Hello, welcome to the PC Bangs website and my apologies for the delay in getting things started. I have now been in Seoul for what seems like an eternity but which has actually only been two weeks. Over time, I hope to describe some of the aspects of Korea's unique 'PC Bang' culture. Here, 'bang' is a word that means something like 'room' so 'PC Bang' translates roughly as 'computer room' or, more helpfully, 'internet cafe'. Over the course of the next four months I'll be visiting various examples of the PC Bang phenomenon and hopefully taking some pictures of the really cool signwork they have here (you can see an example on the top right of this page). First things first, though. I arrived at Incheon International on Saturday 27 August on a hot and muggy day. The only thing that I can really remember about the airport is seeing a sign reading "Gateway To Asia" and thinking - hang on, isn't that Darwin's claim ...
sits amongst his wares facing a heater shaped like a fan with no blades absorbing radiant heat like sun ra soaking up a cosmos with white gloves & thin white hair he sits & laughs every time I try to guess what he just said eg how much to pay for makkolli & then one day he says eh tonight - snow! as if he knows what I am thinking - how these skies look pregnant with ice, both of us smiling and laughing - tonight! only it doesn't snow, not tonight or any other night this week but still i trudge on down to him & ask tonight snow? at which he shrugs or laughs or both yes, tonight, snow then i realise he's been speaking in english for days & it hasn't snowed & th...
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