The onset of night turned the busy streets of Seoul into dusky lanes frequented by veiled women, daring foreigners, sinister...
There’s a strange phenomenon in South Korea which is exclusive to this country alone: Bacchus ladies. “Bacchus Ladies” (박카스 할머니)...
Photos courtesy of the Robert Neff collection The anti-Western sentiment pervasive in Pyongyang today has a long history, as historian Robert Neff recounts. Much as it is now, Pyongyang in the late 1880s and early 1890s was pretty much anti-Western. The legacy of the General Sherman in 1866 gives testimony...
Korean Government Legalizes Adultery On Thursday, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 62-year old law that made committing adultery...
Free Legal Counseling for Foreigners in Korea Legal issues can be overwhelming, yet frequent, for expats living in Korea. On...
Words by Robert Neff Photos from the collection of Robert Neff In the 1890s there was a gold rush in Joseon Korea. True, there had always been gold mining operations scattered throughout the country, but these were mainly small Korean concerns with limited mining ability. It was only after Leigh...
Wedding bouquets, cakes, and dresses are just a few items that factor into the aesthetics of any wedding. In South...
2,500 years after his death, Master Kong’s ideas continue to shape life on the Korean peninsula.
Ice covering the Han River provided winter recreation and summer refrigeration for Joseon Korea. Words by Robert Neff Prior to the twentieth century, the Han River generally froze over during the winter. This had the practical effect of isolating Seoul from the rest of Korea. The junks that supplied the...
In the summer of 1905, the world was a scary place for Korea. The Russo-Japanese War had recently ended but...