This Chuseok, Park Bo-gum won’t just be celebrating in Korea — he’ll be towering over New York City's Times Square, dressed in hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) and bringing Korean culture to the heart of Manhattan.

A promotional video featuring Park in hanbok will be shown on the electronic billboards of Times Square on Monday, the day of Chuseok, Korea's annual harvest festival, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Craft and Design Foundation said Thursday.

The video, produced as part of the government’s “Hanbok Wave” project, will also be displayed the same day on outdoor screens in Milan’s Piazza del Duomo, Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, Paris’s Citadium in Rue de Caumartin and at Shinsegae Square in Seoul’s Myeongdong neighborhood.

Behind-the-scenes interviews and photos from the shoot will be shared on the Culture Ministry’s and the foundation’s official social media channels starting Monday. A printed photo book will be released Oct. 10 as a special edition of Harper’s Bazaar Korea.

Now in its sixth year, the Hanbok Wave campaign pairs Hallyu, or Korean wave, stars with designers to highlight hanbok’s appeal to global audiences and support emerging Korean brands in expanding overseas. Past ambassadors have included actor Kim Tae-ri in 2024, actor and singer Bae Suzy in 2023 and former figure skater Kim Yuna in 2022. Park is the project’s first male model.

This year, four hanbok brands selected through an open call collaborated with Park to create designs that blend traditional aesthetics with modern fashion.

“Combining traditional culture with popular culture is a key trend in today’s hallyu,” said Lee Jeong-mi, director of cultural policy at the Culture Ministry. “We hope that with Park Bo-gum, the beauty of contemporary men’s hanbok will be recognized around the world.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]