A young Korean-American adoptee returns home for the first time in desperate search for his birth-mother. For musical director, conductor and actress Kolleen Park, the plot of her latest musical production “Airport Baby” may seem like an all-too-familiar tale. But add local musical actor Choi Jae-rim to the mix and the result is an unexpectedly moving portrayal of a troubled young soul. Following her role as a mother struggling with bipolar disorder in the Korean rendition of the off-Broadway mu

CultureMarch 3, 2016

Actor and film director Ha Jung-woo has put up his painting “Keep Silence” for auction, art auctioneer I Auction announced Wednesday.The auctioneer described Ha’s works as an outlandish and humorous depiction of the conflict between oneself and the character he or she plays, adding that it evokes pop art and expressionism.The auctioneer estimated the value of Ha’s work to range from 13 million won ($ 10,647) to 25 million won. Ha’s career as an artist started as a hobby in 2007, when he was a co

CultureMarch 3, 2016

``Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart‘‘ By Claire HarmanAlfred A. Knopf (480 pages, $30)Two hundred years after her birth, Charlotte Bronte‘s rage over social expectations for women and thwarted ambitions are as relevant as ever, and a new biography by Claire Harman makes the ``Jane Eyre’‘ author fresh and relatable to readers who might only think of the Brontes as figures long buried in tragic myth.Bronte and her sisters Emily and Anne published their poems and novels -- including ``Wuthering Heigh

CultureMarch 3, 2016

Sculptors Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung have been making statues of teenage girls that symbolize Korean young women forced to work as Japanese military sex slaves, euphemistically called “comfort women,” since 2011. They have made 30 statues so far, with more in the making. The bronze sculptures are exhibited at memorial parks, museums and on the streets of Korea, the U.S. and Canada.This month, six variations of the “Statue of a Girl of Peace” are on view at a gallery in Seoul where the artist

CultureMarch 3, 2016

Seol Hyun of South Korea's girl group AOA was named an honorary ambassador for the April 13 general elections, the country's election watchdog said Thursday.The 21-year-old singer will promote the election to increase voter turnout in the lead-up to the polls, the National Election Commission said."Seol Hyun is beloved by the people as a singer, actress and model," Kim Yong-hee, secretary-general of the commission said, expressing hope that she will promote the right election culture to the publ

PerformanceMarch 3, 2016

KBS 2TV's new television series "Descendants of the Sun" hit the jackpot, collecting more than 20 percent of viewership nationwide, Nielsen Korea data showed Thursday. In its third episode, the show starring actor Song Joong-ki and actress Song Hye-kyo drew 23.4 percent of viewers nationwide, the data showed.Higher percentage of viewers turned up in Seoul at 25.8 percent and around Seoul at 24.6 percent for the series produced by Lee Eung-bok and written by star screenwriter Kim Eun-sook.This is

TelevisionMarch 3, 2016

NEW YORK (AFP) - A trove of thousands of Bob Dylan notebooks and other artifacts -- mostly unknown except to the rock icon himself -- will head to a US university to be preserved for posterity.　The University of Tulsa in Oklahoma announced Wednesday that it had acquired more than 6,000 items from the singer's six-decade career and would create the Bob Dylan Archive.　The archive will eventually go on permanent display in Tulsa near a recently built museum to Woody Guthrie, the folk legend and Dyl

PerformanceMarch 3, 2016

LJUBLJANA (AFP) - Three ancient Mesopotamian sculptures, thought to have been excavated illegally in Syria or Iraq, have been found in a Slovenian refugee camp on the border with Croatia, police said Wednesday.　The National Museum in Ljubljana confirmed the alabaster objects were authentic Mesopotamian temple figurines and probably dated back to the B.C. third millennium.　“Since the objects have no registration or inventory signs, we believe they were excavated illegally,” museum archeologist Pe

CultureMarch 3, 2016

LONDON (AFP) - Hundreds of personal items from the estate of an eccentric British duchess, the youngest of six sisters who scandalized 1930s British high society, were auctioned in London on Wednesday.　A collection of insect brooches, 36 model hens and a phone topped with a foot-high figure of Elvis Presley that dances and sings when the phone rings were among the items belonging to Deborah, the late duchess of Devonshire and one of the Mitford sisters.　“Together, the objects tell this amazing s

CultureMarch 3, 2016

"Cool Kiz on the Block," a KBS 2TV reality show, has elevated volleyball to a new height -- aesthetically.Eight male celebrities have been recruited for Team Cool Kiz, and they include actors Oh Man-seok, Jo Dong-hyuk, Lee Jae-yoon and Japanese model Ryohei Otani. Two of them -- Otani and rookie actor Hak Jin -- are former volleyball pros. Otani started volleyball in fourth grade and played for a professional team in Osaka, Japan, until college. Hak Jin has much the same history, having played p

TelevisionMarch 3, 2016

Daejeon-based theater company U&i Productions will return to the stage this weekend with a charity performance of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”The monologues have been performed across 100 countries and in 40 different languages. “V-Day” performances of it and other plays are held across the world each spring in aid of women’s charities and to raise awareness about violence against women.Kevin Manley, company manager of U&i Productions, said the group decided to perform the monologues af

Expat LivingMarch 2, 2016