If you know Rain, BoA (shown left), and Sistar, then you already know K-Pop, Korea’s contemporary pop music and its artists.

K-Pop music is one of the fastest growing music genres in the world, and along with Korea’s popular TV drama serials, films and comic books are a growing source of export revenue for Korea.  

The growing global fan base of Korea's entertainment and cultural offerings, known as "Hallyu" or the "Korean Wave" feels more like a tidal wave in some countries. In France, for example, fans mostly in their youth sold out a concert in Paris reportedly in fifteen minutes. Several hundred fans who missed out on tickets held a rally and danced to K-Pop music in front of the Louvre Museum campaigning for a second concert. They got their wish for a second concert which also sold out in minutes. Aflash mob as witnessed by this YouTube video shows hundreds of fans from all ethnicities crowding the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris last June, 2011 to welcome their favorite K-Pop artists. (image right)

On December 31, 2011 Korea's Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choe Kwang-shik announced a 2012 policy to expand support of Hallyu, to help keep the wave of Korean pop culture surging across its borders. The Korean government also hopes to attract more Hallyu fans into the areas of food, tourism, fashion and other cultural and entertainment offerings.

Five Secrets to a Happy, Healthy & Successful Life  By Marilyn Tam

You make well-meaning resolutions to improve your life. But your resolutions fade under the stress of multiple demands on your time and attention. Oftentimes the resolutions are history before the month is done. How can we ensure that we actually benefit from the good intentions that we made with such conviction?

Many years ago I made an earnest resolution to work less and to spend more time on my personal life, family and health.

Being a type A personality, it was easier to say that than to follow through. By late in the same month, as I am running through another airport, I realized that I am already back to my old pattern of working seven days a week.

On the next plane ride I took the time to ask myself a few hard questions. From that experience I developed these Five Guidelines to have a Happier, Healthier and more Successful Life. Isn't that what we are ultimately after?

1. Make resolutions that you can manage. Specify your desired end result and make the goals measureable. For example, instead of saying that you want to lose weight, give yourself a specific time frame for a number of pounds or inches broken down into smaller pieces so that you have incremental targets to meet. Make the objectives a slight stretch but achievable. You are more likely to continue once you see positive progress towards your ultimate goal.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) will honor Parkin Lee of The Rockefeller Group, Yale Law professor Jean Koh Peters, and Fareed Zakaria, CNN host and Time editor-at-large with the 2012 Justice in Action Awards, at its Annual Lunar New Year Gala on Wednesday, February 8, 2011 at PIER SIXTY, Chelsea Piers, in New York City.

2012 Justice in Action Award Honorees Fareed Zakaria, Jean Koh Peters and Parkin Lee

The co-emcees for the evening are Juju Chang, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News Nightline, and Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and digital media professor at Columbia Journalism School.

Juju Chang, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News Nightline, and Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs and digital media professor at Columbia School of Journalism will co-emcee. Photo by Lia Chang

The AALDEF Justice in Action Awards recognize exceptional individuals for their outstanding achievements and contributions in advancing justice and equality. Past recipients include the late civil rights icons Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi, David Henry Hwang, Harold Koh, Mira Nair, Deval Patrick, Salman Rushdie, BD Wong, Seymour Hersh, Charles Ogletree, Jr., Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, Harry Belafonte, Margaret Cho, and Yoko Ono.