Lifestyle

National museums hold tiger-themed exhibitions

“Wolhasongnimhojokdo” a painting depicting tigers passing through pine trees from the 19th century of the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom / Courtesy of National Museum of KoreaBy Park Ji-wonTwo national museums are holding hybrid exhibitions with a tiger theme to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and show how the animal has been viewed by Koreans in the past and present.The National Museum of Korea (NMK) has been hosting the exhibition “Tiger Arts I” starting Dec. 29, in which 18 paintings, including “Yonghodo,” meaning a panting featuring a dragon and tiger, mainly painted in the Joseon era (1392-1910) are being showcased. The exhibition will run through May 1.“Yonghodo,” which is considered to have been made in the 19th century, portrays the tension between tigers, which try to protect Yeouiju, or magic stone, and a blue dragon that tries to steal it from a mountain. The two animals are common subjects of folk paintings and talismans. “Hojakdo,” a painting of tiger and magpie, “Wolhasongnimhojokdo,” a painting depicting

DAILY FORTUNE - JANUARY 05, 2022

Foreign travelers to Korea expected to be below 1 million in 2021

A man looks at the decorations for the coming 2022 Year on New Year's Eve in Seoul, Dec. 31. AP-YonhapThe number of foreign tourists who visited South Korea last year is expected to have fallen below the 1 million mark due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.The data from the state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) showed 877,000 foreigners visited the country from January to November, down 64.3 percent from a year earlier.Considering that only 94,000 foreigners visited the country in November, it is certain the yearly tally of foreign tourist arrivals fell below 1 million for the first time since 1984 when data began to be compiled in 1984. The previous low was 129,700 recorded that year.The slump was attributed to strict travel restrictions imposed by countries around the world as the pandemic continued for nearly two years.Tourists from China nose-dived 76.6 percent on-year to 159,000 in the 11-month period, with those from Japan tumbling 96.7 percent to 14,000 from a year earlier. In comparison, 5,514,000 tourists came to visit Korea from China during the same period in 2019.Th

INTERVIEW Joseon pop's fanbase in the making

Bill Bragin, co-founder and co-drector of the globalFEST world music festival and executive artistic director of the Arts Center at New York University in Abu Dhabi / Photo by Waleed Shah  GlobalFEST co-founder Bill Bragin discusses Korean folk fusion bands and how the world music festival helped them become visible in North AmericaThis article is the third and last in a three-part series on Joseon pop ― ED. By Kang Hyun-kyung Bill Bragin, co-founder and co-director of the globalFEST world music festival held every year in New York, has witnessed some Korean folk fusion bands gaining a foothold in the United States. “I have seen audiences respond with a great deal of enthusiasm, both at festivals like Roskilde where I saw Black String as well as nightclubs in the United States like Joe's Pub, the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center and of course globalFEST, where SsingSsing and ADG7 both had ecstatic receptions,” he told The Korea Times. “We saw how that also translated to video performances on NPR Tiny Desk and elsewhere.”Bragin, also executiv

Koreans drawn to unhealthy bread

gettyimagesbank By Yoon Ja-youngWhile Koreans are increasing their consumption of bread, they seem to be drawn too often to “unhealthy” types rather than healthy ones, according to a research paper that especially warned against Ang-Butter and croissants.A research team led by Kim Byung-hee, a professor at the Department of Food and Nutrition of Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, analyzed the fat, sugar and sodium content of 13 types of commonly consumed bakery items in Korea. Among them, nine including sweet red bean bread, croissants, plain bread, castella (Japanese sponge cake), muffins and choux cream pastries were on the government's list of 728 “key foods,” while the remaining four were frequently searched for by consumers using online search engines. They include “mammoth bread,” or a sweet bun with a streusel-like crust stuffed with jam and Ang-Butter, which has layers of sweet red bean paste and chunks of butter in between. The research noted that the r

DAILY FORTUNE - JANUARY 04, 2022

INTERVIEW Be prepared for spike in hallyu tourists after pandemic: culture minister

Culture Minister Hwang Hee / Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and TourismCulture Minister Hwang Hee vows to upgrade infrastructure to prepare for post-pandemic tourism boomBy Kwak Yeon-sooCulture Minister Hwang Hee had firsthand experiences of the ever-growing influence of hallyu, or the Korean wave, during a recent trip to France. Some of them were so surreal that he couldn't believe his eyes. Reflecting on his visit to a “Squid Game” pop-up store and meeting with K-pop fans at Kick (“K-pop is for cool kids”) Cafe, a concept cafe in Paris for people who enjoy popular Korean music, he said that what he saw was “jaw-dropping.”“Although it was raining, visitors were waiting in a long queue outside the store that sells Squid Game merchandize. The line of people waiting to get in wrapped around the building at least twice!” the soft-spoken minister said with excitement during a recent interview with The Korea Times. “It's not just the drama that's become a breakthrough hit. When a Korean-language class of 40 students opened at

Performing arts revenue nearly doubled last year from 2020

A scene from the French original musical, “Notre Dame de Paris,” during a press conference at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Nov. 18. Courtesy of Mast EntertainmentBy Park Ji-wonThe Korean performance market posted a total of 307.1 billion ($258.3 million) in sales last year, 1.8 times more than that of the year 2020, or 107.2 billion won, according to data from the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System (KOPIS), Sunday.The figures improved after the government introduced eased social distancing measures in February, allowing customers to leave one seat empty between each customer group, which worked positively for sales. Before the modification, members of the audience had to leave one seat between one another, meaning that theaters were only able to sell less than 70 percent of the total seats.By month, the change gradually boosted sales as time passed, from 3.7 billion won in January of 2021, the lowest month, to 52.4 billion won in December, which is 48 times larger than that of December 2020.By genre, musicals were the most popular performing

DAILY FORTUNE - JANUARY 03, 2022

Jeju's three female divers named independence fighters by patriots ministry

Portraits of Bu Chun-hwa, far left, Kim Ok-ryeon and Bu Deok-ryang / Courtesy of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans AffairsBy Park Han-solThree “haenyeo,” or women divers of Jeju Island, who led the key resistance movement during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial occupation, were selected as the “Independence Fighters of the Month” of January 2022, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) announced Friday.This is the first time the ministry has named the Jeju islanders as independence fighters as part of its monthly designation project, which began in 1992.In the early 1930s, Bu Chun-hwa, Kim Ok-ryeon and Bu Deok-ryang led what came to be the country's largest civil protest ever organized by women against the Japanese forces. Joined by some 17,000 participants, part of the movement's aim was to address the colonial government's economic exploitation of marine resources and labor.All born in Gujwa-eup on the island, the three women started their lives as haenyeo at an early age, between 9 and 15, to help put food on the table for their families.But w