Korea Season 'breaks' off in Paris with powerful dance performances

PARIS -- In the Chatelet Theatre in Paris on Thursday, two dance groups joined forces for a performance to officially kick off Korea Season 2024, an annual program organized by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. Titled "Urban Pulse Uprising," South Korea's 1Million and the French Pockemon Crew showcased a performance encompassing various street dance genres, including K-pop, hip-hop and breakdancing for the audience that packed the 1,600-seat theater. The p

May 3, 2024

[Photo News] Lanterns celebrate Buddha’s Birthday

Lantern installations illuminate Songhyeon Green Plaza, next to the main palace from the Joseon era, Gyeongbokgung, in central Seoul on Thursday. The annual Buddhist Lantern Festival runs through May 15, which is the Buddha’s Birthday holiday, at Songhyeon Green Plaza, Gwanghwamun Square, Cheonggye Plaza and around Jogyesa, the main temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism in downtown Seoul. (Yonhap)

May 3, 2024

[Well-curated] Reptiles, Hangeul-theme cafe and circus on Nodeul Island

Explore world of reptiles Gecko's Republic, located right around the corner from Mangwon Station on Subway Line No. 6, is a mini reptile zoo housing a wide range of unique reptile species, including chameleons, turtles and lizards. The two-story building is an inviting spot not only for reptile enthusiasts but also for those looking to raise reptiles themselves. Unlike some other reptile cafes that allow visitors to feed turtles and watch the lizards, Gecko’s Republic looks after som

May 3, 2024

Bucheon Art Center to present Lim Yunchan recital

The Bucheon Art Center will celebrate its first anniversary with a four-day festival and recital by pianist Lim Yunchan. To mark one year since its opening on May 19, the center will host a four-day festival from May 16 to 20, featuring performances by renowned classical musicians including pianist Paik Kun-Woo, pianist-and-conductor Kim Sun-wook, pianist Jung Kyu-bin, cellist Choi Ha-young and more. Following this celebration, Lim's recital will take place June 17 as part of his nationwi

May 1, 2024

Splashy 'The Great Gatsby' musical marks first Broadway adaptation, producer Shin's dream come true

NEW YORK -- The first musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” was unveiled on Thursday at the Broadway Theatre in New York after three weeks of previews, with all 1,763 seats filled. The opening of the musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same title marks just the start of potential competition among various interpretations to come, since the story entered into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2021. As the first Broadway show of “The Great Gatsby,” t

April 30, 2024

'The Roundup: Punishment' becomes fastest 2024 film to top 2 mln admissions

The Korean crime-action film "The Roundup: Punishment" surpassed 2 million admissions on Saturday, three days after its release, its distributor said. It became the fastest film of 2024 to date to reach the milestone, according to ABO Entertainment. The fourth installment of "The Roundup" crime-action film franchise starring Ma Dong-seok opened big Wednesday, drawing 820,000 moviegoers nationwide, and topped 1 million the following day. As of 9 a.m. Saturday, it accounted f

April 27, 2024

[Photo News] Hampyeong Butterfly Festival

The annual Hampyeong Butterfly Festival opens at Hampyeong Expo Park, an eco-themed tourist attraction in Hampyeong, South Jeolla Province, Friday. The 11-day spring festival beckons visitors who wish to learn about the flora and fauna of Korea via various programs, including virtual reality and hands-on experiences with butterflies and insects. There will be performances by local artists, banana harvesting, pizza making and exhibitions.

April 26, 2024

[Well-curated] More than a library, street dance fests and glimpse of Venice Biennale

More than a library Throw yourself into the endless rows of bookshelves filled with various kinds of books. Located in Jung-gu, Seoul, near major transportation hub Seoul Station, Sohn Kee-chung Culture Library is a calm, peaceful library surrounded by a beautifully landscaped park and a walking track. In fact, you might even skip the library and just go for a leisurely stroll there. The library reopened in 2021 after an extensive renovation. The library, now spanning over 771 square meters, has

April 26, 2024

[My Hangeul Story] 'Hangeul unfolds a brand new world'

MANILA -- Guiding top K-pop artists visiting Manila was something that Grace Iriberri had never imagined when she started learning Hangeul, the Korean writing system, out of curiosity, some 10 years ago. Now, Iriberri feels that the Korean language has expanded her universe, creating new connections with people not only from the Philippines but also from South Korea. “My relationship with Korea started when I tutored Korean children as an English teacher in Manila,” Iriberri told The

April 24, 2024

Culture Ministry to up support for art entities under 'K-Art Festival'

The Culture Ministry will take the lead in combining Korea's major art events slated for September and promoting them nationwide under the "K-Art Festival" umbrella, according to the culture minister on Monday. Culture Minister Yoo In-chon said the ministry will step up its support to foster collaboration between major players in the art world, including the organizers of biennales, museums and commercial art fairs. “(Declaring cooperation) is the first step in forging coll

April 22, 2024

Reservations for Gyeongbokgung night tours to open April 30

Online reservations for the biannual nighttime tours of Gyeongbokgung will open on April 30 at 10 a.m. This special opportunity to take a moonlight stroll around Seoul’s main Joseon-era (1392-1910) palace will be available from May 8 to June 2, except for Mondays and Tuesdays. Tours will take place between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. While the tours will not include guides, the palace’s gates, halls, pavilions and garden will be open to visitors. One person can buy up to four tickets at tic

April 22, 2024

Author Cheon Seon-ran explains her preference for stage adaptations of 'A Thousand Blues'

“A Thousand Blues,” a science fiction novel by young writer Cheon Seon-ran, has been reborn as not one but two different stage performances just less than one month apart. Cheon, 31, had received offers for the adaptation of her award-winning novel, but she had rejected turning it into a movie or drama for a reason. “The aspect that I was most worried about, if ‘A Thousand Blues’ were adapted into a drama or movie, was the use of animals. For a movie or drama, it se

April 21, 2024

[Herald Interview] Lim Yunchan: Chopin album feels like long-awaited eruption

When practicing for the recording of his first solo album, "Chopin Etudes," which was released internationally on April 19, Lim Yunchan, the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, paid meticulous attention to each note. He would assess whether they could strike his heart, sometimes spending several hours to perfect just two measures. “When you press the first note, if it doesn't strike your heart, then it's not practice, right? So,

April 19, 2024

[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas

A group of senior South Korean Buddhist monks entered the Memorial Hall of Korean Buddhism History and Culture in Seoul one by one on Friday, the tranquil mood interrupted only by the sounds of the camera crews that had come to record the event. The solemn ceremony, presided by the Ven. Jinwoo, president of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, highlighted why the gathering mattered so much. The monks and Buddhist followers took turns studying the cremated re

April 19, 2024

[Well-curated] Life in miniature, spaces in time

Life in miniature Miniatures, or tiny meticulous artworks, are intuitive. No one has to be schooled about the way they should be looked at or studied. And that only puts added pressure on the artist to create a message navigating analogies and twists, without losing anyone in the process. Tatsuya Tanaka is a Japanese artist doing just that. At the IFC Mall in Seoul, the exhibit “Miniature Life” showcases over 200 miniatures spanning seven themes, including home, life and the world.

April 19, 2024

With 10-year-old classic festival as catalyst, Gyechon evolves into art village

When the Gyechon Music Festival was being considered over a decade ago, residents of the village Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, expressed a preference for popular music genres like trot, rather than classical music -- or at least a mix of the two. Ten years on, no one is talking about a pop music festival. Rather, the village hopes to solidify its identity as an art village, with the rare outdoor classic music festival as the catalyst, according to Lee Dong-yeun, director of the festival and p

April 17, 2024

Verdi's 'La Traviata' embraces time, beauty of Korea in early 20th century

Gyeongseong, as present-day Seoul was called during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945, is the background of many popular TV shows, including “Mr. Sunshine" (2018) and “Gyeongseong Creature" (2023), or even in the musical “Il Tenoro" (2023). While watching “Mr. Sunshine,” the head and artistic director of the Seoul Metropolitan Opera, Park Hye-jin, envisioned Verdi’s opera “La Traviata” set in 1900s to 1930s Korea

April 17, 2024

King Sejong Institute to continue digital innovation for Hangeul learners

Amid heightened interest in Hangeul, the King Sejong Institute, which is at the forefront of Korean-language education abroad, saw a surge in the number of students last year, according to the King Sejong Institute on Friday. The number of online students rose 44 percent to about 88,000 last year. Including some 128,000 offline students, the King Sejong Institute now serves well more than 200,000 Korean-language students. “This shows digital innovation for the King Sejong Institute is very

April 15, 2024

Goryeo relics to come home, finally

South Korean Buddhist monks will bring back long-sought 14th-century Buddhist relics from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, following a transfer ceremony there Tuesday. The event is the latest highlight from a deal struck in February in which the museum agreed to “donate” the sarira, or bead-shaped objects found among cremated remains of Buddhist masters. The agreement between the museum and a delegation of Cultural Heritage Administration officials and monks from the Jogye Order of K

April 15, 2024

Buddhist Lantern Festival gets younger

Outreach to the young will be the focus of this year’s Buddhist Lantern Festival in Seoul, which starts Wednesday in the run-up to Buddha’s Birthday on May 15. The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the organizer of the annual festival, is betting big on an electronic dance music performance by the Ven. New Jean, a comedian who gained a following after he delivered Buddhist verses to EDM at last year’s event. The name, meaning a “fresh move forward,” is a wordplay on t

April 14, 2024