Children's culture activist, children's writer and independence activist; created Children's Day and founded the magazine Eorini
| Life | 1899 ~ 1931 |
| Era | 대한제국·일제강점기 |
| Clan | 온양 방씨 |
Bang Jeong-hwan (方定煥, 1899-1931) was a children's culture activist and children's writer who created Children's Day and founded Eorini, Korea's first magazine purely for children, under Japanese rule. His pen name was Sopa, and his clan was the Onyang Bang. Citing the 1860 clan genealogy, Korean Wikipedia states that he belonged to the Panseo-gong branch as a fifth-generation descendant of Bang U-jun, younger brother of Bang U-jeong, magistrate of Gurye under King Sunjo. He was born on 9 November 1899 into a merchant family at Yajuhyeon (Yajugae, today's Dangju-dong, Jongno) in western Hanseong, the son of Bang Gyeong-su.
He entered Maedong Elementary School in 1909, transferred to Midong and graduated in 1913, then entered Seonrin Commercial School but left for family reasons. In 1917 he married Son Yong-hwa, daughter of Son Byeong-hui, third leader of Cheondogyo, and organized the youth group Cheongnyeon Gurakbu. He entered Bosung College in 1918, and during the March First Movement of 1919 he was arrested while distributing the Declaration of Independence and a mimeographed newspaper, tortured and released after a week.
In 1920 he entered Toyo University in Japan to study children's art and child psychology. In 1921 he formed the Cheondogyo Youth Association with Kim Gi-jeon and Yi Jeong-ho, launching the children's movement in earnest, and on 1 May 1922 he declared the first "Children's Day." In March 1923 he founded Eorini, and the same year he formed the Saekdonghoe, a society for the study of children's issues, in Tokyo. On 1 May 1923 he held a Children's Day ceremony and distributed 120,000 leaflets of "Children's Day Promises," and in 1928 he organized a world exhibition of children's art with participants from some twenty countries.
He raised the status of children by calling them eorini, on a par with neulgeuni (the old) and jeolmeuni (the young), published the adapted fairy-tale collection Gift of Love (1922), worked as a storyteller, and nurtured writers such as Yun Seok-jung and Yi Won-su through Eorini. He died on 23 July 1931 at the age of 31. The Sopa Prize was founded in his memory in 1957, and he was posthumously awarded the Order of Cultural Merit (1978), the Presidential Commendation for national foundation (1980) and the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Patriotism Medal (1990). His statue, erected on Namsan in 1971, was moved to Seoul Children's Grand Park in 1987.
First placed in a charnel house at Hongje-dong, his remains were moved in 1936 to Mangu-ri, Jungnang-gu, Seoul (today's Mangu Historical and Cultural Park). A memorial stone was erected at the grave in 1983, and the grave was registered as a national cultural heritage in 2017.
Of the Panseo-gong branch, he is recorded in the genealogy as a fifth-generation descendant of Bang U-jun, younger brother of Bang U-jeong. His wife was Son Yong-hwa, daughter of Son Byeong-hui.