Home 5 Articles and Reports 5 Promoting Cultural Exchange: UAE Honors Korea at SCRF

Promoting Cultural Exchange: UAE Honors Korea at SCRF

UAE Board on Books for Young People celebrates Korean culture

 

To strengthen cultural bonds and build communication bridges with cultures around the world, the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY) is honoring its Korean counterpart, the Korea Board on Books for Young People (KBBY), as Guest of Honour at the 14th Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF).

The UAEBBY’s ‘Guest of Honour’ initiative was launched in 2015 to cultivate new relationships with different International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) chapters, allowing local talent to learn from the experience of international counterparts, and encouraging reading among UAE’s diverse communities.

In partnership with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, UAEBBY organised a series of storytelling, arts and crafts, and calligraphy workshops for the Guest of Honour at the Korean Cultural Centre in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Commenting on the Guest of Honour Participation, Marwa Al Aqroubi, President of UAEBBY, said: “By hosting our Korean counterparts here at the region’s largest cultural festival for children and youth, we aim to foster cultural exchange between international chapters to enable children and youth explore commonalities between cultures, and well-known folk tales, which promotes reading and increasing cultural exchange between countries of the world.”

UAEBBY organised a series of storytelling sessions and engaging crafts and calligraphy workshops at its pavilion to showcase the richness and diversity of South Korean culture to SCRF’s visitors, particularly children and youth. 

As part of its visit to the emirate, KBBY has held a series of meetings with Sharjah’s leading cultural entities, including the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), Kalimat Group Publishing, Knowledge without Borders (KwB), Kalimat Foundation, Emirates Publishers Association (EPA), and the House of Wisdom (HoW) to explore partnership opportunities and cultural exchange to advance the children’s and young adult (YA) literature sector, as well as look into designing innovative solutions to overcome challenges in the sector, locally and regionally.

 

Concurrently, the meetings provided unique opportunities to participating Sharjah entities to gain a comprehensive overview of the Korean landscape in the children’s and YA literature sector, latest developments and meet prominent Korean authors.

The Korean delegation to SCRF 2023 features prominent literary figures, Lim Jeong Jin, a highly respected writer and professor with a three-decade-long career; Kim Inae Sujung, a  renowned critic, writer, recognised for her thought-provoking critiques and translations of over 400 titles; Kim Namjung is an esteemed editor, publisher, and founder of Hankwon Publishing; and Kim Se-hyun,  a renowned oriental painter, known for his captivating and emotion-evoking works depicting scenes from nature.

 

Related Posts

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Writer Who Rebelled Against Language

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Writer Who Rebelled Against Language

With the passing of Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in May 2025, the literary world bid farewell to one of Africa’s most influential voices, an author who reshaped the relationship between literature and identity, between the written word and colonial power. Ngũgĩ was...

Book Pricing in the Arab World

Book Pricing in the Arab World

Pricing books in the Arab world is a nuanced endeavor shaped by far more than printing costs alone. While the tangible expenses: paper, ink, binding, constitute a visible layer of the final price, deeper, less quantifiable forces often drive the true value ascribed to...

Lords Defend Artists in AI Clash

Lords Defend Artists in AI Clash

In the UK, the House of Lords has dealt a fourth defeat to the government over its plans to allow tech companies to use copyrighted material to train their models. The Lords, who are looking for more protections for artists from AI, rejected the latest amendment to...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this