The owner of Itaewon cocktail joint Southside Parlor will launch a fundraising campaign Monday to raise money to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.Robbie Nguyen hails from Houston, which was directly hit by the storm, and his family was among those forced to evacuate. The funds raised will go to help his family and support organizations helping deal with the hurricane’s fallout.The campaign will be kicked off with a launch event at Southside Parlor, which will coincide with the start of a social

The Seoul Book and Culture Club is hosting a question-and-answer session with two young authors on Saturday.Chung Han-ah and Choi Eun-young are among the most recent to have their works translated and published in English as part of ASIA Publishers’ series of short fiction by new Korean authors.The two writers will give a reading from their new books before a short interview with host Barry Welsh. Questions will be opened up to the audience for the second half of the event. The covers of Choi Eu

Seoul Metropolitan Government is inviting residents of South Asia to raise issues and problems they experience living here at a Seoul Town Meeting attended by Mayor Park Won-soon on Sept. 16.Seoul has been holding town meetings for foreign residents of Seoul for about a decade. The aim is for expats to voice their problems so that Seoul can develop policies to address them.  Mayor Park Won-soon (Yonhap)The event will be in Korea with English simultaneous translation. As well as the mayor, South

Applications to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean on Nov. 19 will open Monday.The test is available in two formats, TOPIK I, which covers levels 1 and 2, and the more challenging TOPIK II, which covers levels 3-6. The test costs 35,000 won for the TOPIK I and 40,000 won for the TOPIK II.  Korean Study materials for the Test of Proficiency in Korean (Paul Kerry/The Korea Herald)There are 47 test centers in Korea, covering all provinces and metropolitan cities except Ulsan and Sejong. The tes

Over a dozen Vietnamese and Korean artists and art groups have gathered for an exhibition looking at the rapid changes the two countries have experienced in recent decades. Hosted by the Korea Foundation to mark the 25th anniversary of ties, “Salt of the Jungle” examines the results of their sometimes destructive urbanization, industrialization and migration.The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the novel by the Vietnamese writer Nguyen Huy Thiep, in which it refers to a flower as white a

Filmmakers after a challenge will be in luck next month, when a 48-hour film event awaits them, hosted by the team behind the Korea Independent Expat Film Festival.KIX48 is designed similarly to the 48-hour Film Project, an international competition that Seoul filmmakers have entered in the past, but is a separate event. Like the other event, crews are given elements they have to include -- in this case, a line of dialogue, a prop and a type of location -- and a deadline for submission. (KIXFF)“

Looking to make Gwangju the geek capital of Korea, Alleycon is returning this fall, with plans to be bigger than ever.The event is in its third year, with 60 people coming to the first one and 225 to the second. Now the organizers are hoping to attract 500 people to this year’s event at the Gwangju Design Center from Sept. 19-20.Alleycon general manager Jordan VanHartingsvelt said that he already had significant interest from outside the city, including people already planning their cosplay outf

How much should an outsider give up to become part of society’s inner circle? That is the main theme of Kim Tae-woong’s award-winning play “The Clowns,” Busan English Theatre Association’s next production. A translation of the play was published in 2005, but this will be its first production in English.The play looks at the relationship between 15th-century Joseon King Yeonsangun and his court clown Gong-gil. Gong-gil is part of a troupe performing for the king under the ultimate pressure: Be fu

Art Network Korea will be launching its website with an exhibition of self-portraits in Seoul to start this week.“Mirror Mirror” will feature work by 15 visual artists from six countries, all looking at self-portraiture from a different perspective. The work includes photography, painting and drawing with a fairly conventional take on the concept, to more abstract images and installations. Exhibition curator Martyn Thompson, who also has work in the show, said he was pleased with how the artists