From the Editor

The gates are opening on a new year as the entrance to January welcomes in 2023. We are met with greetings of “Happy New Year!” Additionally, the lunar new year welcomes us on Seollal (Jan. 22) with 새해 복 많이 받으십시오 (“Wishing you much happiness in the new year”). The felicitations are for happiness, but the stark reality is that there are also challenges awaiting us in the Year of the Rabbit.

The climate crisis is rapidly accelerating, bringing us increasingly violent weather conditions – only one of which is the water shortage that is threatening Gwangju. The uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 in China jeopardizes the world with the potential spawn of new and vaccine-resistant variants of the coronavirus. Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine is negatively affecting the world economy and creating international shortages of food and fuel, not to mention the havoc being wreaked on the population of Ukraine.

Apologies for all the mention of doom and gloom. The truth is that every year has its challenges, and the more severe those challenges are, the more meaningful the wishes for happiness in the new year become. But challenges are meant to be overcome, and history has shown that time after time mankind has risen to the occasion.

For our part in providing a modicum of happiness and joy, the small but dedicated staff of the Gwangju News pledges to bring you twelve issues of reading material that is interesting and informative, and hopefully, sometimes incentivizing and intoxicating!

As this month’s installment of our pledge, we bring you four features covering the award-winning archer An San, the graphite artist Park So-bin, The North Korea researcher Moe Taylor, and the Gwangju punk band Dirty Rockhon.

We share with you the start of a series of recipes that are delicious, healthy, and environment-friendly. Two articles deal with the looming Gwangju water shortage: One tells how we can save water to make it “rain” [Environment]; the other suggests the root cause of the water shortage problem [Opinion]. To give a musical review of 2022, DJ Danno shares his selection of 22 picks of the year for you [Top of The Drop].

In addition, we have all the regulars: Gwangju city news, a short story, a book review, words of wisdom, a comic strip, a crossword puzzle, and photography. Check out our article on Montessori education as well as Language Teaching and Everyday Korean.

From all of us at the Gwangju News to all of you – We wish you a very happy new year.

David E. Shaffer  

Editor-in-Chief

Gwangju News