SAO PAULO -- A major K-culture festival got under way in Sao Paulo on Saturday, drawing thousands of people interested in South Korea, local observers said.The Brazil Hallyu Expo 2018, taking place in the country's largest city, is hosted by the South Korea's government-funded culture center here. (Yonhap)It's part of efforts to turn Brazil into an advance base for the spread of "hallyu," or the Korean Wave.More than 8,000 people have applied for participation, according to center officials.A So

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday that it would ask the prosecution to investigate seven government officials over their alleged involvement in the blacklisting of cultural figures by the two previous administrations.Of the seven, five belong to the Culture Ministry and accusations had been filed against one of them by a concerned cultural group. Three officials are currently heads of Korean cultural centers overseas, and will be summoned back to Korea as soon as possible

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South and North Korea have agreed to resume the excavation of the ancient palace site of Manwoldae located in the North Korean city of Kaesong, the Cultural Heritage Administration said Tuesday.A study of Manwoldae, where the now-demolished royal palace of the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392) once stood, could offer a way for the two Koreas to reconcile their differing views on Korean history. Manwoldae site (Cultural Heritage Administration)South Korean officials held a working-level meeting with the

South and North Korea will resume their joint excavation of the site of an ancient palace in the North's border town of Kaesong late this month, Seoul's cultural heritage authority said Tuesday.The Cultural Heritage Administration said that it has agreed during a working-level meeting with the North's National Reconciliation Council in Kaesong on Thursday to conduct a joint survey and preservation of the Manwoldae site for three months from Sept. 27 to Dec. 27. Manwoldae was the palace of the Go

Do Jong-hwan, the minister of culture, sports and tourism, led a group of Seoul-based foreign diplomats on a visit to the Demilitarized Zone on Friday.The visit, according to the Culture Ministry, was intended to promote DMZ tourism in light of thawing inter-Korea tensions. The ministry said the event would play a part in gaining the international community’s support for peace on the peninsula. Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan leads a group of Seoul-based foreign diplomats on a visit to the Demilit

Former Herald Media CEO Yoo Byung-chang is holding his second exhibition as a professional photographer in Seoul next week, themed on the Jeju Island landmark Jusangjeolli.The exhibition, named “The Echo from A Distant Time,” will be held from Sept.12-17 at Gallery Nsart in Insa-dong, Seoul, formerly known as Insa Art Space. Jusangjeolli, a collection of cliffs on Jeju Island formed of hexagonal columns of rock, is a popular tourist sight.In words of the artist, the shots depict the peculiar-sha

For commoners in the Joseon era, what went on within the confines of the royal palace and the lavish lifestyle of the royal family was a source of mystery and wonder. The ongoing biannual Gyeongbokgung Starlight Tour, which continues until Sept. 15, offers a peak at a typical night at the main palace of the kingdom during the reign of King Sejong the Great. (Yoon Min-sik/The Korea Herald)Tours, at a cost of 50,000 won per person, are being held from Sept. 2-15 and Oct. 6-20, twice a day. But for

In Korea, people are considered adults when they turn 20. In the same way, the Buchon International Animation Festival is doubly special this year as it enters a new phase with its 20th edition, said its organizers. “Marking the year the festival is entering adulthood, we’ve prepared various events and items for the festival. … Not only is it the 20th anniversary, it is the first year that the BIAF has become an official Oscar-qualifying festival,” said Yoon Gap-yong, chairman of the BIAF, at a

“Matilda,” a 1988 novel about a neglected but brilliant girl in Buckinghamshire, is not an easy piece to adapt into a musical. Yet the show has grown beyond expectations set upon its original Royal Shakespeare Company production.It has toured the UK, the US and other parts of the world since its West End premiere in 2011. On Saturday, the British Theater company is set to stage its first-ever non-English production of the show that will run until Feb.10, aiming to capture the quirky nature and e

Nearing the end of his three-year tenure as the director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Bartomeu Mari is still thinking of ways to improve the nation’s public museum.“I hope I learned to adapt to the Korean cultural specificities in a respectful way,” Mari said during an interview held at his office last Monday. “I was asked to come here to make major transformations and improvements and make this museum one of the best in the world. Institutions, we know, are resi

In 1991, Indian filmmaker, art historian and photographer Benoy K. Behl became the first person to take pictures of Buddhist paintings inside the Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Maharashtra state of India.The experience had a profound impact on him, he told The Korea Herald in an interview, adding he came out of the dark caves enlightened by what he saw.“There’s a world of compassion contained in this ancient art. I spent weeks in these caves, exposed to a world of compassion t

To better understand the nation’s everlasting belief in the power of education, a small museum inside the hanok village of Bukchon, northern Seoul, offers a trip to South Korea’s schools of the past.Opened in 1995, the Seoul Education Museum holds a vast range of collections that show how the nation’s schools have evolved, as well as the lives of teenagers from the 1392-1910 Joseon era to present. From the textbooks on farming to classes in the 1960s and ‘70s with stoves in the middle where stud

Following the success of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, global interest in South Korea has continued to surge, ranging from K-pop and TV dramas to language, food and fashion. At the forefront of the country’s worldwide engagement is the Corea Image Communication Institute, a nonprofit public diplomacy organization registered under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has organized a diverse range of forums, networking functions and cultural events to promote Korea since 2003. In 2010, when Se

Navigating the way to becoming a ‘hirable face’ in the Korean industry