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Opinion

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Mon, July 22, 2019 | 14:34

Modern to hypermodern: The theater as a fantastic space

I've just finished the final stage of a book with professor of sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, titled, “Beijing to Seoul, Modern to Hypermodern,” which visually documents the former city's journey through modernity, and takes the latter as an example of the cradle of hypermodernity that will soon engulf all of human...

Lee Gyu-lee | 2019-06-29 09:20

On the importance of space and social empathy

I'm in the middle of the final crunch leading up to the publishing of a book with Professor of Sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, with the former as an example of that city's journey through Modernity and the latter as an example as the cradle of Hypermodernity.

2019-06-08 09:10

Flashed flesh, 'pay models' and entrepreneurial femininity in the creative economy of Korean Instagram

The more I do work as a visual sociologist and ethnographer in Korea, the more I am fascinated by the many rabbit holes I am pulled down. The hypermodern Korea I live in - and Korea's hypermodernity has permeated through society to differing extents and in different ways - is most apparent when entering virtual spaces and interacting with people's many avatars and layers of a...

2019-05-07 14:23

The rhizomatic, hypermodern cinematic universe of BLACKPINK's 'Kill This Love' video

As a visual sociologist, I started this article a long time ago by talking about the fantasy worlds of BTS. But in the time that has passed since this video was released, BTS has been upstaged in my mind by BLACKPINK.

2019-04-13 08:51

Clothing, social empathy and the power of stepping into someone else's shoes

There is a power in stepping into someone else's shoes, as the old American expression goes. But it must be done without stepping on the toes of the person who owns them. What one does in deciding to don the accoutrements and attire of the other is symbolically place oneself into their subject(ive) position.

2019-04-06 09:18

Seoul Fashion Week: On the runway of diversity

The most recent Seoul Fashion Week was a staging ground for diversity and diverse projects. I've been crowing about the way the unique space of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) has offered itself for all sorts of social activities, including the independent and organic formation of the largest fashion runway at the Seoul Fashion Week event, and it's comprised of everyday fol...

2019-03-30 12:30

The material girls of Pyongyang: theorizing gendered consumption in North Korea

This time around, I'm going to issue a “trigger warning” for my article. If words on a page require you to concentrate, think hard, and carefully digest the concepts being thrown at you, it is likely you will simply skip this article this week and thumb over to something else.If all long or unfamiliar words that denote pretty big concepts (that are actually defined in the pie...

2019-03-03 09:52

Dragging K-Pop onto the global stage

Much ado has been made about K-POP. And these days, even more social attention has been placed on things such as gender and the politics of belonging, along with the changing nature of seemingly “simple” identities. Put simply, there's a lot of talk about shifting definitions of male and female, as well as the rights that are attendant to those identities and expressions of s...

2019-01-26 15:01

Notes from Seoul Fashion Week, October 2018

I have just finished covering Seoul Fashion Week and am now at Vietnam International Fashion Week to look at fashion there and Korean influence on it, which I have seen and been told is considerable. Rather than an extended prose description, I will allow the photos and captions from Instagram to speak for themselves.

2018-11-11 10:08

The Korean Style: The medium and message of Korean fashion

Lately I have been exploring the way a Korean style defines the snowballing interest in Korean popular culture that is quickly spreading across the planet.

2018-11-03 15:00

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