SEOUL – Some perhaps remember a stone slab from director Bong Joon-ho’s Academy Award-winning film Parasite, which Ki-woo, one of the main characters, holds onto throughout the film. In the film, his friend Min-hyuk delivers the stone, stolen from his grandfather’s collection, telling Ki-woo the stone will bring wealth to his family.
The rock-collecting culture, however, faded away in past decades until it recently made a comeback during the Covid-19 pandemic. People who have pet stones tend to personify them. In many online social media posts, they put pictures of their pet stones as they would do with their pet animals. People also give the stones nicknames, prepare beds where they can rest, provide clothes and decorate them as if they were alive.
Pet stones are affordable when compared with raising dogs or having suseok. Pet stones here range between 6,000 won and 10,000 won, meaning that they are more accessible than suseok, which can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars.