Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Actor Park Joong-hoon publishes essay book celebrating 40 years since his debut

Actor and director Park Joong-hoon, marking the 40th anniversary of his debut, will publish an essay collection, with a title that translates to “No Regrets,” on Oct. 29. According to Sayuwagonggam Publishers, “No Regrets” recounts Park’s four decades on screen, reflecting on both the hardships and triumphs that shaped his career. Throughout the book, Park shares how his guiding principle — reflect, but never regret — has influenced his journey to becoming a “national actor,” a status reserved for Korea’s most beloved performers. “Years ago, after writing a newspaper column, I received multiple offers to publish a book. Back then, I didn’t feel confident enough to write one. I used to think I would try when I turned 60, but this year I felt compelled to write. So I spent that entire summer tucked away at the foot of Daegwallyeong, writing,” he shared. Debuting in 1986 with the film “Kam-Bo,” Park went on to star in a long list of hits, including “Springtime of Mimi and Cheol-Su” (1987), “Chilsu and Mansu” (1988), “Don Quixote on Asphalt,” (1988)

Oct 17, 2025By Park Jin-hai

Actor Park Joong-hoon publishes essay book celebrating 40 years since his debut

National museum chief presents 'panoptic overview' of Korean art history in new book

In the eyes of veteran art historian You Hong-jun, the critical study of Korea’s art history remains little-known to the wider world, despite holding a significant place within the broader currents of East Asian art alongside China and Japan. This obscurity, he notes, stems from a historical wound. While the discipline of world art history began to take shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Korea was caught in the throes of imperial invasion and Japanese colonial rule, leaving it little room to cultivate sufficient scholarship of its own. Now serving as director of the National Museum of Korea (NMK), You seeks to help bridge that gap in understanding through his two latest books: “Introduction of Korean Art” and “Story of Korean Art.” Though both are written in Korean and cover similar ground, he views “Introduction of Korean Art” as a volume crafted specifically with international readers in mind. “To help foreigners without prior knowledge of Korean culture easily grasp the country’s art history, an entirely different framework was necessary,” he writes i

Oct 17, 2025By Park Han-sol

National museum chief presents 'panoptic overview' of Korean art history in new book

ReviewLife more dramatic than fiction: Writing contest winner shares story of resilience

“I couldn’t tell anyone I was pregnant,” wrote Cha Ea-kyoung, now 58, recalling one of the most harrowing moments of her life in her autobiographical essay, "A Teenage Mom’s Courageous Struggle in Tumultuous Life." "My mom’s business had failed and she was constantly on the run from loan sharks. Telling a friend wouldn’t have made any difference… Then, one sunny spring day in my senior year of high school, I suddenly blacked out. It happened right after I picked up the paperwork I needed to get my ID card." Despite having no formal writing background, Cha’s powerful life story found a spotlight on Brunch, an online platform for aspiring authors. Operated by Kakao, the platform periodically selects standout works to help publish, providing an opportunity for non-professional writers to reach a wider audience. Cha’s essay was one of the winners in the platform’s 12th Brunch Book Project, chosen from more than 10,000 entries. Early motherhood Her family’s hostility meant Cha and her partner had to stay strong and go it alone. They cut ties with their families for the mo

Oct 14, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

Life more dramatic than fiction: Writing contest winner shares story of resilience

BOOK REVIEW 2nd sequel of 'Banned Book Club' explores trauma, spiritual healing, life under dictatorship

Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada are back with the third book in their "Banned Book Club" series, a semi-autobiographical story set in Korea's authoritarian 1980s that, in an ironic twist, has been subject to modern-day book bans in the United States. After releasing the second book in the series, "No Rules Tonight," last year, "Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit" proves the project's sizeable audience across national borders and generations. Although the title doesn't offer quite the bold mission statements that "Banned Book Club" and "No Rules Tonight" provided, this graphic novel also takes a good, hard look at how social trust is broken down by authoritarianism, and just as importantly, how it can be regained. Anarchy, queer love and traditional Korean spirituality are all on display, but at its heart, the book is a screwball comedy with blueprints for overcoming modern-day political crises. After a snappy, entertaining "We're putting the band back together" sequence that serves as a handy reintroduction of the main characters, the story pairs them off narratively, if not romantically.

Oct 7, 2025By Jon Dunbar

[BOOK REVIEW] 2nd sequel of 'Banned Book Club' explores trauma, spiritual healing, life under dictatorship

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

'Trend Korea 2026' predicts human expertise, not AI, will shape future

Artificial intelligence (AI) has stepped into the center of human affairs. The seismic rise of generative AI has already begun to reshape the workplace, the classroom, the halls of politics and even the fabric of culture itself. In its wake, an age-old question stirs anew: What role do humans still occupy? Two years ago, Kim Ran-do, professor emeritus of consumer science at Seoul National University, offered his own answer. He coined the neologism “Homo Promptus” to describe individuals adept at strategically harnessing AI through the art of prompt-writing and engineering, while reserving for themselves the final judgment over its output. With the release of his latest annual book, “Trend Korea 2026,” Kim has distilled his vision into a new keyword: “Human-in-the-Loop.” The question of AI no longer lies simply in whether one can wield it or not — that threshold has long been crossed. What is unfolding now, he argues, is a “widening rift” in the quality of what humans create with AI. “When we look closely at the work born with AI’s help, the difference is not merely i

Sep 24, 2025By Park Han-sol

'Trend Korea 2026' predicts human expertise, not AI, will shape future

‘8 out of 10 female trainees stop menstruating’: new book reveals dark side of K-pop

A new investigative book is shining a spotlight on the hidden realities of K-pop, revealing how the industry’s globally celebrated system exacts a heavy toll on young performers. The book, “K-pop, Idols in Wonderland,” is written by journalist Jeon Da-hyeon and examines the structural contradictions of Korea’s idol-making system. It draws on interviews with more than 40 insiders, including trainees, idols, producers, agency heads, critics, lawyers, lawmakers and fans. The hidden cost of K-pop’s global success At first glance, the system resembles a rigorous arts education — selecting talented youth early, providing training in singing, dancing and stage performance, and managing them under tightly organized programs. But Jeon argues that beneath the polish lies an exploitative structure. The book points to similarities between idol training and authoritarian cultural institutions, such as North Korea’s Moranbong Band recruitment process. Unlike communist states that lack the maturity to produce global cultural products, Korea’s model functions by confining minors within a

Sep 20, 2025By Hankookilbo

‘8 out of 10 female trainees stop menstruating’: new book reveals dark side of K-pop

Sci-fi writer Kim Cho-yeop explores limits of coexistence at Seoul International Writers’ Festival

Two award-winning science-fiction writers, Korea’s Kim Cho-yeop and America’s Sarah Pinsker, delved into the uncomfortable, often contradictory realities of coexistence, truth and imagination during a book talk as part of the Seoul International Writers’ Festival, Sunday. Kim, one of Korea’s most prominent science fiction writers, imagined dispatchers exploring an Earth blanketed in cosmic dust and encountering humans struggling under attacks from spores born of that dust in her 2023 novel, “Ground Explorers.” The book is yet to be translated into English. Asked about her views on coexistence with others, Kim described it as neither idealized nor easy. “Far from being beautiful, peaceful or soft, coexistence can be quite violent and unpleasant,” she said. “But whether we coexist or not is not a matter of choice. We just have to live together and deal with it. And that’s the bottom line in the story.” Kim made her literary debut in 2017 with “If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light,” a bestselling short story collection that won her the Galaxy Award for Most Popula

Sep 15, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

Sci-fi writer Kim Cho-yeop explores limits of coexistence at Seoul International Writers’ Festival

'Everybody has a story to tell': Irish author Sinead Moriarty inspires Seoul readers

Are you an avid reader who dreams of writing but doesn’t know where to begin? Renowned Irish author Sinead Moriarty has simple advice: “Everybody has a story to tell. so just write. I mean just sit down and just see what comes out. You don't have to have a big plan. You don't have to have an amazing original fantastical idea. Just write what you're interested in saying and you will be amazed what comes out. It's just about exercising the creative muscle.” She also offered a practical tip: “When you wake up and you're still not fully awake — you're still kind of a little bit asleep — just sit down and write and just see what comes out because you don't have time to think about it or process it and that can be a great way to start. That's an exercise that lots of people do when they're starting to write." Moriarty is in Seoul this weekend at the invitation of the Embassy of Ireland in Korea, which co-hosts an annual book talk for Irish authors at the Seoul Metropolitan Library. Alan Nolan, another Irish author who writes children’s books, was invited as well. Many in the aud

Sep 13, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

'Everybody has a story to tell': Irish author Sinead Moriarty inspires Seoul readers

Why novelist Yan Lianke chooses anxiety over sleep

For Yan Lianke — the Chinese novelist whose searing satires of modern China have been both banned at home and celebrated abroad — being a writer is to live under a constant weight of unease. “It is anxiety that makes you swallow sleeping pills night after night. It’s a torment,” he said at a press conference in Seoul Thursday, on the eve of his scheduled appearance at this year’s Seoul International Writers’ Festival (SIWF). “I wouldn’t recommend surrendering peaceful nights to sleepless anxiety just for literature.” Yet the Franz Kafka Prize-winning author has chosen that path for himself. What power does literature hold that makes it worth giving up his tranquil slumber? “The experience of a writer, of any one person, is always limited. And yet from these limits we try to reach toward the limitless,” he said. “The truth of literature lies not only in what can be seen and touched, but also in what remains unseen: a truth that withholds itself, a truth that in its very unreality still feels real and a truth veiled in mystery.” For Yan, writing means transformin

Sep 11, 2025By Park Han-sol

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