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DATE: Tuesday. September 1, 2026. 7:20PM (Seoul)
VENUE: Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터). ‘다목적홀’ (For more information, see below.)
SUMMARY:
Over the past decade, Korean popular culture has turned to the past, reviving the styles of decades and even centuries ago in fashion, music, architecture, advertising, snack foods, and many other areas besides. Commentators have labeled this movement “Newtro,” at once setting it apart from conventional retro trends that bring back specific cultural moments for nostalgia value and emphasizing its tendency to draw from diverse eras of Korea’s past as well as its appeal to younger “MZ generation” consumers who never experienced those eras first-hand. Does all this style have any substance behind it? Will Newtro have staying power beyond the twenty-twenties? Can everything old in Korea become new again? Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition author Colin Marshall approaches these questions and others through ten of the movement’s representative objects.
BIO:
Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition. His first mystery story recently appeared in the anthology 그날, 서울에서는 무슨 일이 (What Happened that Day in Seoul), and he’s currently at work on a nonfiction book about Seoul.
ADMISSION (Online & In-person):
Free for RAS Korea Lifetime and Annual Members; W10,000 for Non-members; W5,000 for Non-member students (Student ID requested)
VENUE:
Seoul Public Activities Center (SPAC, 서울시공익활동지원센터) is located at Yongsan Verdium Friends #101 (용산베르디움프렌즈 101동) B1, 40 Baekbeomro 99-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
Walk 2-3 minutes from ‘Exit 8’ of Samgakji Station (LINE 6 & 4) and take the elevator down to the B1 Floor.
