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Lee Hae-rin

Korea Times K-Culture Reporter

Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.

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Films

Christopher Nolan brings 'The Odyssey' to Korea, champions big screen experience for fans

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan said his long-awaited first visit to Korea with his new film "The Odyssey" is an opportunity to reaffirm why movie theaters still matter and continue to offer a collective experience and universal human themes that streaming platforms and small screens can never replace. At a press conference held in Seoul, Monday, ahead of the film’s Wednesday release here, Nolan, who said he has “wanted to come to Korea for a very long time,” described cinema as a uniquely shared yet intimate art form. “When you read the original book, it’s experiential. But going to the theater and sharing it with other people is both a personal and a collective experience,” he said. “The way the camera tells you the story is something other mediums can’t provide. I think it’s an experience only theaters, only films, can offer." The film follows the 10-year voyage of the Trojan War hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) as he struggles to return home to Ithaca, confronting inner conflict and moral dilemmas that Nolan believes still resonate today. Asked what message he hopes audiences

11h agoBy Lee Hae-rin
Christopher Nolan brings 'The Odyssey' to Korea, champions big screen experience for fans
Travel & Food

Chinese tourists present dilemma for casinos in Korea

Korea's casino industry has been thriving in recent years, fueled by a steady rebound in inbound tourism, as the country's 17 foreigner-only casinos benefit from a growing number of visitors from Asia. This has prompted securities firms to issue bullish outlooks on the sector, as they expect more Chinese visitors in particular, given Korea's visa waiver program for Chinese group tourists. Yet, their visits to casinos here are a thorny issue in the industry because it is illegal for Chinese citizens to gamble overseas. While Chinese travelers are believed to account for a significant share of casino revenue, operators are reluctant to publicly identify them as their primary target market, let alone disclose data on their clients. Although they continue marketing activities in China, they do so discreetly. The Chinese government is aware of the situation. In a recent letter sent to The Korea Times, the Chinese Embassy in Seoul criticized the Korean casinos' practices of specifically targeting Chinese. "Chinese law maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward gambling, and it is also illegal for

14h agoBy Lee Hae-rin, Kim Se-jeong and Yulu Ao
Chinese tourists present dilemma for casinos in Korea
Arts & Theater

Artist Ham Yang-ah builds new panorama of crisis and care

Media artist Ham Yang-ah has returned to Art Sonje Center after 16 years with a panoramic meditation on crisis, coexistence and listening, in a new solo exhibition that expands her long-term research project into an immersive, circular universe of images, bodies and voices. The exhibition, titled “Yang Ah Ham: Undefined Panorama,” brings together new and existing works from the artist’s eight-year project “Undefined Panorama,” which dissects contemporary social systems — from finance and politics to education and labor — through layered video installations and diagrams. First launched in the wake of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that shook Korean society, the project began with a simple but urgent question: “As an artist, what should I do?” Ham recalled in a press briefing Thursday, explaining she wanted to understand “where all this pain begins,” beyond the scale of individual lives. At the heart of the exhibition on the second floor is the new eight-channel video installation “Undefined Panorama 4.0” (2026), presented inside a monumental circular structure th

2d agoBy Lee Hae-rin
Artist Ham Yang-ah builds new panorama of crisis and care
Arts & Theater

Artist Christine Sun Kim visualizes world built around spoken sound

Christine Sun Kim, a Berlin-based Korean American Deaf artist who has become one of the most talked-about names in contemporary art, is presenting her first large-scale, site-specific commission at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) in Seoul. Titled “Have Many Dumb Fights Against Rock,” the MMCA x LG OLED Series 2026 exhibition transforms the soaring 16.6 meter-high atrium into an immersive black-and-white environment where animation, mural-scale drawing, sound and text flows across walls, glass and the floor, anchored by a massive curved LG OLED screen composed of 72 individual displays. For Kim, who was born in Orange County, California, and has lived in Berlin for 13 years, the project is deeply personal. “This moment is very personal for me because I’ve seen my halmeoni (grandmother) and harabeoji (grandfather) leave Korea, come to the U.S. and create a life for their family there,” she said. “I have moved to Germany and now I’m back in Korea. This is an opportunity for me to be able to pay respect to my family and to my ancestry,” she sa

Jul 30, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Artist Christine Sun Kim visualizes world built around spoken sound
Sports

Gymnast Chloe Cho eyes LA Olympics under Korean flag

DAEJEON — Chloe Cho calls gymnastics “a blessing.” It is how she discovered her strength, processed grief and, most importantly, found her way back to her father’s country. Now, the 20-year-old is quietly working toward a singular goal: to represent Korea at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Growing up Korean American in California Born in 2006 to a Korean father and American mother, Cho grew up just north of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, California, in a household where Korean food, language and family rituals were woven into everyday life, even if she did not speak the language fluently. Her Korean name is Ji-yoon, a name her grandmother chose for her, meaning wisdom and grace. “My upbringing just felt normal to me,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times. “My mom is American, my dad was born in Korea but moved to Hawaii when he was 9, then to L.A. where my parents met.” She recalled weekends at her grandmother’s house: “We would eat, take a nap, then we’d watch K-drama or play go-stop (a Korean card game) for an hour.” Korean was the language in the back

Jul 30, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Gymnast Chloe Cho eyes LA Olympics under Korean flag
Travel & Food

Chengdu's slow living, spicy flavors resonate with Korean travelers

CHENGDU, China — For a growing number of Koreans, Chengdu is less a dot on a map than a promise: That fans of Sichuan hotpot and mala already obsessed back home can come here to sweat over pepper-slick dishes one day, then rediscover the forgotten pleasure of doing absolutely nothing by simply sitting under a park-side tree. China’s fourth-largest metropolitan area, home to more than 21 million residents, has long been known domestically as a “land of abundance” — a basin ringed by mountains, blessed with fertile soil and, more recently, branded as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Chengdu has emerged as Koreans’ next favorite Chinese getaway not only because it’s cheaper, but because it offers exactly what many feel is missing in their busy lives: intensely flavorful food and spaces to slow down. On the plate: 24 flavors, penchant for spices Chengdu has a popular saying about the region’s love of heat: “Sichuan people are afraid food won’t be spicy enough.” In everyday life, dishes are not just hot; they are engineered to make the body sweat and cool down in Sichuan’s

Jul 30, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Chengdu's slow living, spicy flavors resonate with Korean travelers
Others

Korea-Mongolia research leads to UNESCO recognition of Xiongnu noble tombs

Among the new items on the UNESCO World Heritage List were a major group of Xiongnu noble tombs in Mongolia, and a decades-long joint research with Korea has helped Mongolia win the UNESCO heritage status. The National Museum of Korea said Monday that the cemetery complexes of the Xiongnu nobility, including the Duurlig Nars burial complex in eastern Mongolia, were inscribed on the UNESCO heritage site at the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee last weekend in Busan. The recognition follows more than 30 years of collaboration between the Korean museum, the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the National Museum of Mongolia. Among the six sites listed, Duurlig Nars stands out as a key archaeological complex extensively studied by a Korea-Mongolia joint research team since 2006. Located in Khentii Province, the site contains around 300 tombs and is considered one of the largest Xiongnu burial clusters in the region. Excavations have uncovered artifacts that point to wide-ranging exchanges across Eurasia during the Xiongnu Empire (3rd century B.

Jul 27, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Korea-Mongolia research leads to UNESCO recognition of Xiongnu noble tombs
Korean Heritage

Korean heritage exhibition at Busan UNESCO meeting draws over 70,000 visitors

K-Heritage House, a venue showcasing Korean heritage set up to mark the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan, drew over 70,000 visitors in its first six days, underscoring growing global interest in Korean culture, officials said Sunday. According to the Korea Heritage Service (KHS), 72,143 people visited the pavilion at BEXCO’s Exhibition Hall 1 from July 20-25, averaging over 10,000 visitors a day. Attendance peaked on Saturday, when 19,385 people entered in a single day, the highest since its opening. Spanning the size of two football fields, the pavilion features 45 booths organized by 35 institutions under four themes — heritage through advanced technology, living intangible heritage, the past, present and future of heritage, and interactive experiences. A surge in visitors prompted organizers to close the admission queue early at around 3 p.m., Saturday, for safety reasons. The exhibition, jointly organized by 35 institutions including the KHS, the National Archives of Korea and the Busan Metropolitan Government, features exhibitions and interactive prog

Jul 26, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Korean heritage exhibition at Busan UNESCO meeting draws over 70,000 visitors
Shows & Dramas

More brutal, more human: actor Lee Dong-wook on 'A Shop for Killers' Season 2

For Lee Dong-wook, returning to Disney+’s “A Shop for Killers” meant more than reviving a once-presumed-dead uncle who runs a clandestine weapons mall for assassins — it meant quietly adding 8 kilograms, guzzling water to “not look older” and rethinking what it means to be a guardian. Lee plays Jeong Jin-man in the Disney+ action thriller, a former team leader for the mercenary company Babylon, now the operator of a clandestine shopping mall, fighting to protect his niece Ji-an and push back against Babylon’s network. The first season drew strong international acclaim, landing on The New York Times’ best international TV show list and among Time magazine’s top four Korean dramas of the year in 2024. Released Wednesday with two episodes and rolling out two more every Wednesday for a total of eight, Season 2 follows Ji-an as the mall’s new CEO join forces with her uncle to launch a full-scale counterattack. “I’m grateful we could come back with Season 2 because Season 1 was loved so much,” Lee said during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul Thursday. “It

Jul 23, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
More brutal, more human: actor Lee Dong-wook on 'A Shop for Killers' Season 2
Arts & Theater

Seoul to turn into citywide art playground with Kiaf, Frieze in September

Seoul is gearing up for a blockbuster month of art and culture in September, as Kiaf Seoul and Frieze Seoul return with expanded citywide programs ranging from classical music and public art to film and late-night gallery events. This year’s Kiaf Seoul, Korea’s largest international art fair, runs from Sept. 2-6 at Coex in southern Seoul under the theme “Coexistence,” reflecting on the relationship between humans and technology in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The Galleries Association of Korea is introducing two special exhibitions — “Humal” and “Virtual Vital” — that examine how human instinct, animal vitality and digital systems intersect in contemporary art. “Humal,” a portmanteau of “human” and “animal,” brings together seven Korean artists, including Kang Gun, Kwak Ji-soo and Hwang Soo-yeon, in sculpture, installation, painting and photography that foreground the body and primal sensibilities long suppressed by rationalism and civilization. “Virtual Vital” extends the questions raised in “Humal” into augmented reality, inviting vis

Jul 22, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Seoul to turn into citywide art playground with Kiaf, Frieze in September
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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.