Read East Asian Legends, Classics and Korean Traditional Objects
World Hot Issues is for readers new to East Asian legends and classics, and curious about the uses and history of Korean traditional objects. These are our main focus, alongside world culture, geography, language and environment.
Read Legends & ClassicsLegends and classical literature of Korea, China and Japan, explained from the original texts, with comparisons of how the same story differs across the three countries.
Quoting lines from Scroll 11's “The Grave of the Three Kings,” the Donghai filial wife entry and “Han Ping and His Wife,” and from Scroll 16's “Song Dingbo Catches a Ghost” and the Ziyu entry, we examine the place where grudge and love come to rest, and set it beside the account in the Hebo entry of Scroll 4.
Reading in the original the record of the Gan Bao biography in Jin Shu 82, passages from the preface to the Soushen ji, the transmission split into a 20-chapter and an 8-chapter text, and the Chisongzi and Dong Yong tales of chapter 1, to establish how Gan Bao approached his writing.
Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) calls Yi Sun-sin 'Korea's greatest commander' and records his integrity and humility along with it. The evidence comes from the Korea Heritage Service's Korea Heritage Portal, from Korea.net, and from Gunsa, the journal of the Military History Institute at the Ministry of National Defense.
The records say people gathered to sing and struck the hills with a stick. We read the story exactly as it stands: the order of events in the Lady Suro entry of Samguk Yusa Volume 2, and the accounts in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and in the National Folk Museum of Korea's Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture.
Reading the dialogue with Master Yukgwan in Chapter 16 of The Nine Cloud Dream, and the quotation of Zhuang Zhou's butterfly dream, in the original Chinese, and weighing them point by point against the Tang tales Zhenzhongji and Nanke taishou zhuan, the Joseon dream-journey records and the 19th-century Ongnumong, in order to ask where the dream is placed.
Drawing on Chapters 3, 6, 13 and 15 of 九雲夢 at Chinese Wikisource and on passages from The Nine Cloud Dream (구운몽) at Korean Wikisource, this article traces how Yang So-yu's romances return as introduction, reunion and roll call, and points out how the Chwimi Palace passage and the petition in Chapter 15 close that arrangement.
One classic at a time, across several parts: how the text took shape → key scenes and themes → reception and cross-country comparison.
In-depth readings of one named Korean traditional object at a time, from the gat hat to norigae and onggi: materials and making, who used it and when, the rules and customs around it, how it changed, where real examples are held, and how it compares with Chinese and Japanese counterparts.
How did a small knife worn by men and women alike come to stand for female chastity? We set the jangdo records of the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture and the National Heritage Portal side by side with Japanese Wikipedia's '銀粧刀' entry.
This article examines the structure of najeonchilgi, drawing on the shell materials and lacquering process, jureumjil and kkeuneumjil as set out in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture and the National Intangible Heritage description of najeonjang, and on the record of Goryeo najeon in Seonhwa bongsa Goryeo dogyeong.
Drawing on the manggeon records in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture and the National Heritage Portal, this piece sets out the structure of the dang and the pyeonja, the graded materials of the gwanja and the pungjam, the manggeonjang's three stages of work, the relationship with Ming-era manggeon, and the changes that followed the 1895 edict on cutting topknots.
Following the accounts of the norigae in the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture, this article divides the ornament into five parts, from the belt hook to the tassel, and checks the naming rules for samjak norigae, who was allowed to wear one at court, and the collection record of the National Folk Museum of Korea.
A translucent hierarchy shaped by horsehair and bamboo: from the ornament regulations of the Gyeongguk daejeon to the 1895 Topknot Decree and National Intangible Heritage Gannil
From 2,000 years of ondol culture and the 2008 adoption of draft ISO proposals to Korean apartment floor regulations, Fraunhofer heat pump field tests and European district heating: what the official records and research actually say
World culture, geography, language and environment, one short question at a time.
The answer is that from June 28, 2023, ages written in Korean laws and contracts are read as international age. Materials from the Ministry of Government Legislation and records from the Law Library of Congress show how the three counting methods differ.
KMA materials state that a tropical night means a night minimum temperature of 25°C or higher, and that heat alerts apply when a daily maximum feels-like temperature of 33°C and 35°C is expected for two days or more. Compiled from the Open MET Data Portal and the alert criteria table.
The Mercator projection preserves direction at the cost of area. The answer draws on the USGS map projection FAQ and UN News, which puts Africa at about 14 times the size of Greenland.
An answer drawn from a 2020 Frontiers in Psychology paper arguing that shared experience of disadvantage leads to support for underdogs, set alongside the chart record of Rescene, who reached No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 after debuting in March 2024.
Panama's locks lift ships to Gatun Lake, 26 meters above sea level; the Suez Canal Authority describes its canal by depth and cross-section. We compare the two using only the figures set out in documents published by the two canal authorities.
The TV drama 'Legend of the Hometown' is cited as the path by which the image spread widely. Compiled from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture's account, news coverage of an interview with producer Choi Sang-sik, a bier ornament at the National Folk Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Korea's account of its Ten Kings painting.
Separating goals from projections and pledges from policies, using the Paris Agreement text, UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2025 and the IEA Net Zero Roadmap
What the World Happiness Report, the Corruption Perceptions Index, the Press Freedom Index, PISA and the HDI actually measure — checked against each institution’s own methodology
From Global Shutters and 4-Axis Cinema Stabilization to the RED Acquisition—A Professional Photographer’s Deep Analysis and Next-Gen Outlook
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