Cartoons
Read about the context and storyline of Saemaul Undong promotion cartoons.
Cartoons
'The Miracle of Chil-Won Valley,' Mr. Kim Ki-ho
Chil-Won Ri That Caught the Attention of the Foreign Press in the 1970s
“From a recipient country to a donor country!”
This sentence expresses Korea's progress toward becoming an economic power after breaking away from being the poorest country in the 1950s. How did Korea achieve this rapid growth? The world showed great interest in its growth engine. Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist, said, "If there is Candoism, the world can end absolute poverty."
Villagers in Chil-Won ri (Saemaul Illustration Books, 1976)
This kind of attention was shown quite recently. In the 1970s, many well-known figures from overseas came to Korea in person to check on the changes caused by Saemaul Undong. One of the places they visited was Chilwon 1-ri, Songtan-eup, Pyeongtaek-gun, Gyeonggi-do (currently Chilwon-dong, Pyeongtaek-si), which was selected as the best exemplary village. The Japanese magazine "Hi-Life" also covered the development in Chilwon 1-ri with the title "Concealed Korean miracle".
“How can we escape the poverty even adults couldn’t do?”
“First, we will pick up the barley ears that have fallen into the fields.”
“Is that all?”
“Hey Samdol, don’t you know step-by-step one goes a long way?”
In 1948, 55 boys from Chilwon-ri formed a group. The leader was 15-years-old Kim Ki-ho. The children at that age were hanging around picking up barley ears in harvested fields. Instead of filling up their hungry stomachs right away, they gathered the grains. When 14 mal (about 250 liters) was collected, the war broke out. During the evacuation, hungry villagers asked the boys to share barley, but the children did not bring out the barley concealed in their shelter. When the war was over, the barley was lent to their neighboring villages and it was repaid with rice the following year. The slowly increasing 'seed money' of barley grew into 20 bags of rice after 10 years.
“Let’s prepare precious tools used for major events such as samogwandae and kkot-sangyeo (both are used for wedding ceremony) by ourselves.”
“I'm tired of going to the neighboring village to borrow tools.”
“Why don’t we buy some instruments for nongak (traditional Korean music performed by farmers) to enhance the sense of unification and morale?”
In 1964
the group of boys turned into a group of youths
but the leader was still Mr. Kim Ki-ho. After discussing what to do with the 20 bags of rice, they decided to buy kkot-sangyeo, samogwandae, jeokduri, and palanquin for wedding ceremonies. This is because of the ill feelings that stemmed from the sense of humiliation that they faced every time they went to a neighboring village to borrow the tools. As a result, the group’s spirit lifted and the residents united. I bought pitch pine* seedlings by the youth association fund and planted it in the bare mountain. After five years, the forest was pretty fragrant with the pitch pines. In 1971, Kim Ki-ho became a Saemaul leader and devoted himself to the Saemaul Undong.
* Pitch pines are also called three-leaved pine tree, American three-leaved pine tree. Its place of origin is the northern land and eastern coast of North America. It was first introduced to Korea in 1907 and was planted nationwide in order to restore a desolate mountain area and to get firewood to use as fuel. (Korea Local Cultural Electronics Exhibition, Korean Studies Central Researcher)
Village Residents Maintaining the Village Road (Pyeongtaek Sisa)
“Don’t you know this is not for a specific individual?”
“That’s…”
“I also gladly donated 300-pyeong (about 990m²) of paddyfield.”
The first task of the Saemaul Undong project was to expand the entrance road to the village and to build a farm road. However, landowners were unwilling to donate their land when they knew their land would be used as a farm road. Then Mr. Kim Ki-ho donated his 300-pyeong of paddyfield first. The landowners' minds changed when they saw the cleaned-up road. After that, Kim and the youth group's Saemaul projects were conducted one right after another. The boys who started by picking up the barley ears were now the leaders of Saemaul Undong.
In December 1975, the Chil-Won ri was selected as an exemplary village in the National Saemaul Leaders Convention. The following year, 1976, the village was selected as part of an on-the-spot training course for Saemaul Leaders Training Institute trainees.
Now let’s follow the journey of Saemaul Undong that they pioneered.
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