2017년 4월 27일 목요일

Southeast Asia as an alternative to fill vacancies of Chinese Tourists in Korea


Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon in jean, along with Indonesian tourists participated in 'Hangang Bicycle Tour' in Han River Park, Seoul on the afternoon of the 26th.
Mayor Park talked with 100 employees of AXA (insurance company)from Indonesia who visited Seoul after riding bicycle together.
The Seoul city has launched the 'Seoul Special Experience Program', which includes the Hangang Bike Tour and the Hanyang Province Trekking to attract tourists from Southeast Asia and Japan since tourists from china have been decreasing sharply recently.

The city of Seoul has prepared a program to rent public bicycles and to provide a special tour course for group tourists who visited Seoul through corporate meetings or on vacation as a reward from company.
Indonesia AXA is the first participant in this program.

As Chinese tourists to Korea plunged due to THAAD, US-built anti-missile system retaliation from China, local governments have started to take measures, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

It is because 35% of the group tourists who visit Korea through employee rewards program are Southeast Asian which is second largest group after the 49% Chinese group tourists.

Seoul city plans to visit various countries including Southeast Asia to promote Korea tourism every month along with public bicycle program.

2017년 4월 23일 일요일

Two South Korean Movie Directors who have a wide recognition among Hollywood celebrities


The news that Korean films were invited to the Cannes Film Festival is no longer surprising. At the 70th Cannes Film Festival, which will be held next month, Korean director Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" and Hong Sang-soo's “The Day After” were nominated for the Palme d'Or("Golden Palm")competition.

There are two Korean film directors who are often mentioned in a interview with Hollywood stars who visited Korea.

Recently, James Gunn, director of Marvel's 'Guardians of Galaxy VOL.2' sent a praise for Korean films through a live conference. He said he was inspired by Korean movies over the last 20 years and now it is the era of Korean films. In particular, he included director Bong Joon-ho as a respectable director list through his SNS.
Some might say that it's just a comment prepared for Korean market but no one can deny that Bong is a proud director of Korea, no matter who it refers to.

Prior to this, Jordan Vogt-Roberts of "Kong: Skull Island" who recently visited Korea said he referred to Bong Joon-ho's "Monster" and Kim Ji-woon's "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" for his film.

Hollywood stars's love of director Park Chan-wook is famous as well. Recently, Dane DeHaan expressed a wish to work with Park Chan-wook and liked 'Old Boy' through a written interview ahead of the opening of the movie 'Two Lovers and Bears'.

Previously, Rising Star Logan Lerman also expressed his respect for Park Chan-wook in an interview with Korean Broadcasting.
Will Smith, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, and many other actors picked Park Chan-wook as Korean director who they'd like to work with in future.



2017년 4월 20일 목요일

Crocodile Lady's 2017 S / S season pictorial with Ha Ji-won


Actress Ha Ji Won showed off cool summer fashion in her recent pictorial.

Crocodile Lady, a women's wear brand unveiled the 2017 summer picture with the brand model Ha Ji Won.

In this photo collections, Crocodile Lady presented feminine, classical BEADS line and light, active CROCTIVE line along with a RUBY line that further emphasizes luxury and femininity with a concept of "Healing from everyday + Daily Courture".

In this pictorial, Ha Ji Won wore white wide pants and white see-through blouse with mix-modified dot fabric.
She matched yellow strap sandals with buckle ornament in this outfit.


In another pictorial, Ha Ji Won adds a point to the elegant khaki dress by matching large accessories and created cool sophisticated look with a beige color tote bag with a punching detail.

Crocodile Lady's 2017 S / S season TV CF will be available on national broadcasting and cable channels as well as brand's homepage and official facebook.



2017년 4월 17일 월요일

American teacher who do volunteer work for disabled students in Korea


K-PACE (Korea-Professional Assistant Center for Education), a university for developmental disabilities at Daegu university, has an American teacher and dormitory headmaster(30, Carl Wallin).

He came to Korea for the first time on March last year and he teaches English and stays at the dormitory where the students with developmental disabilities live.

Carl usually help students with dinner, participate in after-school programs, and naturally interact with students in English until end of night out of dormitory.
In the after-school program such as physical education session, Carl use his former athlete's experience to inform students how to use exercise equipment such as dumbbells and treadmills.

In the cooking class, he makes Korean food with students and uploads photographs to his blog.

In addition, Carl participate in programs such as cultural experience and environmental clean-up volunteer activities that are held every Saturday, but Carl do all these volunteer work without pay.

Carl, who grew up in Chicago, was an ice hockey player. He worked as a coach of team he played for in high school. Prior to his arrival in Korea, he was the senior coach of two teams.

Carl had decided to go to Korea because he loved Korean movies and K-pop, took the opportunity to stay with the developmentally disabled.

Carl said "My father was driving school bus at the school for the disabled, so I rode the bus with the other disabled students when i grow up. It was always part of my life."

Carl also says he wants to do as much as he can to have a positive impact on his students.
To do so, He has been devoted to studying Korean for 6 hours each day.

2017년 4월 5일 수요일

Return of the New Millennium: Retro Trend in Korea 2017

James Laver (1899-1975), an English author and critic pointed out the nature of the fashion in Laver's Law which was an attempt to compress the complex cycle of fashion change and the general attitude towards any certain style or period into a simple timeline, that "what was vulgar 10 years ago become shameless 5 years ago, becomes fashionable when it is in trend and it becomes vulgar again after 20 years.

New found appreciation of Korea’s past has made ‘Old’ the new ‘New’. It has become so popular that goods are being made to echo moments in Korean history. It is mostly evident in media (TV and films) and design (products and interior) industries.


A popular example is Heelys, a wheeled shoe that has recently become popular again.
It appeared in 2002 when singer Seven who was nineteen years old in 2003, advertised and it became mega popular at that time but then quickly forgotten. "It seems to be the influence of consumers who have memories of 'Heelys' in the 2000s,"Last year we sold 40,000 pairs and we expect to sell 100,000 pairs this year and plans to launch Heelys for adult by autumn." said Toy Box Korea's Won Yong Jae who imports and sells these shoes since last year.

In the case of fashion, the skinny jeans are going out of style and the age of bootcut jean is coming back.

StarCraft, which led the PC room culture of the 2000s comes back as the remastered version this summer.
Expectations are growing among 30s and 40s who were teenagers when StarCraft was mega popular back in 2000's.
Board games and doll-grabbing crane games which were popular in 2000's are gaining popularity again as well.

My sassy girl, movie which made Jeon Ji-hyeon and Cha Tae-hyun top stars in 2001 is coming back as new TV series.
The drama 'My sassy girl' will be aired on SBS in May.

Park Sung-hee, a researcher at the Korea Trend Research Institute said, "If the younger generation becomes an older generation with economic power and reveals the tendency to reminisce about the past, cultural elements are reproduced."