Topic

Korea Timesi

News and features from the Korea Times, South Korea’s oldest English-language newspaper.

Advertisement
  • Rebellions, a fabless AI chip company co-founded by five South Korean engineers, is viewed as the country’s best hope to rival Nvidia in AI inference
  • While the start-up’s first product was made by TSMC, the coming Atom NPU will be mass-produced by Samsung Electronics

An Apple Music Classical ambassador, Son Yeol-sum has teamed with Bulgarian-born violinist Svetlin Roussev on an album, Love Music. Son talks about bridging the gap between classical music and today’s audiences.

The rise of K-pop fan platforms like Dear U Bubble and Weverse encourage direct communication with artists, which helps fans feel closer to them – but it has had an impact on fan activities, and it has not all been good.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The Birth of Korea portrays South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, as good, contrary to popular belief. The biopic is a box-office hit, but has reignited culture wars between right- and left- wing groups.

Netflix crime thriller K-drama A Killer Paradox follows a student who kills criminals. But rather than a vigilante story, director Lee Chang-hee and star Choi Woo-shik say it explores moral ambiguity.

Kingdom actress Kim Hye-jun, known for her work in dark thrillers, turned down Disney+ show A Shop for Killers at first, as she feared being typecast. Co-star Lee Dong-wook’s casting made her rethink.

videocam

Keeping advanced production at home allows companies to take advantage of better cost-efficiency and a more stable labour supply, analysts say.

videocam

Korean boy band Enhypen thrill 32,000 fans – known as Engenes – over three nights at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, belting out their hits in three-hour performances as part of their ongoing Fate world tour.

Kimchi is Korea’s favourite side dish, and is finding new fans overseas. Now AI quality control is being tested to speed up production and ensure that kimchi for export is of consistent quality.

K-pop stars like EXO’s Baekhyun and Blackpink’s Jennie are blazing new trails with independent labels while at the same time balancing their group commitments with previous agencies. A music critic explains why.

Oh Hyun-ji uses the plucked zither – a traditional Korean instrument – to cover K-pop songs like BTS’ Idol and IVE’s I Am, as well as other pop tunes and soundtracks, in popular videos on TikTok and YouTube.

videocam

Lean into Year of the Dragon festivities this year in South Korea by visiting a few of its 1,261 places with dragon in their names. We take a look at four of them.

Major K-pop labels are creating non-Korean groups to appeal to audiences from different countries and increase K-pop’s 2 per cent share of global music and streaming sales.

Noh Sang-hyun’s supporting role in Pachinko opened up his acting career. He talks about taking on his first lead role in Soundcheck #2 and how the director gave him creative freedom.

Korean war refugees who fled to Busan invented a cold wheat noodle dish based on one eaten in North Korea. Today it represents a piece of the home to which they cannot return.

Dutch artist behind giant inflatable animals says they change viewers’ perspectives of the places they occupy, such as Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour or a lake in Seoul, South Korea.

Seoul Metro is testing a real-time face-to-face AI translation service to improve communication between foreign tourists and station staff, using a transparent screen; 13 languages are supported.

Korean-Colombian artist Gala Porras-Kim proposes different compromises that museums can make regarding keeping human remains that better align with the relics’ intangible, spiritual function.

‘Band and audience members wanted different songs,’ says guitarist, explaining why he went from a Beatles tribute band to forming a cover band who sing Queen, Coldplay, Elvis – and Beatles – songs.

Girl group Aespa’s members have digital avatars. Girl group Eternity is entirely virtual. Coming soon: virtual K-pop artists singing songs written by AI. That has human K-pop composers worried.

videocam

Artist and art teacher Park Seo-bo’s ‘Ecriture’ abstract paintings of repeated lines were acquired by leading museums such as New York’s MoMA, and appeared on Louis Vuitton bags.

Riize, K-pop label SM Entertainment’s newest boy group, have swiftly gained global attention – they only launched this month but racked up a million album pre-orders and more than a million Instagram followers.

videocam

Tonkatsu features as a symbol of love in the Disney+ K-drama Moving, but how did this Japanese deep-fried pork cutlet dish become so well-loved in Seoul, South Korea?

From the first solo album by V of BTS to the debut of Riize and a new album by rookie group Boynextdoor, the K-pop music releases to look out for in September.

videocam

Korean actress relishes the break dark crime thriller Mask Girl gives her from the characters she usually plays, and the fact her role as Kim Mo-mi doesn’t exploit her appearance but puts the focus on acting.