[Newsmaker] Ghanaian TV personality speaks up against racism in Korea, sparks controversy

Ghanaian television personality Sam Okyere apologized after his social media posting lashing out at racism in Korea sparked controversy online. Earlier on Thursday, the 29-year-old had expressed outrage about a yearbook photo of local high school senior students parodying viral Ghanaian dancing pallbearers video. The photo showed five boys from Uijeongbu High School -- famous for their unconventional yet trend-reflecting graduation pictures -- with their faces painted brown. “Time and

TelevisionAug. 9, 2020

MPyC shouts ‘It must be’

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province -- The 17th Music in PyeongChang (MPyC) wrapped up its three-week run of concerts on Saturday amid heavy rain. The music festival, held in the mountainous county of Pyeongchang, commemorated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig Beethoven this year, like many other music festivals across the world. The event was titled “Es Muss Sein” -- part of an inscrutable note “Muss es sein? Es muss sein!” written by Beethoven in the manuscript

PerformanceAug. 9, 2020

Gugak Museum celebrates 25th anniversary with NK folk music exhibition

The National Gugak Center is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its Gugak Museum by revealing yet undisclosed archival materials on North Korean music. On Monday the center will open the doors to a library and exhibition venue on the third floor of the Gugak Museum in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. Titled “Gong-gan E-um” -- meaning “connecting spaces” in Korean -- the cultural complex will display some 83,000 documents and materials concerning the Korean traditional perf

CultureAug. 9, 2020

Korean to be taught as foreign language at India’s schools

On July 30, the Indian government announced the selection of Korean language as one of the foreign languages taught at secondary school level. Following the announcement from India, the Korean Culture Ministry on Thursday claimed that the Korean Cultural Center in India and the Korean Embassy in New Dehli played a crucial role in appealing the need to have Korean on the list. “Since last year, we had asked that Korean language be listed on the foreign language list. We were expecting t

CultureAug. 9, 2020

Hip-pop artist Simon Dominic to perform at Sejong Center

Hip-pop artist Simon Dominic will be performing in the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts’ Sejong Grand Theater in central Seoul on Sept. 8. The Sejong Center for the Performing Arts said it was special for a hip-pop artist to perform at the center, which usually holds classical music performances. “Rapper Beenzino once performed in our concert hall as a guest singer, but other than that, no other hip-hop artist has performed at the Sejong Center,” the center said in a s

PerformanceAug. 9, 2020

[Eye Plus] Choseong-ri evokes decades of nostalgia

Time seems to have stopped at the 70-year-old Choseong-ri Station in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province.  Having started out as a logistics center for the United Nations military forces in October 1950, the station had its heyday when US soldiers and local merchants flocked there. But after a unit of United States military engineers left town, the volume of passengers dropped off significantly. Now, no trains stop here.  When the American soldiers and engineers were around, peopl

CultureAug. 8, 2020

New cultural experience: Scandinavian food in most Korean setting

Located across the west wall of the palace Changdeokgung in Wonseo-dong in central Seoul is what, at first glance, looks like a hanok cafe. Inside, however, authentic Scandinavian dishes are offered on Royal Copenhagen porcelain, offering a cuisine unfamiliar to many Koreans at perhaps the most Korean place. Sogongheon, meaning “a place that brings people together to do good,” opened after two years of construction. The two-story hanok, with a separate hanok annex behind it, breaks

FoodAug. 8, 2020

Contact-free travel in Daejeon

DAEJEON -- With international travel more burdensome than ever because of the spread of COVID-19, many Koreans are traveling domestically for a summer break. The city of Daejeon, about a two-hour drive south of Seoul or an hour by high-speed train KTX, offers a plethora of unique outdoor-contact-free experiences for people thinking of travelling safely amid COVID-19. “In Daejeon and Gyeryongsan there are many socially distanced tourist attractions that are less affected by COVID-19, suc

TravelAug. 8, 2020

Korail sets up multilingual information kiosks in KTX stations

Korail has introduced multilingual information kiosks in five of the KTX stations most visited by foreigners. The touchscreen machines can be used in four different languages. KTX train schedules and flight schedules as well as live traffic information and routes to destinations are provided. The machines also have information on the station’s facilities and nearby tourist attractions. Information on Korail Pass for foreigners is provided as well. The kiosk is available at Seoul, Yong

TravelAug. 8, 2020

Release of traffic camera footage of actor Lim Seul-ong’s accident raises controversy

As the police investigation of Lim Seul-ong’s car accident continues, a local newspaper released traffic camera footage of the Aug. 1 accident, turning public opinion against Lim. Actor and singer Lim Seul-ong hit and killed a pedestrian crossing the road around midnight Aug. 1 while driving his white SUV in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. The pedestrian light was red when the man was crossing the street on the rainy day and Lim was reported to not have been under the influence of alcohol, causin

CultureAug. 7, 2020

Grand Mint Festival to be held with limited number of audiences

The 14th Grand Mint Festival will take place at Olympic Park, eastern Seoul, on Oct. 24 and 25 with a limited audience due to the spread of COVID-19. The festival organizers said they will sell less than half of the tickets sold in previous years. Last year around 40,000 tickets were sold. There will be no standing room entrance. Attendees will be able to enjoy the festival in the picnic zone apart from each other to comply with social distancing guidelines. The organizers added that they

PerformanceAug. 7, 2020

'Agitated' Pour-Over Coffee at Danil

To agitate or not to agitate -- that is the question that baristas perfecting their pour-over coffee may find themselves asking at one point in their careers. At Danil Seoul, the answer is a resounding yes as one will discover watching a small spoon being used to stir the coffee grounds during the extraction process. “There are several reasons we use a spoon,” Danil Seoul roasters Ahn Sung-min, 34, and Lee Jae-woo, 29, explained in an e-mail interview.  “First, it er

FoodAug. 7, 2020

[Around the Hotels] Promotions and Packages

’Relax 26 Hours Package’ at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun Hotel & Residences presents a staycation package, “Relax 26 Hours Package.” The package includes a one-night stay, 30,000 won worth of food credit and free use of the hotel’s swimming pool, fitness center and kids’ zone. Guest can check in early, starting at noon, and check out late at 2 p.m. the next day for a total stay of 26 hours. The package, price

TravelAug. 7, 2020

Imported film distributors, local streaming platforms lock horns over payment system

South Korean video-streaming company Watcha released an official statement Wednesday evening in response to the pending termination of deals with the firm and two other domestic over-the-top service providers. Earlier Wednesday, the Association of Korean Buyers and Distributors of Foreign Films announced that its members would stop providing content to Watcha, Wavve and Tving until the OTTs accepted a payment system that would return more royalties to the buyers and distributors. Under the env

FilmAug. 6, 2020

New version of ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ to come to Seoul

The original French production of musical “Notre Dame de Paris” will go on stage in Korea Nov. 10 - Jan. 17 at the Blue Square Interpark Hall in central Seoul, Mast Entertainment confirmed Thursday. The Seoul shows will be of the new version of the beloved musical created in 2017 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show the following year with detailed upgrades in costumes, choreography and lights. It will be the first time the new version is staged in Korea. The most rece

PerformanceAug. 6, 2020

EBS documentary festival to show message of hope

The annual EBS International Documentary Film Festival will be showcasing films to a wider audience through television and an online platform as the coronavirus stands in the way of cinema screenings. The 17th edition of the documentary festival will take place on EBS 1TV channel and video service D-BOX over a one-week period starting Aug. 17, the educational broadcasting network said Tuesday. “Most major films festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Jeonju International F

FilmAug. 5, 2020

Myung Won Cultural Foundation holds 25th world tea festival

Myung Won Cultural Foundation said Wednesday it is holding its world tea festival this week, during which it will also celebrate the 100th birthday of the late Kim Mi-hee, who pioneered the restoration of Korea’s tea culture. According to the foundation, the 25th tea festival, dubbed “K-Tea Festival,” will be held at Coex in southern Seoul for four days, starting Thursday. The event will comprise of a photo exhibition commemorating the birth of Kim, and booths where particip

CultureAug. 5, 2020

Paid advertisement controversy rattles Korean YouTube industry

“I am using YouTube Premium to skip advertisements. Little did I know back then that I was only avoiding the advertisements to watch another 10-minute-long advertisement video,” a subscriber to popular YouTube channel Eat With Boki commented. “I’m beyond disappointed. Here, I thought she’s a nice genuine person,” another subscriber wrote. These comments were posted after Moon Boki, the YouTuber behind the self-titled Eat With Boki meokbang channel, which

CultureAug. 5, 2020

A look at Japanese imperialism from perspective of the guilty

On Aug. 30, 1974, a bombing attack at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Tokyo killed eight people and wounded some 370 others. Through May 1975, eight more explosions occurred at Japanese businesses and groups accused of war crimes, including Mitsui & Co., Taisei Corp. and Kajima Corp. Korean documentary film “East-Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front” tells the story of those who sought to raise awareness of the atrocities of imperial Japan through interviews with people

FilmAug. 5, 2020

Pentaport Rock Festival to be held Oct. 16-17 both on, offline

The 2020 Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will take place Oct. 16-17 at Songdo Pentaport Park, the city of Incheon announced on Wednesday. The festival will take place both on and offline, with performances streamed live for the first time in the festival‘s history. While the festival was held for three days in August in previous years, it has been pushed back to October this year with a shortend two-day schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 15th edition of the annual festival aims

PerformanceAug. 5, 2020