To celebrate King Sejong’s birthday, PD Na Young-seok and Professor Seo Kyoung-duk from Sungshin Women’s University have joined forces to release a multilingual video introducing the “Joseon botanists who protected Hangeul.”
The 4-minute video, released on the 15th, was co-produced with the Korea National Arboretum (Director Lim Young-seok) and is currently spreading among netizens both in Korea and abroad in Korean and English.
The video explains that during the Japanese colonial period, plants on the Korean peninsula were not called by their Korean names, and the standards for recording and classification were determined by Japanese scholars.
It shines a detailed light on how Joseon botanists founded the Joseon Botanical Research Association to ensure Korean names, such as Geumgang-chorong, Baram-kkot, and Goebul-jumoni, remained in botanical records.
Professor Seo, who planned the project, stated, “I wanted to introduce the little-known activities of Joseon botanists who sought to establish the names and records of our plants with our own hands.”
He added, “Through the history of recovering plant records and erasing the traces of Japanese colonialism, I wanted to widely inform netizens at home and abroad about the importance of ‘plant sovereignty.'”
The video is being shared not only on YouTube but also across various SNS platforms and major Korean and international student communities worldwide.
Na Young-seok, who provided the Korean narration, said, “I am happy to share the activities of Joseon’s botanists through my voice, and I hope many netizens around the world will watch it.”
