korean childhood games

How to Play Ddakji: Fold, Flip, and Win the Korean Paper Tile Game

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A finished white ddakji paper tile folded from two sheets

Learning how to play ddakji takes about two minutes. Getting good at it takes a whole childhood. Ddakji (딱지) is the Korean paper tile game where you slam your own folded tile onto the ground and try to flip your opponent’s tile over. Most people outside Korea met it in the opening episode of Squid … Read more

Where Korean Kids Got Their Toys in the 1980s

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Games commonly played by Korean children, such as *ttakji-chigi* (paper tile flipping), *gonggi-nori* (jackstones), and *jegi-chagi* (shuttlecock kicking).

Most articles about Korean childhood games list the games. This one is about where the equipment came from, because that turns out to explain more. I grew up in Incheon in the 1980s and 90s. Looking back at what we played, the games sort cleanly into three groups — and the sorting has nothing to … Read more