Modern Korea, as seen through pop music, soap operas

“After the near‐collapse of the world’s financial system has shown that we economists really do not know how the world works, I am much too embarrassed to teach economics anymore, which I have done for many years. I will teach Modern Korean Drama instead,” said Uwe Reinhardt, an economist at Princeton, on the first page of his plan for a lecture titled “Introductory Korean Drama.”

Old and new thrive at Samseong-dong

  Old and New Thrive at Samseong-dong   Thirty-one seconds into the record-breaking music video for “Gangnam Style,” rapper PSY does his signature horse-riding dance in front of a sleek glass-paneled building. A second later, the entire upper half of the glossy façade comes into view, dwarfing PSY and his still energetic galloping. For those familiar…