Rustic meat and offal soup evolves at Jungang Haejang

There was a time when Chinese character calligraphers criticized Hangeul calligraphy for being “too unsophisticated.” Luckily, a few calligraphers ignored the comments and mastered their craft in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. Looking back, they served as the trailblazers for the now-burgeoning market for Hangeul calligraphy.“Years ago, the term ‘Hangeul calligraphy’ was virtually nonexistent among graphic designers,” Kang Byung-in, one of the first-generation Hangul calligraphy gurus, told The K

Vania Heymann’s work may feature people swimming in the sky, but the music video director is rooted in reality

Nestled in the design books section of Kyobo Book Center in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, calligraphy workbooks are displayed in a separate stall as a special collection.　According to Kyobo Book Center, calligraphy books began gaining traction since 2012, with the number of new publications and demand for them steadily growing each year.A reader flicks through books in the calligraphy section of Kyobo Book Centre in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. (Lim Jeong-yeo / The Korea Herald)In 2013, eight new books on calligra

As Korea’s second-largest city, Busan boasts a wide array of unique cultural experiences, from hosting the largest international film festival in Asia to offering fresh local seafood. However, in addition to being a popular place to vacation, the port city is now recognized as a leading incentive tour destination for travel related to meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.In fact, as a result of the city’s proactive marketing efforts, 12 medium-sized to large companies have visited B

‘Haenyeo’ culture recognized for empowering women, eco-friendly fishing and embodying regional identity

TOKYO (AP) -- Haruki Murakami’s new novel is set for release in Japan in February -- and that’s about as much as his fans are being told.Publisher Shinchosha Publishing Co. made the announcement Wednesday. The book’s title, theme and exact date of release remain a mystery.The publisher showed two blank white books on its website with the message, “Haruki Murakami’s new novel coming soon in February 2017.”Murakami’s longer novels have been released in multiple short volumes in Japanese.A very str

MADRID (AP) -- Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza has won the 2016 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor, for bringing a “new narrative style to Spanish fiction.”Education and Culture Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo announced the prize Wednesday, saying that beginning with Mendoza’s 1975 novel, “La Verdad Sobre el Caso Savolta (The Truth about the Savolta Case),” the author had reinvented Spanish fiction. He said Mendoza’s books are “full of subtlety and irony.”Several

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (AFP) -- For centuries they stood, two monumental ancient statues of Buddha carved into the cliffs of Bamiyan, loved and revered by generations of Afghans -- only to be pulverized by the Taliban in an act of cultural genocide.It felt like the loss of family for many who live and tend their crops nearby -- but some 15 years on they are hopeful these awe-inspiring relics can be reconstructed. But experts are divided on the value of rebuilding the artefacts, with some insisting

Celebrities are voicing anger via social media over President Park Geun-hye’s Tuesday announcement, in which she said she would let the National Assembly decide the fate of her presidency.“I am so angry,” celebrity writer Heo Ji-woong posted to his Instagram account Tuesday with a photo of a television screen depicting Park’s address. “She is tossing the ball over to the National Assembly, which will obviously be unable to reach an answer at this point. I am so angry at the president and the spe

“Napoleon's Last Island” By Thomas KeneallyAtria Books (423 pages, $30) Australian Thomas Keneally, author of “Schindler’s List” and 2013’s brilliant “The Daughters of Mars,” is one of the finest living English-language writers. His sprawling new novel tries to do what he has done well so many times -- set real and fictional characters in a real time and place and use their story to illuminate the era. This time, he has chosen a titan -- Napoleon -- and set him in a miniature world, the remote A

“Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack” By Steve TwomeySimon & Schuster (416 pages, $30) As Hollywood regularly reminds us, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, was an act of duplicity so monstrous that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it a “day which will live in infamy.”Japanese warplanes appeared without warning early that Sunday, sinking or disabling 16 US battleships, cruisers and other warships. The sneak attack killed more than 2,400 Amer

“The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World”By Abigail TuckerSimon & Schuster (237 pages, $26)I read much of Abigail Tucker's “The Lion in the Living Room,” appropriately, with a cat on my lap. And though I sat quietly, she did not: sometimes perching on the arm of my chair, staring vaguely but fixedly into space while her tail blocked the pages; sometimes jumping out of my lap and noisily racing around the room for no apparent reason; sometimes launching into a

“Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire” By Coll ThrushYale University Press (328 pages, $38)Vancouver-based scholar and author Coll Thrush cleverly spins history's lens with “Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire.”Thrush, author of the 2008 volume “Native Seattle,” is clear about his aim for both books.By showing us how Inuit, Ojibwe, Maori, Salish and other peoples interacted with and viewed the seat of the former British Empire, Thrush hopes to “indige