed on filial piety.

Titled, “The Light of the World, Mother’s Love,” the book features 71 poetry works and essays on “hyo” written by prominent writers and influential figures from each field. Writers featured in the book include poets Park Mok-wol and Pi Chun-deuk, novelist Lee Soon-won, former Gangwon Province Governor and former President of 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics organizing committee Kim Jin-sun, Gangneung City Mayor Choi Myung-hee, former Deputy Prime Minister Cho Soon and Joseph Southerland, former facility director for the U.S. Army 18th Medical Command in Korea.

In the latter part of the book, Kwon also included prize winning literary works from the Baekgyo Literature Awards, which only recognizes works that focus on filial piety themes. Kwon founded the awards in 2010.

Kwon, whose penname is Baekgyo, also expressed his love for his late mother who passed away at the age of 97 in 1996 in a poem.

Cho Yang-ho, president of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), stated in his congratulatory remarks, “It is my wish that the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games will develop into a truly cultural event through the enhancement and spread ‘hyo.’”

Kwon said the book, which was published into both Korean and English editions, will be donated to 190 college libraries in Korea and 110 overseas libraries. He added that he will also present the book to the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who will visit Korea ahead of the PyeongChang Games.

Kwon started his publishing plans for the book three years ago. “One more reason to publish the book is because Gangneung City is my hometown. The city, which is famous as the hometown of Yi I and his mother Shin Saimdang will be the venues for ice sports of the PyeongChang Olympics,” Kwon said.