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The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has brought changes across many areas of our lives. In interpersonal communication, this has brought physical distancing through various digital tools, in the form of non-contact, hyper-connected communication.

The world of art and culture has likewise dedicated much effort to mend the physical distance in different ways. Online exhibitions, performances, art and cultural education, and many other areas have seen the emergence of non-contact projects. These projects have now formed a part of the new normal. But despite this, we still thirst for a true face-to-face experience, where we can hold hands, face each other, speak, and smile.

Now that the pandemic is gradually nearing its end, we find ourselves at the end of a long and dark tunnel, facing the new and unknown post-COVID era. After two years, social distancing and quarantine measures are now gone. With verdant anticipation of green leaves of spring in May, it almost feels like the pre-pandemic times. With this sense of anticipation and hope, the Asia Culture Center (hereafter ACC) begins its festival to welcome the new days that we, no longer isolated in the face of a global pandemic, can face together.

ACC Children & Family Culture Festival HOW FUN is one of the foremost events in the ACC program, held to celebrate the Children's Day and the family month of May. In the previous seven years of its life, it introduced experience programs, performances, education, and other events around interesting topics each year. The 8th event this year celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Children’s Day in Korea under the theme “A Green World We Dream Together”. The festival will be held from May 5 to 8, and will be divided into four major titles: We Protect the Earth of Tomorrow; Rediscovering the Disposable, Happy Resource Cycling; Green Asian Culture; Happy Together.

The title We Protect the Earth of Tomorrow contains 4 experience programs, 1 performance, and 3 educational programs. "Sseudamsseudam at ACC" is a children's experience program featuring "plogging", a portmanteau of the Swedish word "plocka up" (picking up) and "jogging" that describes picking up trash by the roadside while walking or jogging. The participants will try the "plogging" exercise in areas around the ACC. Other programs include Asian plant eco-bag making, Asian animal instrument-making, and environmental picture book workshops. The performance Waste that Went to the Sea is an environmental musical theater detailing an adventure of things discarded at sea. With instruments and objects made from recycling, the musical explores the environmental issue of sea waste and the importance of the sea.

The title Rediscovering the Disposable, Happy Resource Cycling contains 5 experience programs, 2 performances, and 2 educational programs. The standout program here is the cardboard maze game. This maze installation, installed at the Asia Plaza, is made up of 164 cardboard boxes. There are four exits in total, leading into each other for an ultimate maze exploration. The boxes themselves were used in the past to contain the learning equipment of the ACC Children, so, proverbially speaking, the program kills two birds with one stone, namely fun play and resource recycling. The money raised by its recycling will be donated to the community after the event.

Green Asian Culture is made up of five experience programs that capture the colors of Asia. "Dr. ACC and the Door of Secret" is an experience program that utilizes smart technologies and narrative gaming to tell a story of a treasure-hunt in both the virtual and the real world. The story takes one to dazzling examples of Asian cultural heritage like the Mongolian Kanjur, Cambodian Angkor Wat, the Tripiṭaka Koreana of Korea, and the Chinese Beijing opera. For families, the adventure can offer a bonding moment as members pool their minds and imagination to find the doors of secret through the Asian culture.
The program promises fun for the whole family with Asian traditional games like coconut leaves-dragging, Balap Bakiak, Wanage, Daruma Otoshi, yut nori, tuho, sabangchigi, and jegichagi, the "May Story Puzzle", gilt-bronze shoe lantern-making program from the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, and "Snap! Let’s Go to Asia".

Happy Together, like the name, is all about sharing happiness and joy with others. Green Umbrella Child Fund Korea's "Sharing Education & Donation Bang Bang" is a program where children learn how to approach the subject of charity through fun and healthy activities. The "Original Drawing Show" is an art performance that is nothing short of magical, where performers use the whole stage as a canvas to create works of art onstage. Various events add to the fun of the stage: "Our Family Short Form Challenge Video Contest", which makes its debut with this year's HOW FUN program, is an SNS short video contest on the lively activities of the HOW FUN festival.

<Eco-friendly Culture Market in the City, the Asia Culture Market (ACM)>

Don't miss out on another must-do activity with HOW FUN 8 ̶ the Asia Culture Market (hereafter ACM).
The ACM is a market specializing in interesting environmentally friendly products. This year's market, under the theme "Eco-friendly Culture Market in the City", continues its tradition with local environmentally-friendly crafts, upcycled cultural products, zero-waste shop, delectable food, and interesting events. For regional creators who work with the theme of sustainability, the market offers new business paths, while mindful customers can take away new lifestyles in this exciting market for the Earth. Make sure to fill your wallet!

The shining month of May is finally upon us. After the long, long winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, this beautiful season reminds us just how important our mundane day-to-day lives are. We can finally leave the quarantining and non-contact days in the past.
Now, it is time to laugh, speak, hold each others' hands, and find our smile in the newer, more diverse HOW FUN 8, a festival that the ACC has prepared for us as a gift at the end of the tunnel.

HOW FUN 8Click to go to the page.

• Written by: Hana Park mcquffin.park@gmail.com
  Photography by: ACC
  
  April 2022