“Gongsaengwon” Stage Tells Story of Japanese Caregiver Yoon Hak-ja Who Raised Korean Orphans
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
A new musical, Gongsaeng,won, runs Dec 11–15 at the National Theater’s Daloreum Theater to mark the 60th anniversary of Korea–Japan diplomatic normalization. It dramatizes the life of Yoon Hak-ja (born Dauchi Chizuko), a Japanese woman who stayed in Mokpo and ran Gongsaengwon (an orphanage) after marrying Korean pastor Yoon Chi-ho. From the 1930s through the Korean War and beyond, she cared for more than 3,000 orphans, refused calls to return to Japan after her husband disappeared during the 1950–53 war, and treated the children as her own. Yoon was the first foreign woman to receive a Korean government medal in 1963. The new production follows the story through the eyes of an orphan named Beom-chi and combines six-part a cappella with traditional Korean and Western instruments. Accessibility features are expanded: six dedicated sign-language interpreters assigned to characters and smart glasses providing real-time surtitles. The show also involves descendants who continue Gongsaengwon’s social services, and plans to present the run as an inclusive, barrier-free performance.
