Global Community
Swiss/Lebanese duo Praed won't let visa problems stop the tour
With only weeks left before their tour in Korea, the Swiss/Lebanese music duo Praed discovered that one half of the group couldn’t get a visa in time.
Mar 10, 2025
Jon Dunbar
Korea Times Copyediting Reporter
Jon Dunbar is a copy editor at The Korea Times, as well as editor of the Foreign Community page and curator of the Korea Times Archive. If you have suggestions for possible articles, or wish to contribute articles yourself, contact jdunbar@koreatimes.co.kr.
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Global Community
Korea Times' Foreign Community section reaches 20th anniversary
This year marks the 75th anniversary of The Korea Times. But there's a smaller anniversary, too: the newspaper's Foreign Community page is 20 years old. First printed on March 7, 2005, the Foreign Community section has provided a platform for diverse voices nearly every week since then.
Mar 7, 2025
Global Community
Taiwanese sound poet brings onomatopoeic performance to Busan, Seoul
When Yang Yu-Chiao was studying at National Taiwan University, he was exposed to a recording of the Korean pansori play "Simcheongga," which has a passage in which the main character's blind father opens his eyes. "The dramatic performance and intense vocal tension deeply captivated me, and from that moment, I became very interested in traditional Korean music and performance art," Yang told The Korea Times. The inspiration he felt put him on a collision course with Korea, which he visited in 2023 to share his "Blackboard Scribophone" performance. He's coming back this weekend to do three performances in Busan and Seoul. But what can we expect out of this Taiwanese professional oral tradition and folktale narrator, interdisciplinary narrative artist and sound artist? If you view a video of one of his past performances, you'll probably see him babbling incoherently while making marks on a chalkboard. This may be daunting for the uninitiated. Yang combines sound poetry, traditional folk storytelling, writing and vocal free improvisation. "The theme of this tour focuses on locally created sou
Mar 4, 2025
Global Community
Wikipedia list sheds light on Korea's historic restaurants
Korea's restaurant scene is known for its breakneck restaurant turnover speed, with restaurants closing after only a few years, to be replaced with new ones boasting "Since 2025" that don't stand much chance of lasting any longer. But the country's eatery history has a much longer living history than most people might think. The oldest known restaurant is accepted to be Imun Seolnongtang, which the Seoul Metropolitan Government pegs as having started serving ox bone soup in 1904. The second-oldest, Busan Anmyeonok, opened in 1905 in Pyongyang, then moved to Busan in 1953 and then Daegu in 1969. About 20 more restaurants are known to have been founded during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation, or right before it began or after liberation. All this information has been made available through the online free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, thanks to an anonymous editor who listed 30 of the oldest known restaurants and wrote individual entries for each. The creator of these pages, who hides behind the username Seefooddiet, claims to be a Korean American male who grew up in Korea but now lives in the U
Mar 3, 2025
Global Community
RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Enjoy Gyedong Pizza, but don't bother the locals
You know all those signs around central Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village telling you to be quiet so you don't disturb the local residents? They used to be for my benefit, as I lived in Gye-dong in the area for a few years last decade. I didn't live in a hanok, just a regular four-story apartment building, but it was on a major alley, Gyedong-gil. Sometimes, it was a little chaotic, but it didn't bother me because the crowds would typically disperse a little after 5 p.m. At that point, I'd have all the area's cafes, bars and restaurants mostly to myself.
Mar 3, 2025
Global Community
RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Wich Craft's Patty Melt put a spell on me
I know I'm not a great food reviewer. For one thing, in order to properly review a restaurant, one really should visit multiple times and try multiple menu items.
Feb 24, 2025
Global Community
Musical showcase explores toxic relationships
A new musical concert, titled "When an Empath Meets a Narcissist," explores the many questions in relationships and how we deal with them, asking if we do these things purposefully, whether we can change or if we are always stuck in these patterns of behavior and thinking.
Feb 19, 2025
Sports
ANALYSIS Korea brings home ice hockey bronze amid questionable calls at 2025 Winter Asiad
Ice hockey in South Korea has, for many years, been in the shadow of the country’s strong performances in other winter sports, notably speed skating and figure skating. This month’s Asian Winter Games, perhaps the biggest stage for the country’s winter athletes since the 2018 Olympics, was an opportunity for Korea to show how much it has improved in the sport of ice hockey.
Feb 18, 2025
Global Community
RESTAURANT OF THE WEEK Is Bonny's Pizza really worth that wait?
Huge lineups out front might make a restaurant look popular, but they also tend to antagonize nearby residents. Is the food really that good, or are all the customers just acting like lemmings?
Feb 18, 2025
Global Community
Skunk Itaewon hosts DIY fashion pop-up
An American artist named Kylee is officially launching her upcycled fashion brand Eyeronxc this weekend in a collaborative pop-up with her friend Tejin's brand, Flirty, at Skunk on the Sunset, the punk headquarters of central Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood.
Feb 17, 2025