Korean book events to be held in 8 countries

Korean book events are scheduled to take place in eight countries, hosted by the Culture Ministry in collaboration with the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea and the Korean Cultural Centers overseas. Korean Cultural Centers in Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, Argentina, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Poland and France plan to hold book exhibitions, seminars and talks with Korean authors and translators throughout the remainder of the year. Poland and Egypt are scheduled to host their K-book

Sept. 13, 2022

Korea's scientific and technological heritage in 30 volumes

A 30-volume “Science and Civilization in Korea” series encompassing the country's history and achievements in the fields of science and technology has been published in August. The series spans the pre-modern period to modern times -- 16 volumes on pre-modern and 14 on modern and contemporary times. The subjects range from specific topics, such as Hangeul, rice, religion and women, as well as major fields of science such as astronomy, engineering and mathematics. More than 60 scholar

Sept. 5, 2022

UK journalist asks: What is the Korea we refuse to see?

As individuals, we often see ourselves through the lens of others, giving careful consideration to how we are viewed. However, as a country of such individuals, we may not see or refuse to acknowledge the reality of our social and cultural dynamics until someone -- likely an outsider with an insider’s view -- points it out. A recent book by Raphael Rashid, a Seoul-based freelance journalist from the UK, does just that. In his book “The Korea We Refuse to See,” written in K

Aug. 29, 2022

[Herald Interview] Min-jin Lee hopes to make all readers Korean

Korean American writer Min-jin Lee, 53, spent some 30-odd years writing her second novel “Pachinko.” She interviewed numerous people in Korea, Japan and other places around the world for this book. Her quest for accuracy and authenticity even led her to abandon a previous draft in 2007 called “Motherland” which was nearly a full-length book. “It was a terrible book … it was really boring and even my husband said it was really boring. I didn’t want t

Aug. 8, 2022

Kim Hoon's 'Harbin' looks at independence fighther An Jung-geun

Recovering from an illness last year, Korean novelist and essayist Kim Hoon, 74, pondered about the rest of his life. One thing he realized was that he could no longer put off writing about independence activist An Jung-geun (1879-1910), which had been on his mind since his college days. “I was busy making ends meet. And more importantly, I didn’t dare write about him,” Kim told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.   Struck by a desperate feeling of

Aug. 4, 2022

[Book Review] Park Seo-bo's seven decades of artistic practice explored in new English book

"Park Seo-bo: ‘Ecriture’" By Rosa Maria Falvo, Lee Jin-joo Rizzoli New York  Painter Park Seo-bo, one of the pioneers of Dansaekhwa, a contemporary art group that emerged in Korea in the 1960s, has emphasized three crucial elements in Dansaekhwa paintings – purposeless action, a repetition exercise in meditation and materiality evolved from the meditation. “Park Seo-bo: ‘Ecriture’” published last month by Rizzoli New York, explores P

July 11, 2022

[Scholars and their Spaces] Dongchundang -- House vibrant with life, like spring

Although he was born in Jeongneung-dong in Seoul in 1606, Song Jun-gil came from an old Song family based in Eunjin-myeon in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, famous for its Eunjin Mireuk statues of Maitreya. He built the Dongchundang house in his clan village of Hoedeok, which has been called “the land of virtuous scholars” since the time of King Taejo of the Goryeo Kingdom, and devoted himself to learning rather than entering the government, and died there. Song has been reco

June 18, 2022

Young adult novel remembers writer Li Mirok’s life

A Korean Australian writer’s novel for young adults takes inspiration from an educator and independence activist who spent much of his life in exile in the early 1900s. The book, titled “The Young Resistance and Korean Language School,” gives us a look at Li Mirok -- a writer and educator who is perhaps known better in Germany, where he spent rest of his life since 1922. Li published several books in Germany, including the autobiographical novel “The Yalu Flows,”

June 11, 2022

[Eye interview] Food as the great connector

A young woman, born to a Korean mother and white father, stands in a Korean supermarket chain crying as she looks at the side dishes on display that her late mother used to make for her. It’s the scene that opens Michelle Zauner’s bestselling memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” and one that many Korean Americans will have no difficulty imagining. For Zauner, food formed an unbreakable bond between her and her mother. Her mother made Korean dishes for her Korean-born daughter wh

June 10, 2022

2022 Seoul International Book Fair returns in full force

The Seoul International Book Fair, the country‘s largest book event, kicks off Wednesday at Coex in southeastern Seoul. The annual book fair will run from Wednesday to Sunday, with a total of 196 companies including 18 foreign companies and 214 speakers expected to join the event. This year’s event takes place after two years of scaled-down editions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the theme of “One Small Step,” talks, exhibitions and events will take place to gauge

May 31, 2022

Indian novel ‘Tomb of Sand’ wins International Booker Prize

Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell won the International Booker Prize on Thursday for “Tomb of Sand,” a vibrant novel with a boundary-crossing 80-year-old heroine. 　Originally written in Hindi, it‘s the first book in any Indian language to win the high-profile award, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English. The 50,000-pound ($63,000) prize money will be split between New Delhi-based Shree and Ro

May 27, 2022

‘Shrimp to Whale’: Well-told story of S. Korea’s rise to spotlight

From BTS to Squid Game, to its internationally heralded handling of COVID-19, South Korea is enjoying the spotlight on the global stage. Yet, books on Korea out there often feel stale and outdated. If not tunnel-visioned on the country’s economic success, South Korea is a nation heavily seen through the lens of geopolitics, or a country technically still at war. In his book “Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop,” Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of i

May 26, 2022

Seoul-based Australian academic wins N.S.W. Premier’s Literary Awards

  Dan Disney, a professor at Sogang University, has received the N.S.W. Premier’s Award for Poetry for his latest poem collection “accelerations & inertias.” Disney, who has lived in South Korea for 12 years, was given the Kenneth Slessor Award, which comes with a cash prize of 30,000 Australian dollars ($21,000). Published in 2021 by Vagabond Press, the collection “dissects the psychogeography of information, knowledge and lived experience of place and tim

May 19, 2022

[Book Review] Samsung ex-CEO recalls 'great' chip deal that built Apple empire in memoir

Apple’s ecosystem of a wide array of devices including the iPhone would have remained an elusive dream had Steve Jobs failed to address the memory glitches in iPods in the early 2000s. The idea of iPhone, iPad, iTV and MacBook Air scribbled on Jobs’ whiteboard in December 2004 struck Hwang Chang-gyu, the then-president of semiconductor business at Samsung Electronics, as he was on the verge of a handshake with Jobs in California to replace iPod’s hard disk drives with flash me

May 5, 2022

‘Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans’ changes with the times

Since Min Byoung-chul first wrote “Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans” in 1993 to highlight cultural and behavioral differences between Koreans and Americans, the book has been revised six times. In the latest revision, the well-known English educator said half of the content has changed.  “There appears to be increasing global interest about Korea due to Hallyu (Korean wave content) such as ‘Squid Game’ and BTS. Many Koreans are also going out to the world stage,

May 2, 2022

Web novels poised to become mainstream source for S. Korean drama content

While webtoon-based drama series such as Netflix’s “Hellbound” and “All of Us Are Dead” drew viewers’ attention and brought global success to content creators, web novels are poised to become the next major source for other multimedia content. A web novel is a written work available primarily on the internet. Global streaming platform Disney+ produced its Korean original series by adapting Naver Series’ famous web novel “Sixth Sense Kiss.”

April 13, 2022

S. Korea to participate in this year's Bogota book fair as honorary guest

South Korea will take part as a guest of honor in the Bogota International Book Fair (FILBO) set to open in Colombia's capital this month to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the South Korean culture ministry said Wednesday. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the country will hold various exhibitions, seminars as well as literary and cultural events under the theme of "togetherness, convivencia" at the fair. Launched in 1988, FILBO is

April 13, 2022

[Herald Interview] John Cho explores Korean American identity in ‘Troublemaker’

John Cho’s recently released “Troublemaker,” co-written with Sarah Suk, is a coming-of-age story that takes place on the single, infamous night of “Sa-I-Gu,” or April 29, 1992. As the world is changing around him on the first night of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of four police officers who had brutally beat Rodney King, a Black man, in an incident caught on video, Korean American boy Jordan’s own world -- his central identity -- is expe

April 11, 2022

Naver Webtoon partners with DC for 3 new series

Naver Webtoon announced Friday that it has expanded its partnership with DC Comics to release three new DC originals as webtoon series -- “Vixen: NYC,” “Red Hood: Outlaws” and “Zatanna & The Ripper,” starting next month. The two companies launched “The Batman: Wayne Family’s Adventure” project series last September, which follows the DC universe and its characters. The project has garnered over 942,612 subscribers and was rated 9.76 poi

April 8, 2022

Korean novels published overseas win multiple prizes on global stage

The presence of Korean literature is growing widely in the world as local translations have won or been nominated for multiple prizes from literature awards outside of the country. An English translation of Chung Bora's "Cursed Bunny" published by British publisher Honford Star was chosen as one of the six finalists for this year's International Booker Prize announced Thursday. She became the second Korean author to make the shortlist after Han Kang, who achieved the feat in 2016 and 2

April 8, 2022