Articles by Choi Si-young
Choi Si-young
siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com-
[Travel Bits] Festivals, sights across Korea
Deoksugung musical tour A “mini-musical” and a violin-cello duo performance, along with refreshments like coffee and madeleines, will be the highlight of nighttime tours of Deoksugung, set to run from May 1-3 -- exclusively for foreign nationals. Performances will take place at the palace’s Seokjo Hall, the first Western-style stone building in Seoul built in 1910. Tours, each limited to 18 people, will take place three times a day. Reservations for the 90-minute tour are r
Travel April 19, 2024
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[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.
Culture April 19, 2024
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Korean dialects exhibition to mark National Hangeul Museum’s 10th anniversary
An exhibition on Korean dialects kicks off Friday as part of events run by the National Hangeul Museum to mark its 10th anniversary on Hangeul Day, which falls on Oct. 9. The “On Dialects” exhibition shows collections of literary works and documents exploring efforts made to preserve different ways of speaking Korean. It runs until Oct. 13 at the museum in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. “What makes the exhibition special is that it’s presenting some of the materials museum of
Arts & Design April 18, 2024
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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
Culture April 15, 2024
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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
Culture April 14, 2024
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[Travel Bits] Festivals, sights across Korea
‘Dosirak’ palace tours at night Check out nighttime tours of Gyeongbokgung, the Joseon-era (1392-1910) palace that’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in Seoul. Tours featuring a “dosirak,” or a lunchbox-style meal, of royal-inspired dishes will take place twice daily at 6:40 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. until April 21 -- except Monday and Tuesday. Tickets, 60,000 won apiece, are sold at ticketlink.co.kr. The same tour will be made exclusive for forei
Travel April 12, 2024
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Changdeokgung tree tours in English available
Free guided tours exploring the flora of Changdeokgung will be conducted in English on Wednesday and Thursday mornings from April 17 to June 28, the Cultural Heritage Administration said Thursday. The first 20 people to make it to Donhwamun, the palace’s main gate, before tours start at 10:30 a.m. will be allowed to join the tour group upon presenting the 3,000 won admission ticket. The same tour of the only palace in Seoul of the Joseon-era (1392-1910) inscribed on the UNESCO World Herita
Culture April 11, 2024
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National Hangeul Museum offers Hangeul calligraphy sessions for foreigners
The National Hangeul Museum is offering free in-person or online sessions on calligraphy of the Korean writing system for foreign nationals through Nov. 29. The two-hour in-person sessions will take place at the museum in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Thursdays at 10 a.m. and Fridays at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. One-hour online sessions will run Tuesdays starting at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. and Fridays at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Each session will be limited to
Arts & Design April 11, 2024
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Korean Craft Show gets thoughtful for Milan Design Week
Over 630 works from more than 20 South Korean artisans will be featured at this year’s Korean Craft Show during Milan Design Week next week, under the theme “Thoughts on Thickness.” According to the Culture Ministry, the body backing the craft show for the last 12 years, two exhibitions will take center stage this time, with one sideline exhibit set up outdoors in the northern Italian city from Monday to April 21. The main exhibits will explore objects of varying thickness made
Arts & Design April 11, 2024
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Attempt to set fire to UNESCO-listed palace prompts calls for action
The disclosure by police of an ongoing investigation of a man charged with attempting to set fire to a UNESCO-listed palace in Seoul has put fresh pressure on officials to roll out measures to protect heritage sites. According to police on Wednesday, the man, whose identity is being withheld, allegedly last month tried to set fire to a door at Changdeokgung’s Daejo Hall -- the queen’s quarters at Changdeokgung, one of the five Joseon-era (1392-1910) palaces. Changdeokgung is the only
Culture April 10, 2024
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[The Calling] Once Buddhist, nurse turns to Bible for healing
For Sovan Meta, nursing was less a calling than finding a job with few ups and downs. Then an encounter with Korean Christians reaching out to the Cambodian national to volunteer as an interpreter led to the soul-searching of a lifetime. She ended up becoming a Christian minister. “In Cambodia, many people become nurses but few become ministers. I decided to become one and preach to those without the benefits of spirituality,” Meta said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald. In
People April 10, 2024
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‘Lasting idols pivotal to sustainable Hallyu’
K-pop stars and idols are now going through a phase of transition where versatility is required -- both to stand strong as individual artists and to project a collective appeal when called to perform as teams. How K-pop stars make it through this period of transition will largely determine whether South Korea will continue to command its global cultural reach and impact in years or decades to come in the name of Hallyu, or the Korean wave, said Kim Heon-sik, a culture critic who has written a bo
K-pop April 9, 2024
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National Museum of Korea 6th most-visited museum globally in 2023: report
The National Museum of Korea in Seoul ranked sixth in terms of its total number of visitors in 2023, in a survey of 100 museums and galleries worldwide. According to the UK-based Art Newspaper, the figure for the state-run museum came to 4,180,285. The Louvre Museum in Paris topped the list with 8,860,000 visitors and the Vatican Museums followed with 6,764,858. The British Museum in London ranked in third place with 5,820,860 visitors followed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York at 5,
Arts & Design April 9, 2024
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Buddhism puts on young face
Buddhism has traditionally prioritized silence, a hallmark of meditation that sets the religion apart. That notion took a hard turn Thursday as a DJ in a monk’s robe kicked off the four-day International Buddhism Expo in Seoul, shouting out Buddhist verses to the beat of electronic dance music. “I’d say the event is living up to the slogan they put out,” said Kim Hyung-sik, an undergraduate Seoulite in 20s attending the expo on the first day, referring to the slogan writt
Arts & Design April 8, 2024
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Cultural Heritage Administration celebrates Arbor Day
The Cultural Heritage Administration planted trees at Joseon-era (1392-1910) historic sites in Seoul on Friday in celebration of Arbor Day, raising awareness of preserving cultural heritage and protecting the planet. CHA chief Choi Eung-cho and Starbucks Korea executives led a group of 50 people including company employees and elementary school students in planting 35 pine and fragrant snowbell trees at the shrine Jongmyo in Jongno-gu. On Saturday, Choi will lead another group of 35 people, incl
Culture April 5, 2024
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