Canada holds embassy ceremony
Embassy ribbon cutting: From left: Chung Yoon, Korean vice minister of science and technology; Yu Pil-u, vice chairman of Canada Parliamentary Friendship Association, Ambassador Ted Lipman and Chun Gwi-Kweon, vice mayor of Jung District. Provided by the embassy
In true Canadian fashion, the maple leaf was on full display at the opening ceremony of the country’s new embassy in Jeong-dong on Friday.
“I like Canada because I lived there for a year, in Ottawa,” said Kim Minn-kyung, 15, who stood in front of the embassy waving a Canadian flag. She also wore a temporary flag tattoo on her hand. Kim and her classmates from nearby Ewha Girls’ High School were invited to the ceremony.
Dignitaries, including recently arrived Ambassador Ted Lipman, cut the maple leaf-emblazoned ribbon in front of the new embassy.
Although Canada’s new embassy has been open since July 24, the seasonal timing of the ceremony proved ideal. As Lipman spoke, yellow leaves from the 520-year-old pagoda tree at the embassy’s entrance sprinkled down on guests.
The tree posed a construction challenge to the embassy, but workers took pains to work around the tree’s roots. The building’s elements are meant to “embody a connection between the building’s Korean context and the rugged Canadian landscape,” an embassy statement read.
This synthesis of Korean and Canadian elements extends to the countries’ diplomatic ties. Although this is Lipman’s first term in Korea, he studied the Korean language for seven months as a diplomatic scholar at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Asian Research.
“We take our relationship with Korea very seriously,” Lipman said, citing Canada’s contribution to United Nations forces during the Korean War, the countries’ proposed FTA and the high number of Canadians in Korea and vice versa. “We do not build an embassy in every country that we have diplomatic relations with, so this embassy gives us a presence here in Korea.”
By Hannah Bae Contributing Writer [hannahbae@gmail.com]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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