The Korea Herald

Creatives fear Brexit’s impact on U.K. arts

LONDON (AFP) – Britain’s thriving arts sector is in despair about the vote to leave the European Union, fearing that funding cuts and freedom of movement restrictions will have serious consequences.In the aftermath of last month’s referendum result, performers and fans at the Glastonbury festival formed a heart in a pro-EU flash mob while musicians gave a spontaneous performance of Beethoven's “Ode To Joy” -- Europe’s anthem -- in central London.“I had a horrible dream in which I found out on a

July 10, 2016

Creatives fear Brexit’s impact on U.K. arts

New Bolshoi ballet chief aims to focus on dance not drama

MOSCOW (AFP) -- After years of off-stage drama and scandal that has cast a shadow over Russia’s famed Bolshoi ballet troupe, new dance chief Makhar Vaziev is looking to get back to its roots. “The Bolshoi ballet is classical dance before all else,” Vaziev told journalists recently at his first press conference. Vaziev, 54, is currently gearing up for his first season in charge of the scandal-hit company after leaving his post as ballet chief at Milan’s La Scala last year to return to his homelan

July 10, 2016

Avignon festival dramas warn of Europe‘s far-right lurch

AVIGNON, France (AFP) -- On paper it was already theatrical TNT. One of the hottest directors in the world and some of France’s greatest stage actors in a play warning about the slide into dangerous political populism.And “The Damned” has not disappointed.Ivo van Hove’s powerful adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s 1969 film about the insidious rise of fascism opened the Avignon festival in France last week to rave reviews, with critics from the right and left rising to hail it as “sublime, unforget

July 10, 2016

Avignon festival dramas warn of Europe‘s far-right lurch

UNESCO set to expand World Heritage list at Istanbul meeting

PARIS (AFP) -- U.N. cultural agency UNESCO will gather in Istanbul on Sunday to review candidates to join its prestigious World Heritage List, ranging from 350-million-year old fossils to works by Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier.After the June 28 attack on Istanbul’s airport that claimed 45 lives, security has been stepped up for the 11-day World Heritage Committee meeting -- the panel’s 40th.Though no one claimed responsibility for the attack, Ankara has pointed the finger of blame at the I

July 7, 2016

UNESCO set to expand World Heritage list at Istanbul meeting

Google to create virtual tours of Loire Valley chateaux

PARIS (AFP) - Google has signed up with 18 Loire Valley chateaux to create virtual tours of the former royal dwellings, the Internet giant’s Cultural Institute said Tuesday.“Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to travel to the Loire Valley to see these wonders with their own eyes,” the Paris-based institute said in a statement.Thanks to Street View image capture technology, people can take virtual tours of Chenonceau, Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau and 15 other of the national treasures strung

July 7, 2016

Noah’s ark of biblical proportions ready to open in Kentucky

WILLIAMSTOWN, Kentucky (AP) -- A 155-meter-long, $100 million Noah’s ark attraction built by Christians who say the biblical story really happened is ready to open in Kentucky this week. Since its announcement in 2010, the ark project has rankled opponents who say the attraction will be detrimental to science education and shouldn’t have won state tax incentives. “I believe this is going to be one of the greatest Christian outreaches of this era in history,” said Ken Ham, president of Answers in

July 6, 2016

Noah’s ark of biblical proportions ready to open in Kentucky

‘The Birth of a Nation’ film inspires library lectures

NEW YORK (AP) - Nate Parker's “The Birth of a Nation” isn’t out until October, but some libraries will be teaching about the slave rebellion that it‘s based on later this summer.“The Birth of a Nation: Slavery, Resistance & Abolition” will be offered in libraries, museums and other institutions from Aug. 21 through Oct. 30. Those are the dates when Nat Turner began his bloody slave revolt in 1831 and when it ended, with his capture. He was convicted and hanged days later.Parker said he hopes the

July 6, 2016

Conferences on disability, religion, literature to be held in Seoul

Two international conferences will be held in Seoul from July 6-8, offering an opportunity for scholars from 30 countries to explore the topics of disability, ecology and religion.“Understanding Disability Through Literature” is slated for July 6, and is to be followed by the second conference, “The Story of Ecology and Religion,” from July 7-8. Both forums will take place at the Centennial Memorial Hall of Sahmyook University.“The conferences will provide a chance to draw up the future of human

July 5, 2016

International Youth Fellowship hosts cultural camp

The 2016 World Cultural Camp of the International Youth Fellowship, a Christian-based global youth initiative, opened in Busan’s Haeundae Beach Sunday. Some 4,000 university students from over 50 countries, about 30 ministers from 27 countries and the presidents of 23 universities attended the opening. In its 19th edition, this year‘s camp is organized under the slogan “The Ship of Change.” The annual event takes place each summer and includes diverse programs such as lectures, cultural performa

July 5, 2016

International Youth Fellowship hosts cultural camp

‘Creative Korea’ new nation brand slogan

The Culture Ministry revealed “Creative Korea” as a new slogan for branding the nation on Monday. “The new brand slogan promotes the value that the Republic of Korea upholds and an image that the country wants to promote abroad,” said Kim Jong-deok, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, at a news conference announcing the brand slogan and logo design on Monday. The new slogan and logo were created following nationwide polls the government conducted among citizens who were asked about keyword

July 4, 2016

How Rolling Stone's rape story became its 'worst nightmare'

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) -- Rolling Stone magazine published a story in November 2014 describing in chilling detail a student’s account of being brutally raped by seven men at the University of Virginia. Several days later the magazine’s editors received an email from the reporter with the subject line “our worst nightmare.” “We‘re going to have to run a retraction,” wrote Sabrina Rubin Erdely about her now-discredited story, “A Rape on Campus.” The message is among hundreds of pages of no

July 4, 2016

[Weekender] Summer is a season of horror as a bone-chilling way to beat the heat

While some may think the best way to beat the scorching weather is to take a dip in the pool or guzzle an iced coffee, summertime in Korea is known for its unique culture of scaring the heat right out of you. Every summer the local box offices are filled with the newest horror and psychological thriller flicks to literally give viewers the shivers. Many local moviegoers are known to flock to the theaters in the summer hoping to cool off with a little bit of self-inflicted fear, as it is popular

July 1, 2016

[Weekender] Summer is a season of horror as a bone-chilling way to beat the heat

[Weekender] Urban legends stoke kids' fears

Children growing up in Korea are exposed to numerous urban legends that often fan fear and anxiety -- unfounded fears, in the eyes of adults. 　Set against the backdrop of modernized cities, the urban legends typically involve nighttime happenings at rather ordinary, everyday places -- schools, elevators, bus stops, bathrooms, and so forth -- creating irrational fears of everyday activities. 　In those stories, a ghost happens to arise from right next to the bed or under the desk and tries to suff

July 1, 2016

[Weekender] Urban legends stoke kids' fears

Afghan fury as Iran, Turkey claim Sufi poet

KABUL (AFP) - Who can lay claim to Rumi, the Sufi mystic who is one of the world’s most beloved poets? A bid by Iran and Turkey to do so has exasperated Afghanistan, the country of his birth eight centuries ago.Tehran and Ankara asked to list the work of Jalal ud-Din Muhammad Rumi as their joint heritage on the U.N.’s “Memory of the World” register in May.The register, falling under the U.N.’s cultural organization UNESCO, was formed in 1997 to protect the world’s documentary heritage -- archive

June 30, 2016

Aside from ‘Hamilton,’ Revolutionary era inspires little art

NEW YORK (AP) -- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and 11 Tony Awards, "Hamilton" is a cultural phenomenon that stands as the most celebrated work of art ever inspired by the American Revolution.The competition is remarkably thin.While the Civil War, World War II and the Vietnam War have inspired acclaimed movies, plays, poems and novels, from Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" to Steven Spielberg’s "Saving Private Ryan," notable works about the American Revolution are rare outside of history

June 30, 2016

Aside from ‘Hamilton,’ Revolutionary era inspires little art

Debate rages in Germany over ‘regretting motherhood’

BERLIN (AFP) -- Is it possible to regret becoming a mother? The question first posed by an Israeli researcher has stirred a debate in Germany like in no other country, shattering a long-held taboo.“In Israel, it was settled in a week. In Germany, it has lasted for months,” said sociologist Orna Donath, whose study “Regretting Motherhood” was published in 2015.Tired of hearing that she “would regret” not having a child, the researcher collected testimonies from 23 women who, on the contrary, love

June 30, 2016

Ancient temple of Mexican Otomi Indians damaged

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Assailants have damaged an ancient Otomi Indian religious site in Mexico, toppling stone structures used as altars, breaking carved stones and scattering offerings of flowers, fruit and paintings at the remote mountain shrine known as Mayonihka or Mexico Chiquito.The attack was unusual in a country where few ancient pre-Hispanic religious sites remain functioning.A researcher who interviewed some of the attackers said they identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses and view

June 29, 2016

Language of China’s emperors in peril

SANJIAZI, China (AFP) - It was the language of China’s last imperial dynasty which ruled a vast kingdom for nearly three centuries. But 71-year-old Ji Jinlu is among only a handful of native Manchu speakers left.Traders and farmers from what are now the borders of China and Korea, the Manchus took advantage of a crumbling Ming state and swept south in the 1600s to establish their own Qing Dynasty.Manchu became the court language, its angular, alphabetic script used in millions of documents produ

June 28, 2016

Air and Space Museum celebrates 40th with new exhibit

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is opening its newly renovated Milestones of Flight gallery to the public.The Washington Post reports (http://wapo.st/290ZD5f) that starting Tuesday, visitors can see the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, which now has a huge interactive touch-screen display, revamped artifacts labels, the USS Enterprise from Star Trek and a lunar module like the one in the 1969 moon landing.Space artifacts curator Allan Needell says he hopes the l

June 28, 2016

[Foreigners Who Loved Korea] The George Fitch family, supporters of Korean independence activists

In 1968, the government of the Republic of Korea bestowed the Order of Independence Merit for National Foundation unto the missionary George Ashmore Fitch (Korean name: Bi Oh-saeng). Fitch was none other than the Suzhou-born U.S. missionary who had provided a meeting place for Korean independence activists in Shanghai, China in 1919, acted as director of the Korean Relief Society and adviser to Inseong School in the 1920s and provided refuge to Kim Gu after Yun Bong-gil’s patriotic deed at Hongk

June 27, 2016

[Foreigners Who Loved Korea] The George Fitch family, supporters of Korean independence activists