Thousands of Seoul residents were introduced to the culture of Kazakhstan

Thousands of Seoul residents were introduced to the culture of Kazakhstan. A spring festival of Central Asian countries took place in the square in front of Seoul City Hall, reports «24KZ». Visitors enjoyed traditional music and dances, while in the evening an open-air screening of a Kazakh film was held.

The Central Asian Spring Festival in Seoul has become a good tradition and has been held since 2019. According to the organizers, this year’s event is especially significant as it is taking place ahead of the first «Korea–Central Asia» summit scheduled for September. For this reason, the festival was moved from its usual venue near the Cheonggyecheon Stream to the spacious square near Seoul City Hall.

Kim Yong Uk, Executive Director of the Secretariat of the Korea–Central Asia Cooperation Forum:

- Since ancient times, Korea and Central Asia have been connected through humanitarian and cultural exchanges along the Great Silk Road. These ties continue to develop today. Currently, around 150,000 people from the five Central Asian countries live in Korea, while approximately 310,000 of our compatriots reside in the Central Asian region.

The festival coincided with the opening of an outdoor city library, attracting many book lovers to the square. At Kazakhstan’s pavilion, guests received gifts from the Embassy of Kazakhstan — books by Abai Kunanbayev translated into Korean.

Vladislav Tsoy, correspondent:

- Visitors at the festival could try dishes from the peoples of Central Asia, but first they had to win a competition. For example, by hitting an asyk target. As a reward, I received chak-chak. Representatives of the Kazakh diaspora in Korea performed national songs and dances. Seoul residents also took part in workshops on making traditional headdresses, yurt models, and national souvenirs.

Kim Yeon Woo, student:

- Holding performances like this in front of Seoul City Hall seems very meaningful to me. After watching the show, I realized how different this culture is from Korean culture. In Korea, Kazakhstan is known as an exporter of energy resources, and I also know that recently there has been active exchange between our countries in various fields.

The festival concluded with a screening of the film My Big Kazakh Family by director Alen Niyazbekov. The movie was shown with Korean subtitles.

Authors: Vladislav Tsoy, Olga Lyan