A Korean grandfather makes drawings and posts them on Instagram to shorten the distance between him and his grandchildren who live in other countries.

Chan Jae Lee is a Korean immigrant to Brazil who has grandchildren living in New York and South Korea. His son encouraged him to draw for children and sell his works to visit his family often. However, what started as a family project has become a phenomenon thanks to social media. Today, “Grandpachan”, as he is known on the internet, publishes books, exhibits in galleries and even won a Webby Award along with his wife.

O awesome.club tells you this touching story with some of his drawings.

“Grandpachan”, a 77-year-old retired immigrant, lives in Brazil with his wife and their daughter’s family. His daily job was to take his two grandchildren, Arthur and Allan, to school. One day, the daughter decided that she would move with her husband and children back to South Korea, leaving her grandfather sad and without an activity to motivate him.

His other son, who lives in New York, tried to convince him to return to his old talent for drawing and posting the images on Instagram, but the man didn’t like the idea. That is until the youngest grandchild, Astro, was born, and he understood that drawing could be the best means of communication between him and the three little ones, as well as a way to leave them the legacy of his culture and family history. And that’s how Drawings For My Grandchildren came about.

“How many butterfly flying, huh? I remembered a time when I would run around chasing butterflies on summer vacation. It was for the vacation lesson. In Korea there were a lot of yellow and white butterfly. Every now and then a colorful butterfly appeared and my heart pounded. You don’t know how surprised I was when I saw blue butterflies when I arrived in Brazil”.

“I think it was in 1963. I got a call from people from the literature group at the college informing me about a poetry festival. They wanted me to be responsible for the illustration. So I went to the meeting. A girl showed me her poetry and asked for a drawing. The title was ‘Apple’, a very short poem. I don’t know if I liked the girl or the poetry. All I know is that I drew a picture and the girl looked pleased. On the last day of the festival, we celebrated with popcorn. Who do you think the girl was? That’s how the story started.”

“Do you know who grandma remembered when she found out that Barbie turned 60? Arthur and Allan, it was her mother’s. Before we immigrated to Brazil, she used to play with her Barbie every day, talking to her and changing her clothes. The six-year-old girl didn’t feel alone when she arrived in Brazil because of her Barbie doll. The Barbie doll who became an immigrant child’s best friend, the Barbie doll who was always grateful for the mother who had to go to work!

“Astro, I’m the type who doesn’t get angry that easily. I don’t think you have any reason to be angry. However, there was one unforgettable episode where I felt the most anger of all time. I think it was when your father was about two years old. The boy was so silent that I went to have a look. He had taken out and spread out all the vinyl records I’d bought one by one with the songs I loved to listen to, and he was still doodling on them. Oh my! My head exploded with anger. But I couldn’t do anything.”

“At the immigration festival held in SP (June 11th and 12th) I saw teacher Moon Hee Lee dancing the traditional Korean drum dance Jang-Gu”.

“Wow! Astro is a Taekwondo boy!!! Astro, grandma knows the taekwondo gym near her house. One morning, she looked at her through a large window. She watched the children dressed in dobok with yellow and red stripes screaming Yap! Yap! And looking at them, she thought: ‘When will Astro be able to sit there too?’ Who knew that Korean Taekwondo would be echoed in New York by our Astro! On top of that so behaved like that!”

“Arthur and Allan… these are you when you were in the 4th and 5th years of Colégio Jardim SP, when grandpa used to take you back and forth from school. Even with the back turned, you can feel what friendship between brothers is. I feel satisfied just looking at it. Arthur, even though he was only a year and a half older, always helped his younger brother Allan. And Allan could always count on his older brother. Arthur, in addition to carrying his brother’s backpack, explained everything he needed to grandpa… ‘Allan wants to pee, Allan is thirsty’. Two brothers who have managed well in the Korean society that until then was so foreign to you. Two that look like one. Angry! Angry!”.

“I woke up with the cold. I went to look at the window and everything was gray. The temperature suddenly dropped. On the 8 o’clock news on television they say it’s 13 degrees. They are warning people to dress warmly, as there may even be a drizzle. There was a friend who called me for a feijoada on days like this. It’s… traditional Brazilian food, feijoada is the best! The feijoada you love too. The tastiest in the world, my favorite food, the feijoada! Remember?”.

“Arthur, when I got the picture of you getting your first beard at 14, wow! Grandma told me she was proud of you. Do you know why? Maybe because you are no longer a boy, but a man. I don’t remember when I started shaving. You weren’t looking so clean anyway. Was it your mother who suggested it? Did you feel a freshness? Was it smooth? It wasn’t that easy, was it? Now that you’ve started shaving, you can’t be lazy.”

“Astro, did you know that a film director was born in our family? In October of last year, Allan told grandma that he wanted an outfit as a birthday present and even sent a picture of the outfit, a ‘ghillie suit’. Grandma got a big fright. ‘Oh my! What is it?’ It was actually the camouflage suit worn by snipers from a famous game called ‘Battleground’. Anyway, the clothes arrived after a few days, and Allan went out into the street wearing them. And this time he made up wanting to film grandpa wearing the ‘ghillie suit’ and even made him dance. Movie title: Undefined; director: Allan; cinematography: Allan; camera: Allan; costume: Allan; lighting: Allan; choreography: Allan; production: Allan; main actor: grandpa”.

“Astro, who loves dinosaurs, has finally befriended one. And he even called his cousins ​​to play along, didn’t he? You’re wanting to slip! Astro wants to take the more dangerous side. Your cousins ​​scream… ‘No! Come here!’ They want to hold you. And the dinosaur is standing still so the kids don’t get hurt.”

“What an amazing world! It doesn’t even feel like we’re far from each other, since we can talk while looking at each other. I got a shock when the other day Arthur wrote on messenger ‘Why did grandpa’s belly grow so big?’ after seeing a photo we sent. I’ll try to take more care of food and do more physical exercises, okay? And our little Astro will be able to click on his head and heart by continuing to see me on video chat, right? And so, at our next meeting, you won’t be wondering who this old man is. Probably a lot of families must have given their New Year’s congratulations like this”.

“Did you go to the beach, Astro? Birds come flying and crabs are so fast it’s really hard to catch them, isn’t it? Everyone does it for a living. In the sand you will see so many things you like. And is there a better playground than the beach for a child?”

“Grandma likes clouds. As much as she likes Hermann Hesse. She wants to fly in the sky with you, riding on clouds, just like Sinbad. Today the sky dawned blue and very clear and you can even see the mountains in the distance, so soon I drew some clouds with you riding on them. Look! Astro is slipping on clouds. Allan seems to think the world down there is pretty amazing. While Arthur, as the oldest of them all, seems to lead the way. But don’t forget. Clouds cannot be trusted. The clouds will disappear soon. Leaving no trace. And then how are you? Pleasure is momentary. Grandpa and grandma know. I hope your days are like this clear sky, just like the Seoul sky without the dust.”

“Boys, today was an amazing day that made me forget about the heat. Going to Daekyo’s @eyelevel_traumwelt in Paju and seeing the interactive exhibition ‘Letter to you’ together with the three of you made me go back to being a kid seeing my drawings being reborn in such an unprecedented way. Did you like it too? What was the coolest of all? My drawings that turned into a gigantic video? The puzzles? Hear the songs behind my drawings? Or the part that has to write a letter? I liked when Arthur recreated the giant Lego glasses just like my old drawing and also the part of the Galapagos where I could press several buttons. Vision, hearing,…