Thirteen Independence Activists Discovered by Suwon City to Meet Citizens at City Hall

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon Special Municipality will hold a special exhibition titled "Thirteen Independence Activists Discovered by Suwon City" in the main lobby of City Hall through next month's 5th to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement.

The exhibition, held at the international sister cities promotion center in the main lobby, introduces thirteen independence activists from Suwon who were discovered by the city and received commendations as independence merit recipients.

Mayor Lee Jae-jun visited the exhibition hall on the 26th to view the displays and said, "I hope to widely inform citizens about Suwon's independence activists."

Since the opening of the Suwon Museum in 2008, the city has worked to discover independence activists who had been little known and helped them receive commendations as independence merit recipients.

Beginning with the discovery of gisaeng Kim Hyang-hwa (1897~unknown), who led the independence movement as representative of the Suwon Gisaeng Association, and Lee Seon-gyeong (1902~1921), a student who formed a secret organization and was arrested while attempting to work for the Shanghai Provisional Government and died for the cause, the city conducted an independence activist discovery project with the Suwon City Research Institute in 2018 and identified 113 independence activists in the Suwon area. Among them, eleven received commendations in 2020 and 2024.

Visitors can see photographs and biographical information of thirteen independence activists including Yu Byeong-gi (1895~unknown), who was imprisoned for the charge of contributing anti-imperialist articles; Jang Ju-moon (1906~unknown), who engaged in farmers' association activities to help tenant farmers suffering from Japanese colonial exploitation; Cha Gye-yeong (1913~1946), who continued the independence movement despite three imprisonments; and two Suwon women who joined the independence movement with workers, Choi Gyeong-chang (1918~unknown) and Hong Jong-rye (1919~unknown).