Since the beginning of the 2023-24 season of the Korean Volleyball League, 24-year-old Megawati Hangestri Pertiwi has been making headlines. Megawati initially garnered public attention for being the first Indonesian volleyball player in Korea and the first-ever player to wear a hijab in the Korean V-League. Six months after her debut with the Jungkwanjang Red Sparks in Daejeon, she is still creating buzz online for so much more. Game after game, Megawati has proved herself, contributing signif

When foreign nationals come to South Korea, they often face the challenge of navigating various cultural differences. For Ju Chan-yang, a Korean from across the border, the disparities she had to grapple with were more intricate and subtle. In light of Human Rights Day, The Korea Herald spoke with Ju, who defected from North Korea in 2010. Life in North Korea Life in North Korea for Ju was riddled with hardships from the start. Three years after her birth in 1991, North Korea faced its worst f

In the vast landscape of YouTube, where content creators rise and fall, Dave Levene Jr. stands out as one of the first-generation YouTubers in Korea with over a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, “World of Dave.” Levene’s entry into content creation is a tale of randomness and unexpected viral success. In 2013, a video he posted on his personal Facebook account for his friends to watch went viral overnight, reaching over 40,000 likes and thousands of comments. This unp

Walking down the streets of Seoul, your senses are in for a treat. High-rises tower, K-pop spills out from nearby shops and the preserves of historical buildings sit proudly among Seoul’s busy traffic. Amid this modern symphony, your gaze may be drawn to a contrasting sight -- shanty houses with weathered shutter doors and neglected alleyways adorned with bold graffiti, a testament to the city’s harmony of old and new, and fusions of the popular and subculture. As South Korea has gr

Muaz Razaq, a representative of the Muslim community at Kyungpook National University, finds himself at the epicenter of a struggle that underscores the necessity for greater understanding and inclusivity in a city traditionally perceived as "unwelcoming" to Muslims. Arriving in South Korea with the aspiration of pursuing a doctorate in computer science, Razaq swiftly encountered the challenges associated with practicing Islam in a predominantly non-Muslim country. Initially, Razaq fo