K-pop 2018: end of year review - Momoland, mullets, misogyny and more
There was a fair bit happening in South Korea in 2018 (in case you missed it). For starters, Kim Jong-Un became the first North Korean...
There was a fair bit happening in South Korea in 2018 (in case you missed it). For starters, Kim Jong-Un became the first North Korean...
Orquesta Akokán brings Cuba's mambo music of a bygone era to the Sydney Festival.
Bringing the musical In the Heights to the stage of the Sydney Opera House has not been without its challenges, writes Gabriel Wilder.
Long hours and a lot of pressure. That's a fact of life for Laode Syarif ( PhD (Law) '08), who is one of only five anti-corruption commissioners in Indonesia's Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (Corruption Eradication Commission), or KPK. "It is a very dangerous job," Syarif says.
American broadcaster Edward Murrow, lamenting the viewing habits of the population in the 1950s, paraphrased Karl Marx: "If television and radio are to be used to entertain all of the people all of the time, then we have come perilously close to discovering the real opiate of the people."
One recent Saturday in August, in the middle of a heatwave with the temperature hitting 35 degrees, 70,000 women gathered in the streets of Seoul. The numbers were unprecedented, but the action wasn't. They have been staging regular rallies since May, in what has been called the biggest recorded women's movement in South Korea's history.
When Donald Trump was elected US President, many pronounced satire dead. The twitter hashtag #nottheonion, a reference to the satirical news website, grew more common with every outlandish tweet and unpredictable decision from America's new leader. But to paraphrase one of the country's most revered authors, Mark Twain, rumours of satire's death proved grossly exaggerated.
In January, I sent a Facebook message to an old friend of mine who edits a gay magazine called DNA. South Korean singer Holland had just released his debut MV, Neverland, featuring a same-sex kiss, and had rapidly gained a lot support; mostly, it seemed, from outside the country.
On a Wednesday morning in a shopping centre in Sydney's Chinatown, as businesses on the lower levels are just opening for the day, a crowd is flooding into the third level.
The ripple effects of Hollywood's # MeToo movement are starting to be felt around the world, including in South Korea where a governor and potential presidential candidate has been forced to step down after being accused of rape.