The Sewol ferry disaster occurred on April 16, 2014, when the MV Sewol, a passenger ferry in South Korea, sank off the Jindo Island in the Yellow Sea. The ferry carried 476 people, including many high school students, on a field trip.
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 304 people, with many victims not rescued due to the ferry’s rapid capsizing and the crew’s initial orders to passengers to stay inside rather than evacuate. The incident raised significant concerns about maritime safety, regulatory failures, and the actions of the ferry’s crew.
In the aftermath, widespread protests and calls for accountability led to investigations that revealed issues such as illegal modifications to the ferry and inadequate safety measures. The disaster profoundly impacted South Korean society and prompted changes in safety regulations and the government’s response to such incidents.
In the weeks, months, and years following the sinking of the Sewol Ferry, SEOULfi (an online magazine publication I managed) covered the story through articles and video packages.
Here are a few segments that SEOULfi put together.
I DIDN’T PLAN TO BECOME A TEACHER: The Students Who Made Me Stay
I didn’t become a teacher because I planned to. I became one because I stayed. Because I said yes often enough. Because students like Alex and Clare taught me that education is not merely academic—it is relational, fragile, and profoundly human.
RAISED BY PLACES UNSEEN: The Quiet Way Borneo Found Me
I arrived in Kota Kinabalu under a veil of night. The airport was modest, its walls carrying a patina of age that felt unexpectedly comforting. It didn’t strive to impress; it felt lived-in, a doorway used by generations of travellers before me.
PART 3 – NO PERMISSION NEEDED: What Was Once Shame Has Become Pride
What began as innocent play, the joy of dressing up and pretending, soon curdled into confusion and punishment. My parents’ gentle corrections hardened into anger, their voices faltering with something more akin to unrelenting impatience. My pleas — small, wordless, desperate — were dismissed as misbehaviour. How could I have explained, at four or five…
PART 2 – SHAPE OF BECOMING: Grief, Legacy, and Inheriting Her Echo
Grief is a complex journey, shaping identity through loss and memory. Sabrina reflects on her relationship with her mother, navigating absence, longing, and legacy. While struggling to inherit her traits, they ultimately find strength and validation in her mother’s enduring voice, guiding them towards self-acceptance and growth.
PART 1 – UNFOLDING: A Trans Woman’s Search for Self and Sanctuary
In Canada, before I left, I moved through the world like a ghost—trapped in the wrong name, the wrong body, the wrong silence. In Korea, in this unexpected corner of Asia where cities shed memory as quickly as the seasons change, I found a stillness that held me. Through my camera lens, through hours of…
LIFE LESSONS FROM ANTHONY BOURDAIN: Embrace Every Moment
Anthony Bourdain’s life and tragic death inspired countless individuals to embrace life’s journey, encouraging exploration and community while highlighting the irony of his personal struggle with despair and isolation.
EXPLORING THE NIGHT IN PAJU: A Tale of Two Koreas
Just five-hundred meters across this veiled river, existing in the persistent blackness of the rogue nation to the North, a town with no name settles into night. An eerie silence lingers – like the low notes of a classical piano sonata. And as the sun sets over the village, she blithely cloaks herself; her collective…
THE ATROPHIED LIVES OF ORDINARY MEN: The Glory of Willful Homelessness
The author reflects on a life spent resisting conventional paths, using travel as an escape from a confining upbringing. Disillusioned by the modernity of Seoul, which contrasts sharply with her childhood dreams of an exotic East, she discovers fragments of Korea’s past in its rural areas. This duality evokes both love and resentment.
- I DIDN’T PLAN TO BECOME A TEACHER: The Students Who Made Me Stay
- JUSTICE ENDS WHERE POLICING BEGINS: The Shameful History of Policing The Gay and Trans Community in Canada
- RAISED BY PLACES UNSEEN: The Quiet Way Borneo Found Me
- ALONE AGAINST THE SYSTEM: Fighting Police Misconduct in Ontario Means Surviving It
- PART 3 – NO PERMISSION NEEDED: What Was Once Shame Has Become Pride
Sabrina Constance 