Koreana

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SPECIAL FEATURE 1 Bringing Cultural Heritage Into Everyday Life

Products that put a contemporary spin on cultural heritage and traditional culture are growing rapidly in popularity. Inspired by artifacts and relics encountered in museums or historic sites, these heritage goods bring objects from the past closer to everyday life, emerging as a new resource for K-culture.

Special Feature 2 K-pop’s Game-Changing Savior

K-pop album sales have cooled in recent years, but fan merchandise has emerged to drive the industry’s next wave of growth. Once simple souvenirs for collectors, K-pop goods have been pushing into fashion and lifestyle products, giving fans a way to experience an artist’s worldview and aesthetic firsthand.

SPECIAL FEATURE 3 Objects of Connection

Korea’s merchandise culture took root in the mid-to-late 1990s as a consumer phenomenon fueled by the rise of K-pop fandom. Since then, it has spread to other popular genres — such as webtoons, movies, and TV dramas, and eventually to art and literature — becoming a shared language across a wide range of cultural products. Recently, its reach has expanded into everyday consumption, transcending specific fandoms and taking on the characteristics of a universal consumer culture.

Special Feature 4 World of Artist Goods

Artist-branded merchandise — or “artist merch” — is an extension of a creative practice that weaves their vision into the fabric of daily life. With creatives expanding their artistic footprint by building their own brands, teaming up with K-pop idols, or broadening their reach through major brand collaborations, these goods are finding their audience through a multitude of avenues, serving as a powerful engine that sustains the creative ecosystem.

SPECIAL FEATURE 5 A New Way to Read a Region

Tourist souvenirs in Korea are evolving. More than just travel trinkets, these “local goods” give new form to a region’s stories, overlooked resources, and everyday culture through a contemporary sensibility, even attracting travelers to a region. Today, local goods aren’t just diversifying in shape and category; they’re expanding into an entirely new way of discovering and experiencing a place.

Features

Arts & Culture

Entertainment 2026 AUTUMN

Pushing the Edge of Korean Independent Films Korean cinema has spent the last few years mired in a state of crisis — viewing habits in flux, content development stalled, investment drying up. Yet a steady stream of talented new directors is making independent films that point to new possibilities for the domestic film industry. While in the past, Korean independent films leaned heavily on realism, dissecting social problems with a critical eye, lately, they are experimenting with various genres from science fiction and mystery to fantasy.

#KoreanIndependentFilm #KoreanCinema #IndependentCinema

Brick by Brick 2026 AUTUMN

Architecture for Coexistence Architect Kim Jeong Im has been leading Seoro Architects since 2012. Seoro is a Korean term used to describe subjects that share a mutual relationship. True to the meaning of the company name, Kim explores the interactions and relationships between various elements that make up modern society and is dedicated to reflecting them in the architectural space.

#Architecture #KoreanArchitecture #ContemporaryArchitecture #KoreanArchitects

Art Review 2026 AUTUMN

Creating a Distinctly Korean Modern Painting Lee Daiwon, a prominent figure in modern and contemporary Korean art, was renowned for his rustic pastoral landscapes rendered in vivid colors and buoyant brushwork. Rather than chasing the Western art trends of his day, he devoted decades to studying the formal principles of traditional Korean crafts and East Asian ink painting, translating these visual idioms into oil on canvas.

#LeeDaiwon #KoreanArt #KoreanModernArt #ModernKoreanArt

Guardians of Heritage 2026 AUTUMN

Taking Steps to Make Heritage Matter Today YÉOL is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to raise awareness of Korean traditional culture and national heritage. It began with heritage preservation work and has since expanded to support both master artisans of traditional crafts and contemporary craftspeople. Its guiding belief is that tradition deserves a place in everyday life.

#KoreanCulture #KoreanHeritage #KCulture #CulturalHeritage

Interview 2026 AUTUMN

Fashion Art Infused With Korean Aesthetics Keysook Geum is a pioneering Korean artist who introduced and established the concept of fashion art within the local context. Working with unconventional materials, she modernizes the lines and forms of traditional Korean attire to forge a distinct visual language within the realm of wearable art.

#FashionArt #WearableArt #KoreanArt #KoreanFashion #KoreanDesign

Entertainment 2026 SUMMER

East Meets Cape: Korean Creators in American Comics Superheroes are no longer solely a Western cultural phenomenon. As Hallyu expanded across the globe, Korean creators, artists, and characters have steadily established a presence within the world of American comics, reshaping the medium through distinctive visual styles and narrative approaches. From DC Comics President Jim Lee to a new generation of artists and cover illustrators, Korean talent is contributing to an ever-expanding creative universe within the global superhero industry.

#KoreanCreators #AmericanComics #SuperheroCulture #HallyuComics #MarvelKorea

Entertainment 2026 SUMMER

Sports Variety Shows Breathe New Life into Athletics For many years, Korean sports variety shows remained firmly within the conventions of entertainment, relying on humor and spectacle while treating sport primarily as a backdrop. Today, the genre occupies a broader cultural role, shaping public perceptions of athletics, encouraging wider participation, and, in some cases, renewing public interest in sports once considered niche.

#KoreanSportsVariety #SportsCulture #AthleteStories

Brick by Brick 2026 SUMMER

Soo-in Yang: From Maverick to Problem Solver Architect Soo-in Yang is known for his distinctive sensibility and has led his firm, LIFETHINGS, since 2010. His practice extends beyond conventional architecture to encompass advertising campaigns and landmark installations. Describing LIFETHINGS as a design company rooted in architecture, Yang believes architects should act as problem solvers. In his view, architecture belongs more to the realm of pragmatism than art, and he moves fluidly between the two disciplines in search of clear and effective solutions.

#LIFETHINGS #KoreanArchitecture #AdaptiveReuse #LightArchitecture #SooInYang

LifeStyle

K-uisine 2026 AUTUMN

Confections Crafted With Time and Care Hangwa is a collective term for traditional Korean confections. Driven by the global spread of K-content and the popularity of modern reinterpretations of traditional desserts, interest in these delightful treats is growing both domestically and internationally.

#KoreanConfections #KoreanDesserts #Hangwa #Yumilgwa

Books & More 2026 AUTUMN

A Look Inside the Heart and Mind of a Nobel Prize-Winning Author Light and Thread Han Kang, translated by Maya West, e.yaewon, Paige Aniyah Morris Hogarth, 2026 176 pages, $20.00 A Look Inside the Heart and Mind of a Nobel Prize-Winning Author

#LightandThread #Shift #The World of Korean Music Beyond K-pop

K-uisine 2026 SUMMER

The Cultural History of the Cucumber Few ingredients are as effective at alleviating the sweltering summer heat and refreshing the palate as the cucumber. Interestingly, this summer vegetable has taken firm root not only in Korean soil and cuisine but also in Korean people’s vernacular. Although cucumbers appear in historical records, they surface even more frequently in proverbs and idioms — evidence of how deeply they have been woven into everyday life. Eating cucumbers is therefore more than a seasonal habit; it’s a way of living in rhythm with the season itself.

#CucumberCulture #KoreanCuisine #Oisobagi #TraditionalFood #SummerFlavor

Books & More 2026 SUMMER

A Chilling Tale of Cruelty, Lies, and Revenge “Petty Lies” Sulmi Bak, translated by Sarah Lyo Raven Books, 2025 160 pages, £8.99 A Chilling Tale of Cruelty, Lies, and Revenge

#PettyLies #Jang:TheSoulOfKoreanCooking

K-uisine 2026 SPRING

Spring Greens: Sustenance in Times of Scarcity Spring greens (bom namul) are aromatic delicacies that capture the season’s quintessential flavors. A bowl of soup exuding the fragrant scent of mugwort, a spoonful of rice topped with soy sauce and Korean wild chive, and soybean paste stew with finely chopped shepherd’s purse — all of these signal the arrival of spring. However, savoring spring greens as a seasonal delight is a relatively recent luxury. In the past, people in Korea had to endure springs as harsh as the winters that preceded them, so these greens were not a delicacy but vital for survival.

#BomNamul #KoreanCuisine #SeasonalFood #SpringGreens

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