The Korean Culture and Information Service, an affiliate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on Nov. 23 from 6 p.m. held the K-healing ON Festival that was aired live on Korea.net's YouTube channel for viewers around the world. (Jeon Han)

By Xu Aiying and Lee Jihae
Video = Kim Sunjoo, Choi Taesoon
Seoul | Nov. 23, 2020

The Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS) has held an online event livestreamed globally to honor outstanding content on Korea created by people worldwide.

An affiliate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, KOCIS on Nov. 23 from 6 p.m. held the K-healing ON Festival and aired it on Korea.net's official YouTube channel. About 23,000 Hallyu fans around the world watched the event.

The winners of this year's Talk Talk Korea, the country's largest contest for Korea-related content, were announced at the festival. Also honored were outstanding members of Korea.net's 2,154 Honorary Reporters, who write about Korea, and K-influencers who produce videos promoting the country.

The best entry in each of the contest's seven categories was named, including one by Axel Fernandez from Spain that showed the strengths of Korean culture from a foreign national's perspective.

Eleven Honorary Reporters were honored such as Nourhan Mohamed Eldemerdash from Egypt, who wrote an article on her life and artistic values after watching the 2019 Korean film "Sorikkun (The Singer)."

The winner of the K-influencer category was Katrina A. Noble from the Philippines, who completed KOCIS training in producing promotional videos about Korea. Her winning video expressed Korea's past and present through music. Another work featuring an interview was also honored.

The K-pop boy band ATEEZ, a KOCIS promotional ambassador, and pansori (one-person lyrical opera) singer Ko Yeong Yeol also performed. A drone show at Sejong Lake Park in Sejong was also aired live featuring 300 drones that conveyed messages of consolation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tens of thousands of Hallyu fans worldwide who watched the event communicated with one another, leaving comments in multiple languages including English, Spanish and Arabic. The 80-minute event attracted 23,709 views, with an average of 5,899 real-time viewers.