Korea Times K-Culture Reporter
I am covering trend, food and fashion. Previously, I covered diplomacy, city, environment and unification.
A member of the Taekwondo performance team of South Chungcheon Province carries a torch for the 1ooth National Sports Festival (Oct. 4 to 10) and the 39th Para Games (Oct. 15 to 19) at a local market in the province's Cheonan. The market is a historical site where the 1919 Independence Movement began. Yonhap
Chung Da-woon in her cafe/ Courtesy of Chung Da-woon By Kim Se-jeongFor Chung Da-woon, the Bottle Factory cafe located in Seodaemun in Seoul, is a dream in the making. A former packaging designer for LG Electronics, Chung, 39, wants cafes free of disposable cups and is trying to fulfill her dream.“Packaging design was fun but all were thrown away at the end. In back of my head, I had always hoped materials that were used for packaging could be reduced and well recycled,” Chung said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. The rules of her cafe are simple.Those who stay are served in glass or pottery cups. Those who take out their drinks can do so only in tumblers provided by the cafe. The customers do not have to pay anything to take out the tumbler, but should return it. To those who come to her cafe often, she encourages them to be a cafe member so that they can have their own tumbler for take-out drinks. To date, she has a little more than 100 members. Bot
Kim Hyun-sub competes at the IAAF Racewalking Challenge in China in May 2017. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Athletic ClubBy Kim Se-jeongDuring the 2011 Daegu World Athletics Championships, racewalker Kim Hyun-sub finished sixth in the men's 20-kilometer race. Among the five athletes ahead of him, three were Russians. In 2016, five years later, two Russian athletes, gold and silver medalists at the worlds, were stripped of their medals due to doping charges and the 35-year-old Korean racewalker was lifted to fourth place. Last month, Kim was again notified that he would now become the bronze medalist as the third-placed Russian athlete was also confirmed to have taken a banned performance-enhancing substance. The new development made Kim the first South Korean racewalker ever to win a world championship medal. He will receive the overdue bronze medal later this month in Doha, Qatar, where the World Athletic Championships will take place.“I am happy that I am in the third place. But I wish this had happened during the championships because the game took place in Korea and I c
“The Biggest Lie: I am Happy to be a Woman” by Shin Joong-sun / Courtesy of Shin Joong-sunAuthor delves into what's inside in most marginalized sexual victims' mindsBy Kim Se-jeongThe #MeToo movement, which swept Korea last year and brought down several prominent figures, revealed the dysfunctional side of Korea, particularly in relationships between men and women. Yet, there are still many victims who were not courageous enough to blow the whistle and testify openly about what they went through. They can't even dare to confront their assailants partly because they are too close to them and their revelations could deal a serious blow to other family members. These women are victimized by their fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins and boyfriends.Shin Joong-sun's award-winning book, “The Biggest Lie: I am Happy to Live as a Woman,” tells the stories of women who fall victim to sexual abuse but are forced to stay quiet, instead of speaking out and getting justice. The book, written in Korean, comprises of seven fictional stories, with each story highlighting tragic
Sibylle Schoenemann / Korea Times photo by Kim Se-jeongBy Kim Se-jeong Sibylle Schoenemann, 65, a German film director, spent eight months in an East German prison in 1984 without knowing exactly why she was put behind the bars. Decades later, instead of trying to forget the horrendous experience and move on, the director chose to face it, find out what happened and do something about it. “All the people who suffered and lost families are wounded people inside and they have no idea about what's going to happen to them,” the director said during an interview The Korea Times last week in Seoul. “One had to find a way to forgive. And I hoped [to do so] by telling this story, confronting people and asking them [interrogators and judges], What did you do? Didn't you see what you were doing?”The film “Locked Up Time” (1991) was screened last weekend in Seoul. The traumatic memory is still vivid to Schoenemann even though several decades have passed since she was falsely imprisoned in East Germany.She was born in East Germany and an aspiring film director
A Still cut from the film “Locked Up Time” /Courtesy of DEFA Stiftung and Michael Loewenberg. By Kim Se-jeongThe Goethe-Institute Korea will feature 13 female German film directors who made themselves stand out during periods of political turmoil at a film screening event from Aug. 20 to Sept.1 at the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) in Seoul. KOFA is the co-organizer of the event. Twelve films, including documentaries, were chosen for the occasion. They were filmed between 1968 and 1999, a period when Germany was divided between the democratic West and communist East and reunified in 1990. The political situation affected the female directors in one way or the other and their professional and personal experiences are reflected in their works.In the documentary “Locked Up Time (1991)”, for example, director Sibylle Schoenemann investigates what happened when she was detained in 1984 in East Berlin after applying for a permit to move into Hamburg in West Germany. She attempts to find the reason for her detention, visiting the priso
A night view of Oil Tank Culture Park in Seoul / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan GovernmentBy Kim Se-jeongOil Tank Culture Park in western Seoul will offer special summer activities on Aug. 9 and 10 for those looking for respite from the summer heat.The park has two outdoor inflatable swimming pools that are currently open until 6 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday through Aug. 18, but hours will be extended until 10 p.m. on Aug. 9 and 10. People can also bring their own inflatable pools and fill them with water at the park, according to park officials.Two films will be screened at the plaza, offering visitors a chance to watch movies while playing in the water. On Aug. 9 “Jaws” (1975) will be shown and on Aug. 10, “E.T.” (1982). The screenings will start at 8 p.m. and be open for free to anyone interested, but “Jaws” is rated PG-13. Popsicles will be given to the first 100 visitors to the cinema each day. The majority of the audience members are expected to sit in the water but the park officials said there will be dry seats as well. The park will also of
Maddox Jolie-Pitt, right, with his mother Angelina Jolie and siblings. / AP-YonhapBy Kim Se-jeong Hollywood star Angelina Jolie's eldest son Maddox Jolie-Pitt will start classes at Yonsei University in September, the school confirmed, Tuesday.The confirmation followed a report in People magazine the previous day.According to the university's communication office, Jolie-Pitt, 18, has been admitted to the Underwood International College to study life science and biotechnology. The lectures there are given in English.He will spend his first year at the university's Songdo campus along with his classmates, according to the school.The son and mother toured Yonsei last November when she came here as a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, raising speculation that he would enroll at Yonsei. Jolie-Pitt is the Hollywood star's adopted son from Cambodia and is said to be a big K-pop fan. According to the magazine, Jolie-Pitt is still in the U.S. getting ready to move to Korea and studying the Korean language intensively to prepare for his stay in Korea. The magazi
By Kim Se-jeong The nation’s largest labor umbrella union is expected to withdraw from the labor, management and government agreement on labor reforms.Officials from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), one of the negotiators of the tripartite deal, said it plans to do this to protest the government-led guidelines about layoffs and changes in employment rules.The FKTU, a relatively dovish labor group, is expected join another umbrella union, the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).The move will deal another serious blow to the Park Geun-hye administration, which has long called for the passage of a pending labor reform bill at the National Assembly as a cure-all for the nation’s many problems.FKTU leaders will meet this week to discuss whether to cancel the agreement. FKTU chief Kim Dong-man, who pushed the deal through despite internal opposition in September, is expected to declare an end to the deal. “The government and management have made no efforts to deliver on their promises made during the negotiations,” Kim said i
Gil Won-ok, front, and Lee Yong-soo, two victims of sexual slavery by Japan during World War II, listen to a speaker during the weekly rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Kim Se-jeongA statue of a girl symbolizing a Korean sexual slavery victim in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, Wednesday./ Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukChilly weather could not discourage angry former sex slaves and activists from criticizing the agreement between Korea and Japan over the sexual slavery issue.At least 600 people took part in the “Wednesday rally,” a weekly event in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul since 1992, showing their support for continuing the campaign.It was the first rally after the agreement was made Monday.Yoon Mee-hyang, head of the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, which organizes the weekly rally, said she was disappointed, adding the agreement made the 24 years of her organization’s work amount to nothing.“But I am undeterred by this,” she sai