Mariinsky principal dancer Kim Ki-min and his brother Ki-wan to perform Albrecht in KNB and UBC productions of “Giselle,” respectively

R&B singer Dean described Instagram as a “problem (of modern society)” in his latest hit song named after the social media platform, but it seems that the mobile application continues to captivate young Koreans. A survey released by Nas Media on Thursday showed that more than half of the respondents use Instagram, marking a 14.9 percent increase from 2017. The survey was conducted between Dec. 19 and Jan. 3 on 2,000 internet and mobile users in the country. According to the survey, Instagram is

Don’t speak, just send a picture.Chat rooms with one simple rule, dubbed “solitary chat rooms,” are gaining popularity among young Koreans. Solitary chat rooms are part of the open chat rooms offered by mobile messenger KakaoTalk. Anyone with a KakaoTalk ID can enter the chat room and join the conversation via the open chatting service anonymously. Comedian Park Myung-soo holds a message board saying "Myung-soo pictures only." (Twitter)Each solitary chat room has its own distinctive theme, with

Jeonju Hanok Village received more than 20 million visitors in the past two years, according to the city government Tuesday.About 10.9 million people were found to have visited the cluster of traditional Korean houses in Jeongju, North Jeolla Province, in 2017. The figure was 10.5 million in the previous year. The data was compiled based on telecommunication records and credit and debit card usage in the village. Jeonju Hanok Village (Yonhap)The age group that made up the most number of visitors

Subtle scents waft through the air in a tiny alley in Seoul’s northwestern Yeonnam-dong. The source is Yvonne Morgun, an artisan candle shop that offers candle making classes for tourists and locals, and its own line of carefully concocted fragrances.The shop’s owner Lee Myung-seong, who majored in Western painting, infuses every item in the shop with her own sensibility -- a mix of coziness and elegance. Each candle glass, label and fragrance has been tailored by Lee. Dried flowers, embroidered

The cherry blossom topped the list of spring flowers in generating positive psychological effects, according to the Gangneung-Wonju National University research team. The research team analyzed the impressions and emotions of 40 male and 40 female respondents when they were shown the pictures of forsythia, azalea, Japanese apricot, cherry, magnolia trees with and without the flowers.Respondents were asked to evaluate their impressions from 27 pairs of adjectives such as bright-dark and beautiful

Ever heard the Korean phrase “sohwakhaeng”? The phrase, which means “small but certain happiness,” is currently trending here and simply refers a small piece of happiness that can be easily found in daily life. The concept of the keywords were first introduced in a 1986 essay by Japanese author Murakami Haruki called “Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhans,” where he described a small piece of happiness as eating a freshly-baked loaf of bread with one’s hands, seeing neatly folded underwear in a

Gwanghwamun is the largest main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace in the center of Seoul. Constructed in 1395, the gate was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times over the past several hundred years of history and was finally restored as it is in 2010. In the front of the gate is the Gwanghwamun Square that was redesigned to open to the public in August 2009. The backdrop of the traditional wooden palace and Bukak Mountain on one side and tall modern buildings surrounding the area on the other, Gwanghw

More Koreans seek simpler lives by organizing and minimizing

My tiny studio apartment found its ideal identity as “home” only after I removed all the unnecessary items.It was at the school library where the idea of throwing away some of my personal belongings came across my mind. The book titled “Living with Less” by Mary Lambert, a decluttering and feng shui consultant in the UK, offered a way to create comfort by getting rid of excessive possessions at home.As I wanted a fresh start for 2018, minimizing the clutter was the perfect shift. Decluttering th

Since late January, the "Me Too" movement in South Korea has spread like wildfire throughout all avenues of society, with the arts and cultural circles, similar to Hollywood in the United States, revealed as one of the most predatory areas in terms of sexual violence.But it's worth pointing out that the alleged sexual perpetrators exposed within the cultural industries have been mostly identified in the film and TV community, leaving many observers of Korean culture asking -- Is K-pop, an indust

Ko Un, the renowned South Korean poet, has denied allegations that he sexually harassed a junior poet, his British publisher said Sunday.(The Guardian)Female poet Choi Young-mi revealed her experience of being groped by an unnamed senior poet in a poem titled "Monster"released in early February. She did not disclose the name of the perpetrator, but news media have pointed to Ko Un based on the details described in the poem."I flatly deny the allegations of habitual sexual harassment that have be

Graduation and school entrance season, which comes around in March in Korea, has arrived. The record-breaking cold temperatures are slowly fading away as spring creeps up.Along with the change in seasons, people are flocking to the flower market in Yangjae-dong, southeastern Seoul. The Yangjae Flower Market is the largest in Korea, a hub of some 120 wholesale and retail stores, an auction house and greenhouses that sell all sorts of flowers, succulents and bouquet-making material.Customers can b

If you stroll down the street tonight, you’d better stop for a while, raise your head and make a wish. Today is “Jeongwol Daeboreum” or “Daeboreum,” which means the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. It is one of Korea’s traditional holidays.To mark the special day, the word Daeboreum featured on Naver’s trending keyword bar Friday morning, while over 3,000 tweets were posted on the social media platform on the same day.Ancestors in the nation were believed to celebrate the day by wishing a

Teenagers ‘break away from daily routines’ at nightclub in Hongdae