'The Glory' Song Hye-kyo's House.. Annual Sales of 15 Billion Won, a Publishing Industry Powerhouse Gallery [Millionaire Next Door]

*This content was translated by AI.

'Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Next Door' posed a weighty question about 'what true wealth is' through the life of 'Publishing Millionaire' An Jong-man, who has nurtured people through books, supported dreams through art, and sponsored the next generation through scholarship programs.

'Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Next Door,' broadcast on the 17th, revealed the tumultuous life journey of An Jong-man, president of a publishing house with a 75-year history. He is a legendary figure in the publishing industry who has published approximately 9,000 titles, including textbooks, dictionaries, and various academic books, achieving remarkable records of up to 15 billion won in annual sales and 1 million copies sold annually. The broadcast also highlighted another side of his life: not only as a successful publisher but also as an art enthusiast who has collected about 600 paintings over 30 years and as the founder of the first gallery in the Paju Publishing Complex.

'On that day, Seo Jang-hoon and Jang Ye-won visited the gallery established by An Jong-man and toured the exhibition space. The gallery is known as the filming location for Lee Do-hyun's house, where Song Hye-kyo stayed in the drama 'The Glory.' In particular, a work created using magazines featuring BTS caught everyone's attention. What was surprising was that the artist was the first artist to be produced through the gallery's creative support program.

'An Jong-man stated, "Seeing artists working in poor environments, I decided to offer support, and since establishing the gallery in 2008, I have supported about 200 emerging artists." When Seo Jang-hoon asked, "If those artists have become famous now, their painting prices must have risen significantly," An Jong-man replied, "Some works have increased more than tenfold from their initial purchase price. However, the purpose of buying paintings was not to make a profit but to help the artists." Then, in his secret vault under tight security, works by world-renowned masters such as Basquiat and Andy Warhol were revealed, surprising everyone.

'Afterward, the three moved to the publishing house's logistics warehouse, where 700,000 books are stored. The anecdotes of legal books that served as guides for countless bar exam candidates and the great success of the dictionary series, which earned the saying "we built our office building by selling dictionaries," added further interest. The publishing house opened in 1952 during the Korean War. An Jong-man's father and founder, An Won-ok, established the publishing house by investing all the savings he had accumulated during his teaching career, driven by the belief that "books would fill the hearts of people devastated by war." Thus, the mission regarding books, which began with his father, has been passed down through three generations, from An Jong-man to his son. An Jong-man has carefully preserved the books published by his father since the 1950s, and among them, the most cherished book is Kim So-wol's 'Chohon,' published in 1958. When Seo Jang-hoon read part of the book aloud, An Jong-man could not hide his emotional reaction. Along with this, the publishing house's foundational spirit of 'Publishing for the Nation' was also revealed, resonating deeply. An Jong-man emphasized, "Books nurture people and the nation. If a book is needed for that, I will definitely create it."

'An Jong-man was a key figure in the creation of Paju, Korea's first publishing city, and was awarded the In Jeong-bat-a (President) Medal for his contributions. The beginning was difficult. In the 1980s, Paju was a desolate plain that no one visited because of its proximity to the 38th parallel, and it was so poor that people had to wear rubber boots when it rained. Nevertheless, An Jong-man united with 360 publishing houses with the mindset of "creating a reading society to contribute to the nation," and ultimately gave birth to a massive cultural city spanning 480,000 pyeong. An Jong-man's challenge is ongoing. With the introduction of law schools and the abolition of the bar exam, his publishing house, which mainly published legal textbooks, saw its sales drop to one-tenth of its previous level. However, he expanded his domain from paper books to e-books, creating a new breakthrough, and continues to innovate constantly amidst the flow of change. Furthermore, following his father's last wish, he established a scholarship foundation and has so far provided about 2 billion won in scholarships to approximately 1,000 students. The entrepreneurial spirit that began with books amidst the ruins of war is now being extended to sharing that nurtures future talent.

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*This content was translated by AI.