blog
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Here’s our new garden!
If you’ve been following me for years, you probably know that I’ve been tending a garden for years. This year, we decided to scale up our garden—not just the size of it but also the time we can spend on it. Lots of weekend garden landlords in Korea plough up the land every spring so…
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Korea Deconstructed: Webtoons, Artists, and Industry
From the host David’s show notes: Subin Kim is a writer, translator, and journalist. His work currently appears in Al Jazeera and he’s previously been associated with the BBC and NK News. He’s a self-described serf and a lover of pigs. Our conversation started with understanding what webtoons actually are and who reads them. We…
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South Koreans struggle to climb property ladder as prices explode
In a country where real estate accounts for more than 60 per cent of household assets, the increasing unaffordability has resulted in a yawning generational gap in house ownership and wealth. An analysis of the 2020 Korea Housing Survey shows that house ownership nosedives in people younger than 40. read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4/28/south-koreans-struggle-to-climb-property-ladder-as-prices-soar
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How South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol Capitalized on Anti-Feminist Backlash to Win the Presidency
No candidate capitalized on the anti-feminist movement like Yoon Suk-yeol, who narrowly won Wednesday’s election and will become South Korea’s next leader. The populist, from the conservative People Power Party (PPP), worked to appeal to men who are anxious about losing ground to women, and helped turn a fringe online community into a major political…
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Big shopping complex finds itself in the heart of the race for next S Korean president
One phenomenon South Korea has seen in the recent years is a slow but evident dissolution of the traditional political regionalism—not because governments’ decades-long effort finally worked but the provincial economies are breaking apart: the traditional model of the provincial politics is no longer working. My latest for Al Jazeera English: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/8/as-south-korea-votes-shopping-mall-bid-spotlights-regional-split Provincial politics has…