The snow made me do it. After much vacillation over whether to visit the US side of my family over Christmas or to stay in Seoul, I had finally resigned myself to spending the holidays at home. I had booked my flights months in advance, in hopes that the pandemic situation would improve with time. After all, vaccines that can protect against the virus that causes COVID-19, or at least lessen the severity of an infection, were now widely available. We had also learned over more than a year of

One day, out of nowhere, a son receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. One day, out of nowhere, a daughter receives a very generous, unexpected bequest from a stranger. The stranger’s will contained no conditions to the bequests. One day, the father announces that he is taking the bequests from his children. He declares that since the children are part of the family and he is the head of the household, it is within his rights to do as he pleases with what was given

A cacophony of images, a riot of colors. That is what I saw at an exhibition in Itaewon, central Seoul, heralded as a hip show. It surely had all the elements of an of-the-moment show: Provocative images, saturated colors, all the glamour of glossy artwork. “Toiletpaper: The Studio” at Hyundai Card Storage in Itaewon is a literal replica of the photography-based magazine Toiletpaper’s Milan studio. The exhibition is touted as the first to ever look inside the studio of Ita

  A photo of massive, foreboding, rocky mountains, barren except for a few bushes, with a truckload of soldiers carrying rifles is a lasting image I have of Afghanistan. I used the photo, clipped out of Time magazine, I think, to make a scrap book about various countries -- a middle school geography assignment. I don’t remember why I chose Afghanistan, among all the other countries that started with the letter A. Perhaps because this was in the early 1980s and the country was much in

Can the safety and health of the athletes be guaranteed? What is the point of having world-class athletes perform to an empty stadium? In a city where COVID-19 is raging out of control, would not the thousands who will descend upon it exacerbate the situation?　 These questions and more bothered me as countries debated whether to send their national teams to the once-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. For someone who has never played competitive sports and is not a great sports fan, participating in t

Last week, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee announced two candidate sites in Seoul for a building to house a large collection of art donated by the family of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee.　 A site in central Seoul close to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the grounds of the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan will be considered for the final selection, which will be announced by the end of the year, in consultation with a committee of

The government recently launched a new round of publicity blitz to promote Korean culture abroad, this time involving the screening of a “fashion film” set in a Joseon period palace that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The aim is two-fold: Let the world know the beauty of Korea’s palaces and, perhaps more urgently, send a clear message that hanbok belongs to Korea. The latter aim has gained urgency as Chinese media have been claiming that hanbok originates from China.

I won a trip to Tahiti. In my dream, that is. I was ecstatic at having won the lottery, but within a few seconds, my heart sank at the fact that I had not been vaccinated. Even in my dream. I don’t know what deeply seated unconscious desire to visit Tahiti may have led to the dream. Tahiti has never been on my bucket list. I suspect the dream had more to do with a pent-up desire to travel. To anywhere, really. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in January 2020, travels around the world cam

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” So spoke Juliet Capulet to Romeo Montague in Shakespearean tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.” But, of course, there is a lot in a name. It is by which you are called your whole life, it is your identity. In Korea, where names take on a great significance, a lot of thought and care are taken in naming a new born. Often, one character of the two-character name is used by everyone in a

The blooming of yellow forsythias heralds the long awaited arrival of spring. The golden bells are everywhere, on the sides of Seoul’s numerous rocky mountains, by the Han River and along school fences. The golden yellows are soon joined by the creamy white elegance of magnolia blossoms that, at night, look like candle lights floating midair. All too soon, they fade, the large petals falling to the ground one by one. But don’t despair, there are delicate pale pink cherry blossoms