Daily life, culture, Hallyu, food, ritual and observation.
Living Korea is a hub for published pieces about everyday life in Korea: popular culture and Hallyu, food traditions,
living ritual (including mudang), seasonal rhythm, ceramics, ideas, and Korea–Netherlands connections. This is not a travel checklist.
It is a set of cultural notes, gathered so readers can start anywhere.
The aim is to keep the “daily layer” visible—what people watch, cook, repeat, celebrate, inherit, and quietly adjust over time.
Some entries are practical, some reflective, but the organizing principle stays the same: everyday life is where culture becomes real.
This landing page stays stable as the library grows.
Living Korea — what you will find here
This page groups the published pieces into clear clusters so the content remains easy to browse:
Hallyu, food, ritual, seasonal traditions, and wider cultural context.
Each cluster is an entrance rather than a category prison. A single story can touch multiple layers: media can carry ritual memory,
food can carry regional identity, and seasonal practice can reveal how modern Korea keeps older rhythms alive.
Start here
If you want a quick path: start with one Hallyu piece to hear the modern voice, then move to food or seasonal traditions for the
everyday rhythm, and finally to ritual and cultural context for deeper layers. This sequence works well for readers who are curious
but not yet specialized.
Hallyu & popular culture
Korean popular culture, Korean drama, and the Korean Wave — how modern storytelling travels and resonates.
Here “popular culture” is treated as a serious carrier of mood, ethics, and social imagination. A drama format can reveal how people
negotiate family, responsibility, aspiration, shame, tenderness, and belonging—often more clearly than official statements do.
These pieces are entry points: they explain, but also observe.
Squid Game showed the world Korea’s thrilling side — now it’s time to discover it yourself. Arthdal Chronicles — Korean drama drawing on ancient mythology and origin narratives. Street life in Korea — the everyday atmosphere that shapes Korean drama. Early youth street culture in Korea — a formative background to the emergence of K-pop.
Food
Food as everyday culture — habits, taste, and the meanings carried by daily dishes.
Food is one of the fastest ways to understand a place without reducing it to stereotypes. Ingredients, side dishes, fermentation,
and shared meals carry values: patience, thrift, generosity, hierarchy, and care. In this cluster, food is treated as practice and
as a language—something people do daily, often without calling it “culture.”
Traditional Korean kimchi, fermented with chili pepper and ginger
Ritual & shamanism (mudang)
Living ritual and folk practice — mudang traditions as part of Korea’s cultural present.
“Ritual” here is present tense: how people mark thresholds, manage uncertainty, honor ancestors, and seek protection or clarity.
Mudang traditions are included as part of Korea’s living landscape—sometimes contested, sometimes reinterpreted, but influential in
the cultural imagination.
Mudang ritual performance using fan and traditional dress.
Seasonal traditions
Seollal, Chuseok, zodiac time, and the rhythm of the year — culture as calendar.
The year is not only a sequence of dates; it is a cultural rhythm. Seasonal practices reveal what is repeated, what is shared, and
what is remembered. In modern settings, traditions often shift in form while keeping their emotional function—gathering, blessing,
repairing ties, honoring those who came before.
Snake figures symbolizing the Year of the Snake in the East Asian zodiac.
Context: ideas, ceramics, Korea–Netherlands links
Wider cultural context: ideas, diplomacy, craft, and language bridges.
Context pieces connect daily life to wider frames: philosophy, diplomacy, craft history, and language bridges. This is also where
Korea–Netherlands links live—small and large forms of contact, influence, and translation. The goal is not to “explain Korea” as one
thing, but to keep the complexity readable.
Joanne Doornewaard, ambassador of the Netherlands to South Korea, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the Dutch Embassy in central Seoul, April 15. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk Confucius, central figure in Confucian philosophy and moral thought. Korea nieuws
Does Confucianism have a role in Korea today?
Korean ceramic vase with bamboo decoration and celadon glaze. Dejima, the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki during the Edo period
Q&A
What is “Living Korea” on Mantifang?
Living Korea is the everyday-cultural anchor: essays and notes on daily life, culture, media (Hallyu), food, ritual practice (including mudang),
seasonal rhythm, and cultural context. It is built to stay open for new stories over time.
How is Living Korea organized?
By clusters you can enter at any point—Hallyu, food, ritual, seasonal traditions, and cultural context. The structure is meant to remain stable as
new posts are added, so the page keeps its clarity.
Is Living Korea a travel guide?
No. Some pieces may be useful for travelers, but the intent is cultural observation rather than itinerary planning. The emphasis is on how daily life
carries meaning.
What belongs elsewhere on Mantifang?
History lives on the dedicated History page, and writing cycles and literary practice live on Living Words. Living Korea stays focused on the daily
cultural field.
How should I use this page as a new reader?
Start with one cluster that matches your curiosity. If you want a simple sequence: begin with Hallyu (modern voice), move to food or seasons (daily rhythm),
and then to ritual and context (deeper layers).
Further reading
Official context (dofollow):
Korea Tourism Organization ·
Korea.net ·
Cultural Heritage Administration
Background references (dofollow):
Korean culture ·
Korean Wave ·
Korean cuisine ·
Korean shamanism ·
Chuseok
Temporary pause on koi exports — healing park in development
International koi exports are currently on hold. Meanwhile, we are laying the foundations for a nature-driven healing park in Goyang that blends koi culture, art, and quiet craftsmanship. For updates or collaboration, feel free to get in touch.
Contact Kim Young Soo
