By Honorary Reporter Anderson Lobao da Silva from Brazil
Photos = Anderson Lobao da Silva, KCC in Brazil

The Korean Cultural Center (KCC) in São Paulo, Brazil is hosting an exhibition of Korean webtoons from March 31 to May 20.

The purpose is to show how webtoons bring the world closer to Korean culture. Featured are "Cheese in the Trap," "Yumi's Cells" and "True Beauty" in partnership with Naver Webtoon and Korean Manhwa Contents Agency. 

Park In-seong, the organizer of this exhibition, explained more about the event and Korean webtoons in April 6 on-site interview.

How do webtoons bring Korean culture closer to the world?
The development of intellectual property has enabled the media and public to access webtoon content more easily. Korea was one of the first countries to develop a webtoon industry and related intellectual property, and this allowed digital content to be more accessible and made Korea widely recognized for webtoons.

What is the KCC doing to expand the webtoon market?
We realize that the public wants to consume more Korea-related content as interest in Korea leads people to Korean webtoons. So the KCC wants to show the origins, plots and creators of webtoons so that more people recognize Korean webtoons.

Does one webtoon genre stand out in popularity?
I believe one of the most popular genres is rom-coms, something also common in K-dramas.

Can readers influence a webtoon's plot or does the creator decide everything?
Webtoons are usually produced weekly. A creator goes through reader comments so it's difficult to completely ignore suggestions and comments from the public. Certain artists have fixed plots that often do not reflect comments. But in general, reader suggestions are reflected to a point, and this makes webtoons different from comic books.

kalhong617@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.