Korea’s history offers it all ― kingdoms rise and fall, wars smolder and blaze, religions wax and wane, orthodoxies are established and questioned. Across this colorful tapestry royals strut, heroes ride, rebels plot and villains scuttle. Why then, is English language presentation of so many traditional Korean heritage assets so unremittingly dull? It is a question which vexes Joanne (Ji-myung)...

(Captured from the Daily Mail homepage) Clinging on for dear life to the side of a vertical cliff, the tiny lion cub cries out pitifully for help. His mother arrives at the edge of the precipice with three other lionesses and a male. The females start to clamber down together but turn back daunted by the sheer drop. Eventually one single factor determines which of them will risk her life to save...

Hapcheon hosts 45-day festival of exhibitions, activities, art and an academic forum Deep inside the folds of Mount Gaya in South Gyeongsang Province, Haein Temple houses the world’s most comprehensive and oldest intact Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka Koreana. Haein Temple in Hapcheon County kicks off a 45-day festival Friday to celebrate the 1,000th year of the creation of the “Chojo Daejanggyeo...

Choe Kwang-sik, who took office as new culture minister on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports’ policies should be based on the idea that people should play and have fun. “Some people ask me how I will manage all different fields of culture, sports and tourism and it is true that almost no one will do the job perfectly. But I have a simple answer,” Choe told reporters at a ...

'Musicians from two Koreas may perform Beethoven together’ South Korean conductor Chung Myung-whun said a joint orchestra consisting of musicians from South Korea and North Korea, may hold a concert in Seoul and/or Pyongyang to perform Beethoven Symphony No. 9 “Choral” late this year, as almost nothing but music can seek a common goal. Chung said he will also run a program to nurture you...

Wide variety of events available for expats to enjoy during holidays After Dillon Jones’ first Chuseok, there was nowhere to go but up. It was September 2003, and he had just arrived in Seoul from the U.S. about a month earlier. He knew a traditional holiday was coming; for one thing, his Korean-American roommate had left to spend it with his family. Not having any plans, though, Jones only re...

Former fundraiser for N.Y. public schools transforms Governors Island with creative cultural ideas Career choices of Leslie Koch, president of the Trust for Governors Island, have been far from typical. The 49-year-old was once an executive at Microsoft. She later became a successful fundraiser for public schools in New York City. Then, she took a challenging job in 2006 to transform an almost-...

It is hard for Europeans to distinguish between Asian cultures, and Willy Bogner suggests that may help Korea to come up with effective publicity “For us Europeans, so many elements are similar in Japan and China and Korea. I think even for Koreans it must sometimes find it hard to differentiate between them ― you have to be very well educated to know when was when and what was what. Maybe this ...

NEW YORK (AP) ― In the 21st century, parenthood and paranoia often walk hand in hand. For some, the blessed event is followed by high-tech surveillance, a monitoring system that tracks the baby’s breathing rhythms and relays infrared images from the nursery. The next investment might be a nanny cam, to keep watch on the child’s hired caregivers. Toddlers and grade schoolers can be equipped with ...

Cultural leaders from major economies will gather in Seoul this weekend to experience Korean culture and discuss how to better promote it. The Corea Image Communication Institute, or CICI, which organized the C20 (Culture 20) side event during the G20 Seoul Summit last year, will hold the Culture Communication Forum from Sunday to Tuesday at a variety of cultural venues in Seoul, inviting 14 cul...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ancient humans fashioned hand axes, cleavers and picks much earlier than believed, but didn‘t take the stone tools along when they left Africa, new research suggests. (AP) A team from the United States and France made the findings after traveling to an archaeological site along the northwest shoreline of Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Two-faced blades and other large cutting tools had...