Colin Marshall

Colin Marshall is a Seoul-based essayist on cities, language, and culture. He is the author of the books 한국 요약 금지 (“No Summarizing Korea,” 2024) and Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition (2025).

Articles

Après Bowie, le déluge
On the 10th anniversary of David Bowie’s death, three books consider the rock star from new angles.
Colin MarshallFeb 24
- Music
- Biography & Autobiography
The Undying Chinese Writing System
Colin Marshall reviews two books about the past and present of the Chinese writing system.
Colin MarshallJun 27, 2025
- Cultural Studies
There’s a Seeker Born Every Minute
Colin Marshall reviews Jeremy Braddock’s “Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums.”
Colin MarshallNov 1, 2024
You Must Change Your Writing Style: Ward Farnsworth’s Guidebooks to English Virtuosity and Ancient Philosophy
Our culture is preoccupied with content to the almost total exclusion of form, and that’s bad.
Colin MarshallMay 22, 2022
- Literary Criticism
The Yankee Who Didn’t Go Home: On Robert Whiting’s “Tokyo Junkie”
An American author’s memoir of his six decades in Japan and his love affair with Tokyo.
Colin MarshallMar 28, 2022
- Around the World
How to Make It in Seoul: Sang Young Park's Novel of Gay Almost-Romance Love in the Big City
Colin Marshall explores the difficulties of queer romance in Seoul in Sang Young Park's Novel "Love in the Big City."
Colin MarshallDec 5, 2021
Born Middle-Aged: Eight Books on Steely Dan
A review of the literature on the hyperliterate jazz-rock ironists from 1970s L.A.
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021
- Music
The Beauty Queen Is Dead: Kwon Yeo-sun's Korean-Millennial Murder Mystery Lemon
Colin Marshall explores what goes into transforming into one's own murdered sibling in Kwon Yeo-sun's "Lemon."
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021
The Pleasures of Watching Korean Television from the 1980s, Before K-Drama Went Global
Colin Marshall looks back on an earlier era of Korean TV dramas, before the glitz of contemporary K-Drama.
Colin MarshallOct 31, 2021
Understanding Korea's Unique Situation: Routledge's New Handbook of Contemporary South Korea
Colin Marshall thinks about the export of Korean culture in the academy and Routledge's recent "Handbook of Contemporary South Korea."
Colin MarshallOct 10, 2021
The South Korean Writer Locked Up for Daring to Go North: Hwang Sok-yong's Memoir The Prisoner
Colin Marshall writes of Hwang Sok-yong's "The Prisoner," a memoir of his captivity in South Korea for traveling north of the 38th Parallel.
Colin MarshallSep 19, 2021
Before There Were Korean TV Dramas, There Was Lee Hyeong-pyo's Under the Sky of Seoul (1961)
Colin Marshall surveys a portrait of an older Seoul in Lee Hyeong-pyo's "Under the Sky of Seoul" (1961).
Colin MarshallAug 29, 2021
The Korean Literary Crime Wave: Pyun Hye-young's The Law of Lines and Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist
For the final installment of Colin Marshall's look into recent Korean crime fiction, he reviews "The Law of Lines" and "The Disaster Tourist."
Colin MarshallAug 15, 2021
The Korean Literary Crime Wave: Kim Young-ha's Diary of a Murderer and Seo Mi-ae's The Only Child
For this week's Korea Blog, Colin Marshall looks at two more works joining the ranks of Korea's crime novel corpus.
Colin MarshallAug 1, 2021
The Korean Literary Crime Wave: Jeong You-jeong's The Good Son and Kim Un-su's The Plotters
Colin Marshall looks at recent Korean crime fiction by Jeong You-jeong and Kim Un-su.
Colin MarshallJul 18, 2021
Stroll through the Real Cities of Korea from Anywhere in the World with YouTube’s Seoul Walker
For this week's Korea Blog, Colin Marshall inspects the digital flâneur YouTube channel, Seoul Walker.
Colin MarshallJul 4, 2021