K-pop singers have risen to global stardom in recent years, but their popularity has a dark side: Many have become victims of sexual objectification online. The issue came to the fore recently as controversy surrounding artificial intelligence chatbot Lee Luda led to online debate about the sexual harassment of K-pop singers. The chatbot, developed by local startup Scatter Lab in December, came under fire after users taught it to use vulgar language against women and make discriminatory comme

The number of foreigners consuming Korean content have continued to rise last year, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism. The Culture Ministry said on Thursday it surveyed 8,500 people in 18 different countries including China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Turkey, France and the US. The survey was conducted from Sept. 24 to Nov. 3 last year. Korean dramas were the most consumed type of content at 29.7 percent, followed by thos

Park Kyung-suk, a Korean woman in her 50s, who has been making kimchi for her family for more than 30 years, decided to buy packaged kimchi for the first time last year. “My two sons moved out so we do not need as much kimchi as we used to,” Park said. “Also, I compared the price of the ingredients that I need to buy with the price of packaged kimchi and found that there is not much difference.” “I prefer buying small packaged kimchi in convenience stores once in

The Korea Creative Content Agency’s 2021 budget has been set at 484.2 billion won ($440 million), a 54.4 billion won increase from last year. KOCCA uploaded multiple videos on its YouTube channel on Monday, outlining the details of the budget distribution by sector. The broadcast sector will receive 49.6 billion won, games 61.5 billion won, culture technology 81.6 billion won, virtual interactive content 49 billion won, music 41.1 billion won and regional content 49.7 billion won, among

Original content seen as key to success

Two additional videos promoting the beauty of Hangeul -- the writing system for the Korean language -- were released on Friday, starring actor Lee Min-ho. The new videos from the King Sejong Institute Foundation show Lee introducing the foundation to his fans who wish to learn Korean after watching his posts about his daily life on social media. “It is such an honor. I am glad to see content about my daily life contributing to promoting the beauty of Hangeul,” Lee said in a press

Culture Minister nominee Hwang Hee is a two-term lawmaker affiliated with the ruling Democratic Party, who began his political career in the late 1990s as a secretary to the late President Kim Dae-jung. He has served as the Democratic Party’s head of public relations and as its deputy floor leader. He was elected to his first term as a lawmaker in the general elections in 2016, and was reelected in 2020. Until recently, he was the administrator of the National Assembly’s defense c

As popular Chinese YouTubers create videos implying Korean foods such as kimchi and ssam are Chinese dishes, Koreans have decided to take a stand in the name of Korea’s food culture. A Chinese agency for popular mukbang, or “eating shows,” terminated its contract with Korean YouTuber Hamzy on Sunday after she said that kimchi and ssam were both Korean dishes. The controversy began when Hamzy uploaded a video of herself eating snail soybean stew with ssam, or a vegetable wrap

From 17 April – 11 May, Malta will host the InClassica International Music Festival, a three week programme of classical music featuring world-renowned soloists, leading international orchestras and celebrated conductors. InClassica will be hosted at Malta’s historic Mediterranean Conference Centre (MCC), a 16th century building benefitting from recent award-winning renovation in the capital city of Valletta, in addition to the iconic Manoel Theatre which will host the festival&rsq

Won Buddhism announced Monday that it had appointed Juksan Hwang Do-gook as its new leader in the Americas. Hwang’s appointment ceremony took place virtually on Jan. 13 with followers from 23 countries watching. Hwang is the first leader in charge of Won Buddhism centers located outside South Korea, according to the religious group. The decision to appoint a leader outside Korea was reached as Won Buddhism found it necessary to have a leader who understands the local situation. Hwang h

At a time when traveling is not an option, global house-sharing platform Airbnb hopes to invite guests to enjoy K-pop backstage through online classes starring hit K-pop bands from Monsta X to The Boyz, along with star dance instructors and makeup artists. Airbnb is hosting “Inside K-Pop” from Jan. 25 to Jan. 30, featuring 14 online experiences that offer insight into how K-pop stars are brought to the stage -- such as dance rehearsals, vocal practice sessions, makeup tutorials and

Over the Christmas holidays, seven Korean YouTubers gathered in a room to draw lots for a Secret Santa gift exchange. In another room, almost a hundred YouTubers posed together for a group picture. No one wore face masks. Or rather, their virtual, Lego-like avatars didn’t. Under South Korea’s strict social distancing guidelines because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the YouTube community took their gatherings online on Minecraft – the most popular video game of all time. Communiti

Even as borders closed around the world last year due to the pandemic, that didn’t stop the spread of the Korean Wave, or “hallyu,” from reaching new heights. There were a total of 100 million members in 1,835 Korean Wave-related clubs across the world as of September 2020, marking a 5.45 million increase from the year before, according to the latest report from the Korea Foundation, a public diplomacy arm of Seoul’s Foreign Ministry. The annual report, an account on th

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday announced that it plans to establish three funds worth a total of 298.5 billion won ($271.6 million) to support local content creators and sports and tourism businesses. The money will be injected through a fund-of-funds managed by Korea Venture Investment Corp., in line with the Culture Ministry’s practice since 2005 of investing indirectly in small and midsized cultural businesses through venture capital funds instead of choosing

The King Sejong Institute Foundation, a state-run institution overseeing some 170 Korean language centers worldwide, released a video promoting the beauty of Hangeul -- the writing system for the Korean language -- starring actor Lee Min-ho on Friday. Lee, an ambassador for the foundation, was featured in the 31-second clip introducing the uniqueness of Hangeul by showcasing Hangeul calligraphy along with fashion items and furniture pieces inspired by the Korean alphabet.   The foundati