“In fact, the most common cause of death for Koreans under the age of forty is suicide;” — Euny Hong Death Copy Share Image
“In essence, shamanism is the belief that all happiness stems from harmony with nature.” — Euny Hong Faith Copy Share Image
“Being Korean in America when I was a child was like being a smoker now. We were pariahs with filthy smelly habits… — Euny Hong Children Copy Share Image
“South Korea knew that it was a poor country not long ago, and they had learned that defeating poverty was a national… — Euny Hong Long ago Copy Share Image
“You may have an iPhone, for example, but its microchips are made by Apple’s biggest competitor—the Korean electronics company Samsung.” — Euny Hong Business Copy Share Image
“Korea was my Zion. I had read too many British novels about wretched children finding out they were actually of noble birth… — Euny Hong Books Copy Share Image
“Psy will go down in history as the first real twenty-first-century entertainer: who else could combine Confucianism and farting?” — Euny Hong Confucianism Copy Share Image
“culture critic Lee Moon-won opined, “Hallyu started with Samsung.” In other words, the popularity of Korean music and movies is hard to… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“I’ve made much worse gaffes, like the time I accidentally spilled hot soup on a Nobel laureate’s lap and then set fire… — Euny Hong Hot soup Copy Share Image
“Hallyu started with Samsung.” In other words, the popularity of Korean music and movies is hard to separate from the confidence that… — Euny Hong Music Copy Share Image
“Onerously, Korea still has not managed to wean itself off its reliance on the chaebols—the mega conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai. True,… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“Kim Jong-il also invented the hamburger. Almost touchingly, North Koreans have a lot of pride in their heritage, though it’s for absurd… — Euny Hong Korea Copy Share Image
“Lee Kun-hee, the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull, took over as chairman of Samsung in 1987. In 1993, he held… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“The Korean wave of popular culture is called “Hallyu.” You should learn the word, since you’ll be seeing a lot of it.… — Euny Hong Around the world Copy Share Image
“In recent decades, the biggest enemies of shamanism have been Korea’s many fervent Christians. Which, said Mason, is highly ironic, since Korean… — Euny Hong Christianity Copy Share Image
“The Chosun Dynasty adopted Confucianism in all walks of civil and personal life at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The nation’s… — Euny Hong Confucianism Copy Share Image
“Kim Jong-il had real cultural ambitions. He was a known cinephile who fancied himself a rare blend of canny Hollywood producer and… — Euny Hong Art Copy Share Image
“There is another, bleaker reason why Korea has little reason to fear that other countries will try to emulate the K-pop export… — Euny Hong Constant criticism Copy Share Image
“K-culture has the potential to be a powerful diplomatic tool. I'm convinced that the late Korean president Kim Daejung will be proven… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“I was teased constantly by children calling me “Yankee,” which was slightly amusing, and mimicking my Korean, which was less amusing. I… — Euny Hong Children Copy Share Image
“I asked him about what it was like growing up as a Korean American in northern New Jersey in the 1970s and… — Euny Hong Asian american Copy Share Image
“Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables was required reading in Korean schools, as was Alphonse Daudet’s short story, “La Dernière Classe,” for both my… — Euny Hong Education Copy Share Image
“Whenever kids asked me, “Are you Chinese?”—which was often—I would invariably respond yes. My mother heard me doing this once and gave… — Euny Hong Asian Copy Share Image
“Lee believes, as do the vast majority of South Koreans, that North Koreans are not so stupid that they fail to see… — Euny Hong Korea Copy Share Image
“Many people outside Korea subscribe to the belief that Korean food contains mystic healing properties. The SARS bird flu epidemic of 2003… — Euny Hong Faith Copy Share Image
“University entrance anxiety is regarded as one of the reasons that Korea has the highest suicide rate of any nation in the… — Euny Hong Death Copy Share Image
“Please write your name on the envelope before you put your poop in, because you’ll find it difficult to write on it… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“The South Korean economy is a paradox: it is utterly capitalist, yet at the same time it is in some ways still… — Euny Hong Capitalism Copy Share Image
“Korean-made video games now constitute a quarter of the world market. Even most Koreans have no idea how big Korea’s gaming industry.” — Euny Hong Investing Copy Share Image
“the Japanese nonetheless viewed kimchi as a sign of Korean peasant primitiveness. We were cabbage eaters, like the Irish. We delighted in… — Euny Hong Food Copy Share Image
“K-dramas are soft power in action; they subtly and overtly promote Korean values, images, and tastes to their international audience.” — Euny Hong Dramas Copy Share Image
“Samsung digital TVs depended on countries making the switch from analog to digital television, which is why Samsung TVs did not take… — Euny Hong Investing Copy Share Image
“First-worlders have the luxury of not having to think about waste elimination very much. But for a third-worlder, poop is a big… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“Psy is the paradigm shift within the paradigm shift. And his life and bewildering rise to fame are an embodiment of the… — Euny Hong Life Copy Share Image
“The teachers never explained what this debt was all about, but we knew it was an embarrassment on the level of a… — Euny Hong Copy Share Image
“Korea has five television channels devoted to gaming twenty-four hours a day; the United States only has one well-known gaming channel, G4.” — Euny Hong Korea Copy Share Image
“By “good deal,” Lee is referring to the world’s worst-kept secret: North Korea makes these threats to extort money from the rest… — Euny Hong Humanitarian aid Copy Share Image
“Very few countries have ever attempted to sell their pop culture to the United States. Even Japan didn’t try.” Korea” — Euny Hong Japan Copy Share Image
“Koreans are good at engaging in crisis,” he said, pointing to all the times the country had been invaded—by Britain, Russia, China,… — Euny Hong Korea Copy Share Image
