Global Community

(1745) Health and obesity (I)

RASKB lecturer consults zodiac

By Jon DunbarMaija Rhee Devine, an author and Korea Times columnist, will lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch next Tuesday on how the Chinese zodiac affects women. As the Year of the Yellow Dog approaches, Rhee looks at how zodiac traditions and myths exert power over people and create various social phenomena. She points to the dramatically fluctuating birthrate, as “inauspicious” years see an increase of abortions of female fetuses, such as the horse years of 1978 and 1990. Women born in those years are said to be independent, high-energy and impatient, traits traditionally undesirable in women. Rhee says the Year of the Dog, Feb. 16 to Feb. 4, 2019, seems favorable to female births. “But birth year alone may not cut it. The birth hour is considered to be the key determinant. If expectant parents take zodiac signs seriously, they must accurately predict the month, day, even the hour of their girl babies' arrival,” Rhee cautioned. “Such complicated beliefs may cause one's eyes to roll.” The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Jan.

(1743) The homeless (I)

(1744) The homeless (II)

(1742) Sexual discrimination

Foreign population jumps to 2.18 million

By Park Si-soo South Korea has 2.18 million foreign residents, Ministry of Justice data showed on Thursday. This is 4.21 percent of the nation’s population of 51.78 million as of December. Chinese make up 46.7 percent, or 1.018 million, of the residents, followed by Vietnamese (169,738), Thais (153,259), Americans (143,568), Uzbeks (62,870) and Filipinos (58,480).Nearly 72 percent of the population, or 1.583 million, are categorized as “long-term residents” who have stayed here for more than 90 days. And 65.2 percent of long-term residents live in Seoul or surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the combined number of inbound and outbound travelers exceeded 80 million for the first time in 2017. It was up 0.5 percent from 79.98 million in 2017 and nearly a twofold increase from 42.98 million in 2010. South Korean nationals made up more than half at 53.44 million, up 17.9 percent from 45.31 million in 2016. Foreign travelers shrunk to 26.96 million in 2017 from 34.67 million in 2016, which could be blamed on the THAAD missile defense system dispute with China, the biggest sour

(1741) Not event one bit, not at all

Enjoy Grand Korea Sale

Foreign shoppers look around the main event center of the 2018 Korea Grand Sale during the opening of the annual event at the Dongdaemun Doota Mall in Seoul, Thursday. The event will continue for 48 days until Feb. 28. / Yonhap

Caught a whopper!

A foreign tourist is all smiles after catching a fish during the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, Saturday. / Yonhap

Critic without pity who wrote 'Scouting the City'

By Matt Van Volkenburg“Ever since the middle of 1964, I have been receiving at my office weekly visits from a flabby, furtive, rat-faced character who thrusts in front of me a few illegibly scribbled sheets of foolscap headed Scouting the City.” This was how James Wade described, in his 1967 book “One Man’s Korea,” the birth of one of the better-known Korea Times columns of the 1960s and 1970s. Though he asserted his weekly visitor, Alf Racketts, was the author of the column, it was a thinly veiled secret that Wade himself was the writer.As John Stickler, another Korea Times staff member, recalled, “Scouting the City” began in 1964 as a parody Wade wrote of a Stars and Stripes entertainment column (by one Alf Ricketts) which impressed The Korea Times acting editor Hong Soon-il enough to make it a regular Saturday feature _ one which continued for a decade. Wade came to Korea with the U.S. military in 1954. The country made such an impact on him that he moved back in 1960. He was a member of The Korea Times’ editorial staff, and as a fre