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Actor Eom Ki-joon stepped onto the stage as Emperor Norton I in the original Korean musical 'Majesty!', first with a comic grin and then with a quiet, thoughtful gaze. At a press call on October 30, he showed how one weathered uniform can carry both laughter and loneliness. The event took place at the NOL Theater Woori Card Hall in Daehakro, Seoul's well-known theater district, where cast and creative team presented key scenes and answered questions. A Costume, Two Faces Eom first appeared in a large black hat topped with a feather and a uniform with gold epaulettes. With a bushy beard, a mustache curled up on both sides, a wide-open mouth and a forward-leaning posture, he captured the comic spirit of a man who declared himself emperor. Then he removed the hat. With tousled dark hair, a worn white shirt and the same dark coat, he looked noticeably calmer. His head tilted slightly, his eyes fixed on something in the distance, and his lips pressed together. The exaggerated ex...

Adults who use an electronic device every night before bed sleep an average of 7.6 minutes less on weekdays, and they are 33% more likely to report poor sleep quality. The finding comes from a study of 122,058 American adults published in March 2025 in the journal JAMA Network Open. As phones and computers have settled deep into daily life, screen time that runs right up to bedtime has become an important variable in sleep health. The Sofa, the Screen and the Endless Feed For many people, unwinding after work means sitting on the sofa, watching short videos, checking social media posts or reading news online. It is an easy habit. The device is already in hand, it takes no preparation, and new content never stops arriving. Even while the body rests, the time spent looking at a screen can stretch late into the night. A public art installation in Paris poked fun at exactly this lifestyle. Titled Homo Scrollus Canapus, it stood in the La Villette district for two days beginning October 9. ...

Korean companies put 196.879 billion won (about 1,969 hundred million won) into arts and culture in 2025, down 7.4% from the year before, even as more firms and more projects took part. In India, a law requires large companies to spend on social causes, yet arts and culture receive only a small slice of that money. Two Ways of Funding the Arts In Korea, 728 companies backed the arts in 2025, a 24% rise, and the number of supported projects climbed 28.5% to 2,392. Even so, total giving fell for the first time in three years. Korean companies and corporate foundations decide on their own whether to support the arts and how much to give, while the government encourages them through tax benefits, certification schemes and matching funds. India takes a different route. Under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rules, companies above a certain size must spend at least 2% of their average net profit from the previous three fiscal years on social causes. Companies then choose projects fr...

Balenciaga's 2026 ski wear comes with sleeves that balloon outward and wide pants that cover the top of the boots. Designed by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the collection blends functional cold-weather gear with the house's signature oversized silhouette. When Ski Gear Moves Into the City Thick padding hides the waistline, and a voluminous fur hat changes the scale of the face and the proportions of the whole figure. Clothing once meant to protect body heat and aid movement on the mountain is now stretching into everyday city wear, and the shape of winter clothing is changing with it. The lineup includes a high-collar parka, a reversible blouson, a cropped puffer and snow pants. Denim, knitwear and a tracksuit round out the range. The pieces keep the warmth and wind protection a ski resort demands while widening what winter clothing can look like in daily life. The campaign, shot by photographer Adam Peter Johnson, skips the snowy mountains and chooses a classical inte...

Under a vast turquoise sky, two elongated figures stand side by side, one red and one black, while a rider crosses the distant plain. Kyrgyz painter Yuristanbek Shygaev's 1990 oil painting 'Travelers' blends Central Asian landscape, human movement and traditional symbols into a single space. A Landscape Layered With Symbols The canvas measures 140 by 175 centimeters and is held by the artist. Its upper half is a calm, wide sky, with a small yellow form hovering at the center. Below it, an ochre and green earth stretches out, with two peaks rising in the background, one rounded and gentle, the other thinner and taller. Their vertical lines echo the stretched bodies of the two central figures. The red figure has a textured surface of gray and black flecks, while the black figure is simpler and more angular. Between them runs a narrow band of bright green and yellow that sharpens their boundary. To the left, a small horseman in red-brown and teal moves across the distance, a q...

Walking 15 minutes a day for a full week adds up to 105 minutes, which falls short of the 150 minutes of weekly aerobic activity the World Health Organization recommends for adults. Still, for someone who barely moved before, that daily walk is a real step up in health-promoting activity. Movement Is Not Only About Workouts How much you move across the whole day matters, not just how long a single exercise session lasts. Short walks that break up long stretches of sitting are one simple way to build that total. In October 2026, an installation called 'Homo Scrollus Canapus' appeared at La Villette in Paris. It recreated a modern person using electronic devices on a sofa at life size. Glass cases styled like natural history museum specimens held human figures staying in the same posture while staring at screens. The exhibit was a satirical take on a daily life in which the need to move has shrunk. A global survey presented alongside the exhibit found that adults in 31 countries,...

A four-week expert course on overseas Korean policy opened on October 29 at Korea University's Asiatic Research Institute in Seoul. Under the theme 'Finding the Path for Korea's Future Among Its Diaspora,' the program is organized by the Together Multicultural Network and runs both online and offline. A Packed Classroom From Day One Interest was strong from the first session. The in-person classroom ran short of seats as participants arrived from across the country, and many more joined online. The turnout suggests that diaspora policy is no longer seen as a narrow matter of diplomacy or overseas support, but as a national issue touching population, the economy, culture and social cohesion. Shin Sang-rok, chair of the Together Multicultural Network, said the policy is not merely about supporting ethnic Koreans abroad. He described it as a future national strategy that protects the history and identity of Koreans rooted around the world while helping the homeland and dia...

At the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, traditional weavers worked their looms, painters drew on cloth and potters carved patterns into vessels while visitors watched. Called Swadesh, the craft program was run by the Reliance Foundation, and it linked appreciation of Indian handcraft directly to the income of the people who make it. From Exhibition to Income The NMACC opened in Mumbai on March 31, 2023. Visitors at Swadesh could follow each step of the making process, speak with the artisans directly, and buy or order finished works on the spot. The program was first planned to run for three days. As visitor interest and orders kept coming, the exhibition period was extended, and an extended run was announced on May 29, 2023. All proceeds from orders taken by the artisans during the event went to the makers themselves. In this way, the program tied the experience of viewing craft to the economic activity of its creators. The driving force behind Swadesh is Nita Amb...

A transparent glass display appeared in central Paris, showing a human figure slumped on a sofa and staring at a screen. Labeled 'Homo Scrollus Canapus,' it presents modern sedentary life as if it were a natural history exhibit. A Museum Exhibit for the Couch The installation stood in front of the Grande Halle de La Villette, a landmark venue in northern Paris, for two days starting October 9, 2026. Sports brand ASICS created it to mark World Mental Health Day, turning the habit of sitting on a sofa and swiping through content into a made-up species. The display borrows the language of a science museum. Visitors found an information panel styled like a specimen label, along with a documentary-style audio commentary describing the creature's habits. What makes the piece striking is how ordinary it is. The figure does nothing dramatic. It watches videos, checks messages on a phone and flicks through online content, again and again. There is no threat to survival and no visibl...

A black cloth blankets the floor, and from an old wooden chair, leafless branches reach upward. Behind it hangs a circular painting where black meets silver, an installation by Korean artist Limhana (LIMHANA) titled 'Replenish'. It was shown from October 21 to 27 at Gallery 2 of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, as part of the selected young artists exhibition of the 21st Gwanghwamun International Art Festival 2026. Memory, Matter and Space Sixty-one artists, Limhana among them, were chosen for this year's Asian contemporary young artists showcase. Limhana linked 'Replenish' with the forms of 'Tree of Thoughts' and 'Wanting Not to Be Seen, Unable Not to Be Seen' to stage how an inner self worn down by memory, emotion and relationships slowly regains its balance. In the circular painting, deep black sits alongside layered silver matière. Black stands for tolerance and embrace, while the silver rises in swirling, overlapping textures ...

YEEZY and designer Mowalola have added black and tan colorways to their 'KITTY' underwear collection. The pieces cut back on fabric to reveal the waist and hips, and they widen the criteria for choosing underwear to include skin tone, body shape and the silhouettes people usually wear. Two Silhouettes, Two Colors The drop includes the KS-01 Kitty Short at $40 and the KP-01 Kitty Panty at $30, both now in black and tan. Mowalola Ogunlesi, a Nigerian-British designer and former design director at Yeezy Gap, is known for designs that play with body curves and exposure. KITTY follows that approach, favoring fabric coverage, cutting and a close fit over decoration. Color works differently on different skin. Tan can read as softer or more contrasted depending on how its brightness compares with the wearer's skin, and so-called nude shades do not suit everyone equally. Black separates the outline of the garment on any skin tone and makes the cuts look sharp. Shape matters too. The...

What would it look like if you could see the moment you sink deep into your favorite song? Art toy artist CH.75, whose real name is Kim Cheol-ho, answers with tiny explorers in worn-out diving suits. His world, SONIC OCEAN, is a sea made of sound and sound waves, inspired by old radios, cassette players and chunky mechanical devices. A Deep-Sea World Built From Sound CH.75 says SONIC OCEAN is a mysterious sea somewhere in distant space, home to mechanical life forms that live around an energy called the 'Sound Core.' The Skimako divers are one series among them. They collect the echoes of music and emotion drifting in from Earth and refine them into Sound Cores, which serve as their life source. Peeling paint and rusted metal textures make each figure look as if it has been exploring the depths for a very long time. The artist loves retro futurism, steampunk and cassette futurism, and he always listens to music while he works. Losing track of time in that flow felt like diving ...

A festival built around gimbap, Korea's seaweed rice rolls found at nearly every corner, has topped a survey of festivals domestic travelers most want to visit. The Gimcheon Gimbap Festival drew 11.5% of mentions, far ahead of the Boryeong Mud Festival at 2.6%. The result comes from the Domestic Travel Trend Report 2026 by market research firm Embrain's Open Survey, which polled 2,000 Koreans aged 20 to 69 between September 29 and October 8. Among 763 respondents who named a festival they want to visit, Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival (2.5%), Seoul World Fireworks Festival (2.1%), Jinhae Gunhangje cherry blossom festival (2.0%), Busan Fireworks Festival (1.8%) and Gumi Ramen Festival (1.7%) followed. The figure reflects open-ended mentions, not actual visitor numbers. From a Pun to 150,000 Visitors The festival began when younger people linked the city name Gimcheon to Gimbap Heaven, a popular gimbap chain. Gimcheon, a city in North Gyeongsang Province, held its first festival i...

Korean director Lee Chang-dong's new film 'Possible Love' has been nominated in three categories at the 36th Gotham Awards, a major American independent film awards ceremony. The nominations were announced on the 28th, and lead actress Jeon Do-yeon is now widely seen as an early contender in the Oscar race. Three Nominations, a Crowded Field 'Possible Love' is up for Outstanding International Feature, Best Screenplay and Outstanding Lead Performance. Lee and writer Oh Jeong-mi were named together for the screenplay, which they co-wrote, while Jeon was nominated for lead performance. She will compete with acclaimed names such as Julianne Moore for 'The Debut' and Gillian Anderson for 'What Happened at Miasma Camp'. The Best Feature award is limited to American productions with American participation, so the film was not eligible there. In the international category, the film faces Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 'Suddenly the Illness Worsens' and Sand...

Italian luxury house Bottega Veneta is launching handcrafted leather accessories made exclusively for its Alta Fragrance Collection, which debuted last June. The new line brings the brand's signature Intrecciato weaving technique to perfume, turning a bottle into something you carry as a fashion piece. Woven Leather Made for Perfume Intrecciato, the brand's hallmark leather-weaving method, takes center stage across the lineup. The accessories come in two forms: perfume holders sized to fit 50ml and 100ml bottles, and a charm designed to hold a portable 10ml fragrance. The perfume holders are offered in five colors. The charm version adds a Basil Green shade, bringing its total to six color options. In Korea, the 10ml perfume holder charm is priced at 640,000 won, and the 50ml small perfume holder at 730,000 won. What goes inside is just as considered. The Alta Fragrance Collection includes 10 eau de parfum scents built on an idea called Intrecciato Duo, which blends Italian ing...

Juyeon and Q (Ji Chang-min), the main dancers of K-pop boy group THE BOYZ, have set social media buzzing with a black-and-white dance video set to 'NEON.' Across Instagram Reels and X, the clip has passed a combined 2 million views. How the NEON Challenge Came Together THE BOYZ posted the video on its official social accounts on the 27th. In it, Juyeon and Q dance to 'NEON,' the debut song of A2O LITE, which was released on the 13th and reached No. 1 on Melon's TOP100 chart (a major Korean music streaming platform) in about 29 hours. Dressed casually, the pair filled the studio with high-energy choreography. The project began with Juyeon. In a message on a fan communication app, he said he suggested it to Q simply because he wanted to dance, and he thought hard about which challenge would earn praise. He even chose a neon-style windbreaker on purpose. Q said fans had recommended the NEON challenge to him on the same app, and Juyeon then proposed doing it together. A...

For the first time on record, more than half of South Korea's wage earners make at least 3 million won a month in the first half of the year. But the total number of wage earners fell for the first time in six years, and the share of very low earners edged up as well. The data come from the first-half 2026 regional employment survey released by Statistics Korea's successor agency, the National Data Office, which tracks jobs by industry and occupation. A Wider Pay Gap Among all wage earners, 51.9 percent earned a monthly average of 3 million won or more. By bracket, 22.8 percent earned between 3 million and 4 million won, 11.5 percent earned between 4 million and 5 million won, and 17.6 percent earned 5 million won or more. That top group rose 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, the highest first-half figure since the statistic began in 2013. At the other end, the share of workers earning under 1 million won a month rose from 9.6 percent to 9.8 percent, meaning roughly on...

Actress Shin Min-a has opened up about married life with husband Kim Woo-bin on tvN's variety show 'You Quiz on the Block.' The couple, who dated publicly for 10 years before marrying last December, are approaching their first wedding anniversary. Package Piles and Sweet Compliments In preview clips tvN released on its YouTube channel on the 24th and 26th, host Yoo Jae-suk brought up the couple's joint appearance at the 5th Blue Dragon Series Awards, a major Korean awards ceremony for television and streaming. Kim Woo-bin was a best actor nominee there, while Shin had presented an award at the same event. Shin said she felt strange from the moment her husband was nominated. She also shared the very ordinary conversations that fill their home. The phrase they say most often, she said, is a reminder to open the packages, since parcels keep arriving even when nobody seems to be home. Shin said her husband compliments her a lot. 'He tells me I am pretty, and even when I...

Gustav Klimt's landscape 'Litzlbergkeller' is heading back to the auction block after 29 years. Christie's will offer the painting in New York on November 17 with an estimate of $60 million to $80 million, up to about 5.4 times the $14.7 million it fetched in 1997. A Lakeside Inn Painted in Klimt's Late Style Painted in 1915-1916, the square canvas shows a brewery and inn on Austria's Lake Attersee, surrounded by dense forest. Klimt filled the scene with short, decorative brushstrokes. Above, the building and trees are clearly defined. Below, their reflections dissolve into small patches of color that edge toward abstraction. No people appear, so the architecture, forest and water take center stage. Klimt first visited Attersee in 1900 and spent several summers there before his death in 1918. Unlike many of his lake views, this one was commissioned by his longtime patron, the banker Otto Primavesi. It later passed through several private owners, including the de...

When Koreans plan a domestic trip, they look for lodging on Naver, the country's dominant web portal, but the platform they book on is often a different one. A new consumer survey shows that convenience, price and booking terms are judged separately at each step. Search Here, Compare There, Book Somewhere Else In the Domestic Travel Trend Report 2026 released in October by Embrain's Open Survey, 431 respondents who researched or compared accommodation were asked where they looked. Naver Search was used by 44.1%, NOL (the Yanolja platform) by 33.2%, Yeogi Eottae by 30.2%, Naver Booking by 26.5% and Agoda by 22.7%. Respondents could choose multiple channels. Among 347 respondents who also named their final booking channel, NOL led with 54, followed by Naver Booking with 48, the lodging's own website or app with 42, Yeogi Eottae with 39 and Agoda with 33. Airbnb drew 22 and Trip.com 15. Reasons differed by platform. Naver Booking and Yeogi Eottae users put easy booking and pay...

Actress Jeon Do-yeon could become the first Korean performer ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, according to forecasts from major North American outlets including The Hollywood Reporter. The buzz centers on her role in 'Possible Love,' the new film from director Lee Chang-dong. The Hollywood Reporter named Jeon a potential nominee on October 25 local time, and the film currently holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, a key barometer in awards season. Critics Line Up Behind Her Performance The Hollywood Reporter said it is hard to imagine anyone other than Jeon playing the role of Mi-ok, praising a performance that cuts deepest in the most joyful moments. The Los Angeles Times wrote that this year's list of best performers exists for acting like Jeon's, a remark that hints at growing goodwill among U.S. critics' groups and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Hollywood Reporter also placed 'Possible Love' on its ...