Published by the Gwangju International Center since 2001
The band describes its music in online bios as “seomin punk,” with seomin meaning “the commoner class or ordinary people.” But it’s not to be confused with working-class pride, a common theme among many other punk bands.
By William Urbanski If you’ve tried to walk, take a bus, or drive anywhere in Gwangju over the last two years, you’ve no doubt noticed that there’s a massive construction … Read More
2022 couldn’t have been a better comeback for Gwangju FC, one of the two professional sports club in this city of 1.5 million. Its winning in K League 2, putting it back to K League 1 next year, gives hope to the football (soccer) club that has been having an up-and-down history in its involvement in the Korea Football League.
That is what I came looking for in Gwangju: the traditions and culture that South Korea is currently evolving from. Gwangju is not the increasingly global society of Seoul; a foreigner here can still get the experience of alterity that should go with any real travel. People can still be surprised here with your altogether “otherness,” be it the way you dress, the way you talk, or the color of your eyes. One Korean friend, in fact, told me that the blue or green color of the eyes of some of his Occidental acquaintances was what struck him the most when meeting them.
This past October, Gwangju hosted the inaugural Buskers World Cup (BWC) in what can only be described as a massive step in the right direction when compared to the ordinarily bland, tedious, and quite frankly pedestrian “festivals” that plague the ACC. Beyond providing all sorts of great entertainment, the BWC brought about a noticeable change in the ambiance of the downtown area and acted as a platform for meaningful and international cultural exchange.
Numun-dong, located directly across the Gwangju Stream from Yangdong Market, is one of the city’s more variegated areas and a stellar example of how urban planners used to prioritize density differently through jumbles of mixed-use, low-rise structures. Even as it is now midway through the compensation process, the area is still teaming with grizzled locals and faded mom-and-pop shops that spill out onto the streets between rows of tightly parked cars. It even has a few garish love motels crowned with fake castle turrets and Russian onion domes, though these are mostly abandoned now.
Many scientists have warned that we would face devastating consequences when the temperature rises by 1.5˚C from the level of the beginning of industrialization. Currently, however, we have come closer to that point. Therefore, now is time for us to raise awareness of and take actions against the climate crisis in order to brace for more serious risks in the future.
By David Dolinger I I have thought long and hard about what I could write for you, how I could regal you in tales about Gwangju and Jeollanam-do in the … Read More
