KOREAN NET

Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yong Hoseong (far left) on Nov. 2 takes a photo with five award-winning Honorary Reporters of Korea.net at the K-Wave Festival held at Yes 24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District.

By Lee Dasom

Photos = Lee Jun Young

A grand event on Nov. 2 honored a year of hard work by foreign promoters and aficionados of Korean culture, drawing a warm response from YouTube viewers.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism hosted the 2024 K-Wave Festival at Yes 24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District.

Starting at 5 p.m., the event was divided into two sections: the K-Creators Awards and the K-Community Festival.

The first part honored five Honorary Reporters who globally promote Korean culture through articles and five K-influencer teams (six individuals) who do so via videos.

Prizes were given for each category of Talk Talk Korea, a global contest for Korean content: promotional videos; arts and crafts; motion graphics; photobooks and memes trends plus a grand prize.

East Timor's Frenky Ramiro de Jesus, who wrote in-depth and multidimensional articles based on his visits to hidden attractions in Korea, said, "I am truly blessed and honored to be the first Honorary Reporter from my country to receive this award. This award is a recognition of my effort and dedication in promoting Korea to the world."

This year has seen 1,386 Honorary Reporters from 93 countries produce some 6,000 pieces of content on Korea in 10 languages.

Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yong Hoseong (far left) on Nov. 2 takes a photo with award-winning K-influencers at this year's K-Wave Festival held at Yes 24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District.

Aiyaphat Wankawisant from Thailand, one of this year's K-influencer honorees, said, "I've been passionate about Korean for nearly 20 years. So being named the best K-influencer in 2024 is incredibly meaningful to me."

"I'm deeply honored and will continue striving to produce the best quality content."

This year, 1,253 K-influencers from 97 countries have put out over 8,000 videos to promote Korean culture in their regions.

Among the five teams from Talk Talk Korea to win awards, Gahir Suchismita from India received the grand prize for her witty videos of frequent conversations or characteristics in Korean phone calls.

Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yong Hoseong on Nov. 2 gives a congratulatory speech at this year's K-Wave Festival held at Yes 24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District.

"The government has greatly promoted K-pop and Korean dramas all this time, but it is you who've promoted worldwide various aspects of Korean culture such as the country's natural landscapes, traditional culture and food," Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yong Hoseong said in his congratulatory speech. "People who introduce Korean culture in real life are more important and valuable."

"Our government will spare no support to help all of you share Korean culture with many people around the world."

The Moving Stones, a winning team from Spain in the K-Community Challenge, on Nov. 2 gives a sogochum (small drum dance) performance in the second part of this year's K-Wave Festival at Yes 24 Live Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin-gu District.

The second part of the festival gave awards to winning teams in each category of the online K-Community Challenge. The categories were Hansik (traditional food); Joseon pop, or a crossover between gugak (traditional music) and pop music; sogochum (small drum dance); and taekwonmu, a performing art combining dance and taekwondo.

This event has foreign fan clubs of Hallyu (Korean Wave) watch videos on Korean culture videos and make works based on them. At the awards ceremony, a joint performance was given by the artists in each category who participated in each lesson video and the winning team.

Performing at the event were K-pop acts like the girl groups WOOAH, this year's promotional ambassador for Talk Talk Korea, and BEBE and boy bands EPEX and SF9.

The K-wave Festival was livestreamed on Korea.net's YouTube channel, with the average number of viewers reaching 28,189 in the first part and 28,451 in the second.

dlektha0319@korea.kr