The Journal, page 5
A place to learn about hanbok and Korean celebrations, at your own pace.
Page 5 of 9.
- Hanbok Guides
Before You Measure for Hanbok
Start with the piece Measurement requirements vary by garment. Ask Eric which measurements are needed for the piece you are considering, then measure only…
- Hanbok Guides
The Chima, the Jeogori, the Line
Women's hanbok is two pieces in conversation. The chima is the wide high-waisted skirt that carries most of the color and the weight of the read. The jeogori…
- Recipes
The Noodles at Every Korean Party
What japchae is The dangmyeon go into cold water first, coiled in a wide bowl on the counter. Youngsook slices sirloin thin against the grain, salts spinach…
- Hanbok Guides
How to Spot a Costume
What “authentic” means The first hanbok a Bay Area bride sent Eric for a second opinion had arrived from an Amazon seller in a vacuum-sealed pouch…
- Hanbok Guides
The Thread, the Brush, the Coin
Three objects sit at the front of the table. A length of white thread, a small ink brush, a coin. The baby reaches once, and the room reads the choice out…
- Hanbok Guides
Modern Hanbok, in Plain Language
A client in Palo Alto asks the same question at nearly every first meeting. What actually makes a hanbok modern. The answer is not shorter, not tighter, and…
- Hanbok Guides
What Affects the Price of a Hanbok
Two hanbok that look alike in a photograph can be priced very differently. Before comparing numbers, compare what each price includes. Fabric. Fiber, weight…
- Hanbok Guides
Korean Gifts That Mean Something
The most thoughtful Korean gift is rarely the most expensive one. A jar of well-fermented kimchi from a relative. A small calligraphy scroll from Insadong. A…
- Hanbok Guides
Choosing Your First Hanbok
Start with the occasion, not the price A first 한복 is a specific decision. It sets the palette a family will photograph in for a decade, and it teaches the…
- Recipes
Kimchi, the Way Mrs. Lee Makes It
What kimchi actually is The napa cabbage sits in salt water overnight, weighted with a heavy plate. In the morning Youngsook rinses each leaf and tastes a stem…
- Hanbok Guides
How Hanbok Came Back
Ten years ago, 한복 in the United States meant a rental for a wedding weekend and a garment bag in a closet. Today it means a linen 저고리 over jeans at a coffee…
- Hanbok Guides
Dressing Like a K-pop Idol
The Hanbok And Its Significance In Korean Culture For a long stretch, hanbok was the dress you wore for the family photograph and then folded back into the…
- Recipes
Mrs. Lee's Doenjang Jjigae
What doenjang jjigae is The 뚝배기 is on the burner, already warm. Mrs. Lee dips a wooden spoon into a jar of 된장 the color of wet bark and stirs three heavy…
- Hanbok Guides
Ten Things to Do in Korea
The first time you land at Incheon, the country moves faster than your body does. The train to Seoul is quiet and clean. The convenience store at midnight is a…
- Korean Culture
The Harvest Moon and the Family Table
What Chuseok is Han-gawi. The great middle. The full moon at the center of autumn, and a family gathered around a table of newly harvested rice, freshly…
- Hanbok Guides
When Hanbok Walks the Runway
This article is being revised.
- Korean Culture
The Ten Boy Groups That Defined a Year
Dynamite lands at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on a Sunday morning in Seoul. Fans are awake, refreshing charts, screenshotting the moment. BTS goes back…
- Korean Culture
The Women Who Carry K-pop Alone
Jamsil Arena, 2019. IU walked to a single spotlight in a white dress and sang "Through the Night" without a track under her voice. Fourteen thousand light…
- Korean Culture
Before Gangnam Style, There Was This
A Guide to K-Pop History, Evolution, and Idol Groups Wembley Stadium, June 2019. Ninety thousand voices sang the second verse of "Fake Love" in Korean, phoneme…
- Korean Culture
Korea Past Seoul, In Order
The KTX pulls out of Seoul Station and clears the city in nine minutes. Two hours later you are eating milmyeon in Busan. That night you are on a rooftop in…
- Korean Culture
Why August Fifteenth Still Matters
August 15, 1945. Radios across Korea carried the voice of the Japanese emperor announcing surrender. Thirty-five years of colonial rule ended in an afternoon…
- Korean Culture
Why March First Still Matters
On March 1, 1919, a declaration was read aloud in Tapgol Park in Seoul. Within hours it was being read in villages and market squares across the peninsula. Two…
- Korean Culture
What Makes Korea Itself
What makes Korean culture distinct is rarely the items a Western reader lists first (the food, the K-pop, the dramas). Those are the visible exports. The…
- Korean Culture
A Short Walk Through Korea
Korean culture is often introduced to Western audiences as a list. The food, the music, the fashion, the cinema, the language. The list flattens it. What…