**Last updated on: 15 October 2020**
In Korean, “방” (“bang” – pronounced as “bahng”) means “room”. In the Western world, “room” usually refers to some private spaces used by restricted groups of people, e.g., dining room, bathroom, bedroom and living room at home or conference room at the office. However, in South Korea, you can find a lot of “방” (“bang”) which are places for public entertainment. Let’s talk about some of them in this post. Continue reading
Seollal (the Korean Lunar New Year), which is an important festival among the Koreans, has just passed. While the people living in North Korea and South Korea share the same ethnic origin and may have similar customs, there may be some cultural differences between people living in the two Koreas mainly due to the differences in their political systems. Let’s discuss some key differences in the Seollal-related customs between the two Koreas in this blog post. If you want to know more about the Korean customs for Seollal in South Korea, you may refer to my blog posts dated 18 February 2015 and 23 February 2015, respectively. Continue reading
With the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics drawing near, there are special exhibitions held to celebrate this great event in South Korea. Apart from the tiger-related special exhibition held in the National Museum of Korea mentioned in my blog post dated 28 January 2018, a special exhibition entitled “Korean Sports, a History Written in Sweat” is currently held in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History until 4 March 2018. Continue reading
Q: What do the Seoul 1988 Olympics, the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea 2017 and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have in common, apart from the fact that they are hosted in South Korea?
A: They all use tigers as the official mascots.
According to a poll run by the National Institute of Biological Resources, part of the Ministry of Environment, tiger is Koreans’ favourite animal. In fact, tiger has a close connection with the Korean culture – let’s discuss about this in this blog post. Continue reading
In the past, you didn’t need to check the terminal for departure from the Incheon Airport in South Korea as there was only one terminal. Starting from 18 January 2018, with the opening of Terminal 2 of the Incheon Airport, you should double-check the terminal before getting off the train or bus when going to the airport. In this blog post, let’s talk about this new terminal. Continue reading
In South Korea, with the rapid growth of the kidult and adulkid markets, it seems that the line between kids and adults has been blurring. Let’s discuss these two trends in this blog post. Continue reading
Merry X’mas! Tomorrow is the X’mas day – wish all of you Happy Holidays! Although X’mas is a western festival, in South Korea, X’mas is also a great day for celebration with the family members and friends. If you are not in Seoul, hope you may be able to get some X’mas greetings from Seoul from the two photos in this blog post. Continue reading
In my blog post dated 5 March 2017, I have provided an overview of the Korean traditional paintings. Where will you go if you want to see some Korean traditional paintings? You may think of venues like the National Museum of Korea and art galleries. However, currently, there is a new venue where you can see such paintings -the Seoul Metro. Continue reading
If you have visited South Korea this year, you should have seen a white tiger and an Asiatic black bear (as shown in the above photo) in the streets and on the TV. They are the mascots of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics (평창 동계올림픽대회) and PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games (평창 동계패럴림픽대회). In fact, the South Korean government has put in a lot of efforts to promote these important events to be held in South Korea in 2018. Let’s talk about some interesting things about these events in this blog post. Continue reading
Korean Culture Blog 