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Opinion

Wed, January 20, 2021 | 16:27

Blogs

Traditional New Year gifts in Joseon

In the past, it was customary to present small gifts for the New Year - usually merchants presented their valued customers with calendars as they were useful gifts that also served as a form of advertisement. Foreign merchants in Joseon Korea were no exception.

Exploring a Seoul winter in the 1880s

One of the first Americans to live in Korea was Percival Lowell who spent the winter of 1883/84 in Seoul as a guest of the Korean government. Probably best known for his work in astronomy, Lowell was also an excellent writer and his book - “Chosen, the Land of the Morning Calm”...

Bulls, butchers and death: Plenty to beef about in Joseon Korea

Cattle were a very important part of Joseon society and were often a subject for Westerners in their correspondences home or in the books and articles they published about Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Modern to hypermodern: The theater as a fantastic space

I've just finished the final stage of a book with professor of sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, titled, “Beijing to Seoul, Modern to Hypermodern,” which visually documents the former city's journey through modernity, a...

On the importance of space and social empathy

I'm in the middle of the final crunch leading up to the publishing of a book with Professor of Sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, with the former as an example of that city's journey through Modernity and the latter as a...

Flashed flesh, 'pay models' and entrepreneurial femininity in the creative economy of Korean Instagram

The more I do work as a visual sociologist and ethnographer in Korea, the more I am fascinated by the many rabbit holes I am pulled down. The hypermodern Korea I live in - and Korea's hypermodernity has permeated through society to differing extents and in different ways - is m...

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...

How investment banks encourage America's hidden addiction to petroleum

I have watched the sad sight of high school students led by Greta Thunberg and other climate activists demanding of political leaders that they change their policies and receiving sorrowful apologies and inspiring promises only to discover, to their surprise, that absolutely no...

Underground music and urbanism - Jon Dunbar

Me Cook? No, You Cook!

Years ago, I saw a birthday party ruined in spectacular fashion. An American friend, an advanced Korean language learner, was chatting with two Korean women who began ridiculing his pronunciation, repeating to each other “Mikuk” (not “Miguk,” which means American) several times...

14-year-old j.knife surprises Korean indie fans with folk-pop album 'Familiar Sounds'

When most Koreans are 14 years old, or 15 Korean age, they're studying hard in preparation for high school, and already readying themselves for the college entrance exam that will decide their entire futures. Jennifer Kim may not be much different, but she also somehow makes th...

New Technologies & The Law - Tech & Comms team

Is it copyright Infringement if you introduce a movie on YouTube?

'Boramtube', which has 17 million subscribers on YouTube, is a hot topic these days. The six-year-old creator's advertising revenue is comparable to MBC, one of the top three Korean broadcast networks. The development of broadband internet and cheap video camera enabled anyone ...

'Crunch mode' for overtime in games industry

Since Moon Jae-in was elected President in 2017, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the Ministry of Employment and Labor have enacted and amended many labor laws. Accordingly, a lot of labor issues have arisen in various industries, and their biggest impact was felt by th...

There is such a thing as Bitcoin

Once there was a boy who learned that there was a dragon living in his house. He told his mother, “Mom, there's a dragon in the house!” But his mother told him “Son, there's no such thing as dragons.” Little by little the dragon got bigger and bigger until it took up half of th...

Part 52: The big C

In March 2012, while working at the Dragon Hill Lodge's Discover Seoul Desk I took a bathroom break. It required much more effort and strain to relieve myself than normal. Having heard that a reduced stream could be caused by a prostate problem, I resolved to see a urologist as...

Part 51: Too many bosses spoil the tourism business

If it was difficult working for three companies at once, it was downright confusing and stressful to have three direct bosses every day, often singing from different hymn sheets, and sometimes working at odds with each other. It could have been worse, I suppose. Thankfully Mr. ...

My life at a Korean law firm (part 50)

Recently, while going through old papers at home, I came across a document that I received at the beginning of my stint at the Dragon Hill Lodge Hotel. I had not looked at it for at least six years. It was a three-page list in Korean of all the things that I was responsible for...

Voices from the North - Casey Lartigue Jr.

The power of giving

As someone who was born in North Korea, it is so unexpected for me to be speaking about the Giving Tuesday movement that started in the United States.

Escape from North Korea: My dreams as a woman came true in South

Have you ever risked your life to achieve your dream? My dream was to walk the streets of my hometown freely wearing a pretty dress and earrings, and to express my own voice against injustice. For this dream of freedom, I risked my life at a young age and escaped from North Kor...

Escape from North Korea: 'I'm free because of movies and English'

Escaped from North Korea in 2006, arrived in South Korea in 2007 (repatriated from China in 2002 and 2004). I attempted my first escape from North Korea after I began to learn about the outside world when I was in high school. I had some friends in North Korea who would share m...

When color can be too much

I love color - sometimes too much. But there are times when color simply gets in the way of a good photograph. Bright colors can enhance, but they can distract. Often the better photograph focuses on tone and patterns. In such cases, monotone (black and white) photographs are t...

Finding your kind of street photography

If you ask serious photographers just what is “street photography,” you are likely to find many definitions. At times, street photography can resemble travel photography. But travel photography tends to be less artistic and more about personal documentation of one's experiences...

Festivals make great photos

Jongro-3ga, Lantern Parade. All photos by Tom CoynerTom CoynerWith the warming temperatures, come festivals and similar events. These colorful events are both challenging and rewarding. They can be confusing as a three-ring circus in determining what to photograph, and it can b...

Biden-Harris inauguration is taking shape [PHOTOS]

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