You may notice quite a few homeless people around Seoul Station. A lot of visitors ask me, “Why are there so many homeless people here?” One of the biggest reasons goes back to 1997, during the Asian Financial Crisis. In Korea, we usually call it the IMF Crisis . A lot of companies went bankrupt, unemployment rose very quickly, and many people suddenly lost their jobs and income. Some people eventually lost their homes as well. And many of them came to Seoul Station . Why here? Because this was one of the main places to find day labor and temporary jobs , and it was also the main railway station if they wanted to go back to their hometowns. But some had no money left and nowhere else to go, so they stayed around the station. That is one reason Seoul Station became one of the main gathering places for homeless people after the 1997 crisis. Then another thing happened. Once many homeless people were here, churches, charities, NGOs, and the government started providing help here. Th...
Recently as the Korean zombie dramas gains explosive popularity on Netflix (2019), the hats worn by actors in the drama aroused great interest from foreigners. This interest has led to people purchasing and collecting Korean Gat offline. In Korea, There are various forms of Gat in Joseon period. If you look at the hats worn by the greats in the South Korean banknotes, they are all wearing different hats. The Scholar Yi Hwang who represented the Joseon Dynasty is wearing a bokgeon, Yi I , a disciple of Yi Hwang is wearing the Jeongjagwan worn by nobles at home. King Sejong the Great, who created Hangeul, Korean alphabet is wearing the ikseongwan, a hat used while performing his king's duties. Depending on what kind of hat you are wearing, you can see his or her identity and what he or she does. Commoners wore hats but those who could not afford it, they just exposed topknots. In case of women, there are many women who wear sseugaechima used to cover a woman's...