PARIS (AP) ― It’s a queasy experience, viewing chained tribal dancers do a white man’s bidding, or African women stripped and photographed to feed European curiosity. Until just a few generations ago, this is how most white people learned about those with skin of a different shade. A new Paris exhibit examines how for centuries, colonizers plucked villagers from Africa, the Americas or the South...

Korea’s brand value has increased by 19.6 percent, according to this year’s final nation brand report by Brand Finance, an independent intangible asset valuation consultancy based in London. Overall, Korea ranks 16th, the same ranking it received last year. The U.S. ranked first place overall, while Germany ranked second and China third. The report assigns a rating between AAA (very strong) to ...

Korea will continue to aim for one unified culture-related agency per overseas city to more effectively promote its culture to the world, the director of Korean Culture and Information Service said Tuesday. “We are very much aware of the importance of the issue and have been pushing to set up more integrated offices so that visitors can get all the information they need about Korean culture by m...

The Ministry of Culture and Google Korea agreed Wednesday to jointly launch cultural projects and services starting from next year. Under the agreement, the ministry and Google will jointly hold and promote K-pop concerts with the shows broadcast live on YouTube. Google will also set up a channel on YouTube that specializes in Korean classic movies with English subtitles. The ministry and Goog...

JAMESTOWN, Virginia (AFP) ― Archeologist William Kelso is certain he’s discovered the remains of the oldest Protestant church in the United States, standing between two holes he insists once held wooden posts. In 1614, Pocahontas was “married right here, I guarantee,” Kelso told AFP at the Jamestown, Virginia archeological site southeast of the nation’s capital. Near the James River, on May 14,...

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ― Moammar Gadhafi’s forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya’s new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time. The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an impor...

Korea's martial art taekkyon and tightrope walking received world intangible heritage status from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday, the world body said. In a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage added the Korean assets "taekkyon" and "jultagi" (tightrope w...

PARIS (AFP) -- A Paris auction of items related to Herge’s comic book reporter Tintin, whose adventures have been adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg, fetched more than 1.8 million euros Saturday. Auctioneers Arcturial said the sale, including costs, had brought in 1,873,396 euros ($2,480,095) -- far more than the one million euros expected. The 856 lots up for grabs were equally div...

DENPASAR, (AFP) -- Chinese shadow puppetry and Belgian set ritual repertoire, both passed down through the generations were added Saturday to UNESCO’s list of “intangible cultural heritage” of humanity. Envoys on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali added the two new entries to UNESCO‘s intangible cultural heritage of humanity list for 2011. Chinese shadow puppetry is a form of theatre acted by co...

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) ― On Nov. 22, 1963, Tom Wicker was in the first press bus following John F. Kennedy’s motorcade when the president was assassinated. Wicker, the New York Times’ White House correspondent, would later write in a memoir that the day was a turning point for the country: “The shots ringing out in Dealey Plaza marked the beginning of the end of innocence.” At that moment, how...