Children unearthed their artistic skills as they drew Korean hieroglyphs at a workshop titled “Korean Artistic Journey”, at the the 42nd Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). South Korea Pavilion – the Guest of Honour at SIBF 2023 – has given children a golden opportunity to understand Korean culture, language and literature.

The master teacher is Christine Lee who gathers eager pre-teens around her to demonstrate how to draw a Korean character called “kkum” to describe a dream. “Go this way, and then this way,” Lee tells them, making horizontal strokes in the first square box and vertical ones in the next with a painting brush. “This creates the Korean character kkum meaning dream. Now what is your dream?” she asks children around her.

Armed with a squared practice paper, painting brush and black ink, future doctors and astronauts settle down to make three horizontal strokes followed by two vertical strokes before they get the character right in the next square. Once they master the strokes, they are given thick craft paper to draw their final masterpiece. 

“Beautiful,” comments Lee as each one holds up their calligraphic output for inspection. Each child gets a couple of gifts to take home for their creativity. “You can frame your artwork at home,” suggests Lee.

Delving into the history of Korean hieroglyphs and calligraphy, Lee briefs that Korea did not have a written language until the year 1444, when King Sejong invented the alphabetic system called Hangul. 

According to Lee, the workshop is popular since it helps to train children in patience as each stroke has to be made slowly to get the perfection.