-
East Asia
South Korea: racist book about Filipinas banned
Major book retailers have stopped selling an “obscene and racist” book about Filipinas. Online retailers, including Aladin, Yes24 and Bandi & Lunis, have removed the e-book, “How to Treat Bar Hostesses in the Philippines.” This move came after a tweet about the book was widely spread earlier this month. Many…
Read More » -
East Asia
Powerful typhoon approaches Korea
Korea is on high alert as powerful Typhoon Soulik is set to batter the country with downpours and thunderstorms over the next few days. It is forecast to become the first typhoon in six years to make landfall on the Korean Peninsula Thursday night and pass through by Friday morning,…
Read More » -
East Asia
Three Key Figures in the Chinese History
I call three modern Chinese figures as follows: “Mao Zedong is a mountain, Zhou Enlai is water, and Deng Xiaoping is a road.” Why is Mao Zedong a mountain? Why is Zhou Enlai water and Deng Xiaoping a road? Today’s China is a road created by crossing mountains and rivers.…
Read More » -
East Asia
The meaning of “jeong”
“Coming to Korea as a tourist is vastly different from actually living here.” Some say you can only truly know a country once you’ve passed a tourist’s honeymoon phase. And for Frederic Heng who hails from Singapore, the veil of his first impression of South Korea was gradually lifted over…
Read More » -
East Asia
Dreaming big
She’s bubbly and energetic; she’s twenty-five. But it’s scary opening up a new chapter in your life. Change calls for courage, especially when you’re young and things are unsure. Still, Lee Young Jae has always been sure of her love for books and writing. She used to look at her…
Read More » -
East Asia
PEACEMINUSONE, a Korean fashion brand
Born on October 1st 2016, the fashion brand PEACEMINUSONE envisions “a world at Peace coming together (One) with a world deprived (Minus) as a crossover between the real and the ideal”. It is the materialization of pop-star G-Dragon and his stylist, Gee Eun’s combination of imaginations and their act of…
Read More » -
East Asia
The world through a different lens
Yuna has been in Korea, now, for a year and a half, teaching English at a hagwon (cram school) to young students. It’s the typical rigorous academy that prepares students for the TOEFL exam and they are visibly stressed. But that could have been her. Back home in America, her…
Read More » -
East Asia
Trump’s strategy for North Korea
Is President Donald Trump offering a tutorial on how to negotiate with the North Koreans ― reminding them of the riches and rewards awaiting them the moment they enter his magic kingdom? John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, came up with something like that in an interview on Fox, the…
Read More » -
East Asia
Mobile games to bolster popularity of Galaxy Note 9
Samsung Electronics is expanding its partnership with game companies to sell its latest high-end Galaxy Note 9 to tens of millions of domestic and international mobile game players. Samsung said NCSOFT, Korea’s largest game developer widely known for its popular online role-playing game “Lineage,” has been preparing a mobile game…
Read More » -
East Asia
Students speaking out against sexual harassment from teachers
The #Metoo movement that has been sweeping Korea since January is starting to spread to schools. A girls’ high school in Gwangju is undergoing a police investigation for sexual harassment by teachers. The investigation was launched after the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education last week found that 180 out of…
Read More »