Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

15. Seoul Olympic Youth Camp
476
21
21. Beneath the emblem of the Youth
Camp, folk drummers stage a
performance of traditional Korean music.
22. A scribbling board at the camp soon
filled up with messages, pictures and
graffiti.
23. At the Youth Culture Hall a
performance of Korean traditional dance
and music is staged.
24. Diverse national folk dances were a
highlight of the event
A total of 32 national groups participated,
and the order of their presentations
was determined by the order of
applications. Programs consisted
chiefly of folk songs, indigenous
presentations, short plays, demonstrations
of folk musical instruments and
dances. The time allotted to each
national team was limited to 10 minutes.
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
assisted in the planning and staging of
the programs. The MC was a Korean
participant.
Participating countries by date
—————————————–
• September 20: Belize, Nigeria, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, Switzerland,
Surinam, Korea (eight countries)
• September 23: Finland, Cyprus,
Saudi Arabia, France, Kuwait, Greece,
Spain, Senegal (eight countries)
• September 24: Bahrain, the United
States of America, Oman, India,
Denmark, Australia, Sri Lanka, the
United Kingdom, Hungary (nine
countries)
• September 26: New Zealand, Japan,
the Philippines, West Germany, Belgium,
Libya, Canada (seven countries)
Traditional Costume Festival
This was a program prepared by participating
countries, in which the participants
introduced their traditional
costumes. In the festival held at the
camp site's Grand Auditorium from 8
p.m. September 25, performers from
27 countries, taking the stage in alphabetical
order, displayed their respective
traditional costumes, and demonstrated
examples of their unique customs for
three minutes each. The festival
proceeded with opening remarks by
the MC, greetings from the commissioner
of the Operation Headquarters,
the introduction of judges, and the
announcement of the criteria for
judgement of performances.
A group of performers from Yejiwon,
an institute for Korean traditional customs
in Seoul, displayed the native
costumes of Korea. Judges placed priority
on the extent of preparation,
stage manner and popularity. The
grand award went to Nigeria, gold
awards to Canada and Mexico, silver
awards to France, Greece and Poland,
and bronze awards to Hong Kong,
India, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Korean Culture Night
The Korean Culture Night was held at
the camp site's Grand Auditorium from
8 p.m. September 19, to display
Korea's traditional culture and arts.
The two-hour program was attended
by some 1,280 people including 882
camp participants, plus invited guests
and operational personnel.
The purpose of the program was to
introduce the traditional music, dances
and folk songs of Korea to the participating
foreign youths, and to
thereby help them understand the cultural
heritage of Korea. The MC's
remarks were minimized, and instead,
the names of performers and their
repertoires were projected onto a video
screen. Lighting, sound and stage
design were done by a commercial
production team.
The program in the order of presentation
included:
Yominrak (Court music), Kayagum
(12-stringed zither) Ensemble, Ku-um
Salpuri (Exorcist) Dance, Taegum
(Transverse flute) Solo, Yangsan Crane
Dance, Fan Dance, Pansori (Narrative
folk song), Small Drum Dance and
Soljanggo Drumming, Monk's Dance
and Drum Dance, Kanggangsullae
(Women's round dance), Kyonggi Folk
Songs, Namdo Folk Songs, Orchestra
and Samulnori (Percussion Quartet),
Central National Classical Music
Orchestra and Epilogue.
UNICEF Night
A UNICEF Night program was adopted
at the request of Mr. Ralph Diaz,
representative of the UNICEF Korean
Office. The program was staged for
two hours beginning 7:30 p.m.,
September 30, at the camp site's
Grand Auditorium.
The program was prepared entirely by
UNICEF, and included a multi-slide
showing of "Children of the World,"
and a performance by an invited British
singer. Again for four days from September
27 through 30, educational and
informational photos of UNICEF were
displayed at the exhibition stands of
participating nations' squares.
15.3.6
Other Programs
—————————————–
Squares of Nations
From September 15 through October
1, six double-sided exhibition stands
and 28 single-sided stands were set
up around the old main office building
to display various objects introducing
the participating countries. The
exhibits included about 15,000 objects'
of 18 kinds, including photos, postcards,
postage stamps, books, local specialties
and antiques, all representing the
countries' history, culture, geography,
tourism and folk arts.
Scrawling board
A large scrawling board measuring
120cmx720cm, and writing equipment
were prepared at the Meeting Square
behind the old main office building, so
that participating youths might display
written expressions of their moods and
feelings.
Religious activities
The Operation Headquarters selected
and notified churches of various
religions so that participating youths
might attend services in accordance
with their respective religions. Buses
were provided for those who wished to
attend religious services.
A total of 95 youths attended religious
services on six occasions, on September
11,18,23,25 and 30, and October 2.
The churches selected by religion
were as follows:
Protestantism — Choong Hyun
Church
Catholicism — Sinchon-dong Catholic
Church
Buddhism — Chogyesa Temple
Islam — Korea Muslim Federation
Lutheranism — Central Lutheran
Church
Greek Orthodox Church — St. Nicolas
Orthodox Church
University visit
Eighty-four youths from 13 other countries
visited Seoul National University
on September 20. They were briefed
on the university through a slide
presentation, and toured the library
and other facilities.
Meeting with medalists
Three Olympic medalists were invited
to have dialogue with camp participants
on the lawn of the housing quarters on
September 30. They were all from
Korea. Cha Young-chol, a silver
medalist in shooting' and Lee Hyongkun
and Pak Tae-min, both bronze
medalists in weight lifting visited. It was
regrettable that no foreign medalists
could be invited.