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Korean Culture Explained: Life, History, Music & Language | NowHitz · 9

[분청사기ㆍ백자실] 달을 닮은 조선의 도자기, 백자 달항아리

Why a Korean moon jar is not a perfect circle

Joseon white-porcelain moon jars are round, but not mechanically perfect spheres. A slight lean, a soft white surface and a relaxed silhouette define the form.

수어 소장품소개: '금속활자'

When printing a book meant casting letters one by one

Joseon printing meant selecting and arranging individual pieces of metal type by hand. Tiny letters cast to print books for the state and royal court survive at the National Museum of Korea.

[국립중앙박물관 X EBS] 똑똑 문화재 박사 6화 말 탄 사람 토기

Why the Silla horse-rider figure is hollow inside

Silla’s horse-and-rider shaped pottery looks like a small sculpture, but its body is hollow. Liquid poured into a funnel at the back of the horse flows out through a spout at its chest.

서른 즈음에 · 전인권 · 이찬혁 · 강승원

‘Around Thirty,’ sung by the man who wrote it

Kim Kwang-seok made “Around Thirty” famous, but Kang Seung-won wrote both its lyrics and music. A KBS performance by Kang, Jeon In-kwon and Lee Chan-hyuk brings the song’s authorship back into view.

What We Notice When a Street Makes Room

Several Seoul roads give more space to people than to cars on October 4. A street that pauses its usual function can change how the city looks.

그대안의 블루

The Blue in You

“The Blue in You,” sung by Kim Hyun-chul and Lee So-ra, is the theme of a 1992 film. Two contrasting voices draw close and pull apart, holding the line between love and farewell in a blue-toned duet.

김현철 - 왜 그래 (with 댄쓰 퍼포먼쓰) [유희열의 스케치북] 20190426

What’s Wrong?

Kim Hyun-chul’s 1995 song “What’s Wrong?” turns the frustration of a partner’s silence into clipped, conversational lines over a light, funky groove.

You Don’t Have to See Everything

October brings plenty of choices in Seoul. A good day need not mean more stops; it can mean giving one experience enough room.

A song that feels like a memory: Jang Pil-soon’s Eoneusae

A song that feels like a memory: Jang Pil-soon’s Eoneusae

You do not need to have lived through an era to feel at home in its music. Meet Eoneusae, a song from Jang Pil-soon’s 1989 solo debut. Bring your own memories; no knowledge of Korean music is required.

It looks like abstract art. It began as a wrapping cloth.

It looks like abstract art. It began as a wrapping cloth.

Bojagi is the Korean word for a wrapping cloth. A jogakbo is the patchwork kind, assembled from smaller pieces of fabric. A practical way to make use of cloth became a composition of colors, shapes and visible seams.

That shimmer is shell, not paint

That shimmer is shell, not paint

The luminous patterns on Korean najeonchilgi are made from carefully cut pieces of shell. Thin mother-of-pearl is shaped and arranged across lacquered objects, turning a natural material into fine decorative lines.

Hanok: an old kind of home with a surprisingly modern name

Hanok: an old kind of home with a surprisingly modern name

Hanok describes a traditional Korean house, but the name is newer than the building tradition. Seoul’s Hanok Portal explains that it emerged as Western-style architecture arrived, creating a need to distinguish familiar Korean houses from the new style.