SHORT ARTICLES

Too Little, Too Late? How Government Inaction Fueled the Cambodian Scam Crisis

Lee Yeryoung

On August 8, the body of a 22-year-old South Korean university student was discovered in the back of a car in the Bokor Mountain region of Cambodia. Found with his hands bound, an autopsy of the la...

Reckoning with the Itaewon Tragedy, Three Years Later

Kim Juhyung

It’s October 29th, 2025. People in purple jackets are solemnly gathered in Gwanghwamun Square. The digits on their phones turn to 10:29 AM. For one minute, sirens whine throughout Seoul in remembra...

The Government Wants to Kill Me

Yoon Jaein

Some lives are harder to live than others. When your body is constantly on the verge of giving out on you like a broken lightbulb going on and off, it becomes much easier to entertain the idea of d...

Strolling into “Pawrent-hood”: What Dog Strollers Reveal About Korea’s Changing Landscape

Rishika Mahanta

On a crisp Sunday morning in Seoul, sunlight spills across the sidewalks along the Han River, where cafe chatter hums beneath the rustle of gingko trees. A woman in her late twenties strolls by, a ...

Superman: Truth, Justice, and the Way out of Hell

Chae Soomin

There is a pervading pessimism taking over the globe at large, stemming from the sense that we’re existing in a world with a hundred problems all at once. That was what I thought would be reflected...

Projection on the Plate: Korean Chefs and the Making of National Image

Kim Suk Hee

When the competitive cooking show Culinary Class Wars first aired, it capitalized on an emerging trend. Chefs had already been rising as a new kind of public figure, with established names commandi...

Televised Breakups: What Divorce Shows Have to Say about Love as Spectacle

Do Quyen

While dating shows have been popular in Korean reality TV, in recent years, the entertainment industry has witnessed the emergence of a new genre: divorce shows. Unlike dating shows, which highligh...

Is Korea Ready for a Four-Day Workweek?

Kim Haein

South Korea has built a global reputation for its grueling working hours, standing out even among Asian countries that have a similar reputation. With the 21st presidential election, the four-day w...

The Dark Side of International Student Admissions by Korean Universities

Low Wei Chen

South Korea’s low fertility rate is a phenomenon familiar to many high-income countries worldwide. One significant area that a nation’s lower fertility rate impacts is its higher education system. ...

The AI Race, Diplomacy, and Do We Really Need to Care?

Lee Yeryoung

“Koreans are not just the early adopters of ChatGPT, but they are also shaping how it is used across the world,” Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, remarked. This comment was made in Kwon...

Clean Futures, Messy Realities: AI and the Narrative Politics of SNU

Dorothea Rosskopf

Different actors hold different visions for the future of higher education. Some imagine more global campuses, others call for greater efficiency through technology, while still others push for inc...

Looped in: Korea’s Knitting Culture Unraveled

Kim Haein

What comes to mind when you think of knitting? Perhaps an image of your grandmother sitting in a rocking chair with needles and wool in hand. But this perception is quickly evolving. Once considere...

How We Came to Stream Our Own Silence

Do Quyen

A warm yellow desk lamp, Lofi Girl on the screen. Ambient lofi beats in the background. Her presence is familiar to those who often study with music. For many, she has become a companion—a source o...

Toasting to Idols: A Dive into Korea’s Birthday Cafe Phenomenon

Low Wei Chen

One day, you pass by a cafe decorated with eye-catching banners and posters of a K-pop idol. Due to curiosity or perhaps because you’re craving an Americano, you decide to step inside. The interior...

China’s Panda Policy: The Contradictions of Panda Conservation

Low Wei Chen

On March 2nd 2023, more than 2000 people stood in front of the Everland theme park—not to get into the park itself, but to bid farewell to the most beloved panda in Korea, Fu Bao, who was about to ...

Thin is In

Park Joo-young

Dieting and weight loss has long been a hot topic in popular media—but now, more than ever, these topics are gaining immense traction. Social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are...

Reaching the Finish Line: What Comes Next?

Luana Torres

As high school graduation looms near, every student faces that inevitable period of uncertainty, when the weight of a seemingly life-defining decision hangs over them: What career path should I cho...

How AI Development Pushes the Nuclear Renaissance

Low Wei Chen

In recent years, there has been a revived interest in nuclear energy: countries around the world have started to develop ambitious nuclear energy plans or expand their existing fleets of nuclear re...

Is Korea a Dopamine Infused Nation?

Park Joo-young

I was a bit late to jump on the Netflix trend. When I finally did, I found it odd that many of the globally popular Netflix series leaned toward bizarre, dark, and thrilling genres: such examples i...

Driven by Passion: The Lives of Korea’s Student-Athletes

Luana Torres

Student-athletes are often driven by a combination of personal passion, external influences, and a desire to challenge themselves. The balance between sports and academics demands both resilience a...

U.S. Ban on Chinese Software in Cars: How Korea Gets Caught in the Middle

Park Joo-young

On September 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce proposed a ban, which will be effective from 2027, on key Chinese software in ‘connected vehicles’—a legal term used to describe vehicles that are...

Public Holidays: More Than Just a Sweet Treat

Low Wei Chen

Public holidays are welcomed by most people, as they provide them with a brief relief from their responsibilities, such as studies or work. They certainly seem harmless—even beneficial to many, as ...

Striking the Balance: The Challenges of Student-Athletes in South Korea

Luana Torres

Imagine making a life-changing career choice at the age of ten, unsure if the years of effort will pay off. On top of that, there is the pressure of knowing that once you choose this path, there is...

The Dangers of Fragmented Safety Regulations: Traffic Accidents Within Campuses

Lee Seo-jin

The number of on-campus traffic accidents have continuously increased over time, with an increase of 59.8% in terms of the number of cases, and 51.4% in terms of injuries over the past three years....

Questions Han Kang asks, to what degree must we love in order to remain human to the end?

Choi Su-yeon

Han Kang, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, held a lecture titled Light and Thread at the Nobel Prize ceremony on Saturday, December 7, in Stockholm, Sweden. Passionate...

A YouTube Case Study: Nikocado Avocado

Kim Hae-soo

“I am always two steps ahead…” Nicholas Perry (known as Nikocado Avocado, with 4.5 million subscribers as of Oct. 2024) shocked the world with his transformation. Famous for his explicit mukbang co...

Bringing Climate Change to the International Court of Justice: A Milestone for Climate Justice

Low Wei Chen

In March 2023, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution to request the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to outline each country’s obligations in regard to combatting climate...

University Rankings: More than just numbers

Low Wei Chen

The University of Zurich (UZH) announced on March 13 this year that it would no longer provide data for the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking. As the alma mater of the well-know...

The crisis at Boeing—Is the 737 MAX safe?

Choe Sung-min

Two planes fell out of the sky. Hundreds of aircraft once grounded, now fly free. And yet, the scandal goes on.Boeing was a company once associated with engineering excellence. However, the 737 MAX...

Is Korea cyberpunk?

Kim Mi-jin

No society in the real world can be considered a utopia. If anything, I would imagine that each one is more dystopian than utopian. In that sense, I think of Korea as being “cyberpunk,” a term refe...

Looking to another dragon: How does the expensive city of Singapore make housing so affordable?

Low Wei Chen

Expensive housing is a familiar and pressing issue for many Seoulites, especially those who have just received their graduation scroll or landed their first job. According to a survey conducted by ...

The dreams of a Korean ChatGPT: The present and the future

Choe Sung-min

In May of 2024, OpenAI once again stunned the world by announcing its latest innovation, the GPT-4o. This LLM (Large Language Model) distinguishes itself from its predecessor by being “multimodal,”...

Gwaneumsa: A serene getaway in Gwanak-gu

Kim Mi-jin

Buddhist temples have always had a welcoming atmosphere, even to total strangers. Big or small, they serve as places of solace for locals, providing a serene space detached from their day-to-day li...

Twitch’s departure: S. Korea’s high network fees and what it means for Internet access

Choe Sung-min

In February, Twitch, the leading global platform in live-streaming, announced the shutdown of its business in Korea. While Korean streamers may still stream, they can no longer profit from their st...

Make politics environment-friendly: dealing with street banners

Kim Mi-jin

The general election is over, leaving winners and losers, but also loads of wasted street banners. These banners are highly effective media to get messages across to us; with their striking colors ...

April, “the cruellest month”

Kim Hae-soo

By being one of the most beautiful months, April fools us with her cruelty. While the blooming spots of pink, yellow, red, and white flourish; while the sky boasts her best colors; while the excite...

City bus strike derails SNU students' mornings

Choi Woo-seong

The students and faculty at Seoul National University were left stranded Thursday amid an all-out strike by city bus drivers, which left 97 percent of Seoul’s public buses halted for 11 hours. The...

Cultural perspectives on education: bridging East and West

Cho Eun-seo

For a very long time, the East and the West—essentially Europe and North America—have held divergent approaches to education. With its roots in Confucianism, the East has benefited from vertical ed...

Delivering the Woolly Mammoth from Death: Colossal’s De-Extinction Dilemma

Ki Min-seo

Extinction is an issue that evokes images of a dystopian future: barren landscapes devoid of life, save the constant whirring of industrial factories and machines. Indeed, humans have set our plane...

True Crime as Entertainment: An Ethical Debate

Lee Jae-seo

Books, videos, movies, and podcasts; we are now seeing the proliferation of true crime content in a multitude of forms across all media platforms. Due to the accessibility of these detailed stories...

Is Baldur’s Gate 3 the symbol of the indie game uprising?

Kang Da-yoon

In the last few years, more and more gamers have begun expressing their beliefs that the gaming industry is past its prime, due to the declining quality of releases, rapidly increasing prices, and ...

The Hamilton fandom and the problem of “Queer-ification”

Kang Da-yoon

Hamilton is one the most successful and popular Broadway musicals of the past decade. From professional critics to teenagers online, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 hit has impressed many and swept throu...

Overworked and underappreciated: the exploitation of animators in Japan

Ki Min-seo

Anime as a storytelling medium has continued to gain popularity in recent times. The mainstream success of titles like Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, and Demon Slayer has cemented the art form as...

The obsession with MBTI

Lee Jae-seo

The topic of MBTI has now become an inevitable part of our daily conversations. It has become so prevalent that people ask for your MBTI the second after your name. From casual meet-ups to formal i...

The SNU Quill hosts talks with leaders of S. Korea’s journalism scene

Jung Hyun-kyung

As with any university publication, The SNU Quill perennially ponders the question of branding. What does it mean to exist as a university publication in an increasingly turbulent media landscape w...

The SNU Quill hosts first on-campus event

Lee Da-eun

On a brisk morning on 7 Nov, 2023, members of The SNU Quill gathered at Jahayeon, marking the first on-campus event of the semester. A large group, representing the diverse facets of the club—writ...

Climate Justice March: chant to fight the crisis

Lee Jae-seo

The world is burning. Climate change is now an indisputable fact which has been supported by countless scientific experiments and research. This global crisis has various implications such as food ...

Psychobabble: Gaslighting and the Significance of Pop Psychology

Kang Da-yoon

“You know that’s gaslighting, right?” Originating from a 1944 film of similar name, the term “gaslighting” has become a widespread popular (pop) psychology phenomenon in recent years. Even becoming...

The Controversy of Free Speech on College Campuses

Ki Min-seo

Freedom of speech in itself is not a rarefied concept. Yet, recently, people have struggled to determine what constitutes free speech at all. Between Donald Trump’s incendiary post-election remarks...

Obituary: ‘Live on the right path, and that path will always win’

The SNU Quill Editorial Team

In memory of the late Chairman Lee Jong-hwan.The SNU Quill relays its deepest condolences to the grieving family of late Chairman Lee Jong-hwan, founder of Samyeong Chemicals, the Kwanjeong Lee Jon...

Hectic goes the politics around Seoul International Book Fair

Lee Ye-jin

What do the books–and the affairs surrounding them–tell us about the current administration’s attitude regarding literature? The government has treated literature as a bygone artifact for scholars ...

Gen Z’s playground for capturing memories: Photo Booths

Jeon Eo-jin

Recently, one small booth has become a must-have in all the trendy neighborhoods of Korea. Everyone from couples, friends, or family visits the place to create and share memories. The answer is non...

Non-face-to-face medical services take Korea by storm

Park See-on

“Hey Alexa, I want to talk with a doctor. Please connect me to him.” As soon as you are finished, Alexa creates a video call between you and a licensed doctor in a few minutes. Alexa is an Artifici...

My personal tips for incoming exchange students at SNU

Alyssa Steyn

An exchange semester at Seoul National University (SNU) is a truly indescribable experience. It is an entirely new university culture and you will have plenty more to discover beyond getting surpr...

Slamming Korea with a dunk

Lee Ye-jin

Slam and Dunk— two energetic words merge into a manga title. Nearly every university student in Korea now knows the name Slam Dunk, and their parents more so. In just three months, more than four m...

Enhancing the use of ChatGPT: tips for SNU students

Jeon Eo-jin

Recently, ChatGPT has gained popularity among university students as a tool for research and writing assignments. According to the online survey I conducted from May 26th to May 28th, a considerabl...

Bulgogi without the Gogi

Alyssa Steyn

I’m sitting in a restaurant scanning the menu and see the dish Kimchi Mandu (dumpling) labeled as vegetarian. I am thrilled as the dish usually contains seafood or pork, so I eagerly order a plate ...

Kicks rule everything around me

Park See-on

What does “kicks rule everything around me” mean? Kicks mean sneakers in this phrase; therefore the sentence implies the importance of sneakers. “Kicks Rule Everything Around Me” is an abbreviation...

SHORT ARTICLES

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