An Eternal Friend of Children Born 100 Years Ago

The 1930s are recorded as the “age of loss” in the history of Korean literature. Many literary works at the time describe the painful loss of parents, hometowns or their home country as a result of Japan’s colonial exploitation of Korea. Those pieces were written by 20-something authors who were born in 1911 and comprised the mainstream of Korean literary circles in the 1930s.

In the dark period of the age of loss, there was a man who inspired hope and dreams in children with bright and cheerful lyrics. He was Yun Seok-jung, a children’s book writer and poet who wrote some 1,000 children’s poems and songs.

As a Young Boy, Yun Began to Write

Yun Seok-jung was born in Seoul on May 25, 1911. He showed a talent for writing from the time he was an elementary school student. In 1924, at the age of 13, he made his literary debut with the children’s poem [Spring] for children’s magazine ≪New Boys≫. Why did he devote himself to children’s literature in particular? There was a personal reason.

Yun lost his mother at three and was raised by his grandmother. It was not until he was ten (1921) that he entered Gyodong Elementary School. Yun found music he learned in school extremely strange. Korean students learned Japanese songs only, despite the fact that they had their own spoken and written language. They were scolded if they sang the Japanese songs incorrectly. For this young boy, this frustrating reality under Japanese colonial rule was a lingering question.

At age 12, he happened to attend an event marking the 1st Children’s Day, led by children’s advocate Bang Jeong-hwan. It was the moment when Yun realized that enlightening children would determine the nation’s future. He gained fame as a writer with his nursery rhymes teeming with amusing elements and high artistic quality of the Korean language. In 1929, Yun worked with musical composer Hong Nan-pa and produced lyrics to songs, such as “Plop, Plop” and “Half Moon in the Daylight,” for children who had previously sung traditional folksongs smacking of sighs and tears, such as “Bird, Bird, Blue Bird.”

First Generation Writer of Children’s Songs

Admirers have every reason to consider Yun the “father of Korean children’s songs.” He wrote lyrics by combining traditional rules of versification so his rhymes evoked familiar and warm feelings among Koreans.

He thought that young children should sing cheerful songs and nurture their hopes all the more because they lived through the gloomy colonial period. He hoped that the deep resentment adults were harboring would not affect their children. He believed, only then, that the nation’s future would be bright.

With the firm belief that children should grow up just the way they were and children’s language should be kept alive, Yun published the nation’s first collection of children’s poems, [Lost Daenggi], in 1933. Daenggi refers to a long, red pigtail ribbon. He later released a number of children’s songs one after another, some of which are enjoyed by children today.

Yun Wrote Lyrics to 1,200 Pieces over Nearly Eight Decades

Yun expressed the joy of liberation from Japanese colonial rule on August 15, 1945, through his song “Children in a New World.” The following year, he founded the nation’s first weekly magazine for children and wrote the lyrics for “Children’s Day Song” and “Graduation Song.” He was enjoying the second golden age as a writer of children’s songs.

During the Korean War, which broke out in 1950, he lost his family, including his father and his stepmother. But he found hope in children. He launched an association in 1956 to carry out various projects for children and left behind some 1,200 children’s poems and songs before he died on December 9, 2003.

The Magsaysay Award, the Asian version of the Nobel Prize, was granted to Yun in 1978 in recognition of his enthusiasm and dedication. Yun said, “Childlike innocence enables people to share warm feelings with one another, transcending time and space.” Similarly, his songs have connected the Korean people, who have handed down his beautiful legacy from generation to generation.