South Korea

1952000

Chris P
Members Free to read

Room Salons: The Real Moral Scourge on South Korean Society

South Korea takes morals very seriously. From Enes Kaya’s TV fall from grace over alleged adultery to pop star Yoo Seung-jun’s apparent dodging of his military duty, South Korea is unforgiving when it comes to immoral behaviour. Christian groups protested against the recent gay pride festival, claiming to

Anna Park
Members Free to read

The quieter side of the MERS outbreak

Streets around a hagwon district in Jukcheon, Gyeonggi Province, are all but deserted as MERS forces schools and even private classes to go on a temporary hiatus. (Anna Park for Korea Exposé) It has been over two weeks since MERS landed in South Korea, and an unusual quiet has descended

Charlotte Hammond
Members Free to read

Seoul: The Swing Capital of the World

Colton J. for Korea Exposé Seoul has garnered a global reputation for its mobile wired-ness, public transportation, and binge-drinking culture. But it holds another #1 spot: the world’s largest swing dance scene. As things are wont to in South Korea, swing suddenly and improbably erupted in popularity in the

John R. Eperjesi
Members Free to read

Marching for Inter-Korean Peace: Why Women Cross DMZ

http://gty.im/182520278 May 24, 2015 is International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. On this day, Korean women will walk for peace across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the 4 km wide buffer that divides North and South Korea. They will be joined by international peace

Chris P
Members Free to read

A Night at the Gay Sauna: Where Desire Comes Out

It is Friday night. Down one alley of a busy shopping and entertainment district of Seoul, young men move through what appear to be closed doors of a dilapidated building. A slow trickle of customers — some dressed in suits, others as hipsters — enter the inconspicuous establishment, seeking to

Caroline Hall
Members Free to read

Inside One of South Korea's So-Called Global Firms

From Wikipedia I have been the sole foreign employee at a vaunted South Korean technology firm for about 15 months. Given my company’s fame, people often want to know what that’s like and at times the simplest answer I can give them is this: It’s been as

Robert Kelly
Members Free to read

Park Geun-hye's Presidency Is Adrift

The Korean version of this essay can be found here. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'By5htD2XTEVQ74947taqxg',sig:'B6i1ljR8hTbDQ62tiEYzabkgfCQbMzPsiDyxHZVCaHg=',w:'594px',h:'388px',items:'450148594',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Park Geun-Hye has

Geoffrey Cain
Members Free to read

How I Became an Ajumma

The Korean version of this essay appeared in the Kyunghyang Shinmun on 12 February 2015. The English version here has been published with the permission of the newspaper and the author. I have lived in many countries, but the ajumma character seems rather unique to South Korea. In case

Karl Schutz
Members Free to read

The End of South Korea's Rural Schools

Every Wednesday I teach at what must be one of the smallest public schools in South Korea: Anpyeong Middle School, home to just seven students. Seven students. That’s two 7th graders, three 8th graders, and two 9th graders. The school is set to close next year. Its closing represents

Jin-hee Park
Members Free to read

Salt Flowers: Glimpses of South Korea’s Labour Landscape

Sweat stains on an old pair of overalls, or sweat stains on a fine shirt. South Koreans call them both “salt flowers”: beautiful traces of hard labour. It is a symbol of labour’s immeasurable value, beyond the understanding of those who never work and sweat. Calling a sweat stain

Seung-hye Lee
Members Free to read

Memories of Dictatorship from Not Long Ago

One night in 1972, I was having dinner with an American friend and her fiancé at the restaurant of the YMCA in downtown Seoul. It was a dangerous time. The talk of the town was a constitutional change the government was pushing for so that then-President Park Chung-hee

Se-Woong Koo
Members Free to read

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