Pop singer Kim Jang-hoon promoted Hangeul in the United States with an event giving out T-shirts emblazed with the Korea alphabet in New York, Wednesday.The event was to celebrate Hangeul Day, which falls on Oct. 9 each year.Kim and Korean students at New York University handed out 600 white T-shirts in Washington Square Park.The T-shirts had two variations ― one lettered with “nanum,” a word meaning sharing, and the other with Hangeul, both written in Korean.“All 600 T-shirts were handed out in

S-Oil donated 200 million won ($185,700) worth of fuel coupons to the Korea National Council on Social Welfare on Thursday, the company said.The fuel will go to 100 food banks ― non-profit organizations that distribute excess food to those in need ― in farming and fishing villages to help operate the vehicles used in delivery.“As fuel is what S-Oil can support best as an oil refiner, I’m pleased to help food banks in farming and fishing villages where they have difficulty in delivering food as t

French designer shares his sources of inspiration from early career to today

About 500 people filled the LG Convention Hall of Ewha Womans University in Seoul on Wednesday, excited to see British designer Gary Card and French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.The two designers met and spoke with young aspiring artists and designers, many of them university students majoring in fashion, as part of Herald Design Week, which kicked off on Monday. The venue was completely packed by the time the event’s host Julia Kang, the editor-in-chief of fashion magazine Elle’s Korean

Leather laptop mats, skull candles, decorative foldable lampshades and even dachshund-shaped desk lights, the four-day Herald Design Market is a one-stop shop for inspiring avant-garde items stemming from the farthest reaches of the imagination. A selection of around 80 young, up-and-coming designers have been given the opportunity to showcase their products, which range from quirky to practical to inspirational. The market is currently being held in a three-story complex located next to the Blu

Childhood memories, fast living fuel versatile designer’s creations

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Organizers of the world’s biggest book fair warned Tuesday against the domination of Internet giants as the publishing world grapples to blend old and new forms of reading.American giants Amazon, Apple and Google ― whose entry into the world of online sales and digital books is threatening the traditional publishing industry ― are “logistics magicians but are not publishers,” said Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair.“There’s no passion there,” he told reporters as

Some of the colorful paint on the newly restored Sungnyemun Gate in central Seoul has come off just five months after the gate’s opening to the public, allegedly due to poor execution of the traditional method of painting. According to the Cultural Heritage Administration on Tuesday, about 20 sections of dancheong painting on the gate are visibly damaged. Most of the damaged parts face the south and were extensively exposed to sunlight. The CHA opened the upper portion of the gate to the press o

A memorial hall honoring a fisherman who defended Dokdo from Japanese fishermen during the Joseon era has been dedicated on Ulleungdo Island. The office of North Gyeongsang Province opened the doors of the Ahn Yong-bok memorial hall to the public on Tuesday. Located on the island nearest Dokdo, the easternmost Korean islets also claimed by Japan, the two-story building with a basement has an exhibition room, an auditorium, a screening room and other facilities. Outside the hall, there are a scul

A Korean adventurer recently led a team successfully through North America’s western desert on foot. The three-man expedition group capped by Nam Young-ho, a member of the Kolon Sports Challenge Team of Korean explorers in diverse fields, arrived at Reno, Nevada, around 2 p.m. on Oct. 6, local time, 25 days after departing from Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah on Sept. 12, Kolon Sports said. They walked about 700 kilometers over the Great Basin Desert to complete the crossing. The Great Basin Dese

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks has stunned fans by revealing on a U.S. late-night talk show that he’s living with Type 2 diabetes.Hanks, 57, was promoting his new movie “Captain Phillips” ― about the capture of a U.S. cargo ship by Somali pirates ― when he made the surprise disclosure on CBS television’s “Late Night with David Letterman” on Monday.“I went to the doctor and he said, ‘You know those high blood sugar numbers you’ve been dealing with since you were 36? W

Johan Hoffmann, a 38-year-old Berliner, didn’t really know about Korea until he came across Korean films in 1998. The dark but artistic world of directors such as Park Chan-wook and Kim Ki-duk cast a spell on him and Hoffmann, who had studied Japanese, chose to learn Korean. Hoffmann said learning to read and write Hangeul came easy and that influenced his decision. “You only need a couple of days to know how to read and write Korean with Hangeul though you may not know what it means,” Hoffman t

STOCKHOLM (AFP) ― In a year with no clear favourites, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami appears to be the front-runner to win the Nobel Prize for Literature this week.Murakami, known across the globe for works such as “Norwegian Wood” and “1Q84,” heads the list at bookmaker Ladbrokes with 5/2 odds.Also near the top of the Ladbrokes list is Canadian Alice Munro with odds of 4/1, and American Joyce Carol Oates with 8/1 odds.Murakami has impressed the critics and won a mass readership with his intr