Prayers and fortune telling at a Taoist temple
“Before we eat dinner at the night market, we’re going to pray,” Olivia’s mom said as we stopped in front of a Taoist temple in Taichung. My Taiwanese friend Olivia turned to me, “We’re only doing this because you’re here. We rarely go to the temple.” I smiled, thinking about all the times my parents...
Gay in Korea: an interview with an American expat living in Seoul
My Korean co-teacher once told me that she had never met a gay person. “You probably have without realizing it,” I responded. She didn’t seem convinced. The gay scene is still quite hidden in Korea, even though this year marked the 13th Queer Culture Festival in Seoul. I recall meeting one gay guy when I...
Solo Daecheop: a flash-mob style blind date for the singles in Seoul
In South Korea, Christmas is a romantic holiday, rather than a family or religious celebration. Couples spend the day flaunting their status in matching sweaters and reindeer horn headbands, making dinner reservations for two, and raising the armrest between their seats at the movie theater. In order for singles not to feel quite so lonely...
Are you Russian? an interview about causasian female stereotypes and harassment in Korea
IN KOREA, THE WORDS “RUSSIAN” AND “PROSTITUTE” GO HAND IN HAND, a stereotype that has evolved from a recent period of time where droves of Russian women apparently came to Korea on “entertainment” visas. Additionally, white women are often stereotyped as “easy” and “slutty.” Despite the fact that the majority of white women in Korea...
Notes from the covert world of Korean shamanism
CELINE CROSSED HER LEGS and took a long drag of her cigarette. “The shaman told me my grandmother’s hometown. She pointed to it on a map,” she recounted in her thick French accent. “Later, the adoption agency gave me the exact same information.” A couple other exchange students and I sat on perpendicular wooden benches...
Postcards: the Chinese calligrapher
August 24, 2011 On a bright summer morning in Beijing, the calligrapher skillfully ran his brush along the smooth, gray stone of the Summer Palace’s pavilion, making curvaceous strokes with lines as beautiful as the ancient, upturned rooftops in the distance. Each character was written quickly and boldly with water for ink, appearing for an...
The Ddongchim: Korea’s obsession with anuses
As I walked inside IBK Bank one day, I didn’t know whether to run away or burst out laughing as one of the employees, an ajeosshi (middle aged man) with a beer belly, casually grabbed a pen from his pen holder. It wasn’t a solid-colored cube void of personality, like you’d expect to see at a bank,...
Perceived as a Prostitute on the streets of Seoul
Last winter, after work one day, I changed into a black hooded sweatshirt, skinny jeans and Converse—nothing that, I thought, would attract much attention. Setting out for the grocery store, I grabbed my purse and a reusable shopping bag. I reached a crossroad near the elementary school where I work, and a middle-aged man in...
Asia / Culture / Destination Articles / Health + Lifestyle / Korea / Photography / Religion / Reviews
Rising before dawn in the mountains: a Buddhist templestay at Geumsansa
Geumsansa, one of the largest Buddhist temple complexes in Korea, lies in the quiet, western foothills of Moak Mountain, located in North Jeolla province. “Moaksan, the so-called ‘Mother Mountain’, is the cradle of many different indigenous religions. The mountain’s shape looks like a mother cradling her baby, just as Moaksan embraces Geumsansa,” says the Templestay program. The...
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