If you have watched Netflix's Kingdom, you have already seen a gat. Rows of them, actually, bobbing through candlelit palace halls while zombies close in. What the show does not tell you i…

A Joseon noblewoman is about to leave for a wedding. Her hanbok is already tied, her hair already pinned. Before she steps outside, she reaches for one more thing, a small silk tassel, and faste…

She Ran After Me Down the Street I'd left ten thousand won folded under my plate at a barbecue place in Euljiro, paid at the counter, and made it about half a block before I heard someone c…

The Map Never Warned Me About This I got cocky about the Seoul subway on day two. The colored lines on the map looked so tidy, every transfer marked with the same small circle, like switching f…

A king who designed an alphabet before breakfast. A single man who mapped an entire country on foot. Two painters who could not have looked at Joseon life more differently. And a filing system s…

Somewhere in the National Museum of Korea sits a 260-year-old document that lists the exact number of eggs, abalones, and sea cucumbers that went into a single bowl of royal soup. Not an estim…