During the late Joseon era, Koreans were well-known for their fondness for children—not only their own, but foreign children as...
Life at the Western gold mines in northern Korea was dangerous both inside and out in the 19th and early...
Words by Robert Neff Photos from the collection of Robert Neff One of the earliest modernizations to Seoul was the introduction of streetcars in 1899 by an American company. It was heralded by many people as a symbol of modernization and prosperity. But not all viewed the streetcars with anticipation...
From unwieldy pipes to black-market cigarettes, tobacco has been an important part of Korean society for over four hundred years....
Words by Vaughan Wallis, Illustrations by Pat Volz You may have heard of the Korean Wave, the spread of Korean...
We all know that students have it rough in Korea. They go to school early in the morning and then after school spend several additional hours in private learning institutes studying math and English. These institutes are everywhere now, but they haven’t always been. In 1882—just prior to Korea opening...
You might be surprised to find out that today happens to be a day especially set apart for declarations of...
Korea is a land full of traditions where religions and beliefs have changed over time. The country has seen Shamanism,...
In 1885, Percival Lowell published a book entitled “Choson: The Land of the Morning Calm.” It was a huge success and helped coin the phrase that is still often used to describe Korea. But when the first Westerners arrived in Seoul in the early 1880s, it was anything but calm....
To this day the first day of Korean Lunar New Year (Seol) has always been the most important family holiday,...