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Tue, October 3, 2023 | 07:29

About the past - Robert Neff

Bears of Joseon part 2: Behind bars

In the past, wild animals, including bears, were occasionally raised for entertainment and sport within the Korean palace grounds. In 1394, King Taejo received a small bear cub and raised it in the palace garden - whether it lived a long and happy life is unknown but surely it ...

Bears of Joseon part 1: Fanciful tales and deadly claws

In the late 19th century, Korea was a land filled with danger. Banditry was common, disease was prevalent, demons and ghosts haunted people’s imaginations and beliefs (Korean and foreigners alike), and fierce wild beasts roamed the desolate mountains and forests. Tigers (and th...

Watermelons in Joseon: a dangerous delectable

In Korea, one of the most iconic fruits of summer is the watermelon. There is something almost magical about eating ice-cold watermelon on a sweltering day, but, unfortunately, watermelon is one of the most expensive fruits found in the market - and this guilty little pleasure ...

Korea: deConstructed - David Tizzard

Understanding Korean Modernization

Ask foreign students whether Korea is modern or not and you will get lots of different answers. Many will nod their heads and point to the first-class infrastructure and public transportation that safely whizzes them around the capital city with free WIFI. They will acknowledge...

Korea in Ten Words: (3) Yeoyu

I never quite understood the term “yeoyu” when I first heard it. It means something like space, but also hints at abundance, freedom and contentment. It is both physical and mental. Financial and spiritual.

The smell of Korean nostalgia

In Korean, the word “hyang-su” can mean either perfume or nostalgia. It's a beautiful coincidence. The fact that the word can refer to either smell or memory is easy to understand for certain odors are capable of triggering very strong and profound memories of the past. In Marc...

Parchment Made of Sheepskins - Scott Shepherd

Korea's summer of hell

This summer I went to the land of my birth, the United States, for the first time in almost a decade. I only had sporadic access to the internet, and I didn't really keep up with the news. But throughout the trip I extolled the virtues of Korea at any chance I got. “What delici...

Yoon's Real Suneung Problem

The details about the hullabaloo are almost boring in their predictable uniformity: a politician's statement, the outraged response, the government's hasty clarifications, meetings, more statements. Someone gets fired, but not the person who made the initial statement.

Entry prohibited for foreigners

“Oegugin churip geumji,” said the doorman. Entry prohibited for foreigners. This article was nearly a very angry one. After I was denied entry to a bar two weeks ago for not being Korean, I was fulminating internally over the piece that I would write.

Workable Words - Casey Lartigue Jr.

North Korea is slave state

Until last year, I was one of the modern slaves of Kim Jong-un. I was born and raised in North Korea. I worked in a North Korean building company in Russia for more than 5 years. I came here to tell the story of 21st-century slaves that exist in North Korea.

Former North Korean diplomat greets North Korean refugees

My name is Tae Yong-ho and I am a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.

Who is this parade for?

I am a former North Korean who worked overseas for several years before recently escaping to South Korea. Even though I was living outside of North Korea, I was still a slave to Kim Jung-un. North Korean workers like me were exploited by the regime.

Dialogues with adoptees

Solving problem of adoptee representation in film, TV

I discovered my passion for film and television at a fortunate time, in 2018, the year of “Crazy Rich Asians.” Like many of us, I fixated on the feeling of “Finally! It's our turn now.” After decades of being pushed to the sidelines, Asians were stepping into the spotlight and ...

Never-ending quest: defining ethnic identity as son of adoptee

"Just tell them you are South Korean." That was the advice my mother gave me when, as a five-year-old child, I came home after being bullied at school by two Belgian boys. Born to a white Belgian father and a mother who was born in Korea and adopted at the age of three in 1975 ...

'I still have hole in my heart I can't fill,' says founding member of Adopted Koreans Association

I was born in 1966 in the district of Gwangsan in Gwangju, and adopted to Stockholm, Sweden, when I was two years and four months old. The name given to me by the adoption agency was Kim Hak-bo, but I have no information about my biological parents or my background, so the firs...

Imbricated Chaos - Emanuel Pastreich

In defense of Donald John Trump

The lawyers employed by Donald Trump have amassed an impressive pile of arguments to defend him against charges that he incited a mob of his supporters to stage an armed insurrection in the Capitol and to murder people in an effort to stop the selection of his democratically el...

The nightmare born when technology took the place of science

Even small children are starting to sense that we live in an age when literally none of the information provided is reliable or believable. Information on a global scale is subject increasingly to Gresham's Law: low-quality information spreads everywhere and the truth is hoarde...

'Silhak' tradition as a solution to the current geopolitical crisis

South Koreans are having tremendous trouble grasping how familiar political and academic institutions in the United States have ceased to function as they once did. Koreans are confused to see Harvard professors promote nonsensical arguments about COVID-19 or to see politicians...

Top 10 Stories

1	PHOTOSDecisive moments of Team Korea at Asian Games

2	Will blue crabs from Italy arrive on Korean dining tables?

3	INTERVIEWROK-US alliance is win-win partnership: KUSAF chief

4	Over 30,000 protesters march for climate actions

5	Korea makes last-ditch bid to host World Expo 2030 in Busan

6	INTERVIEWIt is premature to revise ROK-US mutual defense treaty: veterans' group head

7	LA-based photographer captures Koreatown unfazed by pandemic

8	Consumers to face higher prices for daily necessities after Chuseok

9	Samsung chief visits Middle East to explore new businesses

10	Internet-only banks outperform legacy lenders in labor productivity

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