Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Book chronicles legendary pop music artists

Seo Taiji and Boys perform during their debut on MBC's talent show in April 1992. Korea Times file 'The Dance' rebuffs popular discourse about K-pop's progenitors By Kang Hyun-kyungA brief conversation between U.S. actress Emma Stone and talk show host Conan O'Brien in July 2015, which aired on TBS, gives a sneak peek into Americans' perception about Korean pop music, suggesting that K-pop was barely known to the U.S. public until very recently.When Stone said that K-pop was her latest obsession, O'Brien reacted with the witty comment, “There're some people who think you're talking about a weird drug.” As their conversation suggests, back in 2015, merely six years ago, K-pop was an unfamiliar, strange thing that many Americans were not aware of. Since the meteoric rise of the South Korean boy band BTS, there has been a media frenzy to examine the making of the global K-pop sensation, along with the people who are credited with taking musical artists of the once obsc

May 19, 2021By Kang Hyun-kyung

Book chronicles legendary pop music artists

INTERVIEW Comic artist Won Soo-yeon talks about reprint of 'Full House' manhwa

Comic artist Won Soo-yeon poses during an interview in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Rockin' KoreaBy Park Ji-wonWebtoons are now the most popular way to read comic books in Korea. But back in the 1990s and the early 2000s, there were only printed comics, called “manhwa” in Korean, targeting female teens and women in their 20s, largely focused on romance. That genre of comics was called “sunjeong manhwa.” “Sunjeong” means “pure love” in Korean. Other comics about war, sports and action targeted male teenagers and men in their 20s. There were many weekly magazines and artists publishing romance comics at that time, and the genre became so popular that those days are referred to as the “golden age of sunjeong manhwa.”During those days, comics started being turned into movies and TV dramas. The comic series, “We Saw the Bird Lost in the Middle of the Road” (1986, rough translation), written and illustrated by Hwang Mi-na, was first adapted into a TV drama series in 1999. But it was the comic series, “Full House&

May 18, 2021By Park Ji-won

[INTERVIEW] Comic artist Won Soo-yeon talks about reprint of 'Full House' manhwa

Culture ministry appoints poet Kwak Hyo-hwan as new LTI Korea president

By Kwak Yeon-sooKwak Hyo-hwan, the newly-appointed president of LTI Korea / Courtesy of Moonji Publishing CompanyKwak Hyo-hwan, a poet and executive director of the Daesan Foundation, was appointed as the new president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), Friday.The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that the 54-year-old poet will lead for the next three years the government-affiliated organization that promotes Korean literature overseas.Kwak earned a bachelor's degree from Konkuk University and a doctorate in Korean literature at Korea University.He started his literary career in 1996, publishing “The Cat in the Mural 3” in the Segye Ilbo, followed by a handful of poetry collections including, “The Indio Woman” (2006), “The House Not Found on a Map” (2010), “The Frame of Sorrow” (2014) and “You Are” (2018).He previously served as executive director of the Daesan Foundation, where he organized various events aiming to promote cultural exchanges between Korean writers and distinguished

May 14, 2021By Kwak Yeon-soo

Culture ministry appoints poet Kwak Hyo-hwan as new LTI Korea president

Sci-fi thriller calls for emancipating humanoid robots

gettyimagesbank'A Human Court' asks if robots can be triedBy Kang Hyun-kyungAuthor and lawyer Cho Kwang-hee was picky about his food when he was a child. He hated eating meat. He eventually developed a taste for meat thanks to his persuasive parents, who patiently taught him about the importance of eating a balanced meal. But the little boy couldn't stand the abuse that animals suffered before ending up on people's dinner tables. Whenever he saw neighbors or merchants in a nearby market abusing or slaughtering animals, Cho said that the cruel scenes continued to linger in his mind and traumatized his innocent young soul.Cho's concern for humans abusing the rights of animals developed into a disgust toward society's ignorance of the mutually beneficial coexistence between humans and other living things on Earth.In his recent sci-fi thriller novel, “A Human Court,” released by local publisher Sol, Cho addresses his concern about the possible consequences humans may face if their ravage and greed are undeterred. Indeed, technology could turn its back on humans. “A Huma

May 4, 2021By Kang Hyun-kyung

Sci-fi thriller calls for emancipating humanoid robots

Book review: Time travel journey to save loved one becomes humanist exploration

"Then, and There" by Lee Kyung-hee / Courtesy of SafehouseBy Park Han-solAuthor Lee Kyung-hee / Courtesy of Lee Kyung-heeThe desire to go back in time and change the past has never been limited to a specific group of people. To some, the feeling becomes so powerful that they become stuck in an endless cycle of regrets about the words they shouldn't have uttered then or the things they should've done differently there. This is no exception for Hae-mi and Da-mi, who are sisters living in Seoul in the year 2045, in Lee Kyung-hee's new book “Then, and There.” One summer two decades ago, a family trip to Haeundae, Busan, turned into a nightmare when the two lost their mother Jin Soo-ah in a nuclear disaster that occurred at a nearby power plant.Since then, the sisters have suffered for two decades in an agonizing entanglement of longing, guilt and self-hatred. Although Hae-mi chose to become a rescue diver to prevent tragedies from happening to other families, her constant encounters with others' dying only serves to remind her of her own trauma. One day, the two are given a c

Apr 27, 2021By Park Han-sol

Book review: Time travel journey to save loved one becomes humanist exploration

INTERVIEW Kim Ki-chang: 'The climate crisis has already brought us halfway to an apocalyptic society'

Kim Ki-chang's new short story collection in the climate fiction genre, "Love in the Time of Climate Change," was published on April 2. Courtesy of Minumsa Kim Ki-chang, author of “Love in the Time of Climate Change,” pushes readers to feel climate crisis' effects By Ko Dong-hwanNovelist Kim Ki-chang believes that the world today is anything but predictable because of all the extreme weather phenomena around the planet ― collectively known as the “climate crisis.” Our daily lives, he says, are instead irregular, risky and unstable. He doesn't have to single out a particular event to recognize that the climate crisis is already here. He can now feel it almost naturally on a daily basis. He expressed it in his latest work, “Love in the Time of Climate Change,” with phrases like “hot winter,” “chilly spring,” or elaborated out to a grimmer degree in: “Sophie blocking her ears to stop hearing her skin being grilled under the sun,” or “getting sunburnt under the morning

Apr 22, 2021By Ko Dong-hwan

[INTERVIEW] Kim Ki-chang: 'The climate crisis has already brought us halfway to an apocalyptic society'

'Please Look After Mom' author's new novel set for US release

Author Shin Kyung-sook speaks about her new book “I Had Gone to My Father” at a press conference, March 3. Courtesy of Changbi PublishersA new novel by Shin Kyung-sook, the author of the Korean bestseller “Please Look After Mom,” will be translated and published in the United States, her publisher said Wednesday.Shin recently signed a contract to publish the English version of her novel whose title roughly translates to “I Had Gone to My Father” with U.S. publishing house Astra through literary agency KL Management, according to Changbi Publishers.Shin's new novel, her eighth novel and first published novel in 11 years, centers on a father whose life goes through the ups and downs of the country's modern history. After losing his parents at the age of 14 due to an infectious disease, he fights in the war as a teenager and faces democracy movements after moving to Seoul.Last month, the writer made her first public appearance in years since 2015, when she was accused of copying passages from the Korean translation of “Patriotism” (1961) b

Apr 21, 2021

'Please Look After Mom' author's new novel set for US release

Trucker saddened by tragic fate of bird he cared for

Swan goose captured by photojournalist Kim Jin-su / Courtesy of Kim Jin-suPhoto journalist releases bird watching book, delves into bond between humans and birds By Kang Hyun-kyungOne day, a truck driver based in Danyang County, North Chungcheong Province, saw a redstart flying in and out of a small hole created in a broken bumper of a truck left in the playground of an abandoned elementary school.Out of curiosity, he peered into the hole and discovered a nest the bird had built. And there were eight eggs inside!Feeling the urge to protect them, the truck driver quit his day job and looked after the redstart, so the bird could incubate the eggs and leave the nest after the chicks grew up.The trucker, who identified himself as “Mr. Bear,” made a sign for the bird family, “A House of Redstart Family,” and put another watch-out sign underneath it. It read: “Do Not Open the Door of the Truck. A Redstart Is Incubating Eggs. Be Quiet!”The redstart successfully incubated eight eggs, thanks to the trucker's month-long protection.But the family of birds did

Apr 18, 2021By Kang Hyun-kyung

Trucker saddened by tragic fate of bird he cared for

Lives of transgender authors captured in graphic novels

Characters of trans authors Cheyenne and Mallang / Courtesy of Kumkun BooksBy Park Han-solTwo trans Korean authors, who go by the aliases Cheyenne and Mallang, first came into contact with each other two years ago after Mallang discovered Cheyenne's comics depicting a visual journey of the lives and troubles of transgender people.Last December, this newly forged friendship materialized into a collaboration of autobiographical cartoons delivering their words of comfort for others who are currently experiencing what they have gone through in the country where the LGBTQ discrimination still remains pervasive.“I wanted to inform, move and comfort the trans teens who can't easily obtain accurate information about transitioning as well as those who are forced to conceal their gender identity as a closeted individual similar to my past self,” author Mallang told The Korea Times in a recent joint interview with Cheyenne.As the transgender community often suffers from a lack of accurate gender-related information, misconceptions and abusive caricatured media portrayals, the two wa

Apr 16, 2021By Park Han-sol

Lives of transgender authors captured in graphic novels

US writer traverses Korea collecting important stories old and new

Richard Pennington stands at the cemetery for British sailors, who illegally occupied Geomundo Island from 1885 to 1887, in this July 2018 photo. Courtesy of Richard PenningtonBy Park Han-sol"Travels of an American-Korean, 2014-2020' by Richard Pennington / Courtesy of Jisik GonggamThe rattling bus and ferry rides; searches for cheap accommodation of varying quality; countless chance encounters turning into newly forged friendships despite the language barrier ― such descriptions could be seen as cliche-ridden characterizations of any travelogue composed by an enthusiastic backpacker.But the Texas-born writer Richard Pennington takes one step further in his latest book “Travels of an American-Korean, 2014-2020” as he fills the pages with his 85 trips taken across the southern part of the peninsula during a seven-year period with political, cultural and religious anecdotes carefully told from the perspective of a sympathetic outsider.The book is in fact the second part of his “Travels of an American-Korean” series, followed by his earlier chronicle of 91 journe

Apr 6, 2021By Park Han-sol

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