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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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Books

Fairy tale writer Lee Geum-yi adds to Korea's growing literary presence as Andersen Award finalist

Korean children’s and young adult fiction writer Lee Geum-yi has fallen just short of winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award in the writing category, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of children’s literature.” Lee, who was named as a finalist for the 2026 prize after also making the shortlist in 2024, left this year’s competition as a two-time finalist, cementing a milestone for Korean children’s and young adult writing on the international stage. The award was announced Monday during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. The biennial prize, given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), honors one author and one illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature worldwide. Lee was one of six finalists in the writing category, along with Ahmad Akbarpour of Iran, Timothee de Fombelle of France, Pam Munoz Ryan of the United States and Michael Rosen of the United Kingdom, though the top prize ultimately went to Maria Jose Ferrada of Chile. Since winning the Saebut Literary Award in 1984 for her debut sh

Apr 13, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Fairy tale writer Lee Geum-yi adds to Korea's growing literary presence as Andersen Award finalist
Music

Korean Chamber Orchestra to salute Sofia Gubaidulina with Seoul memorial concert

The Korean Chamber Orchestra will honor late Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-2025) with a memorial concert featuring two Korean premieres at Seoul Arts Center on April 26. The program, titled “Sofia Gubaidulina & Korean Chamber Orchestra,” will take place under the baton of conductor Park Tae-young. It will be the first memorial concert in Korea dedicated to Gubaidulina, widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in contemporary music. The event aims to spotlight the spiritual depth and experimental sound that made her a touchstone for performers and composers worldwide. Born in a small town in Russia, Gubaidulina defied Soviet conformity from her early years. She once said her desire was “to rebel and swim against the current.” She spent her life creating sonically daring works that pursued truth through art and a belief in art as a “beautiful prayer.” The evening will open with Ernest Bloch’s “Prayer” for solo cello and strings, framed by the orchestra as a musical requiem and tribute. It will continue with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No

Apr 10, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Korean Chamber Orchestra to salute Sofia Gubaidulina with Seoul memorial concert
Arts & Theater

Inside Sejong Center: New backstage tour reveals Seoul’s cultural heart

Seoul’s Sejong Center for the Performing Arts is inviting foreign visitors past the velvet rope and into spaces usually reserved for artists and staff, turning one of the city’s most imposing cultural landmarks into a site for intimate experience. On Thursday, some 20 students from Yonsei University’s Korean Language Institute were invited for an early look before the tour officially begins next month. The participants tiptoed through staff-only corridors, quietly gasped as backstage doors opened onto the Grand Theater and explored the stage set for Verdi’s opera “Nabucco,” which was scheduled to open that evening. “The area we are in now, together with the passageways we've just been through, are spaces reserved exclusively for performers and staff and are not accessible to the general audience,” tour guide Yoo Jung-a told the group in English. When the group stood facing rows of over 3,000 red seats in the Sejong Grand Theater, they fell briefly silent, taking in the sweeping expanse of the venue's grand interior and exploring the stage. "Let’s think for a moment abou

Apr 10, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Inside Sejong Center: New backstage tour reveals Seoul’s cultural heart
Arts & Theater

Galleries Art Fair marks 50 years with record exhibitor lineup, new talents

Korea’s oldest art fair opened its doors Thursday with its largest edition yet, signaling renewed confidence in the country’s art market despite lingering concerns over a broader slowdown. The 44th Galleries Art Fair is being held at Seoul's Coex and will stay open until Sunday, bringing together a total of 169 leading domestic galleries and a broad cross-section of contemporary Korean art. Hosted by the Galleries Association of Korea, the fair invited VIPs and press for a preview on Wednesday, a day before the official opening, drawing almost 4,500 visitors. Organizers and art dealers said the crowd — noticeably younger than in previous years — offered an early indication that demand for contemporary art, especially among Millennial and Gen Z collectors, remains resilient. Launched in 1979, Galleries Art Fair was the country’s first art fair and has since functioned as a barometer of the domestic art market. Participation is limited to member galleries of the association, keeping the number of foreign mega-galleries at a minimum. Another key element is that all participating g

Apr 9, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Galleries Art Fair marks 50 years with record exhibitor lineup, new talents
Music

Global stars set for concerts in Korea amid venue shortage

A wave of global stars is coming to Korea this year, from hard rock icons to chart-topping rappers, but their arrivals are colliding with a shortage of large-scale concert venues, testing fans’ patience over access. The latest to join the lineup is Deep Purple, the British rock legends who helped define 1970s hard rock. The band will perform at Incheon’s Paradise City complex on April 18, the first time in 16 years with classic-era members Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. The upcoming Deep Purple show will anchor a year-long run of rock and pop heavyweights at Paradise City. The venue will host the Asian Pop Festival on May 30, featuring city-pop pioneer Taeko Onuki of Sugar Babe, followed by U.K. band My Chemical Romance’s return in November. On May 29, Canadian R&B singer-songwriter Daniel Ceasar will bring his “Son of Spergy” arena tour to KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, about two and a half years after his last appearance here. The Grammy-winning artist, known for “Best Part” with H.E.R. and his work on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” is returning to tour h

Apr 9, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Global stars set for concerts in Korea amid venue shortage
Arts & Theater

Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ returns with actor Lee Seo-jin

Russian writer Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” is returning to the stage this spring in a new LG Arts Center production reframing the 19th-century Russian classic’s quiet storms of regret, unrealized dreams and ordinary people’s everyday resilience to resonate with audiences in 2026 Korea. The original work, first staged in 1899, centers on Vanya, who devotes his life to managing a rural estate in Russia for his late sister’s husband, a professor. He confronts that his sacrifices may have been in vain when the professor returns with his beautiful, young new wife Yelena. And the fragile peace Vanya has maintained with his niece Sonya and their neighbors begins to crumble. Despite its 19th-century origins, the story is not confined to a specific time or place, the creative team stressed at a press conference, Tuesday. LG Arts Center's head Lee Hyun-jung said the goal is “to share values with audiences through a classic that still poses valid questions for our time.” Director Son Sang-gyu described the play as a portrait of “ordinary people living amid lost years and unreal

Apr 7, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ returns with actor Lee Seo-jin
Arts & Theater

From fields to fire: Lee Bae brings 30 years of charcoal art to Museum SAN

WONJU, Gangwon Province — Standing at the summit of a museum he likens to a “modern monastery,” artist Lee Bae returned to his roots as a Korean farmer’s son and a restless traveler in a new solo exhibition at Museum SAN that meditates on disaster, renewal and the active work of waiting. Titled “En attendant,” the exhibition runs from Tuesday to Dec. 6 and transforms the entire museum into a single journey that threads through indoor galleries and outdoor sculpture fields, echoing the institution’s founding trinity of “Space, Art, Nature.” It is the first time the museum has devoted its full grounds to a solo show of Korean artist’s works, surveying more than three decades of Lee’s painting, sculpture, installation and video, centered on charcoal as his signature medium. For Lee, who left his hometown of Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, for Paris in 1989 and has lived “like a wanderer for 40 years,” the project became a journey back to his origins. “Preparing this exhibition, I kept asking myself, ‘Who am I, in what environment did I grow up and what di

Apr 6, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
From fields to fire: Lee Bae brings 30 years of charcoal art to Museum SAN
Trends

Hip Buddhism takes over Seoul: Gen Z flocks to buy temple merch

Young Koreans have turned a once-traditional Buddhist trade show into one of Seoul’s buzziest lifestyle events by flocking to the 2026 Seoul International Buddhism Expo for meme-worthy merchandise and cultural content. Under the theme, “Form Is Emptiness, Emptiness Is Form — Play With Emptiness in Your Own Way,” the expo offered up an expansive display of items that catered to younger generations in Korea seeking a blend of Buddhist messaging with a modern touch of style and practicality. The expo ended on Sunday. A 30-something visitor stood in front of a 19,000 won statuette of Avalokitesvara, or the Bodhisattva of Compassion, promoted as a stress-relief item for office workers. “If I put this on my desk, no one at work will talk to me,” the visitor, who opted not to disclose her name, joked, before adding the item to her shopping basket. Nearby, a woman in her 20s wearing a hair clip that read “All Beings First” and a name tag labeled “Sentient Being” tugged her friend toward another stall. “Let’s line up to get a moktak (wooden percussion instrument) keyring

Apr 5, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Hip Buddhism takes over Seoul: Gen Z flocks to buy temple merch
Arts & Theater

Sejong Center to offer backstage tour for foreign visitors in Seoul

Sejong Center for the Performing Arts is opening up spaces normally hidden from audiences to foreign visitors in Seoul, the center announced Thursday. The Sejong Backstage Tour, guided entirely in English, takes participants behind the scenes of one of the capital’s most symbolic performance venues to explore its history, architecture and production process. Designed as a cultural experience rather than a simple facility tour, the program aims to help international visitors understand the value of the landmark building more deeply by going beyond watching a show and delving into how productions are made. The route begins with an introduction to the building’s architecture and its place in the urban fabric of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, a historic gateway corridor linking Seoul City Hall and Gyeongbok Palace. Visitors then move through the main theater, from the audience seats to the stage, before stepping into normally restricted areas such as backstage corridors and rehearsal rooms used by resident art troupes. Former television news anchor Yoo Jung-ah provides live commenta

Apr 2, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Sejong Center to offer backstage tour for foreign visitors in Seoul
Arts & Theater

Rediscovering media artist Nam June Paik through nephew’s eyes

Media artist Nam June Paik has returned to his hometown in the form of an intimate new exhibition that invites visitors into the artist’s world through the eyes — and stories — of his nephew and estate executor, Ken Hakuta. The exhibition, “Nam June Paik: Rewind / Repeat,” opened Wednesday on the first floor of APMA Cabinet at Amorepacific’s headquarters in central Seoul, in collaboration with the Nam June Paik Estate and Gagosian. It is the first estate-led solo show for the artist in his birth city in 25 years, and brings together 11 works that are relatively unknown to the public. “I’m sure today is a very happy day for Paik Nam June because he’s back in his home city of Seoul and he loves being in Korea,” Hakuta told reporters during a walkthrough, noting that Paik’s ashes rest at Bongeun temple just across the river. ‘TV Bra for Living Sculpture’ “TV Bra for Living Sculpture” (1969) is a transparent plastic brassiere embedded with two small television sets that was famously worn by cellist Charlotte Moorman in performances beginning in 1969. The work, l

Apr 2, 2026By Lee Hae-rin
Rediscovering media artist Nam June Paik through nephew’s eyes
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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.