Culture Ministry plans to beef up digital content representing Korea

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that it will focus on strengthening digital content aimed at promoting the country more effectively and keeping up with current and future trends. Amid swelling concerns about offline meetings and in-person activities due to the pandemic, the Culture Ministry plans to bring extensive changes to the existing materials to overcome their limitations and introduce lively promotion projects by leveraging contactless strategies. The Korea National T

Aug. 29, 2020

[Eye Interview] ‘When people dance, they laugh!’

When I enter choreographer Ahn Eun-me’s studio located in the basement of a building that houses a gas station on the ground level, she is perched on a balcony with a commanding view of the studio from which she presides over her eponymous dance company, Ahn Eun-Me Company. She is hard to miss: Ahn’s buzz cut renders her instantly recognizable. “Long hair was restrictive and the head gets too heavy,” says Ahn, explaining her decision to shave it all off in September 19

Aug. 28, 2020

Cultural Communications Forum 2020: Should cultural content go online?

As COVID-19 brings many changes to the culture industry, international leaders in cultural communication came together online Wednesday and Thursday to discuss changing delivery methods for cultural content in the COVID-19 era at the 11th Cultural Communications Forum. Due to the spread of COVID-19, international scholars invited to the forum joined remotely through videoconference. The Corea Image Communication Institute organized the forum jointly with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tou

Aug. 27, 2020

[Video] Indoor Games go wild to combat quarantine boredom

The 2020 Tokyo Games have been postponed, but people are taking themselves to the games at home to fill that void -- with the Quarantine Games. It all started when the Presley family held their games to combat lockdown boredom. The family uploaded footage of a viral competition series on TikTok, a short video-app, which quickly made them “internet famous.” The competition began in April when one of the family members attempted a challenge in which participants competed in drinki

Aug. 24, 2020

Church holds trial for pastor who blessed sexual minorities at queer festival

The Korean Methodist Church put Rev. Lee Dong-hwan of Glory Jeil Church on trial Friday for giving a blessing to sexual minorities during a queer festival in August 2019. The case marks the first time a person is being tried by the Korean Methodist Church for supporting homosexuality. The church doctrine states “Violating laws regarding drugs and performing activities supporting or agreeing with gambling or homosexuality” are punishable. Lee participated in a queer festival in Inc

Aug. 21, 2020

[Feature] Controversy over architectural heritage from Japanese colonial era continues

Walking around Seoul, one can easily spot buildings built during the Japanese colonial era. Park Ga-hee, 31-year-old resident of a neighborhood next to Gyeongbokgung Palace in central Seoul, passes by the Bank of Korea Money Museum on her way to and from work. The building, built in 1912, was the headquarters for the Bank of Joseon during the Japanese colonial era. “I am aware that the building was used to colonize Korea. It is not a pleasant thing to see the building,” Park said

Aug. 19, 2020

JeongSeon Forum 2020 kicks off, spotlighting sustainable Earth, balanced life

In commemoration of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics’ second anniversary, JeongSeon Forum 2020 will kick off its three-day run Thursday at High1 Grand Hotel Convention Tower in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province. JeongSeon Forum 2020, hosted by the Gangwon Provincial Government and Gangwon Convention & Visitors Bureau, will serve as a venue where the international community and its global citizens discuss the Earth and human beings’ coexistence, under the theme of “Sustainable Ea

Aug. 19, 2020

MMCA venues to shut down again as COVID-19 escalates

　Three venues of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) -- Seoul, Gwacheon and Deoksugung -- will temporarily close, starting Wednesday, as the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate again in the metropolitan area. 　“We have decided to close for now and will gauge the timing to reopen again,” Tiffany Yun, deputy director of communication and media team at MMCA, told The Korea Herald. 　MMCA’s Cheongju venue in North Chungcheong Provin

Aug. 18, 2020

[Feature] Will shutting down comments section curb abuses online?

The country’s three major online portals -- Naver, Kakao and Nate -- announced earlier this month that they were temporarily closing the comments sections under their sports articles until they could come up with a system to protect athletes from abusive language. “Comments that target particular players, defaming their reputation and degrading them, continue,” Naver said on Aug. 7. “We acknowledge that the malicious comments and the pain suffered by the athletes is at

Aug. 18, 2020

Secondhand stuff gains popularity amid COVID-19 pandemic

Digital businesses dealing in used goods are enjoying sharp growth in South Korea, as coronavirus fears have influenced consumer preference in favor of online secondhand stores over other e-commerce platforms. Market research conducted by Nielsen Korean Click showed that a quarter of domestic smartphone users -- approximately 10 million people -- use secondhand market services. Competitive services including Carrot Market, Bunjang and Joonggo Nara are expanding rapidly as they tar

Aug. 16, 2020

[Newsmaker] Kian84 revises controversial webtoon, apologizes

Popular webtoon, or digital comic, writer Kian84 apologized and revised his latest work “Bokhakwang,” as controversy over the latest episode posted Tuesday sparked online protests. “Bokhakwang,” which means king of returning to school, is the most popular work by Kian84 that is uploaded at around 11 p.m. on Tuesdays on web portal Naver. “I am very sorry for causing concern with inappropriate depictions in my work,” Kian84 wrote on his webtoon page on Thursd

Aug. 13, 2020

International experts to discuss changes in delivery of cultural contents at CCF

Leading figures in cultural communication from around the world will join offline panel members to discuss the changes in how cultural contents are delivered in the post COVID-19 era at the 11th Cultural Communications Forum being held from Aug. 26-27. The two-day forum will feature speakers from the EU in the evening of the first day and speakers from North America in the morning of the second day, due to the time difference of the countries from where the speakers will join via video call. E

Aug. 13, 2020

Oldest Taegeukgi in Korea on show at National Museum

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Korea‘s liberation from Japanese colonial rule this Saturday, the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, is putting the country’s oldest Taegeukgi, the national flag, on display in its Korean Empire Hall through Aug. 23. The oldest known extant Taegeukgi is held by the Smithsonian museum. Gojong, the last Joseon king and and the first Emperor of Korea, presented the flag to his diplomatic adviser Owen N. Denny from the US when Den

Aug. 13, 2020

[Video] Communication in a world where facial expressions are unseen

Face masks that tightly cover mouths and noses are a vivid symbol of how the world is combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Masking up in public is mandated in more than fifty countries to guard their citizens against getting infected. And masking may stay for quite a while, according to experts. But face coverings in troubled times have hindered facial expressions of all kinds. Understanding and displaying feelings through closed layers are baffling for the majority to interpret emotions. Likewis

Aug. 11, 2020

KF, Big Hit, HUFS to jointly provide Korean language learning program

The Korea Foundation, K-pop powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment’s education business unit Big Hit Edu and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies are working together to develop and provide Korean language learning programs. As their first project together, they will provide a program for KF‘s e-school lectures for universities overseas, including Middlebury College in the US, Ecole Normale Superieure and EDHEC Business School in France this year. The organization has been providing con

Aug. 11, 2020

As Korean content goes global, cultural sensitivity becomes key issue

When students from Uijeongbu High School parodied Ghana’s famous dancing pallbearers, South Korea-based Ghanaian television personality Sam Okyere took to social media to criticize the students for painting their faces brown. A few days later, Okyere apologized after people said it was inappropriate to post a photo of the students without permission. They also took exception to his use of the hashtag “#teakpop,” which is typically used in a derogatory way about K-pop. Many K

Aug. 10, 2020

K-Intangible Heritage Festival to kick off Thursday

The National Intangible Heritage Center in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, is holding the K-Intangible Heritage Festival from Thursday to Saturday. Under the theme of “Re:Heritage Connect,” the inaugural festival will offer one-day classes for foreigners living in Korea to learn and experience intangible heritages of Korea. Performances of “Daechwita,” a genre of traditional Korean music that was performed at parades of kings and other military ceremonies, and Korean t

Aug. 10, 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

Aug. 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

Aug. 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

Aug. 8, 2020