“When sadness strikes me, I look around, but I am still at a loss. I just want to dig myself into the ground, no longer having the desire to live. My broken heart will steady if, fortunately, I have a book in my hand.” Yi Deok-mu (1741-1793), a Silhak scholar and poet of the late Joseon era (1392-1910), is said to have read almost 20,000 books in his lifetime. He had a nickname -- "ganseochi," meaning "a fool who only reads books." He said he was able to forget hu

Culture April 14, 2023

The Netflix original drama series "Squid Game" was the spark which changed everything. While Jo Hyun-rae, president of the Korea Creative Content Agency, was confident about the power of Korean pop culture and recognized its potential when the KBS drama series "Winter Sonata" and its lead actor Bae Yong-joon achieved popularity in Asian markets outside of Korea in 2002, it was not too long ago that he began to feel Korea could play a more active role in the highly competitive

Culture April 2, 2023

How does a young man react to finding himself, overnight, unable to move his limbs? When doctors pronounce that his neck was broken in a fall and that he will never be able to walk, move his legs or move his fingers again, how does a 28-year-old, who had been celebrating his new job with friends at a club on a Saturday night respond? There is the classic five stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance -- that most people experience. Park We, however, never accepted h

People March 18, 2023

ATHENS, Greece -- Entering the massive National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, is like stepping into a temple – one passes through a large green plaza and walks up the marble steps with the building looming large above you. The golden Mask of Agamemnon takes pride of place, displayed in the first upright glass case that one sees upon entering the museum. From then on, it is a walk through a textbook of Greek antiquity, hall after hall lined with marble statues of gods and goddess

Culture Feb. 21, 2023

In 2003, interpreter to statesmen and global leaders Choi Jung-wha launched the Corea Image Communication Institute with the goal of communicating Korea’s image to the world. Both frustration and optimism motivated her. “People ask why a private individual took on the task of promoting Korea’s image. Well, I traveled to many different countries as an interpreter. But, really, no one ever asked ‘Are you Korean?’ This really upset me,” said Choi in a recent inte

Culture Jan. 7, 2023

What do you do when, just hours before you are about to leave the country, you get a phone call asking if you could conduct a choral symphony in just one week? Pianist and conductor Kim Sun-wook, receiving such a call from Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra on his way to Incheon Airport on Dec. 7, asked for some time to think it over -- until he arrived at the airport. “In those 30-40 minutes, I probably did the most thinking ever in my 34-year life,” said Kim during a press meeting on Tue

Performance Dec. 18, 2022

He was as bold as he is young. Pianist Lim Yun-chan, shorn of his heavy, wavy mane, walked onto the stage at Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall Saturday, his stride confident, his first step a loud thump. He sat himself in front of the piano and, without a second’s hesitation, hit the first note of Orlando Gibbons' “Lord Salisbury,” Pavan and Galliard. Lim, who, at 18, became the youngest ever winner at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June began

Viewpoints Dec. 15, 2022

“I nearly died from COVID-19 last year,” said the New York-based artist Kang Ik-joong in an interview with The Korea Herald earlier this month. “For about a week, I couldn’t breathe well. Lying down didn’t help, sitting didn’t help,” he said. “So one day, I went out to the garden, opened my chest and began taking deep breaths like this,” he said, pushing his chest forward with his arms up wide open and looking upward. “I was able to bre

Arts & Design Nov. 30, 2022

The concert hall remained eerily quiet as the conductor took his place at the podium. Then, all at once, the solemn sound of “Nimrod” from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” filled the air. The evocative melody proved cathartic for the audience that had gathered less than a week after a crowd surge in Itaewon left 157 people dead. I saw people silently sobbing, wiping away tears. When the music ended, a minute of silence was observed in tribute to the victims of the countr

Viewpoints Nov. 13, 2022

Korea's first public funeral was held for Yi Sang-jae (1850-1927), one of the leaders of Korea's enlightenment period. The event was attended by some 100,000 people, a testimony to his huge following. His voice was heard through a phonograph and a recording of his speech, "To Young People of Joseon," was released in July 1927, four months after his death. "Now, the world is getting worse and worse, there is no morality. People focus only on material things and kill other

Culture Nov. 12, 2022

Early movable metal type printing from the period of the Goryeo Kingdom shows surface tension of the ink, which is a common tendency of liquid on metal surface at rest to shrink into circular liquid drops. An 87-page book from 1239 is full of Hanja characters printed on hanji, traditional Korean paper made from mulberry tree bark, showing the characteristics of movable metal type printing. Might was always right in the Goryeo Kingdom. The political elite in the 13th century were military leaders

Culture Oct. 29, 2022

On May 29, violinist Yang In-mo, the first ever Korean to win the Paganini International Violin Competition in 2015, won the top prize at the jean Sibelius International Violin Competition. A few days later, cellist Choi Ha-young won the first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition held in Belgium. And two weeks after that, pianist Lim Yun-chan won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, becoming the youngest winner at age 18. Lim quickly became a household name -- even those who have

Culture Sept. 15, 2022

   This is the last in a six-part series highlighting the next generation of Korean artists active in the international art scene.-- Ed. Clicking through artist Kim Sung-hwan’s website is like searching through an archive of materials that seem somehow relevant to each other, only their connections are not quite apparent. Each click yields yet another interesting material -- a shot of a paragraph from a book, a black-and-white photo that captures a historical moment, the arti

Arts & Design Sept. 2, 2022

ICHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- When Lee Sang-il, 66, a hairdresser to celebrities, the artsy and ladies-who-lunch, retired some 10 years ago, he hinted that he was about to embark on a very big project. “Keep me posted,” I said. Over the years, he did indeed keep me posted with occasional text messages. And about five years ago, I received photos of a snow-covered hanok and an update: His resort was 90 percent complete. Then came an invitation to the opening party in early May. An h

Travel June 24, 2022

A young woman, born to a Korean mother and white father, stands in a Korean supermarket chain crying as she looks at the side dishes on display that her late mother used to make for her. It’s the scene that opens Michelle Zauner’s bestselling memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” and one that many Korean Americans will have no difficulty imagining. For Zauner, food formed an unbreakable bond between her and her mother. Her mother made Korean dishes for her Korean-born daughter wh

Books June 10, 2022