“For about 15 years before he passed away, I set aside two days each week to visit my grandfather. Every time I showed up, he would be there waiting for me, asking, “Why aren’t you at work?” We were close enough to share things we couldn’t tell anyone else.”

The late Lotte Group founder and Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho (1921-2020) was widely known as a charismatic entrepreneur with a frosty, stern demeanor. But his eldest granddaughter, Jang Hye-sun, 55, the chairwoman of the Lotte Scholarship Foundation, remembers him differently. “He always appeared cold on the outside but was genuinely warm-hearted on the inside,” she said. “He was my best friend, and I believe he felt the same way about me.”

Chairwoman of the Lotte Scholarship Foundation Jang Hye-sun. / Photo by Ko Woon-ho

Jang is backing the production of “The Reader & The Leader,” a musical based on her grandfather’s life, which is set to stage at the Haeoreum Grand Theater in the National Theater of Korea in Namsan, Seoul, from May 3 to 5. The musical tells the story of Chairman Shin’s days as a young man who loved books, dreamed of becoming a writer, and deeply cared for those in need. “I hope that the story of my grandfather’s early days, when he created something out of nothing, will offer young people some comfort and strength,” Jang said during a recent interview with the Chosunilbo at the Lotte Foundation headquarters in Seoul.

It is widely known that Chairman Shin named the group after Charlotte, a character in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” The musical is not merely a biography of a businessman. It aims to depict the life of a young man who drew strength from various literary works, such as Yoon Dong-ju’s “Counting the Stars at Night,” Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” and Park Mok-wol’s “April Song,” as he turned his dreams into reality. These are the works that Shin cherished as a young man.

Jang recalls her grandfather always had a book in his hand. “Whenever I urged him to stop reading and get some rest, he would laugh and say, ‘You can only learn by reading.’ And when I suggested we go on a trip, he would reply, ‘I just love work.’”

She took on the role of Lotte Scholarship Foundation chairman after a long break from the public eye. Through the foundation, she decided to make the world more aware of his grandfather’s will to contribute to society. This inspired her to back the musical. “If I had told him when he was alive that a musical would be made about his younger days, he would have scorned me, ‘Why would you do such a silly thing?’” she laughed.

This year, the Lotte Foundation has raised its total budget to $13 million (18 billion won), up 3 billion won from last year. The foundation is focusing on domestic scholarship programs for students in need while broadening its activities in Indonesia and Cambodia. Additionally, the foundation has diversified its support programs for multicultural families, foreign workers, and people with disabilities.

“My grandfather was also a foreign worker who went to Japan as a young man. Back then, Koreans could only do menial jobs like hauling manure, which he hated, so he worked to build a factory and hire many Koreans. He used to say, ‘Keep your charitable deeds hidden from the world,’ I can’t keep that promise, but I hope he would understand his granddaughter’s wish for his good intentions to spread more widely.”

The late Lotte Group founder and Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho (1921-2020) / ChosunBiz