In the infinite scroll of YouTube Shorts, a peculiar sensation emerges. The videos are neither entertaining nor offensive. Yet the finger keeps swiping. No memorable scenes remain, but time vanishes in seconds. This state—known as "brainrot"—is not a matter of personal taste. It is a structural feature of the platform itself.
Korean enterprises—Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Hyundai Motor Group—redefined innovation at CES 2026 by competing not on specifications but on narrative. They asked: What should innovation actually mean?
Samsung Electronics' Spatial Signage technology and the evolution of Korean digital infrastructure as cultural expression
Buildings are the most expensive advertising platforms a city has to offer. Discover how architecture, technology, and data transform urban spaces into dynamic communication systems.
A small wine bar in Yeonnam-dong proves that Seoul's most compelling moments aren't always the loudest ones
A small wine bar in Yeonnam-dong proves that Seoul's most compelling moments aren't always the loudest ones
South Korea's deliberate, state-supported ecosystem designed to project soft power through the irresistible pull of shared human emotion
South Korea has perfected the art of turning the intimate and local into something universally magnetic. From K-pop to virtual idols, from Squid Game to AI-generated celebrity avatars, Seoul's cultural strategy represents a deliberate, state-supported ecosystem designed to project soft power through the irresistible pull of shared human emotion.
How Mizuki Shigeru Road Teaches Korean Small Cities to Stop Explaining and Start Storytelling
Small cities don't win by being known—they win by being sayable. Mizuki Shigeru Road in Yonago teaches Korean small cities how to design visitor experiences that market themselves.
An old pop song from the 1997–98 financial crisis is resurfacing as a map for today's generative-A.I. upheaval
In the late 1990s, Korean arcades became refuges for displaced workers. Now, A.I. offers a similar escape. A meditation on transition, dignity, and what we owe to those caught between eras.
How a "smoke billboard" in 이태원역(Itaewon Station) reframed out-of-home advertising as business innovation—and why execution capability is becoming the real competitive edge.
He didn't have a blueprint. He had a promise—and 30 years of stubborn love.
In a small village, an older brother watches his younger sister struggle with movement. Somewhere along the way, he hears that riding exercise could help. So he does what Korean ingenuity often does when it meets a wall: it begins to build a door.
When fashion styling meets artificial intelligence to help find missing children in South Korea
In South Korea's drama ecosystem, romance doesn't always announce itself with flowers and slow-motion hugs. Sometimes it shows up as a number—who gets talked about, shared, and argued over the most.
A university professor argues that Korean education has systematically excluded students from the design process, creating a closed system that stifles potential and prevents adaptation.
In the age of artificial intelligence, Korean education is moving faster than ever—but in the wrong direction. A university professor argues that the system has forgotten its most important users: students themselves.
Beyond calculations: How a Certified Tax Accountant at SaveTax Teheran Branch (세무법인 세이브택스 테헤란지점) reads lives through inheritance, family conflict, and the human side of taxation
Beyond calculations: How a Certified Tax Accountant at SaveTax Teheran Branch (세무법인 세이브택스 테헤란지점) reads lives through inheritance, family conflict, and the human side of taxation
How "Golden" by JUNGKOOK and Central Cee marks the end of K-pop paradox
On Sunday night at the 68th Grammy Awards, "Golden," written for KPop Demon Hunters and performed under the project name HUNTR/X, won Best Song Written for Visual Media. This is not just a trophy—it is a confirmation that Hallyu's center of gravity is shifting.
How Adults Are Reclaiming Play in Korea's Fastest City
On Seoul's nightlife scene, a new phenomenon is emerging: Gyeongdo (경도, 경찰과 도둑), a flash-mob tag game where strangers gather to play "cops and thieves." YTN captures the cultural moment.
Why Foreign Students Are Choosing Korea Now—And How You Can Too
The Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) 2026 is your gateway to Korea's top universities with full tuition, living stipends, and airfare support. Learn the winning strategy for international applicants.
A journalist-turned-novelist who rejected heroism, embraced nihilism, and sold millions with prose as spare as a war diary—yet remains one of Korea's most misunderstood literary giants
A journalist-turned-novelist who rejected heroism, embraced nihilism, and sold millions with prose as spare as a war diary.
How a young boxer from South Korea changed boxing forever—and paid the ultimate price
The story of Kim Duk-koo, the South Korean boxer who challenged for the WBA lightweight title in 1982 and changed boxing forever—at an unimaginable cost.
Professor Yoo Seung-chul's latest book examines how K-food has evolved from simple meals into a comprehensive communication platform, blending foodtech innovation with compelling brand storytelling to connect cities, citizens, and cultures worldwide.
The year 2026 marks a pivotal transformation in television. As online video doubles to $18 billion while traditional pay-TV declines, the real story isn't about technology—it's about how fandom has replaced passive viewership. FAST channels and AI are accelerating this shift, creating ecosystems where communities gather, worldviews expand, and Korean content leads the global charge.
Inside the neighborhood where Korean food culture is rewriting Japan's culinary landscape—and what it reveals about Hallyu's next chapter
Walk down the main street of Shin-Okubo on any given afternoon, and you will encounter a sensory overload. Korean pop music spills from storefronts. The aroma of tteokbokki and Korean fried chicken fills the air. This is Tokyo's Korea Town—ground zero for K-food's expansion into Japan, and a living laboratory for understanding how Korean culinary culture travels and thrives beyond its borders.
Hwang Sok-yong, one of Asia's most celebrated novelists, used ChatGPT while writing his latest work. He calls it a tool for thinking, not writing.
When Hwang Sok-yong, now 83, began writing his new novel Halmae, he asked an artificial intelligence to help him think. The machine, he explained, is not a ghostwriter. It is a thinking partner.
Where to find the city's most honest food wrapped in seaweed—and why locals will argue about it for hours
The moment you bite into your first gimbap in Seoul, you understand why Koreans get defensive about it. It's not sushi. It's not fusion. It's simply rice, vegetables, and magic wrapped in seaweed. Walk into any Seoul neighborhood, and you'll spot gimbap shops everywhere. But here's what most travelers miss: not all gimbap is created equal.
How South Korea turned budget coffee into a cultural phenomenon—and what you're missing if you only drink at familiar chains
At 9 a.m. on a frigid January morning, the line at Mega Coffee stretches out the door. A tall Americano here costs 1,500 won—roughly $1.10. Three blocks away, at Starbucks, the same drink costs 4,500 won. This is a story about how South Korea democratized caffeine and created one of the world's most peculiar coffee cultures.
Interpreting Global Gen Z Social Psychology Through Luffy. From Jakarta to Madagascar, young protesters are waving Luffy's pirate flag as a symbol of freedom, justice, and resistance against corrupt power structures.
LG's heritage campaign uses Korea's postwar electronics story to restore consumer trust in an age of technological anxiety. From the first domestic radio to premium OLED screens, the company stitches past and future into a narrative of continuous innovation.
A Korean attorney who treats criminal and administrative law as two simultaneous ways a modern state can press down on an ordinary citizen
A Korean attorney who treats criminal and administrative law as two simultaneous ways a modern state can press down on an ordinary citizen
Netflix's Korean cooking competition has evolved into a sophisticated meditation on skill, class, and the architecture of merit. Season 2 proves that the show's real power lies not in spectacle, but in its willingness to make viewers confront uncomfortable truths about who gets to be believed.
Netflix's Korean cooking competition has evolved into a sophisticated meditation on skill, class, and the architecture of merit. Season 2 proves that the show's real power lies not in spectacle, but in its willingness to make viewers confront uncomfortable truths about who gets to be believed.
Two sanctuaries for attention in a city built on speed
In a city built on speed, two side-by-side libraries in Itaewon stand as quiet monuments to the opposite impulse. Discover the Hyundai Card Music Library and Art Library—sanctuaries for attention where vinyl records and art books invite you to slow down.
When a 1995 album by Lee Sang-eun (이상은) revisited a 2,000-year-old poem, it became more than music—it became a mirror to the Korean soul. Exploring the haunting depths of 공무도하가 (Gongmudoha-ga), where ancient sorrow meets contemporary artistry.
In an era when algorithms predict our preferences before we know them themselves, existentialism offers a radical insistence on human freedom and authenticity.
How a pink beaver from a Korean children's animation became China's most relatable symbol of workplace burnout and the future of the Korean Wave.
JENNIE's tourism campaign didn't just break records—it rewrote the rules of destination marketing
In Ganghwa Island's hidden forest pathway, Café France proves that in 2026, the most valuable commodity isn't coffee—it's authentic human connection and the art of doing nothing beautifully.
A thousand-year-old fermented beverage is experiencing a global renaissance, carrying with it the weight of history, the soul of poetry, and a philosophy that challenges modern drinking culture
How a Mountain's Scarcity Became Korea's Most Profound Culinary Philosophy
How "My Mister" Finds Profound Connection in the Simple Ritual of Pouring Soju for a Friend
In a South Korean drama, the healing power of a shared drink finds profound connection not in grand romance but in the simple ritual of pouring soju for a friend.
How a Korean Guitarist Redefined What Film Music Could Say by Refusing to Speak
While Ryuichi Sakamoto has shaped the global vocabulary of film music through declarative scores, Lee Byung-woo has worked in the margins, teaching directors and audiences a different grammar. Where one speaks, the other bears witness.
A professor's lament about bureaucracy, innovation, and the gap between aspiration and reality
Exploring the paradox of Korean universities: modern buildings with 20th-century administrative systems, and why institutional reform remains elusive in the age of generative AI.
A quiet Korean singer-songwriter, a faded photograph, and a three-minute ritual for getting through the night
Exploring Heo Hoy Kyung's intimate meditation on endurance and the small rituals that sustain us through difficult times.
Deep inside Seoul's Jongno district lies Cheongjinok, a restaurant that serves haejangguk—the hangover soup that has sustained this city for decades. A New York Times-style meditation on authenticity, memory, and what it means to eat like a local.
A Chinese store called "Only Young" has sparked outrage by appearing engineered to mimic CJ Olive Young. The controversy reveals how retail experience itself has become intellectual property in the global beauty market.
How glocalization holds the key to Korean food's worldwide success. A column on the K-food globalization seminar at Ewha Womans University.
Director Yeon Sang-ho's provocative $170,000 film exposes the brutal cost of Korea's rise and asks who was erased in the rush to global stardom. A haunting exploration of beauty, identity, and erasure in modern Korea.
