A group of youthful dancers took the stage on March 16 at Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, moving and grooving to popular K-pop songs.While the scene was certainly eye-catching, it was not out of the blue; the square is an easy target for people seeking attention ― protesters and street performers ― as it constantly swarms with tourists, police, young couples, and families on weekends.This particular group, however, was peculiar in the sense that none of the members looked old enough to be there witho

April 1, 2013

LONDON (Reuters) ― An exhibition showing daily life and tragic death in the ill-fated Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum opened in London on Thursday to glowing reviews and the highest advance tickets sales at the British Museum in five years.Over 450 objects, many of which haven’t been seen outside Italy, are arranged to show everyday life in the Roman Empire before Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, burying the two Southern Italian cities in volcanic ash. Paul Roberts, senior curator at t

April 1, 2013

Even after the emergence of hundreds of new genres of music over the centuries, classical chamber music is still one of a kind. A small group of musicians with different musical instruments sit close to each other and perform in the intimate atmosphere of a relatively small venue. The audience can even hear the players’ breathing, the very detailed resonance of the strings and the sound of the piano pedals moving up and down. “I believe that chamber music was written as if a composer were confes

April 1, 2013

A warm, smooth cappuccino or latte is ideal for coping with mid-spring frosty winds. It warms you up, boosts energy and, more than anything, provides comfort in a hectic life. To share such a good feeling with the less wealthy, a number of cafe owners across Europe have joined the “suspended coffee” initiative.Suspended coffee is an extra coffee that one pays for in advance for someone in need. People participating in the initiative go to a coffeehouse, order their coffee and prepay for another

April 1, 2013

Dance“Altar”: Fashion designer Jung Kuho is staging his second dance piece in April with the National Dance Company of Korea. Titled “Altar,” the dance is choreographed by local artist Ahn Sung-soo, who also choreographed the Korean National Ballet and Jung’s collaboration work “Poise” last year. Jung is directing the upcoming performance, and is in charge of the stage and costume design, music, hair and makeup, and lighting. In the center of the stage, a huge altar will be set serving as an art

March 29, 2013

The country’s tourism sector is targeted for a renewed boost under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s new five-year plan. With the goal of attracting 16 million foreign visitors to Korea annually by the year 2017, the ministry will implement a number of initiatives, including medical tourism clusters in Daegu and Osong, North Chungcheong Province, designed to utilize the two cities’ infrastructure as government-designated medical clusters. In its report to President Park Geun-hye on T

March 28, 2013

Is he a martyr for the previous administration’s broadcasting policy or a tyrant facing the music for his authoritarianism?Kim Jae-chul, who resigned on Wednesday after being voted out as chief of the state-subsidized broadcasting network MBC on Tuesday by the board of the broadcaster’s majority shareholder, Foundation for Broadcast Culture, had been at the center of controversy from the day he took charge at MBC in February 2010. Kim’s appointment was labeled “Lee Myung-bak cronyism” as he had

March 27, 2013

The following is part of a series exploring unique museums, collections and the passionate collectors behind them. ― Ed.The wonders that can be created with something as seemingly simple as a piece of paper are awe-inspiring. Although paper is used in everyday life on such regular basis, its intrinsic and artistic value is oftentimes overlooked. Beyond its practical uses such as material for printing and jotting down notes, paper itself is actually a form of artistic expression. Despite the adva

March 26, 2013

The viola, slightly larger than a violin and with a deeper sound, has always been overshadowed by its smaller, higher-profile cousin.In Korea, however, the viola enjoys as much fame as the violin, thanks to Richard Yongjae O’Neill. The 34-year-old musician has reportedly sold more than 150,000 viola recordings here and his concerts are almost always sold-out affairs. His impressive CV includes an Avery Fisher Career Grant and two Grammy nominations, performances with internationally renowned orc

March 26, 2013

A Swedish “hotel” is offering customers the chance to sleep in “rooms” including a dirty mattress under a bridge and a sleeping bag in a public park.Faktum Hotels in Gothenburg said the $15-per-night accommodations, which it began offering in November, are designed to highlight the hardships facing the city‘s homeless population, The Local.se reported Monday.　“We asked several of our homeless contacts where they often slept, then we set up our rooms,” said Aaron Israelson, editor of Faktum magaz

March 26, 2013

Architect Cho Min-suk has been named the commissioner of the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014, the state cultural agency Arts Council of Korea announced on Monday. Cho will be in charge of selecting architects and planning the Korean Pavilion for the architecture exhibition. Cho runs his own architecture firm, Mass Studies in Korea. Its representative projects include the “Dalki Theme Park,” in Paju, “Nature Poem,” and “World Expo 2010 Shanghai: Korea Pavilion,” for which Cho received the

March 25, 2013

NHN Corporation, operator of the country’s largest search engine Naver, introduced what is called a “page profit sharing,” or PPS, program to make its webtoon services more profitable for the writers. “PPS is a business package in which we introduce a revenue model to a webtoon page and share the profit with the author,” said Kim Joon-ku, director of Naver Books.Webtoon -- a series of comic strips published through the Internet -- was originally provided for free to local readers. PPS now allows

March 25, 2013

The small South Gyeongsang Province city of Tongyeong was clearly in a festive mood Friday as its annual Tongyeong International Music Festival kicked off. The streets were adorned with flags and signboards about the event and local merchants were busy selling delicacies and other goods to mark one of the most celebrated festivals for contemporary classical music in Asia. Students and young artists gathered at the city’s port and enjoyed free performances that were held as part of a fringe festi

March 24, 2013

Semele Walk, the opening piece for the Tongyeong International Music Festival featured on Friday evening in its Asian premiere, was as strong as it could get from the beginning. Musicians loosely holding their instruments in rainbow-colored hair and dark eyeliner with funky garments appeared on the catwalk and seated at the front row. As soon as the orchestra started playing the quintessential Baroque tunes of the great George Friedrich Handel, flocks of models sashayed the catwalk, flaunting th

March 24, 2013