KoreaTimes - Blogs

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Blogs

Thu, March 30, 2023 | 17:31

Sex, drugs, and The Glory

Sex, drugs, and The Glory

Revolutions do not happen often in popular culture. We normally just go through phases: cycling through a series of trends with things moving in and out of fashion over time.

2023-03-25 11:38

Post-Colonialism and BTS

Post-Colonialism and BTS

Until tigers learn how to write, every story will glorify the hunter. A mood of false consciousness will prevail, reifying the hunt, glorifying the kill. Now, in Korea, in RM, in its own culture, economy, and politics, the tiger has learned to write. It is telling its own stories. Challenging the hunter. Pushing back. Reframing narratives. Reclaiming history. And becoming a b...

2023-03-18 12:38

Magic, anxiety, and modern Korean life

Magic, anxiety, and modern Korean life

Life in 20th century Korea was a trip. The land bore witness to foreign invasion, the devastation of civil war, and the upheaval of rapid urbanization ordered by men in military uniforms. Rice fields gave way to apartments, bicycles to Sonatas. It was a whirlwind of ideological change, physical transformation, and compressed time. And, it worked. Modern South Korea is an econ...

2023-03-11 13:39

Against K-Grief merchants

Against K-Grief merchants

Social media platforms and journalists love a Korean horror story. Sad Koreans, dead Koreans and single Koreans are of particular interest. Nothing is more valued than a Korean slighted, assaulted, or sacrificed. In such stories, Seoul is a dystopian nightmare characterized by violence and terror.

2023-03-04 12:40

Korean anxiety and psychological evolution

Korean anxiety and psychological evolution

Korean people (and humans more broadly) evolved to inhabit a certain environment. Our physical, psychological, cultural, and spiritual lives were shaped by, and for, an agricultural existence. The many myths, legends, and tales of yore spoke of seasons, weather, the waning of time, of heroes and villains. The people were well suited to such an environment and thus the languag...

2023-02-25 13:33

The little red books of North Korea

The little red books of North Korea

In the department stores of Pyongyang, you will find a whole host of items for sale. These places are, on the whole, relatively well-stocked - even carrying what looks like versions of IKEA furniture (though one would rightly question the legality of them being there). One of the more curious items for sale, however, is a little red book. Hardback and, at first glance, no dif...

2023-02-18 12:18

Being offended by Korea

Being offended by Korea

The internet can be a fabulous source of information. It can teach you a whole range of things you never once considered or even thought possible. At the same time, in can introduce you to ideas that might not be quite as useful or important. For example, this week I learnt that saying “Korea is a mystery” is seemingly an offensive term to some. One frequent contributor to a ...

2023-02-11 11:18

Korea as sublime, strange, and familiar

Korea as sublime, strange, and familiar

There is a worryingly wonderful ease with which both Koreans and non-Koreans slip so seamlessly into perspectives of (self) orientalism. Korea quickly becomes a place like no other - where secret nunchi determines one's happiness, a powerful feeling of han molds character, and Confucianism serves as a mystical deus ex machina explaining everything from noraebangs to New Jeans.

2023-02-04 11:37

To speak Korean

To speak Korean

Language is magic. It creates ideas, places, people and smells. With words we summon both the past and the future; we explore the oceans, the deserts, the cities, and the skies; we communicate the possible and conjure the impossible. Through language we birth worlds, write history, and give voice to those silent emotions. What would the human world be without the magic of lan...

2023-01-28 12:09

Do you understand Confucianism?

Do you understand Confucianism?

Read something in the mainstream press and Confucianism will likely be linked to any or all of the following situations: the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, the reason young Korean children study all night at hagwons, the overly puritan nature of some Korean dramas, workplace bullying and gapjil, BTS' phenomenal choreography, the Miracle on the Han River, why the English...

2023-01-21 11:55

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Top 10 Stories

1	Korea to ease entry rules to boost tourism, domestic spending

2	Korea moves to shorten COVID-19 isolation period to 5 days

3	INTERVIEWCan art become stable investment source?

4	Will dismantling oligopoly result in successful bank industry reform?

5	Generation Z entrepreneurs turn oyster shells into trendy dish soap

6	Celltrion chairman vows to develop new drugs, initiate M&As

7	Terraform Labs co-founder's extradition could be delayed more than 1 month

8	Fintech, lifestyle products can help Korea grow trade ties with Hong Kong: city's trade promotion chief in Korea

9	Ex-journalist to lead NK defector support foundation

10	Top envoy to US tapped as new national security advisor

DARKROOM