Korean martial arts culture – Taekwondo

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 Kalbi Martial arts and sports, Movie, Pop culture, Traditional culture, Travel chuncheon korea open international taekwondo championship, chungju world martial arts festival, K-Tigers, kim hoon, korean culture, korean martial arts, robot taekwon V, taekwondo, taekwondowon, takkyeon

Before talking about taekwondo, I wish you a happy White Day as tomorrow (14 March 2015) is White Day in South Korea. What is White Day? On Valentine’s Day (i.e. 14 February), the females give chocolate as gifts to their lovers and on White Day (i.e. 14 March), the males reciprocate by giving candies to their lovers. Actually, to the South Koreans, there is always something to celebrate on the 14th of every month – for more detail, you may refer to my blog post dated 14 January 2015.

In this blog post, I will talk about one of Koreans’ national sports – taekwondo (태권도). In fact, taekwondo has a long history and is a kind of sports which most, if not all, Korean males have learnt. Koreans in their 30’s and 40’s may still remember a popular cartoon robot character called Taekwon V which was good at taekwondo. Nowadays, taekwondo is a form of martial arts practised by more than 70 million people in 188 countries. Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – 2000’s and beyond

March 11, 2015October 18, 2020 Kalbi Drama, Pop culture, Pop music 2AM, 2NE1, 2PM, akdong musician, big bang, Big Hit Entertainment, Blackpink, BTS, busker and busker, exo, EXO-K, EXO-M, f(x), full house, girls' generation, JYJ, JYP entertainment, k-pop, k-pop idol group, k-pop star, KARA, korean culture, lee hi, Miss A, psy, rain, roy kim, SHINEE, SM Entertainment, snopp dogg, super junior, SuperM, superstar K, TVXQ, winter sonata, wonder girls

**Last updated on 17 October 2020**

In the last blog post, I talked about the K-pop revolution brought by Seo Taiji & Boys who laid the foundation for the modern K-pop and the creation of the first-generation young idol groups in the 1990’s. From then onwards, K-pop has been designed to target the teenagers. In this post, I will talk about the 2000’s in which we saw the aggressive large-scale expansion of K-pop to other countries as part of the Korean Wave. Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – 1990’s (Rise of Modern K-pop)

March 9, 2015March 11, 2015 Kalbi Pop culture, Pop music crying nut, fin.k.l., g.o.d., H.O.T., hongdae, JYP entertainment, k-pop, k-pop idol group, korean culture, lee juno, lee man-soo, park jin-young, pipi band, s.e.s., sechs kies, seo taiji & boys, shinhwa, SM Entertainment, yang hyun-suk, YG entertainment

In my previous blog posts in this Evolution of K-pop Series (which you may read by clicking the links under the “Related Blog Posts” section in this post), I talked about the evolution of K-pop music from its birth in 1885 to the 1980’s and the K-pop developed up to that period did not sound very similar to the present-day K-pop. In the 1990’s, Seo Taiji & Boys started a K-pop revolution by introducing a new form of K-pop which paved the way for the modern K-pop and K-pop idol groups. This period also saw the establishment of entertainment agencies which played a key role in the development of K-pop even today. Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – 1970’s and 1980’s

March 6, 2015March 11, 2015 Kalbi Pop culture, Pop music bounce, byun jin-sub, cho yong-pil, folk music, Han De-su, hye un-i, k-pop, Kim Kwang-seok, Kim Min-gi, king of k-pop, korean culture, lee gwang-jo, lee moon-se, national singer, park chung-hee, pop ballad, prince of ballads, trot

In this blog post, I will continue with the Evolution of K-pop Series and talk about the K-pop in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the last blog post, I talked about the K-pop in the 1950’s and 1960’s in which we saw the rise of Korean rock music under the influence of American pop music. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the authoritarian government of President Park Chung-hee became the dominant influence on the development of K-pop and the ban imposed by the government stifled the further development of the nascent Korean rock music. Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – 1950’s and 1960’s

March 4, 2015March 11, 2015 Kalbi Pop culture, Pop music add4, godfather of Korean rock, k-pop, key boys, kim sisters, korean culture, korean rock music, lee mi-ja, patti kim, pearl sisters, shin joong hyun

Tomorrow (5 March 2015) is the Jeongwol Daeboreum (Great Full Moon Festival) in South Korea. Wishing you a happy Jeongwol Daeboreum! If you wish to know about the rituals and celebration events related to Jeongwol Daeboreum, you can read my blog post dated 2 March 2015.

In this blog post, I will continue with the Evolution of K-pop Series and talk about the K-pop in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This period was heavily influenced by Western pop music and some Korean singers who performed well in Western pop music even went overseas to give shows. Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – Birth of K-pop to 1940’s

February 27, 2015March 15, 2015 Kalbi Drama, Pop culture, Pop music beast, changga, daesung, danny boy, enka, girls' generation, huimangga, k-pop, kikwang, kim jae-jung, korean culture, lee hae-ri, londonderry air, look at me gwi soon, my darling clementine, Nakhwayusu, park hyang-rim, Simcheongga, trot, trot lovers, Yi Pungjin Sewol, yoseob

In this blog post, we go back to the very early stages of K-pop and appreciate some older forms of K-pop. The influence of K-pop developed in this period can still be felt today. In fact, K-pop is a fusion of Korean and foreign (mainly western and Japanese) music forms. Throughout the history of K-pop, you may notice the influence of foreign music.

Continue reading →

Evolution of K-pop Series – An overview

February 25, 2015March 11, 2015 Kalbi Pop culture, Pop music exo, fin.k.l., g.o.d., gangnam style, girls' generation, H.O.T., idol group, immortal songs, k-pop, korean culture, patti kim, pearl sisters, psy, reply 1994, s.e.s., sechs kies, seo taji & boys, shin joong hyun, shinwa, SM Entertainment, super junior, trot

When talking about K-pop (케이팝 – Korean pop music), you may think of the songs sung by K-pop idol groups like Girls’ Generation, EXO, Super Junior, etc. However, if you watch the variety show, Immortal Songs (불후의 명곡), and the Korean drama “Reply 1994” (응답하라 1994), you may hear names like Shin Joong-hyun, Pearl Sisters, Patti Kim, Seo Taji & Boys and many other names who contributed to the development of the present-day Korean pop music. Looking at the evolution of the K-pop can help us better understand the characteristics of the present-day K-pop music and also gives us a chance to appreciate the K-pop music of the past, which is still very nice to listen to. So, I will start a blog post series on the evolution of K-pop. Continue reading →

More interesting tips about Seol (Lunar New Year) in South Korea

February 23, 2015January 21, 2023 Kalbi Drama, Festivals, special days and rituals, Gift giving, Pop culture, Travel 2NE1 CL, alexander graham bell, bill gates, CNBlue kang min hyuk, EXO lay, fortune-telling booth, fortune-telling cafe, girls' generation seohyun, gunghap, health products, kill me heal me, kim hee ae, korean culture, lee hyo ri, lunar new year, luxury dessert, michelangelo, saju, seollal, sheep cafe, shinee min ho, Solo economy, steve jobs, tarot reading, thanks nature cafe, year of the sheep, zodiac animal

**Last updated on 30 January 2022**

Happy Lunar New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요. 🙂

Thanks for the overwhelming views of my blog post dated 18 February 2015 on how the Koreans celebrate Seollal (설날 – Lunar New Year’s Day, i.e., the 1st day of the 1st month of the lunar calendar). That blog post talks about the traditional ways in which the Koreans celebrate the Seollal. In this blog post, I will give more interesting tips about Seol (설 – Lunar New Year) and some modern ways of celebrating the Seol which can still be used even after Seollal. Continue reading →

Hanbok (Korean Traditional Clothing) – A familiar Korean culture symbol

February 16, 2015January 21, 2023 Kalbi Clothing - Hanbok, Drama, Pop culture, Traditional culture, Travel baji, chima, dongdaemum shopping complex, gwangjang market, han hyo joo, han ji min, hanbok, insadong, insadong tourist information centre, jang ok jung, jeogori, kim soo hyun, korea tourism organization seoul office, korean culture, korean ribbon bow, korean traditional clothing, moon chae won, seoul global culture experience centre, song joong ki

Hanbok (한복 – Korean traditional clothing) should be familiar to Korean culture lovers since you can see people wearing it in Korean historical dramas and one of the “must-do” items for tourists in South Korea is trying on Hanbok and taking photos. Koreans wear them on formal ceremonial occasions and for important events. For example, the South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, sometimes wears Hanbok during diplomatic visits to other countries. Koreans wear Hanbok for Seollal (설날 – Lunar New Year), wedding ceremonies and funerals. I have also heard that in some Korean language institutes, students studying the regular Korean program wear Hanbok during the graduation ceremony. Continue reading →

Web drama – New trend for Korean dramas

February 4, 2015February 1, 2015 Kalbi Comics / Cartoons / Animation, Drama, Pop culture after school lucky or not, aftermath, Drama, infinite power, korean culture, love cells, pop culture, prince of prince, the search for battle, web drama, webcomic, webtoon

In my blog post dated 19 January 2015, it is mentioned that webtoons or webcomics have gained popularity in South Korea due to the widespread internet network. Their close relatives, web dramas (i.e., mini-dramas consisting of 6 to 10 episodes with each episode being 5 to 20 minutes long distributed through the internet) are also attracting more attention in South Korea. Continue reading →