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Indigo Book Company(Indigo Sowon)
Company type	Public / Non-profit / Organization
Founded	Busan, South Korea (August 28, 2004, as Indigo Sowon)
Headquarters	20-7 Su-young Gu, Nam-cheon Dong, Busan
Key people	Aram Hur, CEO & Chairman; Boram Hur, COO; Mi-hyun Kim, General Manager & Secretary; Yong-june Park, Project Director; Ji-sub Han, Marketing; Youn-yeong Lee, Magazine Editor; Han-kyeol Yoon, Indigo Think Tank Director ; Chan-pyo Park, Office Manager;
Website	www.indigoground.net

Indigo Book Company(Indigo Sowon in Korean), opened on August 28th, 2004, is a combination of nonprofit book publisher, magazine, bookstore, after-school course program, community center, and global project organizer. Based in the second largest city, Busan, Indigo represents a small but vibrant progressive and humanistic counterweight to South Korea's solidly conservative educational establishment.

General

Indigo Book Company is basically a humanities bookstore for young people that filled its shelves with books on a wide array of the liberal arts. The books are divided into six categories: Literature, History/Sociology, Philosophy, Arts, Education, and Ecology/Environment. It does not carry even a single book on scholastic test preparation or the standard best-sellers. In accordance with the humanistic objective of cultivating truthful, honest citizens with books, Indigo Sowon only deals in good books that nourish the souls of young people, giving them hope and food for thought that they may be healthy in every way. By organizing various events and promoting publications, Indigo has become a public space that inspires the young people of Korea with healthy reading materials while simultaneously enlightening them with knowledge of the humanities.

Anthropological Analysis

(This article is a written script of a speech given at 2008 Indigo Youth Book Fair by Brian Palmer)

In March of last year, I received an unexpected letter. Its author was from the Indigo Book Company, which he described as a bookstore that was “not only selling books but also creating various kinds of educational events and social activities, struggling for [a] better world and its possibility.”

A little over a year later, and those “events and activities” he mentioned have become the grand and magnificent gathering that begins here tonight.

But what is this odd duck called Indigo, that brought us here today? What is this combined book publisher, magazine, bookstore, after-school course program, community center and – and, well, something more? What is Indigo up to, and why are people ready to devote lots of time, effort and money to its activities?

As a social anthropologist, I want to try to offer a few observations, to understand Indigo in a global context of social engagement and social movements.

First, Indigo is a response to a certain kind of frustration and sadness, a particular form of pain.

The participants in Indigo’s events and activities tend to be people who are heartbroken by the world’s cruelty. They are astonished by the gap between humanity’s enormous technological achievements and the poverty of our social organization. How can such a technically advanced world let millions of children go to bed hungry? Why does our sophisticated species, homo sapiens sapiens, persist in going to war?

All social movements respond to some kind of frustration, and for the Indigo circles it is above all this horror at the hardness of the world. The pain of witnessing other people’s suffering and knowing that it doesn’t need to be that way.

Second, the Indigo endeavor responds to a more local kind of pain: the anguish of a generation of super-stressed, pressure-cooked youth. In many parts of the world, the joys of a creative childhood and youth have been replaced by a relentless race for grades, admissions, jobs. But few societies on earth have such a brutal competition for university admissions as South Korea.

Indigo has become a space of shelter, care and nourishment for hundreds of exhausted, scared-to-death students. It is a place to catch one’s breath, to stop and think. And it gives the students something different from the usual pedagogy of memorization, discipline, and testing. In an Indigo seminar, a budding chemist is free to pursue her curiosity about literature and ethics, for example. She thereby begins to obtain the broad humanistic education that is an essential ingredient of a rich and creative human life. Here Indigo follows the insight of top American univerisities, such as Harvard, where every student must devote at least 25% of her time to a core curriculum of humanistic, liberal-arts studies.

Third, we can understand the Indigo projects as a positive expression of emerging Korean national identity.

Here I would note a parallel to my current homeland, Sweden. Beginning in the 1950s, internationalism became a central expression of Swedish identity, as the nation committed great resources to development aid and led peace negotiations in many parts of the world. And a Swede, Dag Hammarskjöld, led the United Nations.

Today one may discern the early stirrings of a similar internationalist patriotism in South Korea, while the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, is a citizen of this country. Moreover, one sees that an increasingly affluent South Korea has had the self-confidence to raise questions about American troops and trade agreements, for example.

South Korea is well-prepared to become a leader in work for global justice and peace, not least because the recent experience of the country’s own democratization movements – from the Gwanju Uprising and forward – have created a citizenry well-versed in the arts of democratic change. And Indigo may be viewed as a small but significant piece of Korea’s emerging internationalism. One may speak of an internationalist patriotism in which pride in one’s own land is expressed in efforts to help the whole world.

Fourth, one can view Indigo in light of new global expectations regarding philanthropy. Many people have watched in happy astonishment as Bill Gates has directed his fortune to disease-prevention in Africa, as Warren Buffett decided to follow Gates, as Ted Turner earlier gave billions to U.N. programs, as U2’s singer Bono fought for debt-forgiveness for the poorest lands, as Al Gore today devotes his Nobel prize money and book proceeds to a campaign about climate change.

There are increasing public expectations that the winners of the global society should engage their resources to try to help save our world. Only a small fraction of business leaders have followed these good examples. Indigo is lucky that Mr. Kim Yang, the president of a Busan Savings Bank, is one of them.

Fifth and last, we can see Indigo as a collective effort to enter the public debate, to get people’s attention, to capture the imagination.

The future course of our world is being fought out in the arenas of global public opinion – in the news media but also in literature and the arts. What kind of world do we want?

During the short war earlier this month, both Russia and Georgia hired public-relations bureaus in Brussels to help propagate their respective views of the conflict. For it is hard to enter the traffic-jammed global public square, to be heard in the global public conversation.

How does one come up with visions that can capture the imagination of other people? How can one learn to be so skilled and eloquent that one wins a place in global public forums?

Indigo’s effort to capture the imagination includes three parts: a.) to try to bring together the creativity of many people – somewhat in the spirit of web-based efforts like Wikipedia; b.) to gather wisdom and eloquence in literature and the humanities, and to use that wisdom in debates about society’s future; and c.) to search around the world for people who have succeeded in capturing the imagination in significant ways, and to bring those people to Korea to serve as poetic mentors and teachers for young people here. That last point is the aim of this conference.

To sum up, then, in the coming days you may want to keep an eye out for several dimensions of Indigo’s work: First, Indigo as a response to the frustration people feel when witnessing a world of needless brutality and suffering. Second, Indigo as a place of sustenance for a young generation caught in a hyper-competitive educational system. A place that also provides a breadth of humanistic learning. Third, Indigo as an expression of an emerging internationalist patriotism in South Korea, a re-forging of Korean identity around global moral engagement. Fourth, Indigo as the beneficiary of an ethical turn in global philanthropy. And fifth, Indigo as an effort to enter public discussions of our global future, by means of widely participatory creativity, use of literature and arts, and the recruitment to Korea of persons who have already demonstrated skill in capturing the imagination in various parts of the world.

Activities

INDIGO+ing

The magazine <INDIGO+ing>, launched in 2004, is the very first magazine in Korea made by teenagers, with the support of Indigo Sowon. The magazine contains authentic ideas and original perspectives of young Indigo journalists. It is considered to be a dim light of hope in this dark time for Korean students. The magazine is firstly created as national level but it drives a global movement. In a short period of time, it has achieved impressive results. The magazine interviewed global leaders, change-makers, notable academics, environmentalist, artists, writers and etc. including Muhammad Yunus, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Simon Blackburn, Brian Palmer, Valérie Zenatti and so on. It has begun with the hope of making changes with youthful voices and of exploring new networks between young people from all over the world. Additionally, the magazine encourages readers to develop a conscientious morality, artistic sensibility, and critical thinking through writing. The philosophy and ideas that have been expressed and articulated in the magazine are unparalleled and valuable.

<INDIGO+ing> consists of 6 chapters
- One who does not dream cannot be a youth
The first theme of this magazine, created by dreams of youth thirsting for communication and solidarity, starts with stories about dreams. Despite hardships of reality, we hope to dream, desire, and make differences together for a better and more decent society.
- Finding the "real me"
We are always dreaming something. The attempts of the young to find their true selves are being introduced and articulated in this chapter. "Who am I?" is a common but fundamental question that should be thought about in one's life. We hope people can find their real selves with us and dream again.
- Communicating with the World
People, society, and the world around us are closely inter-connected. We cannot just look on them with folded arms. We hope our youths can develop and prosper as great individuals who can become involved in society and, ultimately, change the world.
- Reading with Happiness
In this section, the stories about books are kindly introduced and deeply analyzed. They are classified according to 6 categories directed by Indigo Sowon: Literature, History/Society, Philosophy, Arts, Education, and Ecology/Environment. Students select the books and write what they want to say.
- Acting Together
This is about every practical engagement: things that can be shared, courageous participation in this society, from small actions to broad actions which can only be done in the name of youth. From volunteer work to local projects, these creative ideas of youths are introduced among questions about locality and criticism of this age.
- There's Nothing Without Love
People, films, music, travels, books…. Things that complete our lives exist in the name of love. We want to share beautiful stories originating from love. Writings that can feel susceptibility and the artistic sense of youth are included.

Theme and Variations

Theme and Variations is a public discussion between the writer and the students. Students read the books of intellectuals and think conscientiously about how to create a better world. In addition, they invite writers and scholars to Indigo Sowon to share their ideas. This dialogue is organized by the students of Indigo Sowon; they select the suitable book according to their own views, create and organize their own inquiries regarding the book, and open a discussion session to speak with the writer on subjects of interest. The discussion spans a wide array of topics and presents revolutionary perspectives. This event is considered to be the perfect model of reading and discussion since it shows active reading as it should be-a conversation across barriers, a shared search for a better world, a broadly opened forum for thinking to discover what is possible. Many representative intellectuals and writers have been invited since August 2004 and this forum will last as long as enthusiastic students exist in this world.

Indigo Youth Book Fair

The Purpose of Book Fair Project
The embodiment of the humanism beyond the certain era means maintaining one's identity and building the structure of values without any of the shallowness of capitalism. There are some values that the youth of this country should learn and try to internalize as their own beliefs: righteous belief, truthful conscience, hope for new possibilities, and efforts of approaching the most essential values. These are precious things which we could achieve through the communication with books and the contemporary intellectuals.
We want to create a new cultural ground and we deny any superficial and exclusive cultural exchanges in which commercialism focuses only on selling and publicizing like any other existing book fairs.
The youth all around the world should have their own identity and sense of values; the place or the ground in which they could express their thinking, however, never existed before. They need book fairs in which they could exchange cultural experiences and communicate through books with others from all around the world. We want to be a subject of the creation. This is because of our hope and belief that we can change the whole world with only a creative passion. We hope that more youth in the world could earn fair and equal opportunities for the future through this project, and these values will blossom into a beautiful flower.
Furthermore, the process of exploring these values will be the way of stepping into the truth of the world and essential values. The ground of cultural solidarity is the only way of solving the worldwide problems we are facing now.
The style of the project
The project initially focused on selecting six nations all over the six continents which will participate in the bookfair. The project itself is a wholly different in style and formality from other bookfairs in the past. It is true that most of the bookfairs were just concerned with mere fame and popularity and the pure passion and the hope of the youths in this country was kept from the huge capital and power. We thought that the criteria of selecting books and authors which represent the present era was not clear and the bookfair itself wasn't democratic or fair in its presiding style. That means we have always been 'the others', and the communication between each other didn't exist at all.
We tried to find the authors or readers who can express their own culture and also universal values that can represent the era. We denied any approaches of capital powers or superficial popularity formed by media such as internet, newspaper or magazines.
We traveled all around the world while interviewing the authors in person and collecting data from all sources. In addition to the scholars representing their own countries, we also invited youths all over the world who are living in the hope for the future. We also want cultural exchanges and to get a glimpse of each country's soul and spirit. We hope that this project could maintain the network between the participants and that it will grow as an infrastructure of worldwide communication.
We believe that the peaceful network of preserving humanistic values and the nature of human beings will be formed: The ground for youths who will lead the future of the Earth be laid. We'd like to find a continuous way of solution for the urgent problems we are facing on this ground.
In order to solve this problem, we connect the book which is the result of each country's culture and mind with the entire world. The project, however, is only a small result of our journey and this is a start of the solidarity for solving worldwide problems. We record our itinerary in details: preparation, discussion and actual journey.
What kind of values should we focus on? What is the most important value in the world? Finding our own values, and exploring the world in order to solve the dispute in this era will bring us to the new history of 21st century. We cosmopolitans will embrace everything and love others, and this would also be the conscious of our responsibility.

Ecotopia

We have opened a vegetarian restaurant/cafe around the corner of Indigo Sowon. The name of the cafe is Ecotopia-the combination of the words; 'ecology' and 'utopia'. We only use local and organic foods for cooking. And all of the cook working here are the volunteers. Anyone can join us as a chef. With the profits we make at the cafe, we donate and run a project of building a library in central Nepal.

Indigo Children

"Indigo Children" is a small bookstore for children who want to see more, hear more, and feel more beautiful things around them. It is also suitable for adults who would like to live with a pure heart in everlasting youth. There are so many books in this universe. Among them, good books that help children to join the new world and help them dream for themselves are here in Indigo Children. This is a place for children to dream a better and more beautiful world.

Indigo Week

During Indigo Week, an annual celebration party for Indigo Sowon, various kinds of events and activities are organized by the students of Indigo Sowon during a one-week period. This event is full of cultural and social activities such as workshops, bazaars, and campaigns. The students promote brilliant ideas raised from the books and bring them into action. These activities show us how a book can provide them with inspiration and motivation. Furthermore, participants can have their sense of creativity and originality awakened. There are so many different kinds of festivals; a poetry night, public novel reading, dramatic plays, book reading campaign, book bazaar and movie festival. Finally, Indigo has a plan to transform this event into an international book fair.

Book Reading Club

The Wednesday Book Reading Club is open to everyone and is held on every other Wednesday night in Indigo Sowon. The Wednesday Book Reading Club consists of people from every generation and walk of life; college students, restaurant workers, senior citizens, moms, and college professors. They select a favourable book every other week, read it, then talk about various issues. All club members attend these voluntary meetings as an important part of their daily lives and have the opportunity to share their innermost feelings and thoughts with others.

Small Lecture of Twelve Months

This small lecture has been organized from the belief that parents are the best teachers for their children. We propose to parents that they should not attempt to force their children to follow the current inhumane education system, but rather to encourage them to find their own values and build strong self-confidence in their children by reading good books together. These parents gather in Indigo Sowon once a month to share their thoughts and feelings. All of the parents are eager to find a new reading vision for youths.

Publications

My Beautiful girl, Indigo(2005)^[1] | 421p | ISBN 895820043X
Theme and Variations(2006) I, II | 585p | ISBN 8958200561
Happy Readings in Indigo Sowon(2007) | 316p | ISBN 9788958201052
Toto meets Morrie-Humanities Class with Teacher Aram(2007) | 333p | ISBN 9788958201069
Youths with Creative Passion, Dreaming a Better World(2007) | 186p | ISBN 9788958201076
Living a Dream(2008)-A journey of Young Creative Idealists | 424p | ISBN 9788958201328

Press & News

References

External Links

^ Hankyoreh(Daily News) "Small but Vibrant 'Indigo Sowon' stands in front of Book Reading Revolution"

[1] Hankyoreh(Daily News) "Small but Vibrant 'Indigo Sowon' stands in front of Book Reading Revolution"

[1]