Park Jin-hai primarily focuses on K-dramas, entertainment shows and actor interviews. Beyond that, she also pens articles covering the broader arts scene, with a particular emphasis on classical music, dance and various aspects of lifestyle. Since joining The Korea Times in 2013, she has made significant contributions in the realms of hallyu (Korean wave), industry news and international affairs.
Teens publish English poetry magazine
Members of the bilingual literary magazine “Between The Lines (BTL)” pose during its launch party in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, in January. / Courtesy of BTL
By Park Jin-hai
By Park Jin-hai
A group of high school students formed a small society to write English poems and publish a bilingual magazine, putting it on the shelves of major bookstores.
They did everything needed to publish the magazine, writing poems and short stories, conducting interviews mainly in English, designing graphics, taking pictures and editing.
The tri-annual bilingual teens' literary magazine "Between the Lines" (BTL) is drawing growing attention in many respects.
"Last summer, I was looking for an internship at an English literary magazine in Korea and was disappointed to find that there were none. Much more, I was further surprised as there was no magazine to which students can make contributions,” said Hwang Yun-ha, editor-in-chief and a 12th-grader at North London Collegiate School in Jeju.
That disappointment prompted her to decide to start a magazine with her peers. The magazine could have ended up as an in-school circulation, but it is now available on a national scale.
For the publication, they encountered various problems. Registering their magazine as a periodical was one, as that was only allowed for people older than 20. Another problem was the budget.
Since they avoid carrying ads in their magazine, they had to raise the fund through crowd-funding site "tumblebug."
The turnout was amazing. Recent issues deal with phobias, images of bar codes, clowns and women in captivity.
The carefully chosen words, eloquent but sometimes sexually encoded, are written by teens on the border between childhood and adulthood, and their dilemmas arising from that. It tackles serious subjects of sex, cigarettes, alcohol, profanity and other conventional issues.
"Under the repressive Korean education system, Korean students are mostly unhappy. They consider teen years as painful years that must be sacrificed for college life and after. BTL would like to provide a platform where students can display their literary and art works to the world," said Hwang.
That philosophy seems to be globally appealing. Since its first publication in September last year, students in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have made contact to see if their work can be carried in BTL.
"BTL is an amazing way to connect two very different cultures in such a unique way. I think that the creation of such an organization will help promote integration of different identities," said Emily Monaghan, a student from the U.K.