[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Hair loss is not culture, nor is acne

I am shocked at the shallow anti-intellectualism of the JoongAng Daily’s cultural reporting. Since when do full-page features on hair loss and acne count as hard-hitting cultural reporting? (By the way, your recent article on the rise of acne among Koreans missed the main cause of the phenomenon, which is the dramatically increased popularity of fatty and oily Western food in the Korean diet during the past two decades; if you’re going to write about a subject, at least do some proper research.)
If your paper purports to be a window on Korea for foreign readers, then a culture page should cover Korean culture, meaning literature and other books, movies, music, theater and art. Enough of these cheesy stories about personal hygiene and image maintenance. I pay quite a lot for your newspaper and want more attention to Korean writers, directors, musicians, artists and other members of the cultural scene.

by J. Scott Burgeson