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Search word : "May", Search result : 474

[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

How Korean Essays Captured the Hearts of Japanese Female Readers

Export Case How Korean Essays Captured the Hearts ofJapanese Female Readers 2025.08.04 Korean books in the Japanese publishing industry are more dynamic than translations from any other language. There are a wide variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, humanities, self-help, and learning materials, all available in a large number of titles. This is something that translators and publishers in other languages envy. This article focuses on the non-fiction (essay) genre and examines the recent trends of readers in Japan and the reasons for the popularity of Korean essays. The “K-Healing essay” reaches Japanese readers I Decided to Live as Me (Clay House) became a bestseller as soon as it was translated and published in Japan in late 2018. To date, it has sold over 600,000 copies, making it the best-selling essay collection of all time. This was followed by I Want to Die But I Also Want to Eat Tteokppokki (HEUN) and I Almost L...

VOL.85 / 2025.08

[TREND / TOPIC]

My, Your, and Our ? Last Resort

Topic My, Your, and Our ? Last Resort The 2025 Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) comes to a successful close 2025.07.07 View outside the 2025 SIBF “A festival for all book lovers.” The 2025 Seoul International Book Fair (SIBF) was held for 5 days from June 18 to 22. Marking the 67th anniversary this year, approximately 530 companies (430 Korean and 100 international) from 17 countries participated in the fair, presenting various programs, including themed and special exhibitions, book talks, and seminars. Approximately 150,000 people visited the fair. General tickets were sold out even during the pre-sale period. Following is my visit to the SIBF, which has become even more vibrant with the rise of the so-called “Text Hip” phenomenon. Gathered together by books, resonating with one another When you reach a dead end, the last resort comes to mind. “When you are struggling or feeling lonely, wha...

VOL.84 / 2025.07

[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

The Most Remote Place Travelers Dream Of: Antarctica

Special Project [New Ways of Walking Through Cities ⑦] The Most Remote Place Travelers Dream Of: Antarctica 2025.07.07 If you love traveling, you must have imagined yourself slowly making your way to Antarctica. No matter where you start from, it will be a long journey, but that is why there is no other place that stimulates curiosity as much as Antarctica. Antarctica is a unique and special place unlike any other. It is a much harsher environment for sustaining life than the Arctic, which is also a polar region. That is probably why so many people have ventured toward the barren South Pole. As a place that ignites the imagination and spirit of adventure, creative works set in Antarctica are all extraordinary. Characters who awaken something unknown or experience mysterious phenomena beyond understanding appear in these works. Readers readily accept such settings simply because the story is se...

VOL.84 / 2025.07

[TREND / EXPORT CASE]

Translating Moon Pops and the Rise of Universal Korean Picture Books

Export Case Translating Moon Pops and the Rise ofUniversal Korean Picture Books 2025.07.07 When I first encountered Baek Hee-na’s Moon Pops (Storybowl), I didn’t think of it as a “Korean” picture book in the narrow sense. Rather, I felt I had been given a small, poetic universe that could speak to anyone?child or adult, regardless of where they live or what language they speak. The idea of the moon melting on a hot summer night and being scooped into popsicles by a kind grandmother is not only magical?it’s universally human. It captures longing, generosity, and wonder in a way that needs no cultural translation. And this, I believe, is the quiet power of today’s best Korean picture books: they carry the ability to transcend boundaries without ever flattening their identity. English and Korean covers of Moon Pops As a Professor of Korean Linguistic...

VOL.84 / 2025.07

[TREND / ONE-LINER QUOTES]

Conditions for Timeless Books

One-Liner Quotes Conditions for Timeless Books Korean book critic’s pick 2025.07.07 Lee Kwon-Woo is a book critic who has devoted himself to reading the vast number of books published to date and selecting those that hold value for our society to share, spreading the knowledge of these books far and wide. His books include Master of Book Reading: Homo Bookers (Odos Books), Writing Class Beginning From Reading Books (Hankyoreh Publishing Company), Reading of Discovery (Odos Books). Having made reading books my profession, I look back and realize that I have read countless books. Although my major was literature, my interests leaned toward the humanities, and I also developed an interest in science, in line with the trends of the time. Most of the books I read were translations, but I also encountered some notable works by Korean authors. I was always delighted to read books by authors who could write about profound topics in a way that was ac...

VOL.84 / 2025.07

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

From Upcoming New Releases to Sales Statistics

Knowledge From Upcoming New Releases to Sales Statistics The Korea Publishing Information System: Powering Korea’s Publishing Infrastructure 2025.07.07 What is the first place readers, bookstores, and libraries should look if they want to know about new releases coming out next month or the most popular bestsellers these days? Vice versa, what is the first thing a publisher that is about to release a new book should do if they want to publicize the book in advance to readers, bookstores, and libraries, and use the feedback to decide on the number of copies to publish or develop a marketing plan? The answer is to visit the Korea Publishing Information System.The Korea Publishing Information System is a publishing distribution platform that supports all processes from book production to distribution and sales. Since its launch in September 2021 by the Korea Publication Industry Promotion Agency (KPIPA), it has been dedicated to facilitating t...

VOL.84 / 2025.07

[TREND / SPECIAL PROJECT]

The Center of the World Behind High Walls: Beijing

Special Project [New Ways of Walking Through Cities ⑥] The Center of the World Behind High Walls: Beijing 2025.06.02 China is the fourth largest country on Earth. Its coastline spans more than 18,000 kilometers, and it borders 18 countries, including North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, and India. So, it’s impossible to summarize China in a few words or even a few sentences. This is what makes Beijing so special. Unlike Shanghai, Chongqing, Hong Kong, and other international cities, it has the symbolism of being a city that was built by only Chinese people under meticulous planning. It’s also in Beijing that fossils of Beijing Man (北京原人), a subspecies of Homo erectus, the first hominid to use fire, were discovered?no wonder the city has such historical significance.Perhaps this is why, among the Chinese, it’s been labeled “the place for those who care more about their dignity than a...

VOL.83 / 2025.06

[TREND / ONE-LINER QUOTES]

Suffering and Romance: Two Things Korea and Taiwan Share

One-Liner Quotes Suffering and Romance: Two Things Korea and Taiwan Share Picks of a foreign journalist living in Korea 2025.06.02 Wu Pei Ju (吳?如) is a freelance journalist based in Korea, and has written for newspapers and magazines in Taiwan and Hong Kong. She also runs the Korean literature podcast “Jeongyeol Hanbando” and the online Korean bookstore “Echo Islands” for readers in Chinese-speaking countries. She has translated Rest Area (Taiwanese edition). Around the time the Dec. 3 martial law was declared, I was editing and proofreading the Taiwanese edition of Beyond Death, Beyond the Dark Era (Changbi Publishers). It was hard to imagine the scenes in the book becoming reality, but they soon did. History is often distorted if it is not recorded. In this book, Hwang and two other authors recount the greed of the military dictatorship, ...

VOL.83 / 2025.06

[TREND / KNOWLEDGE]

Your Good Sense of Backing in Good Books

Knowledge Your Good Sense of Backing in Good Books Based on the example of online bookstore Aladin 2025.06.02 Why “Book Fund”? Online bookstore Aladin’s Book Fund program was first launched in 2012. The initial program allowed accounts to back up to 50,000 won to fund publishing projects. Publishers benefited by being able to raise money for pre-publication production costs, customers benefited by being able to earn up to 130% of their support back as bookstore credit if the book they funded became an overall bestseller, and booksellers benefited by being able to build an early audience of avid readers willing to support in upcoming titles. However, this design could not have a direct influence on the success of the book after publication, as it did not directly link the Book Fund to actual purchases of the book.In 2022, the web novel Return of the Blossoming Blade (Luff Media) was widely publicized in the media for its book f...

VOL.83 / 2025.06

[TREND / TOPIC]

The Meaning Behind Korea’s “Copybook” Craze

Topic The Meaning Behind Korea’s “Copybook” Craze The Analog Comeback in a Digital Age 2025.05.07 The Return of Analog Sensibility with “Text-Hip” Culture Professor Kim Nan-Do, author of the book Trend Korea 2025 (Mirae Books), picked the “appeal of materiality” as one of the consumer trends in Korea this year. It is the power to make people not only appreciate content with their eyes, but also want to touch it physically. This is manifested in the “materialization of content” phenomenon. Kim explains that in the age of immateriality, where everything is digitized, people still crave something they can experience with their hands. This explains the recent craze for “transcription books” in the Korean book and publishing market. It is an era where all information is reduced to images and videos. People exposed to all kinds of digital content are now seeking the pleasure of holding a pen, touching paper, and seeing the contents of a book in ...

VOL.82 / 2025.05

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