1604 koreamagazine en

CONTENTS

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34

Korea in Brief

Korea & I

Korea Monthly Update

Artist Mike Stewart

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36

Special Report

Policy Review

My Little Doll’s House, Joung Yumi, CULTURE PLATFORM, 2015

Cultural Enrichment Bears Fruit

Deregulation to Benefit New Service Industries

The Bath Fairy, Baek Hee-na, Bear Books, 2012

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Cover Story

Brand Korea

The Magic of Picture Books

Made in Korea

Books in the cover photo (Counter-clockwise, from the bottom left)

Mahn-hee’s House, Kwon Yoon-duck, Gilbut Children Publishing, 2008 Hello, You, Jeong Mi-jin and Kim Sora, atnoon books, 2014

Mirror, Lee Suzy, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2003 Grandpa Mangtae is Coming, Park Yeon-cheol, SigongJunior, 2007

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Korean picture books win a global fan base with their artistry and emotional sensitivity

Diplomacy

Building Trust, Maximizing Interests

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Travel

Creative Economy

Seoul K-pop Pilgrimage

Opening Digital Doors to the Blind

26 People 1

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Astrophotographer Kwon O-chul

Global Korea

Korean Telemedicine

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48

People 2

Flavor

Eastern Medicine Doctor Raimund Royer

Jjukkumi Salad

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Korean Keyword

Arts & Entertainment

Sonmat

Web Dramas Entertain Commuters

April 2016

KOREA

Publisher Park Young-goog, Korean Culture and Information Service Executive Producer Han Seong-rae Editorial Advisers Cho Won-hyung, Lee Suwan, Park Inn-seok Email webmaster@korea.net Magazine Production Seoul Selection Editor-in-Chief Robert Koehler Production Supervisor Lee Jin-hyuk Producers Kim Eugene, Im Ian Copy Editors Gregory C. Eaves, Eileen Cahill, Hwang Chi-young Creative Director Lee Seung Ho Designers Lee Bok-hyun, Jung Hyun-young Photographers aostudio Kang jinju, RAUM Studio Printing Pyung Hwa Dang Printing Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission from KOREA and the Korean Culture and Information Service. If you want to receive a free copy of KOREA or wish to cancel a subscription, please email us. A downloadable PDF of KOREA and a map and glossary with common Korean words appearing in our magazine are available by clicking on the thumbnail of KOREA at the website www.korea.net. Publication Registration No: 11-1110073-000016-06

Korea in Brief

Korea Monthly Update © WAPOP Co., Ltd.

K-pop Academies Held in Overseas Cultural Centers The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced its plans to hold K-pop academies in 20 overseas Korean Cultural Centers around the world. At these academies, local K-pop fans can experience K-pop with instructors from Korea.

In this way, the ministry intends to shift Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, from a primarily visual experience to an experiential one. The first such academy was held at the Korean Cultural Center in Shanghai from March 15 to April 23. Do Hee-seon, the vocal trainer of Girls Generation’s Taeyeon, served as instructor. Shin Yeon Ah, formerly of the popular girl group Big Mama, will be the instructor at the Los Angeles academy, which will offer courses from late June to late July. The academies also serve as an opportunity for Korean Cultural Centers to host other Korean cultural programs as well.

© KOCIS

© Image Today

Korea Holds General Election

Korean Cultural Center Opens in UAE

Voters will go to the polls on April 13 to take part in Korea’s 20th general election. Voters will select 300 lawmakers to sit in the National Assembly, the country’s legislative body.

Of those, 253 will be directly elected in a first-past-the-post system, while 47 will be selected according to a proportional representation system. Prior to the election, the National Assembly, with bipartisan agreement, reorganized its electoral districts to bring them into line with recent demographic shifts. The province of Gyeonggi-do, the populous region that surrounds the capital, gained eight new electoral districts. Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon and the province of Chungcheongnam-do each gained one.

Korea’s first cultural center in the Middle East opened March 10 in the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi.

Korea’s cooperation with the UAE, which began with the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1980, has been especially brisk since 2009 when Seoul won a bid to build nuclear power stations in the gulf nation. The two-story cultural center includes spaces for hands-on Korean traditional cultural programs, exhibits on Korea’s cultural industries, a halal food zone, a seminar room, classrooms, a library and offices. Most notably, the center has holographic equipment and high-tech virtual reality facilities for a unique interactive experience.

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© Robert Koehler

Korea Ranked Safest Travel Destination in 2016 Crowdsourced global database Numbeo ranked Korea the safest nation for travel in 2016. Korea had the highest overall safety index on the list of 177 nations, with a score of 85.69, an improvement from its 2015 score of 82.01 when the country placed fourth. Incheon was the safest city in the world with a score of 90.89, followed by Kyoto, Japan, and Seoul came in third. To calculate the indexes, the database’s aggregator considers factors such as crime levels, gun control laws, and daytime and nighttime safety. Numbeo’s rankings are computed using data contributed by thousands of participants, who fill out surveys featuring questions similar to those asked on official government surveys. Korea’s strict gun control laws and its efficient law enforcement system are credited for the country’s high safety ranking.

© Image Today

© Yonhap News

First Indigenous Maglev Train Begins Service

E-government Exports Surpass USD 500 Million

The Ecobee, Korea’s first domestically developed magnetic levitation or maglev train, began service on Feb. 3. The bright yellow train, whose name is an amalgamation of “eco-friendly” and “bee,” connects six stations near Incheon International Airport. Using a magnetic propulsion system, the train can reach a top speed of 110 kilometers per hour with average operating speeds of 30 kilometers per hour.

Due to its advanced propulsion system, it offers a remarkably smooth and quiet ride at relatively low operating costs. The train is one of only two successfully commercialized maglev trains in the world.

Korea exported more than USD 500 million worth of systems to run online government services in 2015, an increase of 12 percent from the year before. According to the Ministry of the Interior, some 500 tech firms exported USD 534.4 million worth of digital inspection systems, remote control systems for electronic meters, transport systems and other governance-related products. The largest market was in Asia, which accounted for 38 percent of the exports. E-government exports to Asia and the nations of Central Asia and Eastern Europe increased by 8.8 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, in large part due to expanded cooperation with Indonesia and Uzbekistan.

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Special Report

Š MMCA

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Cultural Enrichment Bears Fruit Government policies encourage all to take part in arts and culture _ Written by Robert Koehler

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© Yonhap News

It’s Wednesday at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, a landmark exhibit complex right next to the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace. While a popular destination even on normal days, the museum is much more alive today thanks to Culture Day, a national initiative to give the general public greater access to the arts by extending operating hours and waiving admission fees on the last Wednesday of the month. Hundreds of visitors, many just coming from work, are strolling about the exhibition halls. In Gallery 5, dozens explore the installations of multimedia artist Ahn Kyuchul.

Ordinarily, it costs KRW 4,000 to see the exhibit.

Today, however, it is free.

For the last three years, the Korean government has energetically promoted a policy of “cultural enrichment,” a multilayered initiative to support artists, increase public participation in the arts, and bring about a convergence between culture and industry.

“The very core of the creative industries lies in our culture,” said President Park Geun-hye in January at a governmental meeting on the creative industries and cultural enrichment. The results have been impressive, with Korea witnessing significant increases in both domestic cultural activity and exports of cultural products. And with the launch of construction of the Culture Creation Convergence Belt in February, Korea’s culture-related industries are only expected to grow stronger.

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1 The Ahn Kyuchul exhibit is at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. 2 The play “In the Corridor / Become a Beautiful Youth” at the Doosan Art Center offers tickets at half price on Culture Day in September 2015.

3 A Culture Day recital takes place at Deoksugung Palace.

© DOOSAN ART CENTER

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Getting cultural

President Park launched her cultural enrichment initiative soon after taking office three years ago, making it one of her four administrative priorities.

At the first meeting of a presidential committee tasked with making her initiative a reality, she said, “Cultural enrichment can be the foundation for a creative economy. Culture is the alchemy of the 21st century which can create new added value for new industries.” She added, “We need to develop the cultural industry so that it can become a new locomotive in the Korean economy.”

Cultural enrichment pursues three aims: increased participation in cultural activities, promotion of culture and the arts, and convergence of culture and industry. To realize these aims, a wide range of policies, programs and projects have been launched, including systematic support to improve the quality of life for artists, the registration of nine new properties with UNESCO between 2013 and 2015, the transforming of abandoned industrial facilities into galleries and workspaces, and the relaxation of regulations to promote investment in low- and mid-range hotels, of which Korea has suffered chronic shortages.

The best-known cultural enrichment program, however, has been Culture Day. On the last Wednesday of the month, museums, concert halls, movie theaters, historical sites and other cultural venues offer free or discounted admission under the program, which began in January 2014.

“Culture Day is a day when people can enjoy

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watching performances, films and sports at a discount, or even for free,” said President Park on the very first Culture Day. “I hope it will become an opportunity for everyone to appreciate and love culture.”

In 2015, there were 2,081 Culture Day programs across the country, up from 883 the year before.

Even better, public recognition of the now iconic program increased from 19 percent to 45.2 percent.

The government hopes to expand the number of programs to 2,300 by the end of the year.

Strengthening content, promoting convergence

Under the cultural enrichment initiative, Korea’s culture-related industries have thrived. In 2015, sales of cultural content – an umbrella term referring to all forms of multimedia art and culture – recorded over USD 84 billion, a 4.9 percent increase from the previous year. Content exports, meanwhile, topped USD 5.7 billion, an impressive 8 percent jump from the previous year.

Korea’s video game industry in particular has blossomed. After recording contracting sales in 2013, sales of computer game-related products have soared, growing 6.1 percent in 2015. They’ve

1 President Park attends an event to mark the opening of the Culture Creation Convergence Belt.

2 The Creative Center for the Convergence of Culture is in Sangam-dong.

also taken a leading role in Korea’s content exports, accounting for nearly USD 3.2 billion of the USD 5.7 billion in content exports last year.

To keep the content production growing, the government launched the construction of the Culture Creation Convergence Belt on Feb. 11 last year. Aiming to organically link the planning, demand and cultivation of personnel and technologies needed to develop culture-related industries, the belt calls for the establishment of five specialized campuses in Seoul, Gyeonggido and Jeju. Two of the campuses, the Creative Center for Convergence Culture, which supports content planning and development, and the Culture Creation Venture Complex, which assists startups in producing and commercializing content, have already opened, while the others will be completed by 2018.

The belt is already paying dividends. Some 30,000 people have visited the Creative Center for Convergence Culture since it opened in February of last year. Through mentoring programs with some of the top experts in the cultural content industry, 35 pieces of convergent content have been planned.

Content Korea Lab, a design lab associated with the Creative Center for Convergence Culture, has helped some 28 startups, including Zikto, which won a

© Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

© Cheong Wa Dae

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Silver Award at the 2015 Design for Asia Award for the Zikto Walk, a wearable activity monitor.

Globalizing Korean culture

The government has taken a proactive approach to promoting Korean culture overseas.

President Park herself has taken a leading role in these efforts, promoting Korean culture and seeking cultural collaborations during her many overseas trips. In September 2013, for instance, a Hanbokclad President Park attended a fashion show in Hanoi that showcased Hanbok alongside Vietnam’s national costume, the ao dai. She has hosted a number of joint exhibits during presidential visits abroad, including ones in Indonesia and India. In September 2015, she visited the Korean Cultural Center in New York, becoming the first Korean president to visit a Korean cultural center overseas.

Agreements with nations around the world have given Korea’s culture-related industries greater opportunities abroad and boosted international cooperation. In 2015, for instance, Korea signed cooperative deals in the culture sector with France and the Czech Republic. Non-diplomatic efforts are paying off, too. At the Expo Milano 2015, the Korea Pavilion proved to be one of the event’s most

3 The Korea Pavilion at the Expo Milano 2015 proved highly popular, in large part thanks to its restaurants.

4 A taekwondo demonstration takes place the day before Korea Day at Expo Milano 2015.

5 A Hanbok–ao dai fashion show takes place in Hanoi.

popular, drawing 2.3 million visitors, 1.2 million of them in the first 100 days alone. With an average of over 1,000 visitors eating at the pavilion’s Korean restaurants every day, the pavilion is expected to bring over USD 433 million in economic benefits to Korea. It is already sparking increased local interest in Korean food, with the Italian press issuing over 800 stories on the pavilion or its restaurants.

Cultural enrichment is having a beneficial effect on tourism, as well. The cultural enrichment initiative has sought to promote tourism as a high-value-added industry with the potential for convergence with other industries. Accordingly, the government has been working to promote the so-called “convergence tourism industry,” primarily through events such as conventions and expos and Korean pop culture. For instance, the government is erecting a high-tech “K-Experience” cultural complex in downtown Seoul that would allow tourists to experience all aspects of traditional and contemporary Korea. Through the Culture Creation Convergence Belt, the government is also promoting cooperation between the cultural industries and media startups in order to not only create content but also to develop next-generation entertainment technologies.

© Yonhap News

© Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

3 © Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

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Cover Story

The Magic of Picture Books Korean picture books win a global fan base with their artistry and emotional sensitivity _ Written by Kim Sujung, chairperson of the Korean Board on Books for Young People Photographed by RAUM Studio

© Joung Yumi

__ With their emotional depth, psychological sophistication and refreshing Eastern aesthetic, Korean picture books are not only gathering prestigious international awards, but are also winning an increasingly global readership of children and adults.

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On Nov. 28, 2015, Mexico’s second-largest city hosted the most important book fair in Ibero-America, the Guadalajara International Book Fair. Among the many booths was one labeled “49 Korean Picture Books with International Acclaim.” It featured works that have won numerous accolades including the BolognaRagazzi Award, the Grand Prix at the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava, the Espace-Enfants International Book Award and the New York Times Best Illustrated Book prize.

The booth was a tremendous success.

After viewing the books on display, visitors joyfully clutched their exhibition catalogs.

Young students listened rapt as interpreters read passages aloud. On the first day of the festival, a reporter from La Jornada, one of Mexico City’s leading dailies, visited the booth to cover the event. On the last day, the same reporter came back and read every single book on display.

Guadalajara is not the only place where such things have occurred. Whether it’s Bologna, Beijing, London or Paris, Korean picture books evoke similar reactions wherever they’re exhibited. Such success is the result of Korea’s participation in book fairs around the world, an effort led by the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea and conducted since 2014 by the Korean Board on Books for Young People.

This is not simply a subjective impression. Korean picture books are acclaimed the world over, having consistently received awards since 2000.

At the BolognaRagazzi Awards at the 2015 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Korean picture books received special mentions in all five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Opera Prima, New Horizon, and Books and Seeds. Korean picture books have also received awards every year at the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava in Slovakia. It

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is common to find Korean picture books among the nominees at award ceremonies, both big and small, in countries such as the United States, Switzerland, France and Germany.

Besides riveting emotion, Korean picture books also employ depth and delicate psychology, making them popular among adults as well as children. Some have said the Eastern influence of their illustrations refreshes the aesthetic sensibilities of Western readers. For all these reasons, Korean picture books continue to enjoy an international limelight.

The history of Korean picture books

Korean picture books are said to have originated around 30 years ago. Of course, the genre’s seeds appeared much earlier.

In the 1950s, newspapers and magazines started publishing the work of illustrators such as Hong Sung-chan, who remained active into the first decade of the 21st century, eventually becoming the first Korean to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award. His work was based mostly on Korean folktales, and he is hailed for his accurate depiction of Korea’s customs and spirit. Hong employed uniquely Korean colors and lines, conducted extensive historical research, and showed meticulous attention to detail.

However, Korea’s first picture book in the contemporary sense of the word, one created with a clearly delineated genre in mind, and with text and illustrations subjected to today’s extensive editing and design processes, came out in 1988. That book was “The Story of Baekdu Mountain”

by Ryu Jae-soo.

If Hong Sung-chan and his few peers comprise the first generation of Korean picture book authors, Ryu Jae-soo and his contemporaries, now in their 50s and 60s, comprised the second. This generation used picture books as a channel to partake in social movements, to advocate for

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educational and social reform. Through their illustrations, they sought to rediscover Korea’s history and traditions and convey their discoveries to Korean children. Artists such as Lee Uk-bae, Jeong Seung-gak, Kwon Yoon-duck, Lee Youngkyung, Han Byung-ho, Kim Hwan-young, Kim Se-hyun, Lee Ho-baek and Kim Jae-hong had prolific careers that formed the backbone of the Korean picture book industry. Works such as Kwon Yoon-duck’s “Mahn-hee’s House,” Lee Young-kyung’s “Mistress Rooms and Seven Companions,” and Lee Uk-bae’s “Sori’s Harvest Moon Day” and “The Strongest Rooster in the World” employed realistic, metaphoric or fantastical imagery to depict modern Koreans’ lives infused with ancient traditions and culture. These early favorites remain steady sellers to this day.

Han Byung-ho’s work also continues to weave between the traditional and the modern. He is known for specializing in the indigenous Korean “demon,” the dokkaebi, digging beneath its incredible powers to expose a farcical creature that’s still inferior to humans in many ways. Han experimented with imagery in depicting the creature’s fearsome, yet likable and comical, nature. Han was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014 in the illustration category.

__ Lee Suzy’s psychological lens captures children’s rich inner worlds: their playful instincts, their desire for self-exploration, their thirst for adventure, their imagination and anxiety.

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An art matures

19902000 Birth of a genre

19801990

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Early stages

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1 My Bright Atelier © 2008 by Lee Suzy, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2 Shadow © 2010 by Lee Suzy, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 3 Mirror © 2003 by Lee Suzy, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 4 Run Toto! © 2011 Cho Eun-young, Borim Press

Picture book pioneers Hong Sung-chan and Lee Wukyung started publishing their illustrations in newspapers, magazines and textbooks during the mid-1950s, long before the concept of picture books even existed in Korea.

Known for his realistic use of Korean colors, Hong started submitting illustrations to the monthly magazine Hope in 1955, and remains active today.

Credited for his role in elevating illustration to a separate art form, rather than a mere complement to the text, Lee created stylized comical characters.

The official starting point for Korean picture books was “The Story of Baekdu Mountain” by Ryu Jae-soo.

The result of hundreds of sketches and more than three years of work, the book was published using six-color printing. Using earth tones, Ryu drew from folk paintings, traditional mask dances and Goguryeo murals to tell the stories of the Korean people.

“The Story of Baekdu Mountain” went on to win Japan’s Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations.

Authors from this era used their work to champion pedagogical and social reform.

The Goblin and the Porridge Seller, Lee Kyung-ae and Han Byungho, Kookminseokwan, 1992 The Story of Baekdu Mountain, Ryu Jae-su, Borim Press, 1988

Lee Uk-bae, Jeong Seunggak, Kwon Yoon-duck and Lee Young-kyung, the second generation of picture book artists, expanded their genre alongside a booming publishing industry.

Publishers such as Borim, Gilbut Children Publishing, Changbi, Sakyejul and Woongjin Junior actively released various titles.

This era also saw a mass influx of overseas picture books, a phenomenon that influenced both readers and artists.

Puppy Poo, Kwon Jeongsaeng and Jeong Seunggak, Gilbut Children Publishing, 1996 The Seven Friends in a Lady’s Chamber, Lee Young-kyung, BIR Publishing, 1998 Sori’s Chuseok, Lee Eok-bae, Gilbut Children Publishing, 1995

Peak period

2000-

In 2004, Korean picture books made their way into the BolognaRagazzi Awards for the first time.

Shin Dong-jun’s “Subway Train is Coming” and “Red Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger,” written by Cho Ho-sang and illustrated by Yoon Mi-sook, both received accolades and entered the world spotlight. In 2011, Cho Eun-young’s “Run Toto” won the Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava Grand Prix, while Korean picture books received mentions in all categories of the 2015 BolognaRagazzi Awards. This latter event catapulted Korean artists onto the international scene, allowing publishers to greatly increase overseas sales of publishing rights.

The Blue Bird, Cho Sunkyung, Yellowstone, 2009 Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger, Cho Ho-sang and Yun Mi-suk, Woongjin ThinkBig, 2003

My Grandpa’s Clock, Hong Seong-chan, Neurimbo, 2010

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Teru Teru, Park Yeon-cheol, SigongJunior, 2013

The Polar Bear, Lee Mi-jung, I-Seum, 2012

Mahn-hee’s House, Kwon Yoon-duck, Gilbut Children Publishing, 1995

Subway Train Is Coming, Shin Dong-Jun, Chobang, 2006

The Bath Fairy, Baek Hee-na, Bear Books, 2012

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It would not be unreasonable to identify the period from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s as a renaissance period for Korean picture books. As the second generation of illustrators continued to break new ground, the genre thrived alongside a growing publishing market.

Starting in the early 1990s, publishers had actively imported picture books from overseas, elevating authors such as John Burningham and Anthony Browne to stardom. The massive influx of foreign picture books during this period impacted young readers as well as the next generation of artists. Enjoying an abundance of material and inspiration, a wave of highly original and experimental artists appeared in the mid-2000s, a group aptly called the third generation.

Artists and books worth spotlighting

Shin Dong-jun’s “Subway Train is Coming” ushered in a new era. After winning the BolognaRagazzi Award in 2004, Shin’s book became a catalyst for Korea’s picture book market. Shin completely liberated himself from the first and second generations’ values of tradition, solidarity and national character. Shin simply follows a subway on its underground journeys through a big city, depicting the everyday surroundings of its railways and stations.

Employing a unique technique, Shin cuts out pieces of subway tickets from around the world, assembling them into a refreshing and lighthearted collage that forms the shape of a person. Many readers found it astounding that an artist could incorporate such materials and techniques to produce world-renowned work. Shin’s success inspired young artists to vigorously push the genre’s limits. In 2011, “Run Toto!” by the young female artist Cho Eun-young received the Grand Prix at the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava. It was her first book. Set at a racetrack, Cho explored material that would have been scorned in the world of traditional picture

My Little Doll’s House, Joung Yumi, CULTURE PLATFORM, 2015

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© Topclass

__ Baek Hee-na (top) and Park Yeon-cheol (bottom), two of the most popular picture book artists in Korea today, use a variety of techniques to communicate with young audiences. © The Chosun Ilbo

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books. Using dynamic brush strokes, bold colors and crisp editing, Cho’s acclaimed work vividly conveys a sense of freedom, like a child’s drawings.

Baek Hee-na, presently one of Korea’s most popular picture book artists, also communicates a fresh and liberated world.

For every work, she develops a new set of techniques: a rag doll for “Cloud Bread,” figures of oil-based clay in “The Bath Fairy,” complicated cinematographic techniques for “Last Night.” Park Yeoncheol experiments with traditional elements like the eocheoguni, a type of fairy who guards the roof of the royal palace; the bogeyman, a device used to scare disobedient children; and dolls used in traditional puppet shows. All these he reinvents into modern caricatures.

Park’s latest picture book, “Teru Teru,” is another work that appeals both to adults and children. In Park Sun-mi’s “The Thorn Mountain,” Kim Soo-young’s “The Hair” and Cho Sun-kyung’s “The Blue Bird,” the artists have taken a bold stand against convention by removing their names from their covers and focusing on a single vivid image.

Lee Suzy, however, is Korea’s most globally recognized picture book artist.

Her psychological lens captures children’s rich inner worlds: their playful instincts, their desire for self-exploration, their thirst for adventure, their imagination and anxiety. “Wave,” “Shadow” and “Mirror,” a trio of works that she has called the “three borders,” display her wellstructured artistic world, not only through their content and technique but in their groundbreaking format as well.

Picture books can also be a vehicle for social change. In “The Stories Shouldn’t Be True,” Kang Gyeong-su connects Korean children with children in distress all around the world. In the “Picture Books for Peace” series, young Korean artists join their Chinese and Japanese counterparts in imparting the tragedy and suffering of war. In “Flower Granny,” Kwon Yoon-duck pays tribute to the girls and young women

© Typography Seoul

forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Kim Han-young’s “The Corn” and Lee Uk-bae’s “When the Spring Comes in the DMZ” convey the pain and sorrow of the Korean War, both past and present.

Through picture books, children can not only find solace and enjoyment. They can also discover their place in history and the world.

Not just for children

To mark 130 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, Korea was the guest of honor at the Paris Book Fair this past March. A special exhibit sponsored by the Korean Publishers Association and organized by the Korean Board on Books for Young People showcased some 130 illustrated books. The stories centered on happiness, anger, sadness, fear, love, hatred and desire.

“Korea has a long philosophical tradition of exploring what the heart is and how to control it,” stated the explanatory text in the exhibition booth. “Based on this philosophical tradition, the illustrated books were organized based on how they look into children’s hearts and the various forms of expression they employ.”

The works on display drew on seven primal emotions experienced by adults as well as children; French readers and Korean readers alike could relate. At this celebration of books, in which the human experience unfolds in myriad ways, spectators enjoyed themselves searching for books that spoke to them.

Indeed, more and more adults are turning to picture books as a source of comfort and spiritual healing in a competitive and sometimes traumatic world. Western newspapers, magazines and online media are full of articles recommending children’s books for adult readers.

“Books written for kids can be simple to the point of cliché, but that’s what makes them oddly poignant for adults,” author

__ Independent bookstores such as Thanks Books (top) and Pinocchio (bottom) are growing popular as more and more adults seek spiritual healing through picture books.

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__ With Korean picture books capturing honors at major international fairs such as the Guadalajara International Book Fair and Bologna Children’s Book Fair, picture book artists want recognition as an independent genre.

© KBBY

Korean picture books are now at their peak. It is a dangerous peak, however, for birth rates are declining. With schools’ diminishing emphasis on reading comprehension and writing, consumer demand for books continues to wither. As English-language exams take on greater importance, parents are turning toward original, English-language works from overseas authors.

Consequently, a generation of talented young artists has been thrown into a publishing industry much more desolate than what their predecessors experienced.

Their creativity and unique worldviews continue to shine through despite the unfavorable conditions, but it’s hard to believe the miracle will last.

In response to such conditions, various

© KPIPA

Forging an independent genre

© KBBY

Thu-Huong Ha writes in one such article in Quartz, Atlantic Media’s global business news site. “The best children’s books work on two levels: comforting or suspenseful for children, but insightful or funny for the grownup reading to them – or alone.”

In Korea, where online booksellers and mega-bookstores have turned the small, brick-and-mortar bookstore into an endangered species, neighborhood bookstores specializing in children’s books, often by independent publishers, are surprisingly popular. They are especially popular with adult readers, who flock to such shops to find comfort in their cozy, quiet spaces, and, through a picture book, soothe the emotional scars and battered egos acquired in the course of daily life.

Talking to the Maekyung Media Group’s Citylife magazine, Lee Hui-song, the owner of Pinocchio, one such bookshop in Seoul’s hipster-esque Yeonnam-dong district, explains that the trend away from thinking of illustrated books as simply for children is a good thing.

“There are no books as good as picture books,” he says. “Because they are made for children, they contain no bad content.”

efforts are under way. Publishers are attempting to reach out to the international market. Artists are struggling with feeble copyright laws. As picture books don’t fall strictly under the usual categories – poetry, fiction, essays, criticism and children’s literature – they are often excluded from support programs. There are even civic organizations working for legal reforms to offset such market failures.

What the artists want most is for picture books to be recognized as a distinct genre. Picture books are neither textual art nor illustrative art, nor are they exclusive to children’s education. They comprise a new genre that encompasses the literary, illustrative and educational. Picture book artists believe that when the logic of words and the emotion of pictures converge, they inspire greater emotional and intellectual depth. Picture books can appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, from very young children to veterans in their sunset years.

The subjects they cover can encompass all aspects of life. Picture books can stimulate our surface consciousness while at the same time reaching the subconscious.

Picture book artists are not the only people who believe this. Throughout Korea, there are reading clubs and civic gatherings devoted to picture books.

Having gained solace and enjoyment through this art form, readers are discussing how picture books have transformed their views on life and art.

It’s difficult to tear yourself away after experiencing such a transformation. As these loyal readers know, picture books can be addictive in a good way.

Interview

‘Mild, Warm and Affectionate’ Artist Han Sung-ok looks at the emotional depth found in Korean picture books

© Sakyejul Publishing

There are a number of reasons why Korean picture books are gaining worldwide recognition, says awardwinning illustrator Han Sung-ok, one of Korea’s most internationally renowned picture book artists.

The first is content. Westerners tend to refrain from expressing emotion or soliciting emotion from others, she explains, and as a result, the emotional immersion their picture books offer is limited. Korean picture books, on the other hand, penetrate deeply into our emotions. “Korean illustrators express their sentiments with great precision and passion,” she says. “Such emotional conveyance is what connects the readers to the artists.”

The second factor is technique, the ability to create drawings that can elicit an emotional response. Han explains that while Korean illustrations have evolved dramatically within a short time, what fascinates Western readers is their undeniably Eastern influence.

“Eastern painters have always perceived objects differently from Western painters,” she says. “There are distinct differences in spatial and temporal structure. Such differences in drawing allow Western readers to

view life and humanity in completely new ways.”

She notes that Korean drawings are distinct from their counterparts in China and Japan. While Chinese drawings tend to be bigger and attempt to capture collective elements, Korean drawings focus on an individual’s inner self. As a result, they convey a subtler sense of beauty. Japanese drawings, meanwhile, are simple and clean, but tend to evoke very sharp reactions.

“Korean drawings do not contain any extreme or negative sentiments,”

she says. “They are mild, warm and affectionate. You could say they evoke thoughtfulness and harmony.”

The structure of Korea’s publishing industry has played a role in the success of picture books as well. The Korean book market is very small, and consequently, professional writers pay very close attention to what the readers want. They concentrate on communicating with their readers.

“Koreans are very concerned with their reputation within a given community,” she says. “Artists are no exception, meaning they place importance on receiving praise, recognition and awards. Such factors can motivate an artist to explore, experiment and take risks.”

She warns that it would be a waste of energy to limit the audience of picture books to a particular group.

“The audience for picture books needs to encompass all age groups,” she says. “Picture books are the ideal medium to provide intellectual and artistic stimulation to both children and adults. People in the industry unanimously agree that Korean picture books need to embark upon a new frontier.”

KOREA _ April _ 19

Travel

Stargazing On the K-pop trail in Seoul _ Written by Charles Usher

KOREA _ April _ 20

© WAPOP Co., Ltd.

B-boy dancers perform during the K-Performance at WAPOP, a weekly pop concert at the OM Art Hall at the Children’s Grand Park in Seoul.

KOREA _ April _ 21

© MCST

Klive not only delights audiences with its performances, but also offers many other things to see.

Hallyu, the Korean Wave of pop culture, was never content to merely lap at the shores of neighboring Asian countries.

By now, Korean movies, TV shows, and especially popular music have found avid fans in places as far away as Cuba and Iran, and have drawn millions of visitors to the country that produced them. With the K-pop industry so heavily concentrated in Seoul, it’s easy to explore a favorite group’s or idol’s stomping grounds.

The part of Seoul most associated with K-pop, the only one to have a 2-billion-plus-view YouTube music video about it, is, of course, Gangnam, and visitors to the Korean capital looking to commune with the K-pop zeitgeist would do well to start there.

In Gangnam’s Apgujeong neighborhood, visitors will notice little blue Ks affixed to the sidewalk and a minimalist bird logo perched atop

KOREA _ April _ 22

The part of Seoul most associated with K-pop, the only one to have a 2-billion-plusview YouTube music video about it, is, of course, Gangnam, and visitors to the Korean capital looking to commune with the K-pop zeitgeist would do well to start there.

street signs. These mark out the “K-Star Road,” which isn’t actually one specific road, per se, but a diffuse collection of streets linking the headquarters of various entertainment companies, filming locations, and stars’ hangouts that dot the area. The K-Star Road’s main artery will take visitors past many of the neighborhood’s greatest hits, beginning with Galleria Department Store and Apgujeong Rodeo, two of the city’s most famous shopping spots.

Tracing Apgujeong-ro southeast, the road leads past the headquarters of SM Entertainment, whose façade is usually covered in an enormous banner promoting the release of the latest album

by EXO, Girls’ Generation or SHINee. Apgujeong-ro is also “Cheongdam Culture Street,” where high-end labels like Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton are set up, should you have a bankroll

© Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

At SMTOWN in the COEX Artium, visitors can purchase star merchandise and take part in SM’s dancing and singing training programs.

SMTOWN and DMC

Not too far from K-Star Road is COEX, the largest underground mall in Asia, and it’s in the COEX Artium that you’ll

© S.M. ENTERTAINMENT

to match your favorite idol’s. This is also where you’ll find 10 Corso Como, the store where part of PSY’s “Gentleman” video was filmed.

Turn left once you reach Apgujeongro-79-gil and you’ll soon find yourself at an intersection where the offices of JYP and Cube stand on opposite corners.

If you’re a 2PM or 4MINUTE fan, the Dunkin’ Donuts in between the two agencies is a popular spot for fans to stakeout, hoping to catch a glimpse of a favorite idol on their way in or out of the buildings. Cube also operates Cube Studio, a café and gift shop on the agency’s first floor.

SMTOWN displays awards won by the label’s artists, hosts a café, and exhibits costumes from music videos, but for fans the best part is its many interactive aspects.

find SMTOWN, a six-story mecca for SHINee and Girls’ Generation diehards.

Take the escalator up past a wall of SM videos and you’ll arrive at the SUM gift shop where you can score all sorts of SM idol-related goodies, from candies stamped with the EXO logo to candles whose scents were designed specifically for one idol. Many products have been personally chosen by various celebrities.

Want to ride in the same bike helmet as EXO’s Xiumin? You can get that here.

Feel like serving dinner on the same tableware as SS501’s Jung-min? They’ve got that too.

SMTOWN displays awards won by the label’s artists, hosts a café, and exhibits costumes from music videos, but for fans the best part is its many interactive aspects. Photo booths give fans a chance to take pictures of themselves with digital versions of

KOREA _ April _ 23

© WAPOP Co., Ltd.

© KT

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Sangam-dong Digital Media City

Holographic performance at Klive

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WAPOP

© S.M. ENTERTAINMENT

© Yonhap News

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Klive

Sangam-dong DMC

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WAPOP

K-Star Road 4 SM TOWN

LIVErary COEX

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Recording of Mnet’s M!Countdown

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SMTOWN

© S.M. ENTERTAINMENT

© GANGNAM-GU OFFICE

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Hallyu Experience Zone at the Gangnam Tourist Information Center

Many K-pop stars’ TV appearances are recorded at Digital Media City in northwest Seoul, and this is another spot that should definitely be on K-pop fans’ itineraries.

KOREA _ April _ 24

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10 Corso Como

their favorite stars. You can press a personalized LP with 10 of your favorite songs. A handprint gallery displays golden molds of SM idols’ hands, and a scanner will read your palm and tell you with whom you have the closest match. A large theater screens hologram concerts and musicals, seminars, and even the occasional live performance. If merely watching the stars isn’t enough, you can take vocal or dance lessons here, have a professional photo shoot done or get a full K-pop makeover.

Many K-pop stars’ TV appearances

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Celebrity shop at SMTOWN

are recorded at Digital Media City in northwest Seoul, and this is another spot that should definitely be on K-pop fans’ itineraries. If you’re in Seoul on a Thursday, it’s possible to join a recording of Mnet’s M!Countdown here by signing up ahead of time for an Mnet studio tour.

If you can’t do that, you can still check out a couple of the area’s other Hallyu-themed attractions. One of these is the stretch of sidewalk at the Digital Media City that forms “Star Street.” This modest take on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame features gold stars set in

the pavement that pay tribute to the accomplishments of Korean celebrities, ranging from the actress Ha Ji-won to Texas Rangers outfielder Choo Shin-soo and the opera soprano Sumi Jo. Music fans will want to keep an eye out for the stars belonging to BoA, Rain, Miss A’s Suzy and Eric from Shinhwa, among others, and maybe tplace their own hands in the handprints embedded in the pavement. At one end of Star Street is MBC Radio’s Garden Studio, where visitors can peer through a glass wall and watch as celebrities host or make appearances on one of the station’s programs. Stop by at the right time and you might catch a conversation or performance by EXID, Twice or Jinusean.

WAPOP and Klive

Apgujeong Rodeo Station, Exit 2 Website | tour.gangnam. go.kr/tour/hallyu-star-avenue/ SMTOWN Location | COEX Artium Samseong Station, Exit 5 or 6 Hours | 11 AM-10 PM Website | www.smtownland. com WAPOP Location | DOM Art Hall in Children’s Grand Park Children’s Grand Park Station, Exit 1 Time | Saturday at 8 PM Website | www.wapophall. com Reservations | Can reserve seat(s) only by purchasing packaged tours Tokyo: +81-3-5807-4751 Fukuoka: +81-92-481-5379 Beijing: +86-70-7425-8870 Shanghai: +86-70-8655-9822 Singapore: +65-6216-3440 Other English-speaking countries: +82-2-311-7146 (Korean, English)

can be purchased from travel agencies.

Of course, the ultimate experience for a K-pop fan, short of meeting a favorite stars in person, is seeing them in concert, but travel dates don’t always line up with performance dates. Fortunately for fans of Hallyu, Korea’s technological prowess has been put to use to at least partly remedy this conundrum. Along with SMTOWN, Klive gives fans the chance to see hologram concerts of some of the country’s biggest stars six days a week.

Located in the LotteFitIn Tower in Dongdaemun, Seoul’s fashion district, Klive’s theater uses high-res images, 14.2 channel surround sound, lasers, fog and a 270-degree panorama screen to present hologram concerts by PSY, Big Bang and G-Dragon. To create the concerts, each artist was filmed multiple times in front of a blue screen, and the resulting images were then processed with computer graphics to render the holograms as lifelike as possible. It might not be a true live show, but it’s the next best thing.

KLIVE Location | LotteFitIn Tower 9F, 10F Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station, Exit 11 or 12 Website | www.klive.co.kr Hours | Closed Mondays, Lunar New Year’s Day and Chuseok DIGITAL MEDIA CITY Digital Media City, Exit 2; take bus 771, 7711, or 7730 to Sangam Digital Media City Public Information Hall

© GANGNAM-GU OFFICE

Plenty of K-pop stars branch out into radio, movies and TV, so music is only half of the full idol experience.

WAPOP gives fans a chance to get a bit of everything. Held Saturdays at 7 PM, the weekly concert features lineups of five different singers or groups. Past performers have included EXO, Block B and TaeTiSeo. The K-pop concert is just one aspect of WAPOP, however, as it also shows iconic scenes from classic TV shows like “Boys Over Flowers,” “Winter Sonata,” “Iris” and others, with subtitles provided in English, Chinese and Japanese. The spectacle is rounded out with B-boy shows – South Korea is home to some of the world’s top B-boy dancers – and performances of traditional Korean music, giving visitors a taste of what Koreans listened to in ancient times in the days before H.O.T. and Fin.K.L. WAPOP is held in the DOM Art Hall at the Children’s Grand Park. It’s equipped with surround sound and panoramic screens, making sure that visitors get as vivid an experience as possible. Tickets for WAPOP are only available as part of package tours that

K-STAR ROAD

KOREA _ April _ 25

People 1

Sharing the Beauty of the Cosmos Astrophotographer Kwon O-chul captures the stunning beauty of the night sky _ Written by Robert Koehler Photographed by RAUM Studio

KOREA _ April _ 26

In Korea, there’s a saying, “Like trying to take a star from the sky,” which means that something is impossible.

While it’s true you can’t pull stars from the sky, you can certainly photograph them.

Kwon O-chul is one of only a handful of human beings on the planet who makes a living as an astrophotographer, which is to say, by photographing the stars, comets and other heavenly objects and phenomena in the night sky. The first Korean to have some of his work recognized as a NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, and a member of The World at Night, an exclusive organization of astrophotographers, he sees in the stars the beginning of all things, including life. He says, “All the elements in our bodies originally come from the stars.”

Living free to do what you love

“The stunning thing about the aurora is that the light fills the entire sky,” he says. “You really get lost in the lights dancing across the entire sky.”

Kwon fell in love with the stars in high school, when he read a book about them, but it wasn’t until he got his father’s Nikon in university that he began his photographic odyssey. In the 1990s, however, men were expected to eschew the arts in favor of more “serious” professions. Kwon was no different, and he went to work in a shipyard, where, among other things, he helped design submarines for the navy. When he found this personally unsatisfying, he found work at several tech startups. This was not the life he wanted either.

“I wasn’t satisfied with just going to work,” he said. “I realized it would be difficult for me to find happiness in office life.”

While he may have been at the office during the day, his nights were dedicated to astrophotography. And he was good at it. He says, “When you ran an Internet search in Korea for astrophotography, my name popped right up.” His talent for vividly capturing the heavens earned him exhibits, publishing opportunities and,

ultimately, an invitation to join a group of Korean photographers heading to the northern Canadian town of Yellowknife to photograph the aurora borealis, the magical “northern lights.”

The opportunity was not only his first experience with the aurora, a natural phenomenon for which Kwon would gain particular renown in capturing, but it also taught him he no longer needed to be an office drone.

“Of the people I went with, I was the only office worker,” he says. “The rest were bloggers, photographers, cartoonists, those sorts of people. I thought that you’d starve if you did that sort of thing because I was addicted to having a monthly salary.”

However it wasn’t the case.

“I found that while it’s difficult, you wouldn’t starve. I thought that if I wouldn’t starve, I should do what I wanted to do, so when I returned to Korea, I submitted my resignation.”

The beauty of the aurora

Freeing himself from the daily grind, Kwon dedicated himself entirely to his craft. He’s traveled the world to witness – and photograph – some of nature’s most beautiful phenomena, including streaking meteors over the summit of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro, his 2014 photograph of which was featured in National Geographic’s “Space Photos This Week.”

He boasts, “Most of the beautiful places you see on TV, I know just from looking at them because I’ve actually been to most of them.”

In his experience, however, it’s the aurora that is nature’s most beautiful phenomenon. So far, he’s seen the northern lights in Canada, Iceland and Norway.

“The stunning thing about the aurora is that the light fills the entire sky,” he says. “You really get lost in the lights dancing across the entire sky.”

The most beautiful time of the aurora,

KOREA _ April _ 27

© Kwon O-chul

he explains, is the so-called “auroral break-up,” when the aurora’s initial arc of light grows brighter and increasingly convoluted until it erupts into rayed fragments dancing all over the night sky.

“Then it becomes the most impressive natural phenomenon humans can see,” he says.

While we usually associate the aurora borealis with ghostly shades of green and blue, one of the most powerful colors of the aurora is a blazing pink. “The other colors of an aurora look better in photos,” he says. “But the pink looks better in real life.”

As beautiful as the aurora may be, Kwon notes it does have a rival in inspiring awe, a total eclipse. He’s seen two of them: one in China and one in Australia.

“Total eclipses are pretty intense,” he says. “As soon as it happens, the sky becomes visible. It’s like a fireworks show. You can see the stars in the sky.

And then a few minutes later, the sun comes out again and it’s like somebody switching the lights on.”

More than just pictures

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“Auroras move, and it’s not easy to capture movement in a photo,” he says. “So to capture the feeling, I started shooting, rather than stills, a series of photos which I make into a video.”

KOREA _ April _ 28

Kwon’s imaging endeavors go beyond simple still shots to include time-lapse and real-time videos. “I started shooting time-lapse photos when I decided on my mission as a photographer,” he recalls.

“I decided I should do the happy work of conveying to others, through photos, the wonder I feel.” With a phenomenon such as the aurora, however, there’s a limit to how much a still photo can convey. “Auroras move, and it’s not easy to capture movement in a photo,” he says. “So to capture the feeling, I started shooting, rather than stills, a series of photos which I make into a video.”

Nowadays, in addition to time-lapse videos, he is using multiple-camera setups to capture the entire night sky. He is also filming in real time in order to take advantage of recent developments

in so-called “virtual reality” so that viewers can experience the wonder of the aurora themselves, albeit virtually.

Photographers like Kwon are branching out for another reason, too. Technology has gotten so good that almost anyone now can photograph the aurora or the Milky Way with a smartphone. “Landscape photographers and outdoor photographers can shoot star photos now,” he says. “Even places like National Geographic don’t feel the need for specialized astrophotographers.

So people like me are always thinking about what to do.”

1 The starry sky shines above Cheongnyangsa Temple in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do.

2 The Milky Way shines in the night sky above Dokdo.

3 Kwon prepares his camera for photographing Dokdo.

Dokdo sunrise

© Kwon O-chul

2 © Kwon O-chul

In addition to photographing the night sky, Kwon has also gained attention for his photographs of the islets of Dokdo, the volcanic rocks that form Korea’s easternmost point, where he has been making regular trips since doing some work there for a documentary team.

His most breathtaking shot is one of Dokdo silhouetted against the golden orb of the rising sun. Taken from the island of Ulleungdo, it was not an easy shot.

“Dokdo is about 90 kilometers from Ulleungdo,” he says. “And the rising sun has to be along a straight line running from Ulleungdo to Dokdo in order for it to appear in the background. And while, of course, you need to calculate the horizontal position, you also need to calculate the vertical position due to the curvature of the earth.”

He figured out the optimal elevation from which to take the shot was 600 meters, from which all of Dokdo was visible above the horizon. The result was the first sunrise shot of Dokdo from Ulleungdo. In a move with some geopolitical significance, he also ran the calculations for Japan’s Oki Islands, the point in Japan closest to Dokdo.

“From Ulleungdo, Dokdo begins to be visible from 150 meters,” he explains. “From Oki, mathematically, you’d need to be at over 1,000 meters to begin to see Dokdo. The calculation is simple. But Oki is just 200 meters high. So you couldn’t see it from the island.”

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KOREA _ April _ 29

People 2

Western Man, Eastern Art Raimund Royer, the first European to practice traditional Korean medicine in Korea _ Written by Young H.K. Pae Photographed by RAUM Studio

KOREA _ April _ 30

On the street outside the Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, visitors will see that one of the buildings has an English sign.

Dr. Raimund Royer is a spine specialist and the medical director at the hospital’s international clinic.

When the Austrian first visited Korea as a young man in 1987, Korea was an unknown country to most Europeans.

The young backpacker, however, was inspired by the visit to become a practitioner of traditional Asian medicine.

“I was interested in Oriental philosophy, Buddhism and Korean culture,” he recalls.

While he was in Korea, he learned Korean and taekwondo. One day during a taekwondo lesson, he sprained his ankle.

That led to his first visit to a traditional Korean medicine clinic, where he was treated with acupuncture.

“The doctor applied acupuncture to random spots like my ear and hands,” he says. “Although it felt weird at first, surprisingly, I found my ankle healed completely after two or three rounds of treatment, and I was able to walk right after the treatment.”

Royer’s fast recovery was a major factor in attracting him to a career in traditional Asian medicine. He also liked the atmosphere of the clinic where he was treated, including the smell of the herbs and the underlying concepts. Traditional Asian medicine uses the body’s vital force or chi to treat illnesses.

Royer decided to attend a Korean traditional medical school and become a certified doctor, despite his family’s opposition. Before coming to Korea, Royer had studied economics in college and worked at an Austrian trading company for four years.

The challenges were significant.

Because he was a foreigner, no school would let him in, claiming a lack of appropriate infrastructure and courses.

With help from an Austrian friend in Daegu, Royer gained admission to Gyeongsan Haany University, which is

now Daegu Haany University. Although it was a challenge to learn enough Korean, including Chinese characters, to follow the course material and become a doctor, Royer persevered. It was his destiny, he believed.

In 1999, after 12 years of hard training, he became the first non-Korean to pass the national examination, qualifying him to practice Korean traditional medicine.

Global potential

To this day, Royer remains the one and only Western foreigner to practice Korean traditional medicine in Korea. There are a few Chinese, Japanese and overseas Korean practitioners, but their numbers are small. Royer says Korean, Chinese and Japanese traditional medicine are not identical, although they share common roots. For instance, he says, the practices of acupuncture, herbal medicine and manual manipulation of energy pathways are common to all three. However, other features, such as the sasang philosophy of categorizing individuals by body type, are unique to Korea.

Korean traditional medicine has great potential internationally, Royer added.

Western chiropractors, for instance, are visiting Korean traditional medicine centers to learn from their Korean colleagues. Royer believes, however, that an international curriculum should be devised, and courses offered in multiple languages, so that more international students can learn the art. He points out that while Korean traditional medicine is very advanced and modern, China has an English-language curriculum for international students, whereas Korea does not. This problem will need to be rectified, he says, for Korean medicine to gain a higher profile internationally.

Moreover, since traditional medicine developed from folk remedies, it lacks standardization. Royer says introducing Western, scientifically validated methods of diagnosis, such as MRIs and X-rays, could help overcome this. According to him, integrating Western technology with traditional techniques, such as acupuncture, could boost the latter’s effectiveness and attract international students and patients to traditional medicine.

Š Yonhap News

Korean traditional medicine has great potential internationally, Royer says. Western chiropractors, for instance, are visiting Korean traditional medicine centers to learn from their Korean colleagues.

Raimund Royer performs acupuncture on a member of the South African youth soccer team.

KOREA _ April _ 31

Arts & Entertainment

© Fantagio

Entertainment on the Go Bite-sized Web dramas for commuters and other busy people _ Written by Colin Marshall

Web dramas don’t just recycle content from dramas that have already succeeded on television. They tell whole new stories tailor-made for the spare moment and the small screen. They’ve evolved in a modern media environment that has given rise to what the Korean press terms “snack culture.” It’s a form of entertainment that, unlike full-length movies or television shows, viewers can conveniently consume while taking a coffee break at the office, waiting for a

KOREA _ April _ 32

© GODIN MEDIA Corp.

Enjoying ‘snack culture’

© GODIN MEDIA Corp.

As soon as visitors to Seoul step onto the subway, they always notice one thing first.Whether the other riders are sending text messages, playing games, or reading digital novels or comics, nearly all of them are occupied on their mobile phones. In recent years, thanks to the speed and availability of cellular data networks even underground, the range of activities on which commuters here can spend their transit time has exploded. Lately, a growing number have been watching “Web dramas”: bite-sized, mobile-optimized episodes that make it possible to enjoy the thrills, laughs and surprises of television no matter where you are.

Web dramas don’t just recycle content from dramas that have already succeeded on Korean television; they tell whole new stories tailormade for the spare moment and the small screen.

friend or standing in line. With episodes typically running between five and 15 minutes, fans can “binge watch” an entire season of their favorite Web drama during a single day’s commute.

Because Web dramas are native to the Internet and can be produced without the full production and distribution infrastructure of a traditional broadcasting company, the genre offers opportunities not just to content creators, but to entrepreneurs and app developers as well. Unsurprisingly, some of the earliest hits first appeared on Naver, Korea’s most popular Web portal.

One of them, “Love Cells,” was adapted from a digital comic strip, or “webtoon,” previously published on the site.

Lighthearted comedy and more The lighthearted “Love Cells,” which premiered in 2014, tells the story of a young man on a quest to win the love of a television actress. He gets help from a “love cell,” an entity that descends to Earth and inhabits the body of a cat before shape-shifting into a young woman.

“Doll House,” which appeared just days after “Love Cells,” explores much darker territory. Its orphaned teenage

© Fantagio © Fantagio

protagonist moves into a secluded boarding house run by a well-known professor, but it soon becomes clear that something suspicious is going on, especially after she encounters another girl about her age, weeping in the hall, dressed just like her!

Both “Love Cells” and “Doll House” drew viewers outside Korea as well, through sites like DramaFever in the U.S. and PPTV in China. “After School Bokbulbok,” a chaotic slapstick comedy about a shy high school student invited to join an extracurricular club of handsome eccentrics who must complete different and increasingly ridiculous “missions” in every episode, brought 10 million hits to the Chinese portal site Sohu.com. The Web drama “Exo Next Door” imagines what happens when a fan of the titular Korean-Chinese boy

‘Noble, My Love’ was even shown on U.S. online services DramaFever and Hulu. In fact, it was the highest rated program at DramaFever for three straight weeks.

band finds out that the band members themselves, looking to take a break from show business, have moved into the house next door. Reaching past Korea and China, it has also found a viewership in Taiwan, Thailand and Japan.

Transcending traditional revenue models

© GODIN MEDIA Corp. © GODIN MEDIA Corp.

© GODIN MEDIA Corp.

Thanks to the Internet’s tight integration of content and commerce, Web dramas can also transcend traditional television revenue models, which rely on advertising breaks and in-show product placement. Some newer series have begun to offer viewers the chance to purchase not just the same products that the characters use, but even the same clothes and makeup, without leaving the site. These and other commercial opportunities haven’t escaped the notice of bigger business players.

Mobile Internet providers have brought successful Web dramas onto their videoon-demand services, and the major terrestrial broadcasters MBC and SBS have, through subsidiaries, started to get into Web drama production themselves.

So Web dramas are coming to look like the vanguard in this next “Korean Wave” of popular culture, the one that, if all goes according to plan, will perpetuate “snack culture” around the world. For evidence of its global potential, look no further than the Korean-American-Chinese coproduction “Dramaworld,” a new series from the multinational streaming site Viki. Like several other high-profile Web dramas so far, it takes an ordinary young girl and drops her into an extraordinary situation. This young girl, a fan of television dramas, gets dropped into the romantic world of her favorite Korean shows – and she’s American. That culture clash will begin playing out on the phones of rapt coffee-breakers, linestanders, and commuters everywhere in April.

KOREA _ April _ 33

Korea & I

Getting Your Vibe Back Printmaker Mike Stewart rediscovers his art and builds a community _ Written by Mike Stewart Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

KOREA _ April _ 34

With USD 70 in my pocket, a small sketchbook and a few pencils in my bag, I hopped off a plane at Incheon Airport back in 2003 with a mission. I thought one year of working as an English teacher in order to dig myself out of my massive art school debt would also provide me with a ton of visual inspiration.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up spending most of my days wrestling children, and nights gathered around a game of Jenga at the neighborhood pub with coworkers. My artistic drive was gone.

I’d fallen into “life as an expat,” and that little sketchbook got lost somewhere along the way.

Fast forward three years, and I’m walking home from another kid-wrestling job when I spot something beautiful.

Leaning against the front window of a kind of junk shop is a French box easel.

“Painting,” I thought. “I used to do that.”

A few days later I began my first painting after an incredibly long dry spell.

It felt great to be mixing colors and laying brush to canvas again. My first painting, based off a tiny flip-phone camera photo, was a portrait of my girlfriend sitting at a coffee shop. It wasn’t the best, but it felt good to be making something again. This painting led to a second, and my artistic drive was in full swing from then on. I found a small art academy near Hongik University that allowed me to join its classes and use its printmaking press. Fine art printmaking isn’t the best-known art form, so I got quite lucky.

I got lucky again, as I was soon offered a position teaching watercolor painting and printmaking at the school. Another teacher there owned a gallery, and I was invited to have a solo exhibition of the work I’d produced. A curator who attended that first show introduced me to other artists and invited me to exhibit for her as well.

Bringing artists together

This was before we were all on Facebook, so networking was a bit slower back then.

The art communities around at the time were small and mostly filled with one-year visa holders. It wasn’t easy to get many exhibitions off the ground, as most artists were stretched between working endless hours in the ESL field and trying to check out every part of Korea in a single year.

A small ambitious few of us kept things rolling by constantly trying to find galleries and cafés in which to exhibit, while looking to expand the community to include both Korean and expat artists. Language barriers fall away when everyone has a common passion, and we found ourselves growing.

Our efforts began to pay off as Korean art groups started to take notice of our little club. We started being invited to participate in exhibitions and art fairs run by established art associations. This arrangement allowed the Korean artists to put the word “international” on their event banners, and we enjoyed the chance to hang our work in some great galleries and museums.

With an established position in Seoul’s art scene, in 2012 I was handed presidency of the International Artists Community. I also opened my own art academy, offering art classes and providing a kind of meeting place for artists.

In 2015, the International Artists Community merged with a sister group to form Art Network Korea. This group continues to grow and is an active part of both the Korean and expat art scenes. The struggle that non-Korean artists face in Korea hasn’t changed. We still strive to be seen as more than “English teachers who paint,” but by building communities and forming strong professional networks, we’re gaining ground.

KOREA _ April _ 35

Policy Review

Deregulation to Benefit New Service Industries Support to be given to sharing economy, sports and healthcare industries _ Written by Lee Kijun

© SOCAR

Like any other big city, Seoul is full of Airbnb homes. Since the company launched in Korea in 2013, anyone with a spare room can advertise it for rent on the Airbnb website. Visitors have hundreds of choices. Both the hosts and guests benefit from the service, except for one problem. Most Airbnb arrangements are illegal in Korea.

Under current laws, citizens who wish to rent out rooms or homes are required to register with their local governments as accommodation businesses. Of all the Airbnb homes in Korea, fewer than 30 percent are registered because the conditions for registration are so strict.

The landlord must live on the premises.

Rental properties must be able to accommodate non-Koreans. A fire alarm must be installed. Last year, a man who rented out his apartment to seven guests was sentenced to a KRW 700,000 fine for violating public health regulations.

Dumping regulations ‘in the water’

The SOCAR app lets users search for carsharing vehicles in the area.

KOREA _ April _ 36

The Korean government has resolved to promote home sharing as part of a broader initiative to eliminate unnecessary regulations and cultivate a “sharing economy.” At a trade and investment promotion meeting held Feb. 17 at the Cheong Wa Dae, the government announced that it would introduce a new law to facilitate the practice of offering lodgings through services such as Airbnb.

At the same meeting, the government

example, Socar and Green Car – shot up 15-fold, from 160,000 to 2.55 million. Yet despite enormous interest, car-sharing companies are struggling to secure parking spaces and weed out unqualified drivers. A few drivers have been caught driving without proper licenses or found to have had their licenses revoked for drunk driving.

To address these problems, the government will enact new laws that allow car-sharing companies to obtain driver’s license information from local police departments. Local ordinances will be revised to allow companies to use public parking lots and remit parking fees.

Furthermore, exclusive parking lots will be established for car-sharing companies.

Supporting sports and healthcare

announced a deregulation plan to benefit a number of new service industries that will create jobs in the sharing economy: namely, sports, healthcare and higher education. The plan is a response to increasing concern over the global economic slowdown, which in turn has meant slower domestic growth.

“We must dump all regulations in the water,” President Park Geun-hye said, “and keep only the ones that are really necessary.”

The new home-sharing law will be tested in Busan, Jeju and Gangwon-do beginning in the second half of this year.

By the second half of next year, it will be in place nationwide. Under the new law, the process of registering a home-sharing business will be much easier. Registered hosts will be able to rent out rooms or entire homes for up to 120 days a year.

The plan will also benefit car-sharing services. Between 2013 and 2015, membership in such businesses – for

Pioneering the Market for New Services Sports Industry • Expanding facilities • Fostering industries • Broadening industry base

Sharing Economy • Shared housing • Carsharing • Alternative finance

Healthcare • Health maintenance services • Development of latest biometric technology • Reforming KOSDAQ registration standards

Overseas Expansion of Universities • Increasing communal management of curriculums • Approving establishment of overseas campuses

The government also intends to promote the sports industry.

“The sports industry is a huge market, with sales of up to KRW 41 trillion,” said a Ministry of Strategy and Finance official, contrasting it with the tourism industry, which recorded only KRW 23 trillion in sales in 2014.

The ministry expects to see rapid growth in the sports industry as income levels rise.

“We expect to grow the industry to KRW 50 trillion in 2017 and create more than 320,000 jobs,” the official said.

The government will ease restrictions on the development of greenbelt and river areas, too. At present, private companies can develop no more than 800 square meters of a greenbelt area, but this limit will be expanded by 1,500 square meters. Companies will also be able to build gyms along riversides, an endeavor that is banned under current regulations.

The government is also preparing a tax deduction and subsidies to boost sports industry. Investments in sports facilities will receive tax deductions at the same rate as the manufacturing

KOREA _ April _ 37

© Youth Zone Daebangdong

The Youth Zone Daebangdong is an open space where young people can work on creative projects.

© Image Today

Regulations on the leisure industry, including camping, are being streamlined. © YouthZone Daebangdong

Stock market regulations have been eased for biohealth firms that are likely to produce exports.

KOREA _ April _ 38

sector. R&D funds and other financial support will be increased to promote the development of new materials, sporting goods and equipment. The government increased the Sports Industry Fund to KRW 38.5 billion last year for that purpose and plans to increase it further, to KRW 78.8 billion this year and KRW 198.5 billion by 2018. The government hopes the fund will encourage sports enterprises to participate in high-tech material development projects.

Members-only golf clubs, for which demand is declining, will be allowed to open their facilities to the public if 80 percent of the members agree. Until now, such a transformation required unanimous agreement. They will also be offered low-interest loans to accelerate the transition.

The government hopes that by opening up to the public and lowering fees, golf clubs could expand their customer base. Also, caddies and carts are usually mandatory at golf clubs. The government supports making them optional so that fees can be slashed by KRW 40,000 to 50,000.

Finally, policies will be pursued to enable Korean companies to command a larger share of the rapidly growing global healthcare market. Korea has world-famous medical technology and advanced information and communications technology as well as a substantial cache of health-related big data, but the healthcare industry lacks a set of guidelines clearly defining its role.

The government intends to announce such guidelines by the third quarter of this year so that healthcare can advance as a separate industry.

“The healthcare industry has a lot of potential,” said Lee Hyungryul, an official with the service economies division within of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. “Markets are growing rapidly and careers will diversify. That means many more jobs will be created in this sector.”

Brand Korea

Exhibit explores the fusion of traditional handicrafts and industrial creativity _ Written by Felix Im

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs are jointly hosting the “Made 人 Korea: Creating an Industry through Culture” exhibit to show off the essence of Korean culture while at the same time displaying the possibilities of industrialization and globalization through creative takes on Korean traditions. The exhibit is making a monthlong tour of the country, beginning at Seoul’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza (March 3 to 7) and continuing to Gwangju’s Asia Culture Center (March 18 to 23) and Busan’s BEXCO (April 1 to 6).

The 人 in the exhibit name, pronounced “in,” is a Chinese character meaning “person.”

Cultural enrichment and the creative economy

The exhibit is an opportunity for people to see a coming together of two of the government’s major initiatives: “cultural enrichment” and the “creative economy.” At a meeting of six government ministries and agencies in January, President Park Geun-hye said tangible progress in the creative economy could solve many issues facing the cultural sector. The exhibit serves to show the public the policyrelated fruit that has resulted from the discussion.

The exhibit is divided into three

The last section, “Evolution,” includes seven concept products created by collaboration between traditional artisans and major corporations, such as Kia Motors and the Korea Ginseng Corporation, and five products launched at the Culture Creation Convergence Belt last year.

In these exhibits, visitors can see the dynamism of Korea, which is evolving anew with a modern touch.

A new vision

sections, each with its own theme. The first section, “Essence,” puts on display the intrinsic essence of Korean culture.

The exhibit includes handicrafts and Hanbok that received rave reviews at the “Korea Now” exhibit held in France last year, as well as 185 works of graphic art. The section not only reveals the nature of true Korean beauty, but also provides a glimpse of how Korean traditions have manifested and continue to manifest that beauty, in the past, present and future.

The second section, “Possibilities,” is the first exhibit of products certified under the new system to designate outstanding cultural products. The exhibit includes 18 Hanbok, 16 examples of Korean foodstuffs and cuisine and 18 of the 44 handicraft products designated under the new system.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism took the exhibit as an opportunity to lay out its vision regarding the new designation system for outstanding cultural products.

In particular, the ministry plans to gradually expand the system, which is currently limited to traditional items, such as traditional handicrafts, Hanbok and Korean foodstuffs, to include all tangible and intangible products that embody the “Korea premium,” including performances, tourism products, educational content, cosmetics and smartphones.

The ministry also plans to offer companies making outstanding cultural products a wide range of support and benefits, including policy incentives, the establishment of online and offline distribution sites, branding and marketing consultation, and connections with local business complexes.

KOREA _ April _ 39

Diplomacy

Building Trust, Maximizing Interests Park administration’s diplomatic efforts have bolstered Korea’s international profile _ Written by Lee Kyehyun

© Yonhap News

A scientific research center stands above the undersea rock of Ieodo, which has been included in Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone since 2013.

KOREA _ April _ 40

© Newsbank Image

Korean Ambassador for Nuclear Energy Cooperation Park Ro-byug exchanges documents with U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert during a signing ceremony for their nuclear agreement at the Foreign Ministry on April 22, 2015.

The Trust-Building Process on the Korean Peninsula aims to break the vicious cycle of progress and setbacks that has plagued inter-Korean relations and encourage North Korea to become a responsible member of the international community.

“What is really important in international politics and diplomacy is trust. When trust, an intangible asset, is guaranteed, we can create even larger mutual benefits between different countries.”

So said President Park Geun-hye at a reception for foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations at Cheong Wa Dae on May 7, 2015. The statement succinctly captured one of the guiding principles of her government’s foreign policy. Over the last three years, the Park administration has pursued an international strategy based on building trust between Korea and its partners, even as Seoul prioritizes its national interests. As a result, the administration has both strengthened Korea’s relations with traditional allies, including the United States, and elevated Korea’s standing as a leader on the international stage.

Laying the groundwork for peaceful unification

One of the Park administration’s chief policy initiatives, the Trust-Building Process on the Korean Peninsula aims

to break the vicious cycle of progress and setbacks that has plagued interKorean relations and encourage North Korea to become a responsible member of the international community. The policy calls for development of interKorean relations based on common sense and international norms, while expanding the pursuit of common interests and inter-Korean cooperation; for the establishment of lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula by aligning international cooperation and interKorean cooperation to achieve denuclearization on the peninsula; and for steps to lay the groundwork for Korean unification. This can be done by taking the initiative and preparing South Korean society for the transition, as well as by enhancing international understanding that Korean unification will be achieved through global cooperation, and that unification will be a “win-win” for the two Koreas as well as for the international community.

While it may appear that interKorean relations have suffered a setback in the wake of North Korea’s recent decisions to test a nuclear device and its launch a rocket, Seoul’s subsequent

KOREA _ April _ 41

response, including participation in international sanctions against the North, aim only to encourage Pyongyang to return to the path of mutual trustbuilding and cooperation.

Trust, patience produce revised nuclear deal with U.S.

One of the most eye-catching fruits of the government’s diplomatic efforts was the revised nuclear deal that Korea signed with the United States. On April 23, 2015, Korean ambassador for nuclear cooperation Park Ro-byug and U.S. ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert inked a revised version of the Agreement for Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Government of the United States of America concerning Civil Use of Atomic Energy. The agreement, which replaces a version that was signed in 1973, was the result of four and a half years of sometimes difficult negotiations.

“The proposed agreement is one of

to help Seoul secure stable supplies of nuclear fuel.

The agreement, the first of its kind in 43 years, could be reached thanks to trust, determined negotiations, and a desire to strengthen the Korea-U.S. friendship in a creative and futureoriented way.

the most sophisticated and dynamic peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements we’ve ever negotiated,” said Ambassador Lippert after the signing.

With the new agreement, which focuses on reprocessing rights, stable nuclear fuel supplies and exports of nuclear power technology overseas, the government was able to maximize Korea’s national interests. In particular, Korea is now able to enrich uranium to levels less than 20 percent, which is sufficient for civil use, albeit with approval from a high-level, bilateral commission. The new agreement also allows Seoul to commission countries such as the United Kingdom and France to reprocess Korea’s nuclear fuel, and Korean scientists will be able to begin experiments on a form of hightemperature uranium reprocessing called pyroprocessing. Korea is longer required to ask the United States to sign off on exports of nuclear equipment and materials imported from the United States, and Washington has pledged

Sharing the burdens of friendship

© Cheong Wa Dae

The two-pronged approach of maximizing national interests while building trust was demonstrated in other discussions with the United States. On Jan. 12, 2014, Seoul and Washington finally reached a new agreement on how the allies would split the costs of hosting 28,500 U.S. troops in Korea. Under the five-year agreement, Seoul pledged to pay roughly USD 858 million a year.

While this was a 5.8 percent increase from the year before, the agreement provides that over 90 percent of those funds will return to the Korean economy through salaries and benefits paid to Korean workers and supply and service contracts with Korean companies. The agreement also includes comprehensive improvements to the cost-sharing system that provide greater transparency in how the money is spent.

Sticking to principles

1

KOREA _ April _ 42

Diplomacy with other countries, too, has been based on strengthening trust and cooperation even while protecting Korea’s key interests within the scope of international law and accepted practices.

On Dec. 8, 2013, Korea announced it had expanded its Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, to include over 66,000 square kilometers more territory, including the submerged rock of Ieodo. It was the first time in 62 years that Korea’s ADIZ, originally established during the Korean War, had been expanded. With the move, Seoul has

© Cheong Wa Dae

© Misistry of Foreign Affairs

2 © Yonhap News

3

4

1 President Park Geun-hye and UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed attend a ceremony to mark the installation of the first Korea-built reactor at the Barakah nuclear power plant.

2 A Korean medical team sent to combat Ebola helps patients in Sierra Leone.

3 Ambassador Choi Kyong-lim assumes the chairmanship of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

4 The seventh World Water Forum is held in Daegu.

strengthened its control over the airspace over all the land, territorial waters and jurisdictional waters south of the interKorean military demarcation line.

In expanding the line, the government adjusted the southern limit of Korea’s ADIZ to bring it in line with the Incheon Flight Information Region, which is internationally used and does not overlap with neighboring countries.

The only significant adjustments were made to the skies above Ieodo and the territorial skies above the islands of Marado and Hongdo. The U.S. State Department remarked, “We appreciate the ROK’s efforts to pursue this action in a responsible, deliberate fashion by prior consultations with the United States and its neighbors, including Japan and China.”

Building a better world

The Park administration has also bolstered Korea’s international contributions in development assistance, based on the belief that Korea, once a beneficiary of international generosity, should take its place as an assistance provider and a leader in building the international order.

Taking a more active role in international organizations and meetings, Seoul has elevated its stature as a nation that contributes to the development of the international community in a number of ways. Firstly, as a mid-ranked power, it has taken an active part in efforts to solve the many development issues that the world faces, including illiteracy and disease. For instance, Seoul dispatched the Korea Disaster Response Team to Sierra Leone from December 2014 to March 2015 to

help combat the Ebola virus.

Korea has also chaired 10 U.N. organizations and meetings dealing with peace and security, development and climate change, and human rights and culture. Most recently, Ambassador Choi Kyong-lim, the head of Korea’s permanent mission to Geneva, was elected as chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Similarly, the Park administration has worked hard to host major international meetings in Korea. In April of 2015, for instance, the seventh World Water Forum took place in the southeastern city of Daegu, where the international community presented innovative plans to resolve water crises around the globe.

KOREA _ April _ 43

Creative Economy

© Dot Incorporation

Opening Digital Doors to the Blind Venture firm Dot brings ubiquitous computing to the visually impaired with wearable braille reader _ Written by Eugene Kim

© Dot Incorporation

Dot Incorporation is helping the visually impaired become full members of the mobile revolution.

The Korean startup released the world’s first braille smartwatch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February to much global acclaim. Finally, the 285 million visually impaired people around the globe have affordable access to mobile information. Dot cofounder and CEO Eric Ju Yoon Kim explains, “We strive to reduce the invisible discrimination against people living with blindness in terms of information accessibility.”

Wearable technology, or wearables, is one of the hottest sectors in IT. Devices such as activity trackers, used to monitor and track fitness-related metrics, and smartwatches are making the idea of “ubiquitous computing” a reality.

Global electronics giant Apple sold USD 4 billion worth of wearable devices, mostly smartwatches, in 2015, while Fitbin, a leader in wearable technology, sold 21 million fitness trackers for a total of USD 1.8 billion.

© Dot Incorporation

KOREA _ April _ 44

© Dot Incorporation

Wearable tech for security, literacy

Dot’s smartwatch functions as a braille reader, converting text data into braille with 30 built-in pins on the watch face. This lets visually impaired users read messages, write email or even read novels with their fingertips.

© Dot Incorporation

At first glance, Dot’s smartwatches don’t appear very different from Apple’s or Fitbin’s. The futuristic, minimalist device includes all the features you’d expect in a smartwatch, such as a messaging system for texts and tweets, a navigation system, alarms and, of course, a watch to tell the time.

Where it differs from your ordinary smartwatch, however, is how it conveys information to the user. Using a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone or other digital device, Dot’s smartwatch functions as a braille reader, converting text data into braille with 30 built-in pins on the watch face. This lets visually impaired users read messages, write email or even read novels with their fingertips.

Dot is not the world’s first digital braille reader, but it is one of the world’s most affordable. Most digital braille readers cost in excess of USD 2,000. The high cost, combined with the fact that only about 1 percent of books are translated into braille, has even discouraged the blind from learning the tactile reading system. According to the U.S.-based National Federation of the Blind, just 10 percent of the visually impaired learn braille. Other organizations estimate the number to be even less.

As a result, the blind have relied largely on text-to-sound devices, such as Apple’s Siri. While convenient, some are concerned about cybersecurity when using these devices in public.

Priced at just USD 300, Dot gives users a reason to learn braille. In fact, the smartwatch comes with a braille-learning function. Kim told the online tech journal Tech in Asia, “Ninety percent of blind people become blind after birth, and there’s nothing for them right now. They lose their access to information so suddenly. Dot can be their lifeline, so they can learn braille and access everyday information through their fingers, which is the goal of braille literacy.”

© Dot Incorporation

Just a first step

The smartwatch is Dot’s first foray into designing mobile devices for the visually impaired, but it won’t be its last. In 2017, the startup plans to release its Dot Pad, a multilayered braille smart device that will make it easier for the visually impaired to read e-books and related digital media. French telecom company Orange is considering adopting Dot’s braille technology, too.

Dot is one of several venture firms supported by SK Telecom, Korea’s largest telecom company, as part of its startup accelerator program. At the Mobile World Congress, SK Telecom official Kim Jeong-soo pledged his company’s continued support for local startups. “Even after the Mobile World Congress, we will actively support startups as they enter overseas markets so that startup success stories may spread.”

Dot on display at Mobile World Congress 2016, the world’s largest mobile technology expo, in Barcelona

KOREA _ April _ 45

Global Korea

Wired Health Goes Global Korea taking telemedicine overseas _ Written by Lim Jeong-yeo

Like drones and artificial intelligence, telemedicine is a concept straight out of the world of science fiction. But, like the others, it is also a reality: a way for doctors and patients to interact outside hospital premises and to make healthcare more convenient and time-efficient, especially for patients with chronic illnesses who require ongoing care or people living in rural areas who have limited access to medical centers.

With the accelerating pace of development in information and communications technology, nearly every facet of people’s daily lives is getting digitized. Healthcare is no exception.

According to the Joongang Daily newspaper, Korea’s digital healthcare market has doubled every year for the past five years. Deloitte Consulting estimated that Korea’s digital healthcare market would grow to 24.7 trillion won in 2018, as compared with 6.4 trillion won in 2014.

© SNUH Bundang

A Saudi medical team uses HealthConnect, a hospital information sytem jointly developed by Seoul National University Hospital and SK Telecom.

KOREA _ April _ 46

© Korea Health Industry Development Institute

To maximize the opportunities in this new and growing market, the Korean government is actively encouraging innovation in the digital healthcare field.

Exporting telemedicine solutions

“Korea’s prowess in medicine and IT has long been globally acknowledged,” said Senior Consultant Choi Jong-bae of HealthConnect, a joint venture by Seoul National University Hospital and SK Telecom that is making the most of this trend.

“I believe this is why the emerging economies are experiencing a demand for our products.”

HealthConnect, whose clients include Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs and China’s biggest private hospital, the Vista Medical Center, is Korea’s leading healthcare solutions developer. Founded in 2011, it has already taken away two of the world’s three most prestigious design awards for its mainstay product, Bedside Station.

The telemedicine system, which provides bedside access to a comprehensive summary of the medical treatments a patient is receiving, won the Red Dot Award in 2013 and the iF Design Award in 2014.

The company exported localized versions of Bedside Station to Saudi Arabia and China in 2015.

“We customize our solutions according to the needs of each country and each institution,” Choi said in an interview with KOREA magazine.

For Saudi Arabia’s health ministry, HealthConnect installed a smart hospital system called Patient Portal, which provides fluidity in hospital management. The patients can easily navigate their way through a giant hospital complex by looking up information at smart kiosks. They also enjoy more autonomy because they can use mobile applications to browse their medical records and access their diagnoses, the details of all pharmaceutical prescriptions, and payment records.

Furthermore, the portal simplifies what used to be a long and complicated process when a member of the hospital staff needed to apply for a leave of absence – a country-specific feature of the system that is unique to the Saudi Arabian version.

In China, HealthConnect launched an ICT-powered diabetes management service in cooperation with Beijing’s Vista Medical Center and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shenzhen Medical Center. China has the world’s biggest diabetic population, and its numbers are expected to reach 100 million by 2018. HealthConnect’s ICT solution allows doctors to provide second opinions remotely via mobile device. Patients can also monitor their blood sugar levels and track their daily exercise and food intake. In emergency situations, the application automatically puts the patient through to a specialized call center.

Yonsei University Health System and Korea Health Industry Development Institute sign a memorandum of understanding with the University of the Philippines Manila covering cooperation on medical technology.

Global partnership in research and development

In November 2015, Seoul’s Yonsei University Health System and Korea Health Industry Development Institute signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding with University of the Philippines Manila, resolving to collaborate on the development of comprehensive electronic health systems.

The Philippines, an archipelago composed of over 7,000 islands, has wide disparities in the quality of healthcare services in urban areas compared with rural areas. Residents of the more remote islands in the Philippines will enjoy greater access to healthcare thanks to the support systems under development at the university’s National Telehealth Center.

In December 2014, Gangnam Severance Hospital also launched a collaborative healthcare center at Kazakhstan’s Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, in the hope that telemedicine-related equipment would improve the quality of care in underserved regions of that country.

Future of Korean telemedicine

In consideration of these successes for Korea’s telemedicine industry overseas, Seoul is moving to ease bureaucratic regulations that impede the industry’s growth within Korea. The nation has for some time now been going through labor pains to enable wider incorporation of telemedicine in the domestic market – for example, by running pilot projects to gather the data it needs to win over skeptics.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a report dated January 2016 that the second telemedicine pilot program, which began in March 2015 and tracked 5,300 patients receiving healthcare services through 148 institutions in Korea, resulted in a patient satisfaction rate of 83 to 88 percent. The ministry said it planned to expand the number of patients to 12,000 in a followup study.

KOREA _ April _ 47

Flavor

Jjukkumi Salad A creative use of one of Korea’s best-loved springtime delicacies _ Written by Im Ian Photographed by aostudio Kang Jinju

Spring is a time of brightly hued fields of wildflowers, the pink rain of falling cherry blossoms ... and jjukkumi.

Known in English as the webfoot octopus, or, for the scientifically minded, Octopus ocellatus Gray, these small octopuses, no more than 20 centimeters long, thrive in the waters off Korea’s coasts, especially the Yellow Sea. Low in calories, high in essential amino acids and rich in taurine, an organic acid essential for proper skeletal muscle function, jjukkumi makes for remarkably healthy eating, lowering blood pressure and acting as a natural detoxifier. It’s for this reason that they are considered a boyangsik, a “medicinal” food to give you extra energy.

Jjukkumi are harvested in great numbers from March to May, their egglaying season, when they are fat and full of eggs. Head to any Yellow Sea fishing port in spring and you’re likely to find a jjukkumi festival going on. The ones held in Boryeong and Seocheon are especially

KOREA _ April _ 48

well known.

Jjukkumi can be enjoyed in a wide variety of ways. Many people enjoy them raw, sliced thin. Some eat them parboiled and dipped in red pepper sauce. You can also eat them in soups and stews. Stir-fried jjukkumi, or jjukkumi bokkeum, is also a popular, albeit spicy, dish.

Jjukkumi salad is a creative way to enjoy this springtime specialty. To prepare it, first boil several jjukkumi in salty water for about 15 seconds. After boiling them, let them cool. In a bowl, mix olive oil, crushed onions, sliced green peppers, honey, salt and garlic to make a dressing.

Place the jjukkumi in the bowl to season them. On a plate, place some washed greens, such as lettuce, spinach or arugula.

Place the jjukkumi on the bed of greens and add your dressing.

Feel free to take liberties with the dressing, of course. Or add different vegetables to the mix. This is a very flexible dish.

__ How to make jjukkumi salad: Wash the octopus clean, removing the beak located at the center of its body. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, and cook over a grill until the translucent flesh turns opaque. Avoid overcooking to keep the meat tender. Prepare seasonal vegetables such as wild onions and dureup, a kind of woody plant shoot, removing the stems and leaves and slicing them into bite-size pieces. For the dressing, mix red pepper paste, or gochujang, with vinegar and sugar. For a cleaner, lighter flavor, add less gochujang. For a hotter dressing, add some Korean mustard sauce.

Drizzle with dressing and gently toss the salad just before serving.

KOREA _ April _ 49

Korean Keyword

Sonmat _ Written by Lim Jeong-yeo Illustrated by Kim Yoon-myung

What flavor is your hand?

손맛 | sonmat

The Korean words son and mat literally translate as “hand” and “flavor.” The two words together become “hand-flavor” or “the flavor of one’s hand.”

If that’s too alien a concept, think of “authentic cooking that’s hard for others to imitate.”

People say, for example, “I miss my mother’s hand-flavor,” when they miss their mother’s cooking.

A person with sonmat will not depend on measuring tools, but will instead measure by hand and from experience. An au fait pinch of this and a confident handful of that, and voilà: a matchless Korean dish drips off the fingertips. The hands know the recipe too well, saving the head the time it would otherwise take to calculate the right balance of ingredients.

This sure-handedness in cooking doesn’t come to a person quickly. Therefore, people acknowledged as having sonmat are usually mothers, grandmothers, or chefs at generations-old restaurants.

Many old-fashioned traditional Korean soup houses have signs that read “sonmat” hanging next to the entrances to let people know how confident they are in the food they serve.

When recipes were handed down in ancient times, it was done verbally, partly because back then women spent their lives in the kitchens and were oftentimes illiterate, and partly to preserve the secret tricks that made the soups so special. Years of apprenticeship and hands-on training were required before the next cook knew the recipe with her own hands.

In a more abstract and modern sense of the word, sonmat can also imply that each person has his or her own way of preparing a dish. The cook’s hands, depending on their size, warmth, and grip, affect the food on the table in subtle yet important ways. Hands, then, are a person’s culinary signature, regardless of the amount of time he or she has spent cooking or the method of measuring ingredients. In this second sense, sonmat simply refers to a person’s distinctive style of cooking.

While sonmat is used predominantly in connection with cooking, it is also used to refer to an angler’s way of handling a fishing rod. In this third sense, a stinging slap is a “spicy sonmat.”

KOREA _ April _ 50

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