This photo, provided by Haemil, a students’ club at Cheongshim International Academy on Oct. 12, 2020, shows Haemil members holding up a fairytale book about an extinct sea lion on South Korea’s easternmost Dokdo Islets, which they jointly wrote last year.
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — A group of South Korean middle and high school students have published an English fairytale book about an extinct sea lion as part of efforts to promote South Korean sovereignty over the easternmost Dokdo Islets.
The students of Cheongshim International Academy in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province translated a fairytale that they wrote in Korean last year into English.
They published the English fairytale titled “Dokdo Gangchi” in an e-book format which has been selling on U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon starting in September.
“Foreigners often wrongly name the East Sea as the Sea of Japan. We published the English fairytale to help foreigners to have a better understanding about the Dokdo issue starting from their childhood,” said co-author Moon So-yoon, a 18-year-old student.
This English fairytale book was published by five students who spent nine months working on the project from December last year.
Gangchi refers to the Korean word for sea lion.
Tens of thousands of Dokdo gangchi lived around the Dokdo Islets before Japanese fishermen began hunting them during the colonial era between late 19th century and early 20th century. Now, they are extinct.
Japan has attempted to use Dokdo gangchi as grounds for the claim that it has sovereignty over Dokdo. However, Dokdo gangchi have long been viewed widely as evidence that proves Japan’s colonial exploitation policy.
“At first, we attempted to describe Gangchi as a lonely animal that went extinct. On second thought, however, we described it as a lovely animal to make it have a friendly image,” said co-author Chung Seung-ah, a 14-year-old student.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
