Song Hye Kyo Raises Awareness About Korea’s Female Freedom Fighters

Song Hye Kyo recently teamed up with activist and professor Seo Kyoung Duk of Sungshin Women’s University to promote the historic independence movement of Korea to a global audience.

March 1 is an important landmark in Korean history. On this day in 1919, Korea saw its most significant independence movement against Japan’s imperial rule. Across cities, thousands of people simultaneously held demonstrations, all calling for Korean people’s right to self-determination. The demonstrators were brutally suppressed. Historian Park Eun Sik reported that about 7,500 Koreans were killed in these protests, with 16,000 wounded and 46,000 arrested. The movement is now referred to as the Sam-il movement and is commemorated through a public holiday on March 1 in South Korea.

On the occasion of the Independence Movement day, Song Hye Kyo and Seo Kyoung Duk released a video they jointly produced, talking about the female independence activist Jeong Jeong Hwa. She raised funds for the provisional government’s independence movements for over a decade and was exiled to China for 27 years. Even during her exile, she took care of temporary government agents and offered her endless support to continue the independence movement.

Professor Seo directed the video, which details the life of Jeong, and talks about her integral role in the country’s independence. Song Hye Kyo funded the project. To ensure that the video has a broad reach, it has been made available in both Korean and English.

There are many female independence activists who are not well known, and we wanted to shed light on their lives. Starting with this project, we plan to embark on a global campaign producing videos in many languages focusing on the lives of female independence activists.

—Seo Kyoung Duk

The video received an outpouring of support from Korean netizens, along with their thanks for the brave Jeong Joeng Hwa’s sacrifices.

• “Thank you. All of this is thanks to you.”
• “I went to university when I was in my 20s, and she went to an exile…thank you ㅠㅠㅠㅠ”
• “Thank you, Sudang Jeong Jeong Hwa.”
• “I’ll remember you from now on, Jeong Jeong Hwa-nim. Thank you.”
• “I watched it with my kids. Thank you.”

This project marks Song Hye Kyo’s continued support of Korean historical education. Every year she makes efforts to raise awareness about the country’s past struggles on such landmark days of Korean history. Over the last 12 years, Seo and Song have also donated guide booklets, signs, and pictures for 33 Korean historical sites overseas, including the old provisional government building in Chongqing.