Video conference (from the left - Mr Ng Cher Pong, CEO of the NLB and Ambassador Ahn Young-jip)
Donated Korean-English children's storybooks
Ahn Young-jip, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, and Mr Ng Cher Pong, Chief Executive Officer of the National Library Board, Singapore (NLB), have commemorated the Korean Embassy’s donation of Korean-English children’s storybooks with a video conference on 7 August 2020.
Mr Ng expressed his gratitude for the donation of the children’s storybooks, “The National Library Board of Singapore is grateful for the generous contribution of Korean-English children’s books from the Embassy. This donation will significantly benefit our library patrons and deepen Singaporeans’ understanding of Korean culture. Given how popular Korean culture is, we are confident that these books will be popular among our patrons, and they have been available for loan at our public libraries from 16 July 2020. We look forward to more collaborations with the Embassy.”
Ambassador Ahn responded, “This donation of children’s storybooks follows a series of donations – literature books in 2018, and Sejong Language School textbooks in 2019 – I have made since my posting to Singapore in 2018. I hope that bilateral relations will continue to deepen through the use of books as a valuable platform for the cultural exchange.”
The Embassy donated a total of 756 copies of 14 titles, comprising 12 traditional folk stories such as ‘The Tiger and The Dried Persimmon’ and ‘The Fairy and The Woodcutter’, and 2 creative short stories including ‘Dream Ayla Dream’, for the sake of furthering cultural exchanges in future generations. These books are catalogued and available for reference at the National Library, and for borrowing at 22 of our public libraries and MOLLY, NLB’s mobile library bus that reaches out to young children who do not have ready access to public libraries. The full list of titles in NLB’s online catalogue are available here.
The two organisations also discussed possible future collaborations such as storytelling events, eBook donations and exhibitions, as well as further meaningful cultural exchanges through the use of books to increase understanding between the Republic of Korea and Singapore, in view of the Republic of Korea’s New Southern Policy.