The Korea Herald

Two royal palaces to open at night, free for visitors in 'hanbok'

Apr 14, 2016

Any visitor wearing hanbok or Korean traditional attire will be admitted for free at two royal palaces in Seoul which will open to the public at night late this month, the Cultural Heritage Administration said Thursday.The administration said that the night viewing of Gyeongbok and Changgyeong palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) will open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. from April 30 to June 2.The two palaces are among the capital's five palaces from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The others are D
Biggest ‘flea market’ to open at Lotte Premium Outlet

Apr 14, 2016

Lotte Department Store will host a giant flea market at Icheon, Gyeonggi Province’s Lotte Premium Outlet on Saturday and Sunday, coinciding with its “Black Shopping Day” sales.According to LDS, this will be the biggest flea market to be organized by a corporation to date in terms of area and the number of participants -- 300 sellers in a 5,000-square-meter space.(Lotte Department Store)Apart from popular local foods and individual collections and handcrafted art, belongings of hallyu stars such
Possible lost Caravaggio painting found in attic in France

Apr 13, 2016

　　PARIS (AP) -- A 400-year-old picture that might have been painted by Italian master Caravaggio has been found in an attic in southern France.　　Eric Turquin, the French expert who retrieved the painting two years ago, said it is in an exceptional state of conservation and estimated its value at 120 million euros (about $135 million), even though he acknowledged experts disagree about its authenticity.　　Called “Judith Beheading Holofernes,” it depicts the biblical heroine Judith beheading an A
Manuscripts among rare Hemingway items shown at JFK library

Apr 13, 2016

　　BOSTON (AP) -- Ernest Hemingway penned 47 possible endings to “A Farewell to Arms,” eight of which are on display at a new exhibition on the famed American writer at the John F. Kennedy presidential library -- along with the one that actually concluded the classic World War I novel.　　“If a person wants to make their mark as a writer they have to work very hard, and this exhibit really shows how hard he worked,” said Patrick Hemingway, the author’s only surviving child who on Tuesday toured th
Handwriting study finds clues on when biblical texts written

Apr 13, 2016

　　　JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli mathematicians and archaeologists say they have found evidence to suggest that key biblical texts may have been composed earlier than what some scholars think.　　Using handwriting analysis technology similar to that employed by intelligence agencies and banks to analyze signatures, a Tel Aviv University team determined that a famous hoard of ancient Hebrew inscriptions, dated to around B.C. 600, were written by at least six different authors. Although the inscription
'Small Stores Festival’ flea market in Seoul

Apr 13, 2016

Seoul city will invite 200 teams of small business owners from all over Korea to a flea market at Cheonggye Plaza in Seoul on May 28. The event will run between noon and 6 p.m. with busking performances, interactive games and more.Designed to help invigorate the small business ecosystem, a wide range of items including handcrafted clothes, artisan accessories, homemade food, interior design props and stationary will go on sale at the market. (Naver)By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)
The body, animals and deities: Mayan art on show in Berlin

Apr 12, 2016

BERLIN (AP) -- Sculptures celebrating the human body, precious jewelry, animals from frogs to jaguars and depictions of deities are going on show in Berlin in an exhibition that offers a glimpse of centuries of Mayan art.　The exhibition, “The Maya - Language of Beauty,” features some 300 artworks spanning around a millennium up to the arrival of Spanish colonial rulers after 1500. The presidents of Mexico and Germany are opening the show at the German capital's Martin-Gropius-Bau museum on Monda
Korea withdraws nomination of Confucian academies for UNESCO list

Apr 11, 2016

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced Monday it has withdrawn the nomination of Korean Confucian academies, or seowon, for the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list. 　The decision was made when the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an independent international advisory body that offers technical and on-site evaluation for cultural heritage sites around the world applying for the UNESCO Cultural Heritage designation, deferred its decision to present evaluation reports on the
Austria wants to seize Hitler’s birth house

Apr 11, 2016

VIENNA (AFP) -- Austria said Saturday it wants to seize Adolf Hitler’s birthplace from its private owner in a bid to end a bitter legal battle and stop the house from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.　“We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria,” Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told AFP.　“We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the
LTI Korea Translation Academy recruits new students

Apr 10, 2016

The Literature Translation Institute Korea’s Translation Academy is recruiting new students for its 2016 semester, which begins this September.The academy offers two-year courses in the translation of Korean literary and cultural texts into English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. The programs feature comprehensive and in-depth training in literary translation, comprising some 9 to 15 hours of classes per week, as well as excursions that provide insight into Korean culture and history, talk
[Eye interview] Scholar warns Korean youth to avoid passivity

Apr 8, 2016

Robert J. Fouser calls on young people to participate in politics, to push for changes
Korean shamanic ritual documented in photography

Apr 6, 2016

Exhibition highlights photographs of ‘gut’ by Kim Soo-nam and his lifelong dedication to capturing the fading tradition
Stratford Festival launches new Shakespeare online toolkit

Apr 6, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Stratford Festival in Canada is commemorating the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death by making his plays accessible to a generation raised on the Internet.　The festival has just unveiled an online teaching platform that will include each of Shakespeare’s scripts, a film clip of every scene and notes to understand each piece of dialogue.　“King Lear” is the first play to be offered using these tools and more titles will be added as part of the festivals to captur
From limos to junk, quirky museums tell Beijing's history

Apr 5, 2016

BEIJING (AP) -- Stuffed into a tiny room off an alleyway are items that Wang Jinming readily admits were put out with the garbage: Paper string, a needle holder, a metal pancake maker built for thrusting into a fire.　"These objects all look quite old and shabby," he said. "But they record real history."　Wang's Beijing Old Items Exhibition in the heart of old Beijing is one of dozens of private museums that dot the capital’s backstreets and its suburbs. Their collections feature the grand and mun
Russia's Hermitage Museum offers help to restore Palmyra

Apr 5, 2016

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AFP) -- The director of Russia’s renowned Hermitage Museum, which has an important collection of sculptures from Palmyra, has offered its expertise to help restore the ancient Syrian city retaken by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces from the Islamic State group.　“Restoring Palmyra is the responsibility of all of us,” Mikhail Piotrovsky told AFP, surrounded by displays of tombstones, sculptures and coins from Palmyra at the museum in St. Petersburg.　Following the IS campa