Individuals get pleasure from studying and stress-free at a brief out of doors library arrange in Gwanghwamun Sq., Jongno District, Seoul, April 21. Studying has just lately develop into a classy cultural exercise among the many youthful technology. Yonhap
By KTimes
On the wet evening of Oct. 22, a dimly lit bar was stuffed with the sounds of classical music. The bar’s partitions had been lined with cabinets stacked with books, both on the market or to browse, with chalkboards inscribed with eye-catching quotes, hand-scribbled notes pinned right here and there, and inexperienced hardcover menus itemizing cocktails named after literary classics. Beneath smooth swimming pools of sunshine, late-night readers had been sipping their drinks and studying.
That is the scene at Chaek Bar in Mangwon-dong, Mapo District, Seoul, which has develop into a well-liked vacation spot for experiencing the idea of “Textual content Hip.” This time period combines “textual content” and “hip” to convey the concept that studying is cool.
It is a house the place you may learn, replicate and even create whereas having fun with a drink. The principle patrons are college college students from close by and people of their 20s and 30s. They’re a part of the technology embracing Textual content Hip as a cultural pattern.
Chung In-sung, the bar proprietor, describes it as “the place the studying expertise begins with perusing the cocktail menu.”
Patrons can benefit from the Moon and Sixpence cocktail, impressed by William Somerset Maugham’s characters who drink absinthe, or The Stranger, a cocktail with Camus brandy, after the novel “The Stranger” by Albert Camus.
A photograph of the inside of Chaek Bar in Mangwon-dong, Mapo, Seoul. The bar is named an area the place patrons can get pleasure from each drinks and studying, embodying the “Textual content Hip” pattern. Korea Instances picture by Lee Hyun-joo
Studying is cool
However how has this literary enthusiasm blossomed in a rustic the place six out of ten adults learn lower than one ebook a 12 months, in accordance with the 2023 Nationwide Studying Survey, which experiences an general grownup studying fee of simply 43 %?
Consultants say that the Textual content Hip pattern started with Okay-pop idols and different celebrities sharing their studying experiences. For instance, NewJeans’ Minji was seen studying Edith Wharton’s basic novel “The Age of Innocence” in a music video, and IVE’s Jang Gained-young talked about in an interview that she reads works by thinker Arthur Schopenhauer and “The Analects” by Confucius throughout her downtime, each of which have sparked the curiosity of youthful generations.
Within the digital period dominated by video platforms like YouTube, print and previous media are providing a stunning sense of freshness.
Cultural critic Ha Jae-geun stated, “Just like the pattern of posting retro gadgets like cassette tapes, CD gamers, video recorders and cameras on social media, books and textual content function a singular means to claim one’s individuality.”
Minji, a member of the group NewJeans, is seen studying the basic novel “The Age of Innocence” within the music video for “Bubble Gum.” Captured from HYBE’s YouTube channel
Cultural show of mental vainness?
Textual content Hip tradition usually seems on social media platforms like Instagram, the place individuals publish photographs of books they’re studying, and on X, the place customers share intensive studying lists to point out off.
Some present suggestions on books “it is best to learn if you wish to look cool.” Thus, whereas some view Textual content Hip as a brand new cultural pattern, others see it as a brief craze and dismiss it as pretentious.
Nonetheless, many consultants argue that even when Textual content Hip has a component of pretension, there’s no hurt in it.
Properly-known novelist Hwang Sok-yong, showing on MBC’s Son Suk-hee’s speak present “Questions” in August, responded to a query from an viewers member asking if it was okay to blindly learn classics simply because a celeb did. Hwang stated, “It’s good. Higher than a Dior bag.”
Literary critic Kang Dong-ho says, “There’s at all times a component of vainness within the want to determine and specific oneself or to point out that one can get pleasure from one thing refined. However this vainness performs a task in increasing, advancing, and remodeling tradition.” He additionally emphasised that, not like luxurious consumption, studying is way extra helpful and equitable.
Books are comparatively reasonably priced and accessible in comparison with different cultural merchandise, with public libraries providing straightforward entry factors no matter social class. “In Korea, when one thing turns into a pattern, individuals usually observe it en masse, creating hierarchies inside it,” Kang stated. “But when books are accepted as a medium that enhances private worth and the dignity of life, it may result in a extra diversity-respecting society.”
For Textual content Hip to develop throughout generations, sustained effort is required. In actual fact, grownup studying charges reveal a generational divide: whereas 74.5 % of adults of their 20s learn final 12 months, the speed fell to 47.9 % for these of their 40s and 36.9 % for these of their 50s. At present’s youngsters, accustomed to visible media, may additionally face challenges in growing good studying habits.
Han Ki-ho, director of the Publishing Advertising and marketing Analysis Institute, stated, “Youngsters are already drifting away from textual content. We’d like all kinds of ‘priming books’ to assist ease them into studying. If we don’t domesticate readers like this, it’s unrealistic to anticipate that youngsters will simply begin studying as they develop up.”
Shin Ji-young, a professor of Korean Language and Literature at Korea College, stated, “After creator Han Kang’s Nobel Prize nomination, her books bought over 1,000,000 copies — an unbelievable achievement in Korea’s present publishing trade. I hope this chance serves as a wake-up name for us to spice up our nationwide studying fee, becoming for a rustic that has produced a Nobel Prize-worthy creator.”
An individual is carrying a number of books by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Han Kang on the Kyobo Bookstore Gwanghwamun department in Jongno, Seoul. Yonhap
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Instances.
