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Men Who Yearn to Be Erect, and the Women Who Bear Them
He leans in and caresses her face. He plants his lips on hers. She opens her eyes wide, looking utterly surprised. Then she gives in, chastely closing her eyes as she keeps herself perfectly still. When I get around to watching a South Korean drama, this is more or less
When the Elite Don't Care
K.R.K. for Korea Exposé If Park Geun-hye chooses you for prime minister, beware because your political career is in peril. That is the joke in South Korean cyberspace where the biggest topic is the nomination of Lee Wan-koo, former floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, as
Say You Love Kimchi, And Nothing Else If You Want in
When a Palestinian student — an avid K-Pop fan at the time — said to me some years ago that she wanted to visit South Korea, I told her she should just videotape herself in her usual hijab and abaya gushing “I love Korea. I love kimchi”. Then the government
Chaebol Nutcase: Welcome to a Feudal Aristocracy of the Orient
Once upon a time, in a faraway land called South Korea, Heather was working at her father’s airline company as a high-powered executive. One winter’s day, Heather went on a trip to America, where a flight attendant on her company-owned jet offered her a bag of macadamia nuts
Thank God for LGBT Rights
Homosexuality equals AIDS. Incest. National doom. With such rousing words, on 20 November, South Korea’s Evangelical Christian lobby effectively scuttled Seoul’s human rights charter that had been in the making for months, chanting “Amen!” to obstruct discussion at a town hall meeting attended by Mayor Park Won-soon. But
Disposable Workers of Hyper-Capitalist Korea
A call-center manager beats her subordinates with an umbrella at an office in Jongno, Seoul. She slaps them in the face over and over. She pushes them around till they cry. All for not selling enough magazine subscriptions. As a contributor to the publication of the International Trade Union Confederation,
Ilbe: South Korea's Angry Young Men
A hundred people gorge on pizza and snacks in the heart of downtown Seoul. Nothing is wrong with that picture, except that they do it next to men and women who are fasting to protest government inaction in the aftermath of the Sewol sinking nearly a half year ago. South
No Country for Old People: South Korea's Dire Problem of Elderly Poverty
Living in South Korea, I find it hard not to notice the old. The subway is full of them at every time of the day, presumably because seniors over the age of 65 get to use the system for free. It is difficult to take a seat because soon enough
Admiral Conquers South Korean Cinema, Exposing Fissures in Politics
Source: CJ Entertainment It’s a big-screen scene to thrill the heart of even the most cynical South Korean moviegoer. The year is 1597, and the forces of the Joseon Dynasty – the precursor to the modern Korean nation – and Japan are at war. The last remnants of
An Assault Upon Our Children: South Korea's Education System Hurts Students
After my older brother fell ill from the stress of being a student in South Korea, my mother decided to move me from our home in Seoul to Vancouver for high school to spare me the intense pressure to succeed. She did not want me to suffer like my brother,
A Brief Note on the History of Korean Cannibalism
Between August 2011 and July of this year, Korea Customs Service apprehended 117 illicit shipments of human flesh capsules to South Korea. The quantity amounted to 27,852 capsules in 2013 alone. Human flesh capsules are reportedly made in China from aborted fetuses that are dried and pulverized into powder.