The Korea Times

As Korean literature goes global, who chooses what books get read?

One year after Han Kang became Korea’s first Nobel laureate in literature, Korean fiction is finally taking its place alongside K-pop, K-drama and K-film in the landscape of K-culture. Once viewed as a niche, lofty pursuit, Korean literature is now claiming its own "K-" prefix at home and abroad. The numbers are striking. Overseas sales of translated Korean literature reached about 1.2 million copies in 2024, more than double the 520,000 of the previous year. Domestic novel sales climbed nearly 29 percent year-on-year. Book events are booming, with the Seoul International Book Fair setting a record at 150,000 visitors and smaller fairs like Publishers Table and Unlimited Edition drawing long lines of bibliophiles. Clearly, Han Kang’s Nobel win brought a new wave of readers, revitalizing fiction as a cultural medium that younger audiences are willing to embrace. Yet as interest in Korean fiction surges, the next question is not whether it will be read, but which stories and voices will shape this moment and who will help them cross linguistic and cultural divides. Industry insiders w

Nov 26, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Arts & Theater

Korean Art Odyssey Korea's dual mission for overseas heritage: reclaim what it can, revitalize what it can't

DENVER, Colo./DRESDEN, Germany — For decades, many museums in Europe and the United States devoted themselves to filling their halls with the world’s most prized antiquities. These fervent acquisition campaigns meant a tide of works were brought in from nations that had been exploited by colonization and war. Today, those same institutions find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Questions of ethical stewardship and problematic provenance now press upon them, prompting growing international calls to return objects that were forcibly removed from their place of origin. Korea, too, bears its own scars of loss. Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and the 1950-53 Korean War forced many cultural treasures to leave their homeland. What seems to distinguish Korea’s response, however, is its unusually centralized approach. The task of tracking, research and strategic planning for overseas artifacts is not scattered across separate entities but is instead entrusted to a single organization: the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF). Established in 2012, the year following the hi

Nov 24, 2025By Park Han-sol and Kwon Mee-yoo

[Korean Art Odyssey] Korea's dual mission for overseas heritage: reclaim what it can, revitalize what it can't

Arts & Theater

Korean Art Odyssey 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

ZURICH — In Switzerland, where many first encountered Korean pop culture through the K-drama “Crash Landing on You” — featuring iconic scenes filmed at Iseltwald, Jungfraujoch and the Munster Bridge — a different kind of Korean phenomenon took hold this year. Museum Rietberg in Zurich drew an unusually varied audience for “Hallyu! The Korean Wave,” a traveling exhibition that ran from April to August and offered a glimpse into how global perceptions of Korea are shifting. On a typical August afternoon, the museum buzzed with an eclectic mix of visitors from elderly subscribers wandered through the show with catalogues in hand to a costume enthusiast lingered over the intricate folds of hanbok (traditional Korean attire). Teenagers decked out in K-pop merch took selfies in front of multicolored light sticks and idol costumes and their parents followed an on-screen dance tutorial for PSY’s “That That,” while nearby visitors paused to read about Korea’s rapid modernization. “We saw this exhibition on Instagram,” said Stray Kids fans Lena, 17, and Winona, 16, from

Nov 14, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

[Korean Art Odyssey] 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

Music

Musical gala celebrates Korea Times' 75-year legacy, power of music

To mark its 75th anniversary, The Korea Times brings the magic of musical theater to the concert stage with a gala “The Musical,” helmed by music director and conductor Kolleen Park. Featuring Kang Hye-jung, Michael K. Lee and Choi Jae-rim, the concert pays tribute to the legacy of Korea's oldest English daily and the universal language of music. Born to a Korean father and Lithuanian American mother, Park made her debut as music director for the Korean original musical "The Last Empress" in the 1990s and has since led major productions including "Aida" and "She Stars!" over the past three decades. Her experience extends to large-scale events and concerts, such as serving as director for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Asian Para Games and, more recently, directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 106th National Sports Festival in Busan in October. A constant challenger in her own right, Park is also active on stage as an actor, best known for her portrayal of Diana in the musical "Next to Normal." This summer, she broke new ground by taking on the traditionally male role

Nov 6, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Musical gala celebrates Korea Times' 75-year legacy, power of music

Books

PHOTO K-Book Festival in London

Korean writer Cheon Seon-ran, center, speaks during a book talk hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) at Foyles on Charing Cross Road in London, Saturday (local time). Known for her sci-fi novels "A Thousand Blues" and "The Midnight Shift," Cheon discussed the inspiration behind her works, explaining how she "revisited what it means to be human through the concept of a robot with emotions." The event was part of K-Book Festival, held at the downtown London bookstore to celebrate Korean storytelling ranging from award-winning fiction to webtoons. Courtesy of KCCUK

Nov 3, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Arts & Theater

Korean Art Odyssey How Korean art first entered Western museums

DRESDEN, Germany/SALEM, Mass. — Korean culture may be everywhere today, but the path to discovering Korea’s deeper story runs through museum galleries — rooms where celadon glows like moonlight, lacquer shimmers in shadow and history whispers from vitrines. Beyond Korea’s borders, however, these spaces have long been few and small, unevenly researched and eclipsed by the scale of Chinese and Japanese collections. But the tide is turning. A new generation of curators is rediscovering overlooked treasures, expanding collections through strategic acquisitions and reimagining how Korean art can be seen with digital tools and approached through pop-culture touchpoints to draw in new audiences. To understand how far Korean art has come on the global stage, one must first trace how it arrived there. The story of Korean collections in overseas museums is complex, shaped by diplomacy, colonial entanglements, scholarly pursuit and, at times, sheer serendipity. This opening chapter turns to the origins of that journey: who first collected Korean objects, how they were acquired and why they

Oct 31, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo and Park Han-sol

[Korean Art Odyssey] How Korean art first entered Western museums

K-pop

BTS’ RM urges world leaders to support creativity at APEC CEO Summit

At the APEC CEO Summit, BTS leader RM became the first K-pop artist to address the APEC event as a keynote speaker, delivering a speech in English that wove together his personal journey, the global rise of K-pop and a direct appeal to policymakers: invest in the arts and the people who make them. Speaking before government and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific, RM, whose real name is Kim Nam-joon, began by reflecting on BTS’ early struggles to gain recognition outside Korea. “BTS first started to go outside Korea about 10 years ago,” he said. “And back then, we didn’t dream of what we see today.” He recounted the steep cultural barriers the group faced when trying to bring their Korean-language music into the English-speaking world. “Trying to get on mainstream media through our music was like doing an experiment and a huge challenge. It was a test to see if music in Korean can work on the global stage,” he said. "When we said we are artists from Korea, they didn’t ask us about our music. They asked, 'Are you from North Korea or South Korea?' 'Where on eart

Oct 29, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

BTS’ RM urges world leaders to support creativity at APEC CEO Summit

K-pop

Jennie marks Hangeul Day with new Korean font Zen Serif

BLACKPINK member and successful solo K-pop artist Jennie is celebrating Hangeul Day by highlighting the beauty of the Korean alphabet through the release of a new typeface. Her label OA Entertainment announced the launch of Zen Serif, a new Korean font that combines traditional Korean aesthetics and contemporary design sensibilities, on Thursday, coinciding with Hangeul Day, which commemorates the creation of the Korean writing system. The agency explained that Zen Serif was designed with the hope that more people would find Hangeul both practical and visually appealing. The style minimizes excessive ornamentation and incorporates soft curves, reflecting OA Entertainment’s attention to detail. By blending elements of the calligraphic black letter type style with the elegance of Hangeul, the font achieves a distinctive and harmonious look. The font is available for free use, though the label restricts its application in political contexts or in any manner that promotes violence, discrimination or violates the rights of others. In collaboration with Meta, OA Entertainment also made Zen S

Oct 9, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Jennie marks Hangeul Day with new Korean font Zen Serif

Books

Sugar-dusted Korean bestseller 'To the Moon' takes off in English edition

When three women pool their modest salaries to gamble on cryptocurrency, it’s less about chasing profits than chasing a future that always seems just out of reach. “To the Moon,” the first novel novel by Korean writer Jang Ryu-jin published in an English edition, is a bittersweet tale of class, sisterhood and fragile hope in the face of stagnant wages and stalled dreams. Before she wrote about women tracking crypto charts instead of office clocks, Jang was living that very office life herself — working at a tech company in Pangyo, often dubbed Korea’s Silicon Valley. When her first short story “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work” appeared on the Changbi Publisher’s website in 2018, it quickly went viral. Readers, many of them young office workers, saw themselves in her honest, sharply observed depiction of corporate life — a realism so vivid that it briefly caused the website to crash due to the overwhelming traffic. Now, with “To the Moon” published in English by Bloomsbury in June, Jang’s stories are reaching a wider readership — thanks in no small part to tra

Sep 27, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Sugar-dusted Korean bestseller 'To the Moon' takes off in English edition

Arts & Theater

‘Maybe Happy Ending’ returns to Seoul in October after Broadway triumph

Following a historic run on Broadway where it won six Tony Awards — including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score — the Korean original musical “Maybe Happy Ending” is returning to Seoul for a 10th anniversary production. The new season will run from Oct. 30, 2025, to Jan. 25, 2026, at Doosan Art Center’s Yonkang Hall. Created by writers Will Aronson and Hue Park, “Maybe Happy Ending” tells a tale of two outdated Helperbots, Oliver and Claire, who discover what it means to love and be loved, in near-future Seoul. This anniversary production not only marks a major milestone for the show but also celebrates its unprecedented journey from a Korean original to global success. As the first Korean musical co-written by a Korean writer to premiere in Korea and go on to dominate American theater’s most prestigious awards, the show occupies a singular place in Korean theater history. “To have this story continue for 10 years feels like a small miracle. We’re especially grateful to the audiences who have joined us on this journey. We hope the upcoming performances

Sep 9, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kwon Mee-yoo

Read more

As Korean literature goes global, who chooses what books get read?

Korean Art Odyssey Korea's dual mission for overseas heritage: reclaim what it can, revitalize what it can't

Korean Art Odyssey 'Hallyu!' exhibit redefines global presentation of Korean culture

Musical gala celebrates Korea Times' 75-year legacy, power of music

PHOTO K-Book Festival in London

Korean Art Odyssey How Korean art first entered Western museums

BTS’ RM urges world leaders to support creativity at APEC CEO Summit

Jennie marks Hangeul Day with new Korean font Zen Serif

Sugar-dusted Korean bestseller 'To the Moon' takes off in English edition

‘Maybe Happy Ending’ returns to Seoul in October after Broadway triumph

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