THE VERSION GUIDEBOOKS SKIP
Not another travel guide.
This isn’t a travel blog, and it’s not a history textbook either. You won’t find “10 must-see palaces in Seoul” here — there are already a thousand of those. What you’ll find is the version of Korea that doesn’t make it into guidebooks: the shrine tucked behind an apartment building, the word your Korean coworker uses but never explains, the history that gets simplified into one sentence when it’s actually a lot messier and more human than that.
If any of this sounds interesting, here’s where to dig in.
Shrimp Between Whales: The Korean Proverb History Wrote
If you’ve read much news about Korea, you may have run into the phrase “a shrimp between whales.” American reporters love it. It shows up whenever big powers start pushing each other around in Asia, and someone needs one image to explain where Korea stands. But it isn’t a reporter’s invention. It’s a Korean proverb…
Korea Gold Collecting Campaign: Why Millions Handed In Gold
Imagine it’s the winter after the 2008 crash. And instead of waiting for Washington to fix it, millions of Americans line up outside their banks — holding wedding rings, class rings, old trophies, and their grandmother’s jewelry box — to hand the gold over so the country can pay its debts. That never happened in…
Princess Bari: The Abandoned Daughter Who Guides the Dead
In Korea, there is a goddess who guides the souls of the dead. Her name is Princess Bari, and it is usually said to mean “the one who was thrown away.” Because on the day she was born, that is exactly what her father did. Years later, she went to the land of the dead…
