celebrate

Stir Your Crushes’ Palate on 11/11: Celebrate Pepero and Pocky Day With a Personality

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Did you know that Koreans and Japanese gift stick biscuits on Nov. 11 to show affection? Pepero and Pocky, two rod-shaped biscuits, are widely consumed on this day due to their resemblance to the number one. Over the past two decades, Pepero Day and Pocky Day have gradually evolved from pure marketing campaigns to national Valentine’s Days. With the happening of these two special days today, I will introduce a brief history of Pepero, followed by a guide to choosing the right flavor for your special one, and then do the same for Pocky day.

Arts & Culture

Seoul Searching: Stereotypes, Authenticity, Diversity

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Seoul Searching (directed by Benson Lee) starts in black and white, old reels and footage of Korea as a narrator gives a quick historical background to give us the setting for the film. After a devastating war, many Koreans left the peninsula in search of a better life, bringing their young children to America and Europe. As so often happens in immigrant stories, the children inevitably experienced a distinct loss of heritage and understanding of Korean culture. In an attempt to mitigate this, the South Korean government implemented a program during the ’80s to bring children of immigrants to Korea for a summer camp to learn about their Korean heritage. This movie revolves around a set of these kids — Sid (Justin Chon), Klaus (Teo Yoo), Sergio (Esteban Ahn), Grace (Jessika Van), Kris (Rosalina Leigh) to name a few — going to this camp.

Uncategorized

korean dance

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Mark Wulfe / Sun Staff
Members of the Korean traditional dance group CHOoOm perform during a NK Focus event this weekend.