Besides confirming that she would attend the 2016 KBS Drama Awards on Monday, “Descendants of the Sun” actress Song Hye Kyo donated 10,000 guidebooks in Korean and Chinese languages on the same day.
Joining the 35-year-old actress in the donation is Seo Kyoung-duk, professor at Sungshin Women’s University. The two donated the guidebooks to a memory hall in Shanghai, China, dedicated to Yun Bong-gil. He was an independence fighter who died on Dec. 19, 1932, Seo Kyoung-duk said, Chosun reported.
Yun Bong-gil set off a bomb in the Shanghai International Settlement which killed several Japanese dignitaries in 1932. Thirty years after the incident, he was awarded by the South Korean government the Republic of Korea Medal of Order of Merit for National Foundation.
The bomb was disguised as a water bottle which he detonated at a celebration in honor of the Emperor’s birthday at Hongkou Park in Shanghai. It killed General Yoshinori Shirakawa and Kawabata Sadaji, the government minister for Japanese residents in the Chinese city. Yun Bong-gil attempted to kill himself by setting of a second explosive disguised as a bento box, but because the bomb failed to detonate, he was arrested and executed by firing squad on Dec. 19, 1932.
There are information about the life of Yun Bong-gil and the memorial hall in the guidebook which is given free to visitors. Song Hye Kyo said she made the guidebook donation due to lack of guidebooks in Korean characters in many Korean historical sites overseas. The actress said she hopes the guidebooks would help draw visitors to these sites.
It is not the first collaboration between the two. They had previously donated guidebooks in Korean language to museum and libraries overseas, particularly in Chongqing, China, Los Angeles and The Hague in The Netherlands.
Incidentally, the role that “Descendants of the Sun” actor Song Joong-ki is playing in the movie, “Battleship Island” that he is shooting in Nami is Park Moo Young, a member of the North Korean Independence Group.