INCHEON, South Korea, April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Various events aimed to promote the South Korean city of Incheon as this year's UNESCO-designated World Book Capital kicked off amid a fanfare last Thursday.
UNESCO has been designating a different city as a World Book Capital every year for a one-year period to mark the World Book and Copyright Day, which fell on April 23, every year. Incheon is the 15th city in the world, the third in Asia and the first in Korea to be chosen.
The opening ceremony was held at the Songdo Convensia convention center in Incheon, west of Seoul, with some 500 local and foreign guests attending.
Various programs such as exhibitions, meetings with renowned authors and a book fair will be continued over the course of a year until the next April 22 to promote reading and creative publishing under the theme "Books for all," according to the city government.
Major events will include an exhibition of South Korea and Incheon's archival culture set to be held at the lncheon Metropolitan City Museum from Oct. 30-Nov. 29. The nation's world documentary heritage items borrowed from the national archives and other state organizations will be on display, according to organizers.
They include the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910); "Donguibogam," an encyclopedia of Oriental medical knowledge and treatment techniques compiled and edited by Joseon era physician Heo Jun; and "Hunminjeongeum," the original manuscript of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet.
Also among the events is the 1st Incheon International Children's and Education Book Fair set to be held at Songdo Convensia from Nov. 11-15. The city says it plans to differentiate it from other international book fairs by using the country's advanced information-technology devices in displaying various children's books and books on education.
Events to mark the opening week of the World Book Capital 2015 have already begun on Wednesday with a program that provided foreign guests a tour to historical sites in Ganghwa Island, including the sites of libraries where important royal documents and books were preserved during the Joseon Dynasty.
On Apr. 23-24, the city government offered various programs such as meetings with Yi Mun-yol and other renowned authors, an exhibition of rare first issues of early Korean newspapers and magazines published about a century ago.
The authority also plans to increase the city's infrastructure for reading with the designation as a chance, completing a project to build a large-size electronic library by the end of this month.
Citizens will be able to comfortably use e-books when the library is completed.
The local government expects these events will serve as a chance to promote the city's cultural and humanistic value, breaking away from its old image as an industrial city.
"Incheon, where the Tripitaka Koreana was born, is a leader in book publishing culture. It also is a city with a long history of the nation's archival culture," Yoo Jeong-bok, the mayor of Incheon, said in a congratulatory message.
Tripitaka Koreana, or "Palmandaejanggyeong" in Korean, is a collection of Buddhist scriptures hand-carved on more than 80,000 wooden printing blocks, comprising 52 million characters. The collection is considered the most comprehensive set of Buddhist scriptures found to date. Originally carved and preserved on Incheon's Gangwha Island to help repel the Mongolian invaders during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), they were moved to the Haein Temple in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province, during the early years of the Joseon dynasty.
