On the 17th, the ‘National Martyrs‘ Day’, actress Song Hye-kyo and Professor Seo Kyung-deok of Sungshin Women’s University have joined forces to produce a video titled ‘Joseon‘s Revolutionary Heroine Maria Kim’ in multiple languages, drawing attention both domestically and internationally.

This 4 minute and 30 second video was planned by Professor Seo and sponsored by Song Hye Kyo, and is being widely distributed to netizens in Korea and abroad with Korean and English narrations.

The main content of the video is about Maria Kim personally wearing a kimono and smuggling the ‘2.8 Independence Declaration’ into Korea on behalf of a man under strict surveillance by the Japanese, and distributing it throughout the country.



In particular, it sheds new light on various independence movements, such as organizing a secret women’s society, the Korean Patriotic Women‘s Association, establishing branches in Korea and abroad, and raising military funds to deliver to the Provisional Government.

Professor Seo, who planned the video, said, “I produced this third video, following Jeong Jeong Hwa and Yoon Hee Soon, in order to shed new light on the lives of female independence activists who are not well known to the public and to introduce them widely both in Korea and abroad.”

He also “In the future, we plan to produce a multilingual series of videos about more female independence activists and steadily promote them domestically and internationally,” he added.

It is currently being distributed not only through YouTube but also through various social media, and is especially being shared with major Korean and international student communities around the world to spread the word.

Meanwhile, Seo Kyung-deok and Song Hye-kyo have donated Korean guidebooks, Korean signboards, and reliefs of independence activists to 37 overseas sites of the Korean independence movement over the past 13 years.

Choi Yoon-na, Donga.com reporter yyynnn@donga.com