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Mon, December 11, 2023 | 01:34

Hyperreal Korean love

Hyperreal Korean love

One of the great ironies of modern life is seeing South Korea be one of the most successful and effective cultures at packaging and selling love to people all over the world and yet, at the same time, possess some of the world's lowest birth rates (and most ludicrous plans to address it). We've heard all the statistics and read all the stories. What makes the Guardian, the NY...

2023-04-15 14:51

Korean Marxism: hegemony and difference

Korean Marxism: hegemony and difference

The only thing which is consistent about life in Korea is its inconsistency. The nation lurches between pride and shame, between the east and west, between triumphant success and devastating failure, between a hypermodern safe paradise and a drug-tainted misogynistic murderous dystopia. There is no single Korea. There is just the totality of all the incomplete views.

2023-04-08 12:43

Sex, drugs, and The Glory

Sex, drugs, and The Glory

Revolutions do not happen often in popular culture. We normally just go through phases: cycling through a series of trends with things moving in and out of fashion over time.

2023-03-25 11:38

Post-Colonialism and BTS

Post-Colonialism and BTS

Until tigers learn how to write, every story will glorify the hunter. A mood of false consciousness will prevail, reifying the hunt, glorifying the kill. Now, in Korea, in RM, in its own culture, economy, and politics, the tiger has learned to write. It is telling its own stories. Challenging the hunter. Pushing back. Reframing narratives. Reclaiming history. And becoming a b...

2023-03-18 12:38

Magic, anxiety, and modern Korean life

Magic, anxiety, and modern Korean life

Life in 20th century Korea was a trip. The land bore witness to foreign invasion, the devastation of civil war, and the upheaval of rapid urbanization ordered by men in military uniforms. Rice fields gave way to apartments, bicycles to Sonatas. It was a whirlwind of ideological change, physical transformation, and compressed time. And, it worked. Modern South Korea is an econ...

2023-03-11 13:39

Against K-Grief merchants

Against K-Grief merchants

Social media platforms and journalists love a Korean horror story. Sad Koreans, dead Koreans and single Koreans are of particular interest. Nothing is more valued than a Korean slighted, assaulted, or sacrificed. In such stories, Seoul is a dystopian nightmare characterized by violence and terror.

2023-03-04 12:40

Korean anxiety and psychological evolution

Korean anxiety and psychological evolution

Korean people (and humans more broadly) evolved to inhabit a certain environment. Our physical, psychological, cultural, and spiritual lives were shaped by, and for, an agricultural existence. The many myths, legends, and tales of yore spoke of seasons, weather, the waning of time, of heroes and villains. The people were well suited to such an environment and thus the languag...

2023-02-25 13:33

The little red books of North Korea

The little red books of North Korea

In the department stores of Pyongyang, you will find a whole host of items for sale. These places are, on the whole, relatively well-stocked - even carrying what looks like versions of IKEA furniture (though one would rightly question the legality of them being there). One of the more curious items for sale, however, is a little red book. Hardback and, at first glance, no dif...

2023-02-18 12:18

Being offended by Korea

Being offended by Korea

The internet can be a fabulous source of information. It can teach you a whole range of things you never once considered or even thought possible. At the same time, in can introduce you to ideas that might not be quite as useful or important. For example, this week I learnt that saying “Korea is a mystery” is seemingly an offensive term to some. One frequent contributor to a ...

2023-02-11 11:18

Korea as sublime, strange, and familiar

Korea as sublime, strange, and familiar

There is a worryingly wonderful ease with which both Koreans and non-Koreans slip so seamlessly into perspectives of (self) orientalism. Korea quickly becomes a place like no other - where secret nunchi determines one's happiness, a powerful feeling of han molds character, and Confucianism serves as a mystical deus ex machina explaining everything from noraebangs to New Jeans.

2023-02-04 11:37

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Top 10 Stories

1	Methods to avoid YouTube, Netflix restrictions go viral

2	N. Korea's fear of external info grows after Seoul allows sending propaganda leaflets

3	Hunting 'crow thief' on Korea's east coast in 1930s

4	Anti-dog meat legislation looks doomed as Assembly session ends in vain

5	Skepticism mounts over shareholder activism at Samsung C&T

6	Leaders of Samsung, SK to visit Netherlands for chip alliance

7	Calls grow for shift from two-party political system

8	Eximbank teams up with US counterpart on decarbonization

9	'New initiative on NK' lacks balanced strategy: experts

10	Fintechs vie to be next internet-only bank in Korea

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