Rubber Seoul bounces back

Rubber Seoul is bouncing back to Hongdae for the seventh year on Saturday, hosting bands at five venues to entertain and raise money for people affected by HIV-AIDS in South Africa. The event is an annual night of concerts that raises money for Little Travellers, an organization that sells beaded dolls of the same name made by women at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre in South Africa, which takes care of women who have AIDS or HIV and their families. “In (Hillcrest’s) province of Kwanzu Natale, there i

Expat LivingNov. 25, 2014

Film fest seeks to link Korean, expat scenes

Expat and Korean independent filmmakers will be given a chance to rub shoulders at a film festival in June.The Korea Expat Indie Film Festival is inviting submissions of films in three categories ― expat, Korean and no-budget, with the last being open to low-budget films from around the world.Entries opened earlier in November, with the deadline being April 15, but already the festival has received film submissions from at least eight countries, with entries from Korea, Canada and Kosovo among t

Expat LivingNov. 25, 2014

[Design Forum] Advertising guru cites open-mindedness as first condition for creativity

Alex Schill, the global chief creative officer and a partner of Serviceplan Group, loves to challenge his juniors. Whenever his younger associates succeed in a project that he did not approve of in the beginning, he grants them a bonus. “That happens quite often and I do lose a lot of money,” Schill said in an interview with The Korea Herald on Monday. Schill, who holds 50 Cannes Lions, including two Grand Prix in 2012 and 2013, believes admitting to his failures has helped him become more creat

Arts & DesignNov. 25, 2014

Top K-pop agency denies Alibaba investment report

South Korea’s biggest K-pop entertainment firm on Tuesday denied a report that it was the target of a major investment deal worth at least $90 million from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.“We are discussing potential partnerships with many companies in order to diversify our businesses in China,” SM Entertainment said in a regulatory filing.“But the report on the investment deal with Alibaba is not true,” the company added.The Korea Economic Daily had cited unnamed industry sources saying Aliba

PerformanceNov. 25, 2014

[Herald Review] Mraz captures his niche live, pared back and unplugged

Sharing more popularity in the country than almost any other international pop star on the planet, Jason Mraz returned to Seoul for his seventh concert performance here in eight years ― only this time around, the singer left his amps at home. Invigorating thousands with his signature earthy, groovy beats in two sold-out acoustic concerts at the Sejong Center on Monday and Tuesday, an acoustic evening with Mraz and friends was an unexpected revelation, speaking as someone who has seen the singer

PerformanceNov. 25, 2014

Sangmyung University exhibits photos by visually impaired

A female photographer reads braille text on a work in an exhibition of photographs by the visually impaired at Sangmyung Art Hall Gallery in Seoul. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)Sangmyung University is holding an exhibition of photographs taken by the visually impaired in Sangmyung Art Hall Gallery in Seoul until Nov. 30.The exhibition, “The World Seen Through Mind,” in its eighth year, is showcasing about 70 works, with scenes from Seoul that include Itaewon alleys, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, C

PerformanceNov. 25, 2014

Young Korean designers win Samsung fashion award

Two emerging fashion designers, Kye Han-hee of KYE and Park Jong-woo of BAJOWOO, won the 2014 Samsung Fashion Design Fund, an annual award given to talented young Korean designers, on Tuesday.Launched in 2005, the award offers its recipients financial and logistical assistance to help them prepare collections and promote their brands. It is the only fashion award in Korea that offers $100,000 to young designers as well as administrative and logistical assistance. Recipients also have a chance to

PeopleNov. 25, 2014

Goodall sows ‘seeds of hope’

For someone who garnered worldwide fame for working with chimpanzees, writing about plants appears to be an odd choice.But primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall said, at a recent talk, that protection of both plants and animals was essential to humankind’s task of preserving the environment. This is one of the reasons she emphasized the critical role plant life plays in our world in her book “Seeds of Hope,” Goodall said during a lecture Tuesday at Ewha Womans University.She said that

PeopleNov. 25, 2014

Seoul to celebrate homegrown design

Seoul Design Week kicks off Wednesday, introducing homegrown designers and their products while facilitating discussions on design with some of the world’s most renowned creative minds. The five-day design festival, co-organized by the Seoul Design Foundation, Herald Corp. and Design House, will provide programs throughout the capital city with two hub venues, Coex and Dongdaemun Design Plaza, hosting the main events.Design product exhibitions and markets will be held at Coex and DDP from Wednes

Arts & DesignNov. 24, 2014

[Graphic News] K-dramas’ viewership in U.S. broader than thought

Korean TV dramas, one of the two main pillars of hallyu along with K-pop, draw an ethnically diverse audience in the U.S., a recent survey by the U.S. office of Korea Creative Content Agency finds.Asians make up 29 percent of the U.S. viewership, followed by whites (24%), Hispanics/Latin Americans (18.9%) and blacks (9%). Viewers of Korean descent took up a 4.4 percent share.Over 85 percent of the viewers said they have been watching Korean TV dramas for more than a year now. Eighty-seven percen

TelevisionNov. 24, 2014

[Herald Review] Two stage masters experiment with gugak

Korean stage director Lee Youn-taek calls himself a “cultural nationalist.”He openly criticizes historians for confusing the history of Korean theater with that of Western theater in Korea, asking, “Did we, Koreans, really have no theater until 1910?”Andrei Serban is a Romanian-born American director who regards himself as an “experimental artist.”Reinventing Greek tragedy or Chekhov with provocative visual images and iconoclastic new interpretations, he has made a name for himself in the Wester

CultureNov. 24, 2014

‘Blind Massage’ sweeps Chinese ‘Oscars’

TAIPEI (AFP) ― Chinese director Lou Ye’s drama starring blind amateur actors as massage therapists scooped top honors at the Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan on Saturday, touted as the Chinese-language “Oscars.”“Blind Massage,” a portrayal of the romance and dreams of visually impaired massage therapists, was the biggest winner, with six gongs out of seven nominations.It scooped awards including the coveted best feature film, best adapted screenplay and best new performer for Zhang Lei, hersel

FilmNov. 24, 2014