The Korea Herald

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Person of Interest’ in the era of AI

ViewpointsMay 27, 2020

We are now living in the era of artificial intelligence. In fact, AI is everywhere already, in our smartphones, laptops, and cars. What many commentators have hailed as the “fourth industrial revolut...
[Kim Seong-kon] Coronavirus resembles a corrosive ideology

ViewpointsMay 20, 2020

The global pandemic called COVID-19 is now ruthlessly invading the world, devastating all the infected nations and still causing untold numbers of deaths. Humans cannot but shudder at this never-befo...
[Kim Seong-kon] Be grateful and modest in these challenging times

ViewpointsMay 13, 2020

Amid the ever-widening spread of the novel coronavirus, we realize things that we normally would not. For example, we realize we should be grateful to doctors, nurses and health care workers who are ...
[Kim Seong-kon] Why have I become modernist again despite its faults?

ViewpointsApr 29, 2020

I was a modernist when I wrote my MA thesis on literary modernism. Later, however, when I decided to write my doctoral dissertation on postmodernism at the State University of New York at Buffalo, I ...
[Kim Seong-kon] Letter from a senior to younger generations

ViewpointsApr 22, 2020

The April election is over. The outcome was a landslide victory for the progressive ruling party and a total disaster for the conservative opposition party. Of course, opinion varies depending on th...
[Kim Seong-kon] Will April be the cruelest month? Vote with hope

ViewpointsApr 15, 2020

T.S. Eliot’s monumental poem “The Waste Land” begins with the famous line, “April is the cruelest month.” Eliot refers to April as the cruelest month because spring rain wakes us up from our warm, co...
[Kim Seong-Kon] What we should do in post-coronavirus era

ViewpointsApr 8, 2020

It may be too early to predict what will happen in the post-coronavirus world. Yet already one hears foretold that when the crisis is over, the world will not be the same. For example, globalization ...
[Kim Seong-kon] Living as an Asian in West in uncomfortable times

ViewpointsMar 31, 2020

Undoubtedly, these are uncomfortable times for all Asians living in the West. For the unprecedented global pandemic that has recently devastated the earth, many Westerners blame China. Yet, even if t...
[Kim Seong-kon] Remembering Korea’s charms in these difficult times

ViewpointsMar 24, 2020

Due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, we are now unable to travel to foreign countries freely. Some time ago, however, a South Korean could visit virtually any place on earth and feel at home where...
[Kim Seong-kon] Lesson from Academy Award-winning Parasite

ViewpointsMar 17, 2020

Ostensibly, the 2020 Academy Award-winning South Korean film “Parasite” seems to depict the problems of a polarized society here, sharply divided between the rich and the poor. That was why Korean le...
[Kim Seong-kon] Korea’s image battered by coronavirus outbreak

ViewpointsMar 10, 2020

Until the recent outbreak of the new coronavirus, South Korea’s reputation in the international community could not have been better. For the past few decades, Samsung, LG, and Hyundai have significa...
[Kim Seong-kon] Between Seoul and Granada: Memories of Alhambra

ViewpointsMar 3, 2020

Ostensibly, the Alhambra Palace does not seem to have anything to do with the “fourth industrial revolution.” The former is a famous 13th century Moorish palace located in Granada, Spain and the latt...
[Kim Seong-kon] Wavering between hope and despair

ViewpointsFeb 25, 2020

The world is now experiencing an unprecedented crisis due to a new coronavirus pandemic. So is South Korea, where the number of COVID-19 patients are increasing exponentially each week. At the same t...
[Kim Seong-kon] Living well until the end

ViewpointsFeb 18, 2020

Recently, I saw an American movie in which the main character says there are three words beginning with “R” that kill older people slowly. They are retirement, regret and revenge. “Reward,” too, shou...
[Kim Seong-kon] 'Parasite' and 2020 Academy Awards

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2020

The news that the Korean film “Parasite” won Oscars in four categories, marking the first such wins in Korean film history, came as a pleasant surprise. Initially, people expected the celebrated Kor...