The Ewha Voice, the official English newspaper of Ewha Womans University, is now sixty years distant from its beginning. It began on June 10, 1954, as the first English college newspaper published in Korea. Ever since, it has continually developed and functioned as the main platform or active interaction between Ewha Womans University, Korean society, and the world.
While looking through sixty years of the Ewha Voice, I encountered many poignant moments of Ewha, including the opening of the futuristic Ewha Campus Complex in the 2000s; the May Festivals of the 1990s which I was part of; the faded pictures of student demonstrations of the 1980s; the offering of the first women’s studies course in Korea in the 1970s; and the temporary shutdown of the school during the political crisis of the 1960s. There was even a hair salon on campus during the 1950s! Of course, I also found the proud footsteps of numerous Ewha students who later became the leaders of the society. Whether life was good or bad, the Ewha Voice captured the moments and delivered them to the readers.
Culling through the archives of the Ewha Voice felt like a Benjamin-Buttonish kind of ride. However, unlike the film, the beginning and end of the Ewha Voice’s sixty years is quite similar. The diligence, intelligence, and warm hearts of the student reporters and the entire Ewha community in creating a better world are exactly the same past and present. They have never changed.
Today we celebrate the sixty-year history of the Ewha Voice. I truly believe that as long as the Ewha Voice cherishes and maintains its original hopes and beliefs, it will continue to be reborn. If the past sixty years was amazing, the next sixty years will be even more glorious. Congratulations on the sixtieth anniversary of the Ewha Voice!
*Professor Lee Hyung-Sook received her Ph.D degree from University of Southern California and is now teaching at Ewha. She is currently the faculty advisor of Ewha Voice.
Professor Lee Hyung-Sook
evoice@ewha.ac.kr