The Korea Times

Notes from the demographic apocalypse

“Okay,” I said. “How many of you think you might have kids in the future?” It was a blind poll, with students not knowing how their classmates and friends would vote. There were 38 of us in the lecture hall that day. Some suggested that around 30 percent to 50 percent of those in the room would choose ‘yes’. When the results came in, however, you should’ve seen their faces: 32 out of 38 young adults said they would have children in the future. Where were all the radical theorists and cultural critics we so often hear about said to be dismantling the traditional family? Where were the quiet quitters who had given up on life and just wanted a dodgy Netflix subscription and some flavoured vapes? Where was the apathetic generation the media tells us so much about? The answer to that might be in the messages that we provide to people. If you go around telling young people the world is screwed, of course they are going to reply negatively about the future. However, if you tell them about children, about meaning, about hope, about the tenacity and resilience of humans to continu

Jun 7, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Humanity restored: Dark Souls reflections on Korean society

The world of Dark Souls is bleak. Cryptic. It’s oppressive, and merciless. Paradoxically, it has also become one of the most beloved video game franchises of the 21st century. People embark on no-hit runs. Caveman challenges. And all other sorts of craziness. Lore videos on YouTube, hours in length, rack up tens of thousands of views in days. Dark Souls isn’t a hard game. People don’t play it because they are masochistic. Rather because it dares us to persevere. To die. And to try again. Again. And again. Until finally we do it. We "git gud." Something Korea knows all about. Modern Seoul is not for the faint-hearted. It is a sprawling metropolis of challenges and hierarchies. Labyrinthine, glittering, and faintly haunted. Not entirely unlike Lordran. It thrums with a kind of desperate vitality, the energy of a city that refuses to sleep for fear of losing ground. But that energy, like the undead curse, exacts a toll. The citizens burn themselves to stay lit. Economists and nationalists might say that the flame has long been linked. But at what cost? And how often must it be rekin

May 24, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Humanity restored: Dark Souls reflections on Korean society

Opinion

Selective morality of plagiarism: Korea’s cancel culture masquerading as justice

Let us begin with a simple truth: plagiarism is wrong. It undermines the academic process, devalues genuine achievement, and betrays the idea of scholarship as a search for knowledge rather than a hunt for status. We should call it out. We should stop it. And we should absolutely not tolerate it in our universities, our government, or our culture. But the truth doesn't end there. What’s increasingly clear in Korea is that the battle against academic dishonesty isn’t always fought in good faith. Instead, plagiarism has become a cudgel. It’s wielded not to uphold integrity but to punish selected individuals after they've fallen from grace. It’s not an ethical standard. It’s a political strategy. Less about righting wrongs and more about ritual purification through public shaming. Like a society tossing virgins into volcanoes, sacrificing one to cleanse the sins of the many. And as expected, the vultures circle. Take the case of Kim Keon Hee, wife of the now-impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol. With his calamitous attempt at martial law and subsequent fall from power, Kim ha

May 17, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Selective morality of plagiarism: Korea’s cancel culture masquerading as justice

Opinion

Contradictions of Korean masculinity

Modern Korean masculinity is caught in a weird tension between pride and pressure. It’s what we might call a double stereotype. Internationally, they are seen by some as ideal partners: loyal, sensitive, stylish, and, of course, ridiculously good looking. At the same time, domestically they are criticized as patriarchal, entitled, emotionally repressed, or worse. The gap between these two exaggerated images is wide, and growing. Many men therefore seem to struggle to locate themselves within it. One student recently told me, “We’re expected to be strong, but also soft. To compete, but also be kind. The modern Korean man is some kind of fantasy.” Understanding Korean masculinity today requires examining how it has changed over time and adapted to the different political and economic systems of war, dictatorship, democracy, and neoliberalism. In each epoch, Masculinity has been shaped by history, class, and evolving cultural expectations throughout. Never fixed. The hegemony of the unheard Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity helps highlight these evolving demands.

May 10, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Why (Some) Koreans Want to Kill People

I’ve always believed that the strength of a society is measured not by how it treats the best of us, but how it treats the worst. In the Europe where I was raised, a dominant idea was that people, even the most broken, damaged, or dangerous, can be rehabilitated. That we are all products of our environments, and that punishment should serve a greater societal goal: something along the lines of reform, reintegration and responsibility. So when I first heard my young, educated Korean friends, liberal in politics, worldly in tastes, and progressive in many areas, casually suggesting that certain criminals should be executed, I was somewhat surprised. Not shocked, exactly. Just … confused. But why is the death penalty still socially and emotionally acceptable in South Korea? Why does a country that has built its modern reputation on technological advancement, cultural export, and progressive education still lean so readily on the logic of elimination? The answer isn’t simple. History of terror In the latter half of the 20th century, South Korea found itself under the rule of authoritar

May 3, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

The quiet fire of Lee Chang-dong

Korea has no shortage of celebrated literary voices: Kim Young-ha, Hwang Sok-young, Shin Kyung-sook and Pyun Hye-young among them. Few have garnered as much international recognition as Han Kang, rightly praised for her emotional scalpel, dissecting the body and soul of both the nation and the Korean female in books like "The Vegetarian." However, for those of you like me who found her recent exploration of tragedies in Jeju and Vietnam underwhelming, ambiguous and missing the meaty bite of earlier works, another writer offers a more compelling vision of Korea’s post-authoritarian psyche. Lee Chang-dong’s reputation rests largely on his acclaimed films, most notably “Peppermint Candy” (1999), “Secret Sunshine” (2007) and “Burning” (2018). However, his recently released English-language version of “Snowy Day” offers stark, unflinching visions of society that linger in the mind, unsettle the heart and ask difficult questions. And like his films, his writing refuses to give you the comfort of answers. His work probes the wounds left by military dictatorship yet doesn

Apr 26, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Opinion

Jeju, Jeong and Tangerines: Drama that will break you, then put you back together

There are some television shows that entertain us. Some that challenge us. Many simply bore us or repeat tired tropes of the past. But then there are those rare stories that hold a mirror to our soul, to our lives, and quietly whisper, "This is you." It’s an unmistakable voice. Scary at first. Uncomfortable. But over time, you come to realize it’s importance. “When Life Gives You Tangerines” is a voice like this. Not just a Korean drama, but a meditation on life, death, love, and everything in between. A healing ritual disguised as entertainment. The story, spread across three generations, is reminiscent of the struggles of “Pachinko,” the magic of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and Mo Yan’s breathtaking “Red Sorghum.” Tales of generational fate, the push and pull of time, and how personal lives are woven into the larger universe of nature, economy, and history. It plays out first in the rugged, wind-swept beauty of Jeju Island and later in the concrete, pop-music filled, political streets of Seoul. And although it’s very much set in time, with some perhaps ri

Apr 19, 2025By David A. Tizzard

Jeju, Jeong and Tangerines: Drama that will break you, then put you back together

Opinion

The noise between us: Nam June Paik, K-pop, and the politics of performance

Better to be the head of a dog than the ass of an ox. This was what Nam June Paik believed. And yet today, as Korean music, dramas, and movies gain international traction, many have seemingly strayed from such provocation. The Hallyu phenomenon, and K-pop in particular, is celebrated as Korea's great cultural export. And there is a genuine truth to that, obvious in the passionate concert attendances and outbursts of emotion from women who have finally found community, acceptance, and themselves. But beneath the glitz and the choreography of this product lies something more insidious: a tacit obedience to global norms and Western tastes. A bending of the knee to cultural hegemony. Where once Paik screamed at the television and tore it apart to ask, "Who is in control?", today far too many bow to the screen and ask it to love us. “Democracy is about talking back”, he said. It is not about repeating the ideas and words of others. The Past Creates the Future Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was a Korean artist — but he was never just that. He was a product of colonial trauma, a child of for

Apr 12, 2025By David A. Tizzard

The noise between us: Nam June Paik, K-pop, and the politics of performance

Opinion

History from below: Korea’s Minjung movement

In the telling of Korea’s modern history, it is often the powerful who speak loudest: generals, businessmen, and presidents — backed by foreign powers or dressed in the garb of economic success. Yet beneath these figures lies a different story, one written not in national assemblies or university lecture halls but rather in blood, sweat, and defiant chants from the streets. It comes us to in a language or form that is often uncomfortable. Not easily understood. That story is the story of the minjung. The term minjung is often translated as “the masses” or “the people,” but to leave it at that is to miss its moral, political, and spiritual power. The minjung are not simply the demographic majority. They are the oppressed, the overlooked, the ones denied authorship of their own history. They are those who have too often been treated as passive objects in Korea’s turbulent modern saga — moved around by empires, ideologies, and elites. But beginning in the 1970s and 80s, a new idea began to take root: What if the minjung were the true subject of Korean history? Modernizatio

Apr 5, 2025By David A. Tizzard

History from below: Korea’s Minjung movement

Opinion

Mud, grass and Choco Pies: A foreigner's football journey in Korea

There’s a place in Korea where politics doesn’t matter. Where no-one cares about K-pop. North Korea is largely inconsequential. And the economy recedes to the background. All that matters is your teammates. Whether you turn up or not. Do you duck out of challenges or do you remain committed? Can you take being abused when you mess up? Are you comfortable around other people?

Mar 8, 2025By David A. Tizzard

David A. Tizzard

Read more

Notes from the demographic apocalypse

Humanity restored: Dark Souls reflections on Korean society

Selective morality of plagiarism: Korea’s cancel culture masquerading as justice

Contradictions of Korean masculinity

Why (Some) Koreans Want to Kill People

The quiet fire of Lee Chang-dong

Jeju, Jeong and Tangerines: Drama that will break you, then put you back together

The noise between us: Nam June Paik, K-pop, and the politics of performance

History from below: Korea’s Minjung movement

Mud, grass and Choco Pies: A foreigner's football journey in Korea

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