Lifestyle

Year of Tiger: Vigorous, fearless year full of adventure unfolding

Tiger / gettyimagesbankBy Park Ji-wonThe year 2022 is the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese zodiac. In Korea, the tiger has been portrayed as an animal representing a brave and fearless spirit. An apex predator, the tiger also instills both fear and awe among Koreans. The tiger is one of the two animals featured in the nation's founding myth. It revolves around a tiger and a bear that are advised to eat only mugwort and garlic for 100 days in order to become human. The impatient tiger, however, gives up on the rite of passage. Due to its symbolic significance as an animal deeply associated with Korean culture, the tiger has become the most popular animal mascot for key national events: a tiger mascots featured at both the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. “For Koreans, tigers are one of the most familiar and, at the same time, feared animals,” Cheon Jin-gi, former director of the National Folk Museum of Korea, told The Korea Times over the phone. “There are numerous folk tales with stories of tigers. The animal is represen

Book discloses presidential candidate's bad blood with brother

Lawyer Jang Young-ha points to a printout showing packs of 50,000 won bills to support his client's claim that the money was allegedly handed over to then Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung in this October 20 file photo. Jang recently released a book, “Bye! Lee Jae-myung” which tells the story of the presidential candidate and his bad blood with his older brother who passed away in 2019, years after he was diagnosed with cancer. Korea Times fileLawyer who was once close to Lee Jae-myung, releases book to discredit the DPK candidate By Kang Hyun-kyung“Bye! Lee Jae-myung,” is a book written by Jang Young-ha, a former confidant of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) presidential candidate. The book, however, was penned after Jang became Lee's bitter enemy. Officially released on Christmas Eve of all possible dates, the politically-motivated book printed by the Jiwoo publishing house has emerged as a headache for the DPK, not to mention its presidential candidate.A former judge, Jang was once close to Lee and worked for him when he ran for mayor of Seongnam

Erwin Olaf's painterly photos offer surreal commentary on human fragility

“Masonic Lodge, Dahlem,” (2012) from Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's “Berlin” series / Courtesy of the artist By Park Han-sol“I see myself as the director of one second.”The acclaimed Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf, known for his painstakingly polished and staged images that seem to sit somewhere between a painting and a photo, is a director in the truest sense of the word.Against a real-life backdrop he has scouted carefully, Olaf styles his scene down to every last detail: from delivering actors the sudden fictitious, tragic news about the loss of their mother or job, so as to “trap” the first tear they shed (“Grief” series, 2007), to bringing his own fake boulder all the way to the rocky Austrian mountains (“Im Wald” series, 2020).“There are a trillion rocks here, but Erwin must and will bring his own fake one. After all, reality is crap!” the photographer remarked with a chuckle in the behind-the-scenes documentary for his latest series.He started out as a photoj

DAILY FORTUNE - DECEMBER 31, 2021

While foreigners love Korean-style chicken, Koreans say it isn't really Korean: surveys

gettyimagesbankBy Yoon Ja-youngPeople overseas pick Korean-style fried chicken as their favorite Korean food, while more than half of the Koreans surveyed do not think it belongs in that category, according to recent polls.A survey of 1,500 Korean nationals by the Korean Food Promotion Institute shows that 63.9 percent believe that regular fried chicken is not Korean food, while 45.1 percent say that neither is marinated fried chicken. Respondents were asked whether they would consider each of thirty different kinds of food consumed here as Korean. The survey results showed that kimchi is the dish that most people (99.7 percent) consider Korean, followed by doenjang-jjigae, or soybean paste stew, at 99.3 percent, buchimgae, or savory pancakes, at 95.3 percent, japchae, or glass noodles with fried vegetables, at 94.3 percent, and gimbap, or seaweed rice rolls, at 90.8 percent. Koreans' perception of fried chicken as not Korean contrasts with another survey by the institute in which people living overseas picked fried chicken as their favorite Korean dish. In the survey conducted in Au

SUNY Korea appoints new president

By Lee Hae-rinArthur H. Lee, new president of the State University of New York (SUNY) Korea effective from Jan. 1 / Courtesy of SUNY KoreaThe State University of New York (SUNY) Korea appointed Arthur H. Lee as the new president of the institution, effective from Jan. 1, its Board of Managers announced, Tuesday.As the head of SUNY Korea, Lee will work with its home campuses in New York, including Stony Brook University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as national and local governments and authorities here.Lee has been working as provost and interim president of the institution. He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah, and an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University. “Lee is an open and collaborative leader who is focused on building a diverse, inclusive and equitable environment for faculty, staff and students,” Paul Goldbart, Stony Brook University executive vice president and provost, said in a press release. “As the president of SUNY Korea, he will be responsible for overseeing the academic and adminis

Grand Hyatt Jeju finds success during pandemic by expanding choices for customers

By Lee Hae-rinPaul Kwok, the general manager at Grand Hyatt Jeju / Courtesy of Grand Hyatt JejuTwo new skyscrapers appear in sight from an airplane descending to the tarmac on Korea's favorite vacation island of Jeju. Standing near the island's international airport is Grand Hyatt Jeju within Jeju Dream Tower, which opened in December of last year, the first urban integrated resort in the country.With some 1,600 rooms in two towers, Grand Hyatt Jeju is the second-largest Hyatt property among more than 1,100 across the globe and so far the biggest in Asia. Visited by over 1.3 million people within a year since its opening, the integrated resort has quickly become a leading tourist attraction of the island.Undeniably, Jeju Island has been the top beneficiary of the closure of international borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. But besides the advantage of the time of the opening, the key to the hotel's success lies in expanding customer choices, according to Paul Kwok, the general manager at Grand Hyatt Jeju.“Just 10 minutes away from the airport, the hotel provides guests the co

Joseon pop tantalizes US music fans

Shawn Choi, center, poses with Korean folk fusion band ADG7 in Ottawa, Canada in November during the band's North America tour. Courtesy of Shawn Choi SORI Artists' Shawn Choi brings Korean folk fusion musicians to US This article is the second in a three-part series on Joseon pop ― E.D. By Kang Hyun-kyungKorean folk fusion band Ak Dan Gwang Chil's 35-minute concert on the Seattle-based radio station, KEXP, which was released on Nov. 29, offers listeners a unique cultural experience. Created by several different traditional stringed instruments, flutes and percussion, the intense composite sound and the powerful yet restrained vocals of the female singers create a unique sound that is both colorful and highly addictive.Viewers are drawn into their masterful presentation of Korean traditional or folk music with modern twists, as the band, also known by the acronym, ADG7, performs one song after the other. Introducing the Korean band, producer and DJ Darek Mazzone, th

SeMA exhibition 'unlearns and relearns' Australia's cultural landscape

Lennard Walker's “Kulyuru” (2021) / Courtesy of the artist and Spinifex Arts ProjectBy Park Han-sol“By instructing students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education,” wrote American author and futurist Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, “Future Shock.” “Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.”Here, “unlearning” isn't about simply erasing one's previous knowledge. Rather, it points to a way of challenging and dismantling embedded beliefs, assumptions and values ― leaving room for “relearning” new, critical ideas.The new exhibition, co-curated by the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) and Artspace Sydney, becomes a platform for this cycle of learning, specifically about the cultural landscape of Australia.“Un/Learning Australia” invites 35 of the country's contemporary artists and artist collectives, including Aboriginal creators, to unlearn the previous way of reading Australia as one grand, singula

DAILY FORTUNE - DECEMBER 30, 2021