Gyeonggi Province to Hold "Seongam Academy Memorial Cultural Festival" in Ansan on October 3

Gyeonggi Province will hold the "11th Seongam Academy Memorial Cultural Festival" at the Gyeonggi Creative Campus in Ansan City on October 3, 2026, to commemorate the victims of the Seongam Academy incident and offer comfort to survivors and bereaved families.

The event will begin at 10:00 a.m. with a historical and cultural tour of the old Seongam Academy road. Participants will walk along the historic path where traces of Seongam Academy remain and reflect on its history, guided by explanations from a surviving victim.

Then, starting at 11:20 a.m., a memorial service for the victims of the Seongam Academy incident will be held at the Art Park within the Gyeonggi Creative Campus. The ceremony will include a Confucian-style ritual and a shamanic performance to honor the souls of the victims.

The second part of the memorial festival, which begins at 1:30 p.m., will feature memorial addresses and a flower-laying ceremony, followed by performances including a joint musical performance and traditional Korean music by the victims of the Seongam Academy incident.

The Seongam Academy Memorial Cultural Festival has been held annually since 2016 to commemorate the victims, comfort survivors and bereaved families, and raise awareness of the human rights violations that occurred at Seongam Academy.

Seongam Academy Memorial Culture Festival Poster

Seongam Academy, which operated from 1942 to 1982 as a facility that detained boys, was the site of forced labor, violence, and other human rights abuses, leaving deep scars on surviving victims and their families for a long time.

Choi Hyunjung, Human Rights Officer at Gyeonggi Province, stated, "Remembering the painful history of Seongam Academy and commemorating the victims is part of a process that embraces the pain of survivors and bereaved families and restores their honor," and added, "Gyeonggi Province will continue its efforts to remember the Seongam Academy incident, honor the victims, heal survivors, and restore their honor."

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province continues its initiatives such as victim support, commemorating victims, and remains excavation to reveal the truth about the Seongam Academy incident and restore the honor of its victims.

The province is searching for bereaved families of those who were detained and perished at Seongam Academy. Eligible informants are relatives within the fourth degree of kinship of the deceased. Applications can be submitted year-round in person or by mail to the Human Rights Officer at Gyeonggi Province. Required documents include an application form, evidence related to admission such as a statement of the circumstances, removal from the family register of the deceased, certificate of family relations, and other documents for identity verification.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.