The Korea Times

Korea to launch graduate school for literary translation by 2027

Korea plans to open a new graduate school dedicated to literary translation by September 2027, creating a key engine for promoting Korean literature and cultural content globally, the state-run Literature Translation Institute (LTI) Korea announced, Tuesday. LTI Korea President Chon Soo-young said the institute is seeking to “evolve the existing Translation Academy into a regular master’s degree program” to train not only literary translators but also experts in promoting and planning Korean cultural content. “Through the graduate school, we aim to nurture high-level translation professionals who will lead global cultural exchanges in the digital transformation era,” she said at a press briefing marking the launch of a preparatory committee for the school. The new school, which will be based out of LTI Korea’s building in Seoul’s Samseong-dong, will offer a master’s program in Korean literary and cultural content translation with seven language tracks — English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Russian — focusing on translating from Korean into other la

Apr 28, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Korea to launch graduate school for literary translation by 2027

Arts & Theater

Korea National Opera reimagines ‘Werther’ through new lens

On Thursday, the Korea National Opera staged one of literature's most famous tragedies as a cinematic meditation, pairing soaring vocals with images from film and ballet to explore love, duty, sincerity and death in contemporary Korea. Based on Goethe’s 18th-century novel “The Sorrow of Young Werther,” the four-act French opera "Werther" premiered in Vienna in 1892 before being staged in Paris the following year. The work is considered composer Jules Massenet’s best and most famous work, finely wrought with a psychologically insightful score. In Seoul, the company has refocused the opera through the often-overlooked perspective of Charlotte, casting a mezzo-soprano in the role and emphasizing the conflict the character feels as she is torn between passion and responsibility. Thursday's performance also stood out for its unique production, acting as the opera debut for Park Jong-won, the veteran filmmaker behind titles such as “Guro Arirang” (1989) and “Our Twisted Hero” (1992). In a recent interview with The Korea Times, Park said he structured “Werther” with what he

Apr 24, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Korea National Opera reimagines ‘Werther’ through new lens

Arts & Theater

'Visit Palestine' poster show connects Gaza and Seoul

Posters that once traveled quietly between activists, student groups and solidarity networks are now on the walls of a small gallery in Seoul, inviting visitors to a place many may never see in person: Palestine. “Visit Palestine: Seoul Edition,” the local edition of the traveling Visit Palestine Poster Project, is on view at Faces, an exhibition space in Yeonnam-dong, through May 4, after an earlier run at CORD in central Seoul from April 1-18. The show presents 16 posters produced in or for Palestine over the past six decades, selected for how they illuminate its political history while drawing visual connections through symbols and typography in historically resonant imagery. The project began in Tokyo in June 2021, when Indonesian-born cafe owner Andhika Faisal came across a collection of Palestinian solidarity posters in a secondhand shop. The exhibition first opened in May 2022 and has since toured to more than 20 venues in 15 Japanese cities before traveling to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and now Korea. The title of the exhibition references a 1936 tourism poster produced by

Apr 23, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

'Visit Palestine' poster show connects Gaza and Seoul

Arts & Theater

Korea’s ‘painter of light’ finally gets national spotlight

CHEONGJU, North Chungcheong Province — Painter Bang Hai Ja, long celebrated in France as a visionary “painter of light,” is finally receiving a large-scale institutional exhibition in Korea that aims to move her work from the realm of mystical cult favorite into the country’s modern art history. The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) will open “Bang Hai Ja: Sowing Light Across Heaven and Earth” at its Cheongju venue on Friday, marking the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France. The retrospective, the first dedicated to Bang at a Korean national museum, brings together 67 works and about 100 archival materials spanning from her early experiments in the 1960s to the meditative light-filled abstract paintings of her later years. More than half of the works are loans from major French institutions including Centre Pompidou and Musee Cernuschi in Paris, with many being shown in Korea for the first time. “Previous exhibitions (in Korea) were mostly organized while the artist was alive, so there were limits to what would be shown,” curat

Apr 23, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Korea’s ‘painter of light’ finally gets national spotlight

Trends

Seoul’s viral quadricycle band turns landmarks into rolling concert venues

On a bright spring afternoon at Yeouido Hangang Park in Seoul, a strange vehicle glided past: a four-wheeled bicycle stacked with people playing drums, saxophone, guitar and melodica, pushed from behind. All the band members were dressed in red caps and colorful sashes. As the band played a breezy Korean pop ballad from its moving stage, people raised their phones and shouted, “This makes me so happy!” and “They’re so cute!” The group is Dongmi Bicycle Club, an indie band turning some of Korea’s most familiar songs into a rolling street parade and reinventing what busking looks like in Seoul. Video clips of the band weaving through Seoul's landmarks and busy markets have gone viral on social media in recent weeks, with fans calling them “the hottest people right now” and begging them to visit their hometowns across the country, from Daegu to Jeju. From jazz trio to rolling parade Dongmi Bicycle Club started with saxophonist Shin Choi-go-young-jin, drummer Lee Sung-min and melodica player Won Chung-yeon. They met as students at Seoul Music High School in the early 2010s.

Apr 22, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Seoul’s viral quadricycle band turns landmarks into rolling concert venues

Books

Han Kang leads Korea's bestseller boom while adult reading rates halve

Nobel laureate Han Kang’s novels top Korea’s bestseller rankings for the past decade, even as the country’s reading rates hit historic lows, according to new data compiled ahead of World Book and Copyright Day. Kyobo Book Centre said Sunday that Han's “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts” ranked first and second, respectively, in its cumulative bestseller list covering April 17, 2016 to April 16, 2026, across online and offline channels. The period was chosen to mark the 10 years since “The Vegetarian” won the International Booker Prize in May 2016, the first time a Korean-language novel received the award. “The Vegetarian,” first published in Korean in 2007 and translated into English under the same title, gained renewed attention after the prize and went on to spend 12 consecutive weeks at the top of Kyobo’s weekly overall bestseller chart, becoming the chain’s bestselling book of 2016. Han’s 2014 novel “Human Acts,” about the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, saw a surge in sales after the author became the first Korean writer to win the Nobel Prize i

Apr 19, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Han Kang leads Korea's bestseller boom while adult reading rates halve

Music

Korean National Symphony Orchestra to amplify blockbuster soundtracks at Seoul Arts Center

The Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO) will bring Hollywood to the concert hall with a new film music program that immerses audiences in some of the most iconic blockbuster scores of the 21st century. The orchestra’s “Hollywood Blockbusters” concert will run May 1 and 2 at Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall, pairing symphonic sound with large-scale media art visuals. Led by British-based conductor Anthony Gabriele, a specialist in film music concerts, the program centers on Hans Zimmer, the German composer widely credited with redefining today’s blockbuster sound. While John Williams is often associated with the golden age of Hollywood scores, Zimmer pushed the genre forward by fusing traditional orchestral writing with electronic elements and propulsive rhythms in collaborations with directors such as Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott. The evening will open with Zimmer’s music, featuring a suite from “The Dark Knight” and selections from “Inception,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Wonder Woman,” “The Lion King” and

Apr 19, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Korean National Symphony Orchestra to amplify blockbuster soundtracks at Seoul Arts Center

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

Lee Hae-rin

Read more

Korea to launch graduate school for literary translation by 2027

Korea National Opera reimagines ‘Werther’ through new lens

'Visit Palestine' poster show connects Gaza and Seoul

Korea’s ‘painter of light’ finally gets national spotlight

Seoul’s viral quadricycle band turns landmarks into rolling concert venues

Han Kang leads Korea's bestseller boom while adult reading rates halve

Korean National Symphony Orchestra to amplify blockbuster soundtracks at Seoul Arts Center

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

Korean Chamber Orchestra to salute Sofia Gubaidulina with Seoul memorial concert

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

Top 5 stories