South Korea Celebrates Sharjah Guest of Honor Program at Seoul International Book Fair showcasing Emirati and Arab Culture

South Korea celebrates the civilized project of the Emirate of Sharjah and the United Arab Emirates, as it presents to the Korean and Asian audience a series of activities and dialogue and discussion sessions, during which it reflects the current and history of Emirati and Arab culture, and the volume of creative movement witnessed by the emirate, as part of the “Sharjah Guest of Honor” program, the 65th session of Seoul International Book Fair from June 14 to 18.

Under the supervision of the Sharjah Book Authority, the guest pavilion of the exhibition hosts 12 cultural institutions and 11 Emirati writers, creators and academics, who are participating in 33 activities that seek to strengthen the ties between the Emirati and Korean cultures, and include seminars, workshops, book signings, and literary and artistic activities.

Sharjah, during its participation in the exhibition, embodies its vision towards enhancing the presence of Emirati and Arab culture at the regional and international levels. Emirati publishers and highlights its efforts in supporting the publishing industry at the Arab and international levels.

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Sharjah Book Authority, said: “Nothing exceeds the power of culture in building deep relations between two countries or two cities, because culture can be described as the genetic footprint of societies, and once it is homogeneous with other cultures, it takes on its characteristics and features. That is why Celebrating Sharjah represents a wide opportunity for the Emirati cultural movement to develop its relationship with its Korean counterpart, and it is an occasion to consider the volume of knowledge, literature and arts translated from Korean into Arabic and vice versa.Our task today is to learn from our ancestors, Arab and Muslim scholars and writers who visited various countries of the world and wrote about them. They translated from its literature and sciences, and built their own renaissance, the light of which still shines to this day on the whole world.

The program includes sessions and events dealing with various topics in literature, poetry, heritage and art. The PublisHer initiative organizes a session on the role of women in the publishing industry in Korea, and poetry evenings that bring together female poets from the UAE and Korea. The various events shed light on points of convergence and literary history between the cultures of the two countries. Whether in the field of calligraphy, stories, popular and artistic heritage, translation, and feminist literature.

Participation opens the door for intellectuals and researchers to discuss the prospects for the development of Arab-Korean cultural relations, as it deals with workshops accompanying digital arts, converting popular poetry into written anthologies, and comparing printing arts techniques, while Emirati heritage groups present reviews of folk arts to introduce the exhibition audience to artistic heritage. for Emirates.

Dialogue sessions and workshops will witness the participation of a group of writers, academics and media professionals, who will present their visions in various fields of literature, art and culture. Visitors to the exhibition will meet the writer and novelist Sultan Al Amimi, President of the UAE Writers and Writers Union, the poet Kholoud Al Mualla, the poet Najat Al Dhaheri, Dr. Aisha Al Shamsi, and the writer Asma Al-Hammadi, the journalist Aisha Sultan, the writer Sheikha Al-Jabri, Dr. Badia Al-Hashemi, the novelist and journalist Issa Youssef, the writer Dubai Belhoul, and the researcher in Emirati heritage Ali Al-Abdan.

Thirteen institutions and cultural bodies in the UAE contribute to the activities of celebrating the “Seoul International Book Fair” in the Emirate of Sharjah as a “guest of honor” at the exhibition, including the Sharjah Government Relations Department, the Emirates Writers and Writers Union, the Sharjah Broadcasting and Television Authority, the Sharjah Heritage Institute, the Emirates Publishers Association, The Emirates Society for Copyright Management, the Sharjah Antiquities Authority, in addition to the Emirates Council for Books for Young People, the Kalimat Group, the House of Wisdom, the Department of Culture, and the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority.