Tattoos were once considered a badge for gangsters in Korea, but they have become a medium of self-expression or a fashion statement among younger generations. Many are not reluctant to show off their inked skin in public or on social media, but there still persists a societal stigma surrounding the body art. A sports center in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, has recently put up a notice that restricts entry of tattooed members. The no-tattoo policy was introduced after complaints from nontattooed member

Social Affairs Oct. 25, 2022

  The following is part of Seoul Subway Stories, a Korea Herald series exploring the subway stations and surrounding areas across the city. -- Ed.   A roughly five-minute walk from Exit No. 7 of Mullae Station on Seoul subway leads you to a village with two faces. Greeting visitors first are the boisterous sounds of machinery and workers cutting and welding iron bars and slabs inside small factories and metal workshops. But soon, one can hear jazz and classical music being played somew

Hashtag Korea Oct. 23, 2022

Alarmed by a rapid rise in drug offenses, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday it supports a legislative proposal to ban references to narcotics in food advertisements as something irresistibly good. “Using drug references to promote food can have a negative effect on children or adolescents,” a ministry official said. “Once the proposed bill gets passed by the National Assembly, the ministry will take measures, including drawing up an enforcement ordinance to curb

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2022

Dance cover videos, created by fans to imitate idols’ moves on stage and in music videos, have been an essential part of global K-pop fandom culture. On platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, one can easily find short clips where amateur dancers from both here and abroad replicate the choreography with incredible attention to details. These videos are often shot in places such as on the street or in a public park. Recently, one particular locale in Seoul has risen a

Culture Oct. 14, 2022

  Over 30 percent of international schools in South Korea have been using textbooks that refer to the East Sea, a body of water between South Korea and Japan, only as the Sea of Japan, a lawmaker said Tuesday. As of August 2020, 12 of 38 international schools were using textbooks that solely use the Japanese name. The number of those textbooks with the Sea of Japan reference marked 24, according to the office of Rep. Ahn Min-seok of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea. The office refer

Social Affairs Oct. 11, 2022

South Korea needs to bring in more professional foreign workers to cope with a continuous decline in the working-age population, a think tank said Friday. According to a report published by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, educators, researchers, engineers, artists and highly-skilled workers accounted for a mere 10 percent of last year’s total 406,669 foreign nationals with employment visas. The rest were mostly low-skilled workers in agriculture, construction and

Social Affairs Oct. 7, 2022

On Sept. 18, a teenager’s cartoon satirizing President Yoon Suk-yeol won a top prize at a local cartoon contest. No major news outlets gave it major coverage. The work was displayed for three days until Monday at the Bucheon International Comics Festival. It drew some attention, and mixed comments, on social media. Then on Tuesday, a day after the exhibition’s end, the work was thrust into the national spotlight when the Culture Ministry issued a “strong warning” against

Social Affairs Oct. 7, 2022

With cooler and crisp air, the season of university fall festivals has arrived. Since mid-September, major universities across the country are holding their biggest and most exciting campus event of the year. During the past two years of the pandemic, university festivals had faced a hiatus, like many other in-person events. But with social distancing rules and the outdoor mask mandate lifted, the festivals are back in all their glory, with their typical elements of K-pop, student-run food sta

Culture Oct. 5, 2022

As South Korea struggles to reverse a falling fertility rate, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has come up with a new idea: Open up the border to foreign nannies to relieve the child care burden of working parents. “Parenting should be socially respected, and measures are needed to enable mothers and fathers to raise their children together,” he said via Facebook on Tuesday. “The introduction of foreign babysitters is a policy focused on parenting, and it would be good news for those

Social Affairs Sept. 28, 2022

Sporting a dark formal suit and a hint of smile, the man in the photograph gives off an impression of a kind person with a decent office job. But the 31-year-old named Jeon Joo-hwan is the prime suspect in the murder of a female subway attendant at Seoul’s Sindang Station earlier this month. The picture, which appears to have been digitally altered, was released along with his name and age, following a decision by a joint police and civil panel on the public disclosure of the identity of

Social Affairs Sept. 27, 2022

Jason Basulto, a 27-year-old American tourist, visited Guryong Village, one of the last remaining shanty towns in Seoul, in April this year. He had been curious about Seoul’s not-so-shiny side, like the semi-basement homes featured in “Parasite.” "Urban slums are visible not only in Korea, but in many other countries, because the wealth gap is a global issue. But the scenery of Guryong Village in the middle of high buildings was striking,” he said. For those who ar

Social Affairs Sept. 26, 2022

A farmers’ market popped up at a corner of a street in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong neighborhood on Sunday. Among the vendors at the touring market dubbed Marche@ were Lee Ji-sun, 42, who brought herbs, vegetables, and eggs from her family’s farm in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. “Our farm does not use any synthetic chemicals and we hatch chicken eggs naturally,” she said proudly. Marche@ is not an ordinary farmers’ market. Started by a group of city farmers committed t

Food Sept. 23, 2022

For those unacquainted with Korean cuisine, kimchi can taste and smell a bit strong. But don’t let that first impression scare you off from the amazingly rich, versatile and savory world of kimchi, says Son Jong-won, executive chef of L’Amant Secret, a Michelin-star restaurant at L'Escape Hotel in Seoul. At a cooking demonstration on Tuesday with 20 foreign guests, the chef showcased how the fermented cabbage, which has a varying mix of pungent, sour and spicy tastes, can ta

Food Sept. 22, 2022

Tashi Choden, a Bhutanese social media influencer who was crowned this year’s Miss Bhutan, was 15 when she first realized she was "different." “I first came out as a bisexual person to my friends, but soon realized that my affection tilted more towards women,” Choden, now 23, told The Korea Herald in an exclusive interview. “After doing some research on gender identities, I found out that I was a genderfluid lesbian.” Being gender-fluid means that one&rs

People Sept. 19, 2022

In Seoul's southern district of Banpo, an apartment complex recently won a prize at the international iF Design Award 2022 in Germany, not for the design of its main building, but for its grand and magnificent front gate. Standing 8 meters tall and 70 meters long, the large curved entrance gate is the first impression of “the H Banpo La Class,” the apartment complex built by Hyundai E&C last year. At night, the massive structure is illuminated with more than 12,000 LED lights,

Social Affairs Sept. 17, 2022