How a Samsung Heiress Helped Make ‘Parasite’ a Triumph
March 9, 2020
Miky Lee’s money and influence turned South Korean cinema into a powerhouse
By Geoffrey Cain
Foreign Policy
Feb 11, 2020
Miky Lee’s money and influence turned South Korean cinema into a powerhouse
By Geoffrey Cain
Foreign Policy
Feb 11, 2020
The multi-Oscar-winning film Parasite, a bitterly comic-tragic satire on class divisions and rivalries in South Korea, owes much of its success to the 61-year-old granddaughter of the founder of Korea’s largest chaebol or conglomerate, Lee Byung-Chull.
By Donald Kirk
Forbes
Feb 11, 2020
SEOUL, South Korea — If you visit South Korea, you’ll probably hear a triumphant refrain about Korean pop, known as “K-pop,” casting a spell over North America and Europe.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Nov 30, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — A crowd of young women wait nervously in the lobby of a popular plastic surgery clinic in Apgujeong, the affluent neighborhood at the heart of Gangnam. Photographs of Korean pop singers and actresses line the walls, winsome customers who smile next to their cosmetic surgeons.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Feb 26, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Beat down by the sweltering Cambodian sun, a group of teenagers took a rest from peddling pirated books and newspapers to tourists. One merchant switched on his mobile phone, playing the usual hit “Gangnam Style.”
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
Jan 14, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — In his bag, Park Jae Dong always carries a fine-point ink brush. The mellow, aging artist speaks in few words, preferring to communicate through Korean cartoons, or manhwa, which have gained such popularity across Asia in recent years.
By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World
May 30, 2010
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Geoffrey Cain on Investigative Journalism, Authoritarian Power, and The Perfect Police State | In a wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Grossman, CEO of The Atlas Society, investigative journalist Geoffrey Cain reflects on years spent reporting inside some of the world’s most restrictive regimes — and on the research behind his book The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future.
For years, Tim Cook insisted Apple could change China from the inside. Instead, China changed Apple.
The latest evidence? Apple spent billions developing cutting-edge electric vehicle battery technology with Chinese automaker BYD, only to watch its innovations become the cornerstone of BYD’s rise to global electric vehicle dominance. Apple walked away with nothing. China walked away with everything.
This isn’t just another story about corporate research and development gone wrong. It’s a cautionary tale about how even America’s most valuable company has become trapped in China’s web of technological control — and how that web is about to tighten even further.