Korea Ssireum Association is holding a tournament during the Lunar New Year holidays in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province from Wednesday to Monday, with the organizers expecting more spectators than usual on the back of the recent resurgence in popularity of Korean traditional wrestling. 　“We have been holding a ssireum tournament during the Lunar New Year holidays every year in different cities of Korea. Last year the stadium in Jeongeup was nearly full and we are expecting more this

K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment on Wednesday warned fans about fake tickets for K-pop band Big Bang’s leader G-Dragon’s rumored concert in China.In an official statement, YG said it has spotted fake news about G-Dragon’s supposed concert in China on several online websites, including WeChat, a widely used social media platform in China. While G-Dragon will not perform in a concert in China, the company said that some people have received preorders for the tickets.“All i

Diverse cultural events will be held at Korean Cultural Centers located in countries that mark the Lunar New Year’s holiday, introducing Korea’s own Lunar New Year traditions and customs.Eighteen Korean Cultural Centers in 15 countries will organize Lunar New Year’s events, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korean Culture and Information Service announced Tuesday. The centers are operated by the Korean government. “To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Korean Cul

Although it is tempting to stay in bed late during the long Lunar New Year’s holiday, there will be diverse traditional cultural events and opportunities that people should not miss. The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Monday that four Joseon-era palaces in Seoul -- Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung -- will keep their doors open throughout the four-day holiday this year.The four palaces will offer cultural experience programs for visitors. On Saturd

The norm of interviewers having limited roles in front of the camera no longer holds true, as more South Korean interviewers are starting to shine on YouTube. Interviewer and producer Lee Eun-jae of variety show “MMTG,” a program that kicked off on SBS’ YouTube platform in February 2018, is one such example. The program, which features interviews with stars in different fields, has a separate YouTube channel with more than 40,900 subscribers as of Sunday. Lee, also known as Jae

“Violence and Justice”By Kim Seong-kon and Ahn Kyong-whanViche, Gimmyoung PublishersTwo Seoul National University professors from the humanities and law departments have written a book based on a popular class they taught in 1999 and 2000.“Around 150 students from the law and the humanities departments took our classes (every semester). The lectures were popular among students because they were the first to look into laws in literary and movie texts,” co-author and Englis

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced Thursday it will hold a New Year’s concert at the palace Deoksugung at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.Korean violinist Chung Kyung-wha and pianist Kim Tae-hyung will perform in the first concert of the year at Deoksugung’s Seokjojeon Hall.  The two artists will be performing violin sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart.Admission is by invitation only. The Cultural Heritage Administration said that multicultural families and people with disabilities wh

The 92nd Academy Awards on Monday named “In the Absence,” directed by Yi Seung-Jun and produced by Gary Byung-Seok Kam, as a nominee for best documentary (short subject).The category comprises released nonfiction motion pictures with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. Along with Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” which earned six nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards, “In the Absence” has become one of the first South Korean-

Fans of Pengsoo have reacted angrily after comments were blocked on YouTube videos starring the EBS penguin character, after the streaming sites enforcement of stricter children’s content rules starting Tuesday. The strengthened regulations came into effect after the US’ Federal Trade Commission last September announced that it was fining Google $170 million for violating children’s privacy law in the US. “We do understand that fans are upset about not being able to leave

The Korean entertainment industry is beginning to take animal rights issues more seriously as criticisms arise from related organizations.The producer of tvN variety show “The Meow is Fake” issued an official apology for violating animal rights after its first episode aired Sunday.The producer apologized for not providing sufficient information required during the adoption process to nonprofit organization Nabiya. The organization is currently asking for the return of the adopted cat

Many Koreans are willing to spend money to achieve their New Year’s goal to read more books.Around 12.25 percent of Koreans said that their top New Year’s goal is to achieve personal development, mainly through reading books, according to online survey platform Now N Survey. Buying a house, at 17 percent, topped the list of responses in the survey conducted among 1,420 people from Dec. 10 to Jan. 7. Setting up a goal is the easy part; good habits are hard to form. In market rese

Korea’s prestigious Yi Sang Literary Award postponed its announcement of this year’s winners on Monday after three writers refused to accept their awards. “We decided to delay the awards due to writers’ refusals,” a representative of Munhaksasang, the awards’ organizer, said Monday. The Korean publishing company added that a revised schedule for the 44th Yi Sang Literary Award had not been decided yet.  The decision was made after two writers, Kim Geum-he

The K-pop chart manipulation issue has once again come into the spotlight, following an SBS investigative journalism show that aired Saturday.The episode about the controversial issue caused an immediate stir on social media platforms and in search engine trends. On the latest episode of “Unanswered Questions,” industry insiders highlighted suspicions of music chart manipulation when a song, especially one by a relatively unknown musician, suddenly pops up on the charts without

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Thursday that it will hold the 2020 Dream Program with the PyeongChang 2018 Legacy Foundation from Monday to Jan. 18.This year, 123 teenagers from 29 countries will take part in the program held mainly in Gangwon Province. “We will spread the Olympic values of fair competition and hard physical training through the 2020 Dream Program. Moreover, we plan to further strengthen cultural and physical exchanges to uphold the legacy of the Pye

The rising popularity of South Korean cultural content is drawing interest among US consumers in Korea’s culture and its products, according to a recent survey by a state-run agency.The Korea Creative Content Agency on Friday released the results of a survey it conducted from July to September on consumer trends in the US market related to Korean content. The online survey had three categories -- Korea pop, Korean dramas and Korean variety shows. In all three sections, respondents wer

Organizers of a world-famous ice fishing festival on Thursday decided to delay its opening to Jan. 11 from the originally announced Jan. 4 due to safety issues.On Wednesday, the organizers -- local government of Hwacheon and Nara Foundation -- tested the ice condition of Hwacheon River, where the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival’s signature program that allows visitors to catch sancheoneo -- a species of trout known to live only in very clean freshwater-- takes place. “We normally c

Alex Mustonen, co-founder of New York-based studio Snarkitecture, talked about breaking some of the biased perceptions that people have about architecture at the Herald Design Forum 2019 on Thursday.“A lot of time, we think of architecture as something quite serious. I think the same limitations that people have with art can also be applied to architecture. They are seen as something that has to be looked at and not necessarily something that they can engage with,” Mutonen said. &ldq

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on Thursday talked about the importance of cultural diversity when managing an art museum, at the Herald Design Forum 2019.“To survive in an increasingly globalized society, we need to understand each other’s cultures,” Govan said. “We have arts of all time and places. We have 150,000 objects for our collections and one and a half million people come to see this. We also have 4,000 education programs to show

Startup Accelerators and CEOs, who participated in Start-Up Seoul event’s Policy Forum session on Thursday, called on the government to encourage South Korean startups to go global and expand their presence overseas.“If Cyworld had been a global hit, Facebook could have become redundant,” Korea Accelerator Association chairman Lee Jun-bae said. “But that didn’t happen.”  Hwang Yoon-sik, the CEO of food catering startup Fooding Kitchen also called for more

Startup experts taking part in “Start-Up Seoul: Tech-Rise 2019” say that failure, along with a flexible environment allowing such failure, are critical factors for business operation and to eventually become a successful entrepreneur. “Everyone understands the important role of failure for progress, but failure is still so stigmatized in society. It is still punished within most organizational cultures,” Museum of Failure founder Samuel West told The Investor in a recent