The children of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Japanese sister city Aomori Prefecture shared their friendship through a joint art exchange project.
After signing a friendship agreement in 2011 and becoming sister provinces in 2016, Jeju Province and Aomori Prefecture have been conducting the Jeju-Aomori Children's Art Exchange Project since 2017.
Although it was suspended due to the spread of COVID-19, the event was held online for the first time in three years as life returned to normal.
Eleven children from Jeju Province and eight from Aomori Prefecture participated in the exchange program, making frames of Jeju citrus and Aomori's clay dorei (clay bells from the Jomon period) representing the two regions.
The Jomon period refers to the Neolithic period in Japan, from 14,900 BC to 300 BC, and the word "Jomon" means striped, with striped earthenware representing the artifacts of the period.
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By exploring representative products from both regions and creating and presenting their own personalized artwork, children were able to explore their cultural knowledge of each other.
"As a sister city of Jeju, we have been conducting various human and cultural exchanges with Aomori," said Byun Deok-seung, director of the Jeju Tourism and Exchange Bureau. "Next year, we plan to organize opportunities for children, the future generation, to interact face-to-face and understand each other."
Jeju Province and Aomori Prefecture have been engaged in several exchanges over the years, involving World Natural Heritage sites, tourism promotion, children's art exchanges, as well as other cultural exchanges, and plan to further strengthen trust between the two regions by resuming face-to-face exchanges in the future. |