Korean puppeteer and puppet company director. After studying Fine Arts at Seoul National University, in 1961 Kang Sung-kyun worked on children’s television programmes for the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS-TV), and in 1962 he produced Children’s Land as a puppet designer and scriptwriter. He made an animated film with puppets called Konji and Patji (1970).

In 1982, he founded Geukdan Yeong (Yeong Theatre, also written Young Theatre, Yung or Yong Theatre) which presented the first Korean shadow theatre shows. Under Kang Sung-kyuns’s direction, the theatre became a fully professional puppet troupe using shadows, mime, and traditional plays, something that was new for the time. His aim was to educate young viewers and awake in them “the wisdom and love of dreams”.

He made tours of seven cities in Japan, including Tokyo (1996), sponsored by the Korean Association of residents in Japan. He also took part in the Budapest Festival in 1994 with the play Puppet in My Pocket and with Seoul Fantasy-Four Seasons at Ostrava in the Czech Republic in 1999.

Kang Sung-kyun was the artistic director of the Chuncheon Puppet Festival from 1984 to 2004.

(See Korea.)