Publisher Minumsa said on the 6th that it will release "Hangul," a book collecting the reflections of 10 contributors including singers, lyricists and poets, to mark the 100th anniversary of Hangul Day.
Hangul Day began in 1926 under the name "Gagya Day" and marks the centennial of its establishment this year. The book was produced jointly by NAVER's (035420.KS) "Hangul Hangul Beautifully" campaign and Minumsa's humanities magazine "Hanpyeon," and begins from a single question: when do you feel the beauty of Hangul? The contributors include singer Young K, lyricist Kim E-na, poet Bae Si-eun, classical Chinese literature scholar Ahn Dae-hoe, type designer Lim Hye-eun, Korean linguist Choi Kyeong-bong and writer Kim Yi-hyang, each discussing the Hangul they have encountered in their work and lives.
For those who sing, Hangul runs as deep as the sea; for those who write lyrics, it is as powerful as a weapon. Singer Young K said, "As a musician and as a lyricist, whether I was happy, exhausted or in love with someone, I wrote those feelings down in Hangul, and the letters written that way met music, left my side and flowed into someone else's life." Lyricist Kim E-na wrote, "Because lyrics are words to be sung and heard rather than written and read, my habit of playing with Hangul as sound inside my imagination had become my weapon before I knew it."
The way poets examine Hangul is equally striking. Poet Bae Si-eun explained that rather than first picturing the existence of a god, the process means "thinking of s, i and n one by one, and letting the shape of the single syllable they form simply sit there for a while." Designers create 11,172 glyphs and consider how to convey each character more vividly. Type designer Lim Hye-eun wrote, "When I look at the records of how many people, since Hangul was created, worked with a sense of mission to find letter forms that looked better, my heart grows warm."
An official at Minumsa said, "The book is meaningful in that it does not stop at commemorating Hangul's past but captures the sensibilities and thoughts of people using Hangul today, in 2026."
