The city, translated.
SEOULIAN desk · CULTURE
K-pop, cinema, drama, art, language, living heritage, and the cultural systems Korea shares with the world.
85 published stories in this section.
75 stories · Page 3 of 4
Korean painting (Korean: 한국화) includes paintings made in Korea or by overseas Koreans on all surfaces. The earliest surviving Korean paintings are murals in the Goguryeo tombs, of which considerable numbers survive, the oldest from some 2,000 years ago (mostly now in North Korea), with varied scenes including dancers, hunting and spirits.
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South Korean beauty standards prioritize maintaining a youthful appearance rather than looking mature. A combination of clear skin, an even skin complexion, a slim, V-shaped jawline, and pronounced puffy aegyo-sal (fatty, bag-like deposits under the eye—common in children; rare in adults) contributes to a desirable youthful aesthetic and personal…
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K-beauty (Korean: 케이뷰티) is an umbrella term for skincare products that are derived from South Korea. K-beauty gained popularity worldwide, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Western world, and focuses on health, hydration, and an emphasis on brightening effects.
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Korean gardens are a type of garden described as being natural, informal, simple and unforced, seeking to merge with the natural world. They have a history that goes back more than two thousand years, but are little known in the west.
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Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Korean Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity. Many folk traditions developed in rural areas such as villages.
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Korean architecture (Korean: 한국건축) refers to an architectural style that developed over centuries in Korea. Throughout the history of Korea, various kingdoms and royal dynasties have developed a unique style of architecture with influences from Buddhism and Korean Confucianism. Traditional Korean architecture can be mostly recognized by its sloping roofs.
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Seoul Fashion Week (SFW; Korean: 서울패션위크) is a biannual fashion event held in Seoul, South Korea, showcasing the latest collections from Korean and international designers. Organized by the Seoul Design Foundation, under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the event has grown into one of the most prominent fashion weeks in Asia.
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Nam June Paik (Korean: 백남준 [pɛŋ.nam.dʑun] ; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" to describe the future of telecommunications.
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Korean shamanism, also known as Musok (Korean: 무속; Hanja: 巫俗), is a religion from Korea. Scholars of religion classify it as a folk religion and sometimes regard it as one facet of a broader Korean vernacular religion distinct from Buddhism, Daoism, and Neo-Confucianism.
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Korean mythology (Korean: 한국 신화; Hanja: 韓國神話) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much larger and more diverse oral mythology, mostly narratives sung by shamans or priestesses…
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Lee Ufan (Korean: 이우환; Hanja: 李禹煥, Korean pronunciation: [iːuhwan]; born 1936) is a South Korean minimalist painter, sculptor, and academic, known for innovative bodies of work emphasizing process, materials, and the experiential engagement of viewer and site, and critiques of European phenomenology.
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Korean Buddhism began in the 4th century CE during the Three Kingdoms Period. Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, the Mahayana tradition arrived in China through the Silk Road in the 1st century CE, then entered the Korean peninsula in the 4th century, from where it was transmitted to Japan.
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Korean tea ceremonies (Korean: 다례) are variants of tea ceremonies practiced in Korea. Darye literally refers to "etiquette for tea" or "tea rite", and has been kept among Korean people for over a thousand years. Although records exist of court tea ceremonies during the Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties, by the time of Seonjo (1590s), it had ceased to be…
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Kim Whanki (Korean: 김환기; Hanja: 金煥基; April 3, 1913 – July 25, 1974) was a Korean painter and pioneering abstract artist. Kim lived and worked in a number of cities and countries during his lifetime, including Tokyo, Japan; Seoul and Busan, Korea; Paris, France; and New York City, USA, where he died.
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Park Seo-bo (Korean: 박서보; 15 November 1931 – 14 October 2023) was a South Korean painter known for his "Écriture" series (1967 onwards), involvement in the Korean Art Informel movement, and particular formal concerns around painting that have led critics and art historians to identify him as a leading Dansaekhwa artist.
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Pansori (Korean: 판소리) is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. The term pansori is a compounds of the Korean words pan 판 and sori 소리, the latter of which means "sound." However, pan has multiple meanings, and scholars disagree on which was the intended meaning when the term was coined.
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Korean literature is the body of literature produced by Koreans, mostly in the Korean language and sometimes in Classical Chinese. For much of Korea's 1,500 years of literary history, it was written in Hanja. It is commonly divided into classical and modern periods, although this distinction is sometimes unclear.
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Templestay (Korean: 템플스테이) is a cultural program offered in numerous South Korean Buddhist temples. Templestay allows participants to experience the life of Buddhist practitioners and learn the various aspects of Korean Buddhist culture and history through stories told by monks.
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Dansaekhwa (Korean: 단색화, hanja 單色畵, also known as Tansaekhwa), often translated as "monochrome painting" from Korean, is a retroactive term grouping together disparate artworks that were exhibited in South Korea beginning in the mid 1970s.
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"Arirang" (Korean: 아리랑; pronounced [a.ɾi.ɾaŋ]) is a Korean folk song. There are about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions of the song, all of which include a refrain similar to "arirang, arirang, arariyo" ("아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요"). It is estimated that the song is more than 600 years old.
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Samul nori (Korean: 사물놀이; lit. 'four objects play') is a genre of Korean percussion music. It is a modern adaptation of traditional Korean musics, namely the ritual farming music nongak and Korean shamanic music muak, for the indoor stage.
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Pungmul (Korean: 풍물; Hanja: 風物; IPA: [pʰuːŋmul]) is a Korean folk music tradition that includes drumming, dancing, and singing. Most performances are outside, with dozens of players all in constant motion. Pungmul is rooted in the dure (collective labor) farming culture.
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The Cloud Dream of the Nine, also translated as The Nine Cloud Dream (Korean: 구운몽; Hanja: 九雲夢; RR: Kuunmong), is a 17th-century Korean novel set in the Chinese Tang dynasty. Although widely attributed to Kim Man-jung, there have been some arguments about whether he was the original author.
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Hong Gildong jeon (Korean: 홍길동전; Hanja: 洪吉童傳) is a Korean novel, often translated as The Biography of Hong Gildong, written during the Joseon period. The novel is considered an iconic piece of Korean literature and culture. Its authorship has traditionally been attributed to Joseon statesman, Hŏ Kyun, though recent scholarship has called this into question.
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