Mokpo, which crosses the western and southern coasts, is a central city in the southwestern region that connects the metropolitan area and the southwest sea area, which is a densely populated region of Korea. Mokpo is also located at the center of th ...
Mokpo, which crosses the western and southern coasts, is a central city in the southwestern region that connects the metropolitan area and the southwest sea area, which is a densely populated region of Korea. Mokpo is also located at the center of the East Asia sea area that connects to China through Dadohae in the West sea and to Japan through Dadohae in the South sea. Based on these geopolitical conditions, Mokpo developed into a modern seaport that represented Honam since its opening in 1897. At that time, the unique and colorful artistic soul of the Southwest region, especially Dadohae, merged with modernity, and Mokpo was reestablished as one of the leading port (yehang) of Korea, exceeding cultural vitality.
But after the liberation, Mokpo, along with Chinese communism, began to lose its vitality rapidly and the blockade of the sea route to China, becoming an international isolated space. Since the mid-1960s, the boom of industrialization development promoted with the slogan of "modernization of the fatherland" has been concentrated in the southeastern region that leads to Japan and the United States.
In 1992, Korea-China diplomatic relations were established, and today, China has emerged as a powerful country with the United States and become the first trading partner in Korea. Nevertheless, Mokpo has little motivation to revive its new vitality by boosting geopolitical conditions in the southwestern region. Therefore, it is imperative to create a "humanistic discourses of hope" that revive the depressed atmosphere and the vitality of Yehang Mokpo. This not only raises the vitality of Mokpo, Southwest and Jeollanam-do, but also the pursuit of the balanced development of the Republic of Korea, as well as the prosperity of East Asia.
The 21st century is the 'maritime age'. And It is also the 'island era' as the island is growing in importance as a maritime stronghold and guardian. Near Mokpo, there is the largest Dadohae area with more than half of the Korean islands densely populated. Historically, the Southwest sea area thrived when Dadohae was active and stagnated when Dadohae was declining. At this point, Mokpo, the gateway to Dadohae has a duty to mobilize the 'Human Capabilities of Dadohae' and to encourage economic and cultural vitality of the Southwestern sea area once again. It is necessary to create a new trend for the East Asian Mediterranean to coexist by providing an opportunity to expand the humanistic and spiritual paradigm from Mokpo, which is located in the heart of the East Asian Mediterranean.
First, the project team will create a "humanistic discourses of hope" to revitalize the vitality of Mokpo, the ‘Yehang’. Second, they establish the status of Mokpo, the island’s capital of the Republic of Korea, through the gathering of 'Human Capabilities of Dadohae'. Third, the ultimate goal is to advocate the East Asian Mediterranean Paradigm, which encompasses the East Asia sea area. And the people, government, language, product, and study gathered their strengths to discover and utilize rich human assets to make Mokpo a city of hope. For that purpose, using the three main keywords of 'harbor', 'Dadohae', and 'East Asia Mediterranean' under the overall theme of 'making the hope of Mokpo in Dadohae home port, humanistic discourses, Dadohae, and East Asia Mediterranean', we set up a strategy for organically expanding humanistic discourses of Mokpo by year.
In each year, the project team set the theme of 「Rediscovery of Mokpo in 'Yehang' - The theme of convergence of cultural diversity in the southwestern sea area」(first-year), 「Culture Complexity of Mokpo 'the Gateway to Dadohae'- the collection of Human Capabilities of Dadohae」(second-year), 「Advocacy of East Asia Mediterranean Paradigm- East Asia Mediterranean as 'one sea'」(third-year), and tried to focus on ‘making hope of Mokpo’. Through these efforts, Not only to create opportunities to cause 'humanistic discourses of hope', but also to discover the contents of various urban humanities and to form a future vision to grow into the central city of East Asian Dadohae. And after the project was completed, they sublimated into the continuous urban humanities movement.