Lifestyle - The Korea Times

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

Why novelist Yan Lianke chooses anxiety over sleep

LTI Korea connects Korean literature, global publishers

Despite rising global interest in Korean literature, connecting with foreign publishers remains a big challenge for local publishers, particularly for small and medium-sized presses. That’s where the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) steps in. Its K-Literature Fellowship 2025, happening through Thursday, demonstrates its ongoing efforts to support Korean publishers in introducing their titles abroad and facilitating international copyright sales. On Tuesday at Coex Magok in western Seoul, 18 translators of Korean literature into English took the stage one by one. Each presented a synopsis of a work they hope to fully translate, introduced the author and spoke briefly about themselves. The authors highlighted included Jeong You-jeong, author of “Seven Years of Darkness” (2011) and “The Good Son” (2016); Choi Eun-young, who wrote “Shoko’s Smile” (2016); Kim Soom, author of “One Left” (2020); and Sung Hae-na, who wrote “Summer Left Behind” (2023). Among the translators were Joheun Lee, Sung Ryu, Lisa Kim, Kim Soyoung, Lee Kyung Min, Snigdha Gupta,

Sep 10, 2025By Kim Se-jeong

LTI Korea connects Korean literature, global publishers

Rare Joseon woodblock recognized as early manhwa added to comics archive

Rare historical artifacts tracing the origins of Korean comics, including a 17th century Joseon-era woodblock print widely regarded as a precursor to modern manhwa, have been acquired by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON). KOMACON announced Tuesday that it has secured “Uiyeoldo,” a woodblock print produced in the 1600s, as part of a 636-piece collection deemed crucial to understanding the early development of Korean comics. The acquisition also includes original manuscripts by the late master cartoonist Kim Jong-rae (1927-2001), obtained through purchases and auctions. “Uiyeoldo” was printed in Seonsan, in what is now North Gyeongsang Province, during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to promote the values of loyalty and faith to the public. It features stories with illustrations such as the tale of a loyal ox that saved its owner from a tiger. Each illustration includes a description and the names of the characters, leading many to regard it as the first known Korean comic. The acquisition also includes the late cartoonist Kim’

Sep 9, 2025By Baek Byung-yeul

Rare Joseon woodblock recognized as early manhwa added to comics archive

REVIEW 'Victory in Shanghai' chronicles unsung epic of Korean American family

No more than a month after Japan’s defeat in World War II, a team of 10 men representing every U.S. intelligence organization in China arrived in Japanese-occupied Shanghai to evacuate "the last living remnants of colonialism…and return the city to an independent and free China. "One man stood out from the others for an obvious reason: he was the only Asian among them. His name was Peter Kim," reads a newly published book, "Victory in Shanghai: A Korean American Family’s Journey to the CIA and the Army Special Forces." "No one could have imagined then that eventually Peter Kim’s name would be acclaimed in the halls of the U.S. Congress," the passage continues, "and that his actions in Shanghai in August 1945 would help win his entire family’s admission to the United States [and] that the Kims would become a founding family of modern U.S. intelligence and special operations…” Thus begins one of the most fascinating life stories in Korean American history that has come to my attention, a story recounted in "Victory in Shanghai," for which author Robert S. Kim (no relation to

Sep 6, 2025By Bruce Fulton

[REVIEW] 'Victory in Shanghai' chronicles unsung epic of Korean American family

REVIEW Julie Lee's novel remembers migration during Korean War

The 1950-53 Korean War is arguably the least-remembered of wars that involved the U.S., and in both academia and the popular imagination it is sometimes called the "Forgotten War." Commencing not quite two years after the division of the Korean Peninsula into the South and North in August and September 1948, respectively, the war claimed the lives of millions of combatants and civilians alike, as well as prompting migration of countless refugees from North to South, most of them never again to see family members who remained in the North. "Brother’s Keeper" by Julie Lee is a fictional account of one such journey, based on the author’s mother. The novel opens in a mountainous village 50 miles north of Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, on the evening of June 25, 1950. The schools have closed until further notice and 12-year-old Pak Sora and her 8-year-old brother Youngsoo are having dinner with their parents and a neighbor couple. The neighbors wish to escape to the South, knowing that their privileged background will render them vulnerable to the North's staunchly anti-elite ideol

Sep 5, 2025By Bruce Fulton

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