Free Hugs

This is actually a picture from my trip to Seoul last weekend (snapped by Yassin, who demanded that I give him credit for the photo), but it photographically illustrates a phenomenon I was introduced to in Korea called "Free Hugs." The Free Hugs campaign was started by an Australian named "Juan Mann" in Sydney in 2004, and then popularized by a video on YouTube in 2006. According to Mr. Mann's website, he started the campaign after watching people greeting their loved ones with hugs at the airport in Sydney and realizing there was no one there to greet him. He started standing in the busiest pedestrian sites in Sydney with a sign reading "Free Hugs," and although most people were initially wary, they soon began approaching him and accepting his offer of a free hug. The campaign was temporarily banned in Australia because he hadn't bought public liability insurance, but a petition with 10,000 signatures led to the ban ending. Now, the Free Hugs campaign has spread around the world to many major cities, including in Korea. I have seen it a couple of times in Ulsan (there's even a television commercial involving it on Korean TV) and have always approached the person for a hug. Every time I've been to Insa-dong in Seoul, an area of the city that is heavy with pedestrian traffic and popular with tourists, I have seen someone with a "Free Hugs" sign. On this particular occasion, someone had initiated a "relay free hugs," which means that if you hug the person, then you have to take up the sign and wait for someone to hug you and pass it on. As one can gather from the picture, I too got caught up in the action. Sure, it sounds a bit hippie-ish (ok, really hippie-ish), but sometimes the only thing you really need is just a hug.