When dining alone, can you be carnivorous?

K-pop act Mamamoo’s Hwasa sparked a gopchang craze earlier this month with her appearance on the MBC reality show “I Live Alone.” She visited a gopchang restaurant by herself and devoured the dish of cow’s small intestines. The very next day, people lined up in front of the featured eatery, waiting for two to three hours. Sales also soared at other gopchang restaurants across the nation. In reality, however, eating gopchang alone is not easy. Most of the people who lined up to have gopchang came

FoodJune 22, 2018

[Herald Interview] Master calls for Korea to bring geomancy into open

Like other East Asian countries, South Korea has long practiced geomancy, or “pungsu jiri” in the local language. While doubt may prevail toward the pseudoscience, some Korean entrepreneurs and politicians have taken to consultants to make the most of a Korean equivalent to China’s feng shui to decide where to live, where to start a business or where to bury the dead. To them, finding an auspicious site has been deemed an essential bid to evade the narrowest chances of bad luck and pursue prospe

CultureJune 22, 2018

[Herald Interview] Jaurim’s music revolves around humans, world they live in

Just as its name refers to a “purple rainforest,” Jaurim’s music is the epitome of profoundness and mysteriousness. Or, life itself. Seesawing between extreme highs and lows, the band dives deep into dark human emotions of angst and touches on societal illnesses. But it also coos about hope and lasting love in the most sophisticated language, as if trying to say life’s not always miserable.  Celebrating 20 years in the music scene, the band -- vocalist Kim Yoon-ah, bassist Kim Jin-man and guitar

PerformanceJune 22, 2018

[Trending] K-pop star sparks ‘cow intestines’ craze in Korea

Cow intestines, or gopchang, have always been favored by Korean drinkers, but the popularity of the dish is soaring throughout the country these days. Many local gopchang restaurants are packed with customers every night, and some eateries are even temporarily shutting down due to an inadequate supply of gopchang nationwide. Mamamoo`s Hwasa eats gopchang on the MBC show "I Live Alone." (MBC)At the center of the craze is Hwasa of K-pop group Mamamoo. The 22-year-old diva recently ate mouthwaterin

CultureJune 21, 2018

3 YouTube Vloggers show glimpse into biracial marriage life

Biracial couples who speak in Korean are gaining subscribers and viewers on YouTube, carving a niche for themselves amid the staggering number of videos that appear on the online video platform daily.It is a noteworthy feat considering that 50 million users upload 300 hours of videos on YouTube every minute. In addition, the world’s largest online video platform attracts over 30 million visitors who watch around 5 billion videos every day, according to YouTube. Here are three such couples who ar

CultureJune 21, 2018

Korea’s cultural heritage brought to life via VR

State-run cultural heritage bodies on Thursday launched an online exhibition of the tangible and intangible cultural assets of Korea through virtual reality technology. In cooperation with Google, the National Intangible Heritage Center and the National Palace Museum of Korea established the Korean Heritage project via Google Art and Culture, an online platform that exhibits data on over 6 million art pieces and relics from 1,500 organizations across 70 countries. The NPMK provided the data for

CultureJune 21, 2018

GFriend confirms Sept. 8-9 concert to cap off Asia tour

Girl group GFriend on Thursday confirmed that it will hold concerts from Sept. 8-9 in Seoul as the grand finale for its ongoing Asia tour.Its agency Source Music, through its official social media pages, announced that it will hold the concerts at SK Olympic Handhall Gymnasium. It will mark the first Seoul concert in eight months, since the K-pop act‘s first solo concert in January.  The teaser image for GFriend’s upcoming Seoul concert (Source Music)The concert in January kicked off an Asia tou

PerformanceJune 21, 2018

[Herald Review] ‘Sunset in My Hometown,’ a well-acted feel-good flick

Lee Joon-ik caps off “youth trilogy” with drama packing plenty of heart and laughterThis is why people love Director Lee Joon-ik. Even when telling stories of a doomed tyrant and a pack of clowns, a poet who met his death through human experiment, a has-been pop star down on his luck and fortune, he always brings that warm, fuzzy feeling and hopes about humanity in his pieces.The director‘s latest movie “Sunset in My Hometown” tells the story of a wanna-be rapper with no talent and daddy issues

FilmJune 21, 2018

[Herald Interview] Now is time to talk about Korean literature

Publishers choose the books to put out on bookstore shelves, hoping that some will buy and perhaps read them. Yet, many of them go unnoticed among the countless books that are released every day.This is much more the case with translated materials. The odds are very low that an American would read Korean literature. Ira Silverberg looks for information in a book during an interview with The Korea Herald on Wednesday at Coex in Seoul. (Shim Woo-hyun/The Korea Herald)”It‘s hard for American writer

BooksJune 21, 2018

[Epicurean Challenge] Pickled seafood with salt, jeotgal

Many Korean dishes contain jeotgal whether we realize it or not. Jeotgal refers to a category of seafood pickled with salt. When naming a specific type of jeotgal, the word “jeot” is used as a suffix. A wide variety of seafood can be used as a jeotgal ingredient, including oysters, clams, fish, roe and tiny shrimps, as well as fish gills and intestines. Depending on the ingredient, fermentation period may differ, from a few days to three months. But most Koreans these days purchase jeotgal at lo

FoodJune 21, 2018

Artday to hold June auction

Herald Artday, a subsidiary of Herald Corp., is holding an online auction from June 23-28, presenting works by contemporary Korean artists. The auction will feature artworks by renowned artists, including Chun Hyuck-lim, Lee Ung-no, Lee Bae and Sa Suk-won. Kim Tschang-yeul’s 1997 work “Recurrence” /Herald ArtdayThe collection also includes one artwork from Kim Tschang-yeul’s “Recurrence” series, in which sparkling droplets emerge against a background of Chinese characters. Kim is widely known he

Arts & DesignJune 21, 2018

Poetry of Kim Jong-gil’s Life, ‘A Black Kite’

Kim Jong-gil passed away in 2017 at the age of 92. He was professor emeritus at the Korea University English literature department, and in the 1990s we met and discussed translation of poetry from Korean into English.He encouraged me to translate not only the message, but also rhythm. It was not an easy task.  “A Black Kite” (LTI Korea Library)He gently persuaded me to try harder. He was my senior. I still remember all his words vividly. He translated the traditional Korean sijo poems into Engli

BooksJune 21, 2018

[Herald Review] ‘The Witch’ an interesting attempt, but clunky delivery

Park Hoon-jung is a great creator of stories. As a script writer, he has come up with compelling stories: of corruption in the justice system in “The Unjust”; of a man who became a monster to kill the monster in “I Saw the Devil”; and of a man’s struggle between his morality and friendship in a gangster world in “New World.”But he is just not very gifted when it comes to storytelling. His latest work, “The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion,” falls flat on its attempt to depict the dilemma between in

FilmJune 20, 2018

Law revision to mean more profit for artists from streamed music

Musicians in Korea will make more money from their products starting next year, as a law revision approved Wednesday will increase their share from streaming music. According to the revised law, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, copyright holders of music will now get 65 percent of the profit earned by streaming their product. Currently, they are entitled to 60 percent. The discount rate on package deals on sales of more than 30 songs, which can be purchased at a discount of 35 t

PerformanceJune 20, 2018

[Album review] There’s nothing amiss on BTOB’s new album

BTOB“This Is Us” (Loen Entertainment)While it’s a widely known fact that BTOB rarely disappoints fans with its ballads, the group proved that it does indeed have a range in its new album “This Is Us.” With the members’ fingerprints all over it, the seven-track collection features an array of light and vocally-driven tracks that are perfectly baked with all kinds of ingredients that even non-K-pop listeners can relish. Opener “Call Me,” in which Ilhoon lent his hand in writing lyrics and composin

PerformanceJune 20, 2018

Korea CQ Forum holds summer gathering

The Korea CQ Forum of the Corea Image Communication Institute held a ceremony Tuesday at Grand Hyatt Seoul to recognize envoys to Korea for their work in promoting ties between Korea and the countries they represent.The Korea CQ Culture Award was given to Malaysian Ambassador to Korea Dato Rohana Ramli for bridging cultural exchanges between Malaysia and Korea during her more than five-year tenure in Seoul. Members of the Korea CQ Forum pose for a group photo at Grand Hyatt Seoul on Tuesday. (CI

CultureJune 20, 2018

DJ Soda set to go global with Warner Music Group

DJ Soda has partnered with Warner Music Group. The 28-year-old DJ signed a distribution deal for her upcoming record with Warner Music Group, according to her agency House of Music on Wednesday. Warner Music Group is home to big-name pop artists such as Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Coldplay.  DJ Soda (House of Music)“I am happy to work with Warner Music Group, which many global artists are a part of. I will work on making better music,” DJ Soda said through her agency. Recently, DJ Soda, whose rea

PerformanceJune 20, 2018

BTS producer Bang Si-hyuk joins Variety’s list of international music leaders

Bang Si-hyuk, CEO of Big Hit Entertainment and producer of BTS, has joined Variety’s list of international music leaders for 2018. The list by the US magazine recognized 23 figures in the global music industry who are currently “driving music consumption with creativity, acumen, and passion” and companies “best poised to forge into a promising future.”  Bang Si-hyuk (Big Hit Entertainment)Introducing Bang as one of the “game changers,” the magazine chronicled his feats as a producer of BTS, stat

PerformanceJune 20, 2018

BTS MV site enjoys popularity

An aerodrome shot in a BTS music video has become a popular tourist site with fans from around the globe.The city of Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, posted a YouTube link for “EPILOGUE : Young Forever” on its official website to promote the city with growing interest in Mosan Aerodrome.It also put up a banner saying, “Come to Jecheon, BTS’ Music Video Site.”(YouTube)A part of the video displays the Korean boy band walking on Mosan Aerodrome, which is located in the city’s Goam-dong.The aero

PerformanceJune 20, 2018

BTS' latest record stays on 2 key Billboard charts for 4th week

K-pop boy band BTS' latest record and its title track made it to the competitive Billboard charts of the 200 most popular albums and the 100 hottest songs for the fourth week in a row respectively, the group's agency said Wednesday."Love Yourself: Tear," the third full-length BTS album, released May 18, charted 20th in the Billboard 200 album chart as of Wednesday after landing atop the list in the week starting May 27. The following week, it slipped to sixth place.  BTS (Yonhap)The album's main

PerformanceJune 20, 2018