A colorful postcard bought in Amsterdam “just because it was so pretty,” notes and letters from friends and a large card with black-and-white graphics -- a ticket to a show by a Korean electronic music group from two years ago he kept because he was very impressed and wanted to remember it -- are lined up neatly inside violinist Yang In-mo’s violin case, affording a glimpse of his taste. “I think it is fun to decorate the interior with postcards like this,” he says

Performance Sept. 24, 2021

American artist Mark Dion -- who doubles as an amateur ecologist, archaeologist and naturalist -- showcased his first solo exhibition in South Korea at Barakat Contemporary in central Seoul after going through thorough on-site research in South Korea’s western and southern coastlines. Dion’s solo exhibition “The Sea Life of South Korea and Other Curious Tales” includes his new large-scale installations “Cabinet of Marine Debris” and “Sea Life of South

Culture Sept. 23, 2021

When I heard a friend who is a few years older say that she missed the chaos of the kitchen before “jesa,” or ancestral rite, I was incredulous. She described how the women of her family would line the kitchen floor with layers of old newspaper to prevent the cooking oil from splattering and set up an electric griddle on top of it. “I miss the sound of sizzling jeon and the smell of cooking oil that wafted through the house,” she said. The kitchen countertop was not lar

Viewpoints Sept. 18, 2021

  A photo of massive, foreboding, rocky mountains, barren except for a few bushes, with a truckload of soldiers carrying rifles is a lasting image I have of Afghanistan. I used the photo, clipped out of Time magazine, I think, to make a scrap book about various countries -- a middle school geography assignment. I don’t remember why I chose Afghanistan, among all the other countries that started with the letter A. Perhaps because this was in the early 1980s and the country was much in

Viewpoints Sept. 3, 2021

What does a pianist who travels the world on concert tours do when the world goes into a lockdown? You go on an emotional roller coaster, refocus and record your first studio album. That is what pianist Sunwoo Yekwon did. “I was going through the same mental stages as other people,” said Sunwoo Yekwon in an interview with The Korea Herald on Aug. 17 at the Universal Music office in Seoul. “In the beginning, I was quite hopeful, hoping that things will get better soon,&rdquo

Performance Aug. 28, 2021

His penname “Gamro,” given to him by a Buddhist monk, means “spreading a valuable message to the people.” Korean-American photojournalist Kang Hyung-won is trying to live up to that name. Kang is a man on a mission. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes – one in 1993 for coverage of the 1992 LA riots with the Los Angeles Times and the other in 1999 for coverage of the Bill Clinton impeachment and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal for the Associated Press -- aims to highlig

Culture Aug. 13, 2021

The blockbuster film “Escape From Mogadishu,” released July 28, has drawn more than 1.85 million theatergoers, becoming the biggest box office hit so far in a year that is seeing many of the films originally set for release last year finally make it to screens despite the continued pandemic. The harrowing escape scene and the exotic location -- the film was shot in Morocco for three months last year before the pandemic halted virtually all international travel -- are certainly rivet

Film Aug. 12, 2021

Can the safety and health of the athletes be guaranteed? What is the point of having world-class athletes perform to an empty stadium? In a city where COVID-19 is raging out of control, would not the thousands who will descend upon it exacerbate the situation?　 These questions and more bothered me as countries debated whether to send their national teams to the once-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. For someone who has never played competitive sports and is not a great sports fan, participating in t

Viewpoints Aug. 6, 2021

Judging by their looks alone, Seodo Band does not immediately strike one as a “fusion gugak” band, melding the traditional music of Korea with the sounds of the West. There are no traditional instruments in the band. And all for a reason. “It is not that we don’t use them. Rather, we are not able to use them,” Seo Do, the vocalist of Seodo Band, said during an interview with The Korea Herald on July 14, explaining the absence of traditional instruments in the panso

Performance July 24, 2021

Last week, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee announced two candidate sites in Seoul for a building to house a large collection of art donated by the family of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee.　 A site in central Seoul close to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the grounds of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan will be considered for the final selection, which will be announced by the end of the year, in consultation with a committee of

Viewpoints July 16, 2021

The government recently launched a new round of publicity blitz to promote Korean culture abroad, this time involving the screening of a “fashion film” set in a Joseon period palace that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The aim is two-fold: Let the world know the beauty of Korea’s palaces and, perhaps more urgently, send a clear message that hanbok belongs to Korea. The latter aim has gained urgency as Chinese media have been claiming that hanbok originates from China.

Viewpoints June 25, 2021

I won a trip to Tahiti. In my dream, that is. I was ecstatic at having won the lottery, but within a few seconds, my heart sank at the fact that I had not been vaccinated. Even in my dream. I don’t know what deeply seated unconscious desire to visit Tahiti may have led to the dream. Tahiti has never been on my bucket list. I suspect the dream had more to do with a pent-up desire to travel. To anywhere, really. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in January 2020, travels around the world cam

Viewpoints June 4, 2021

“So, how much can you really know a place?” asks Lindsey Miller in her just released book “North Korea: Like Nowhere Else.” Miller, who lived in North Korea from 2017 to 2019, accompanying her husband who held the post of political secretary at the British Embassy in Pyongyang, still grapples with that question two years after returning home. And she is not alone. North Korea is an enigma that perplexes experts, visitors and even casual observers who hear about the co

Books May 8, 2021

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” So spoke Juliet Capulet to Romeo Montague in Shakespearean tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.” But, of course, there is a lot in a name. It is by which you are called your whole life, it is your identity. In Korea, where names take on a great significance, a lot of thought and care are taken in naming a new born. Often, one character of the two-character name is used by everyone in a

Viewpoints May 8, 2021

The blooming of yellow forsythias heralds the long awaited arrival of spring. The golden bells are everywhere, on the sides of Seoul’s numerous rocky mountains, by the Han River and along school fences. The golden yellows are soon joined by the creamy white elegance of magnolia blossoms that, at night, look like candle lights floating midair. All too soon, they fade, the large petals falling to the ground one by one. But don’t despair, there are delicate pale pink cherry blossoms

Viewpoints April 23, 2021