Category: KOREA

Clueless Reviews, Complicit Academics, and Hallyu Nationalism

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Update (1 May 2015): My more formal review of The Korean Popular Culture Reader was published in Kyoto Journal 82, for those interested. Original Post: First, the clueless book reviewer: I’ve submitted my own review already–it’s apparently somewhere along the process toward becoming forthcoming, over at The Kyoto Journal–and I can say  found the book disappointing, but not for the same reasons as Bradley Winterton: I am sorry to have to say it, but The Korean Popular Culture Reader is close to the most disappointing book I have ever had to review. Not long ago I found myself engrossed in a Korean TV …

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Bizarre Stuff Korean Parents Say To English Tutors (ie. Us)

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The following is a translation of a post my wife, Mrs. Jiwaku, made to Facebook. It was just too priceless not to translate and share in English. A word about the contents of the list: These aren’t things that one mom once said: they’re things we’ve heard time and again, and which, when we hear them, always cause us to flinch a little… to the complete bafflement of the people–mostly moms–saying them. So, no, we’re not cherry-picking the really crazy stuff… all the below is from the solidly average, not-extreme-by-general-standards parents. (Yes, mostly moms, because that’s who mostly manages the day-to-day stuff related to their …

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Not Even A Mention?

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KoreaBANG put a heartbreaking news report up about a month ago. I wrote about it then, but never got around to posting it. The report was titled Horrifying Murder of Gimhae Teen Leaves Koreans in Shock – koreaBANG. I’ll try spare you the goriest of the details–they’re very gory, but some of them are necessary to include, to talk about the case–but the basic story is that a teenaged girl was essentially abducted, forced into sex slavery, then returned to her father, then abducted again, brutally tortured to death, and then her corpse was burned and concealed beneath concrete by her killers so her family …

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The Mudang’s Dance (Reprint)

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So, a few years ago, I was invited to write a piece for Arc Magazine. The result was “The Mudang’s Dance,” a piece on how accelerated modernization and social change seems to have given Korean society an interestingly different relationship with the future (and the past) from what dominates in the English-speaking world. The piece was only available in Arc 1.2… until now. It’s been reprinted in the premiere issue of Compass Cultura, a new travel webzine. See it here. (Note, it’s been a few years… which means my view has evolved somewhat since then; my view of Korea is always shifting and changing as new …

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Korean SF Festival 2014

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This entry is part 64 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Those tracking Korean SF might be pleased to note that the Gwacheon International SF Film Festival I blogged about a while back–and which has continued over the years since–has expanded into a kind of Korean SF Festival, full stop. There’s a big film component, but there seems to be much more than screenings and an exhibit nowadays, which is great! It runs from the 26 September to 5 October this year, and is being held at the same spot as the year I attended: the Gwacheon Science Museum which is a very good venue, as long as you don’t mind the trek out to Gwacheon. Here’s a link to …

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