High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Born in Seoul during the Japanese occupation, Paik had four older brothers and a father who owned a major textile manufacturing firm. As he was growing up, he was trained as a classical pianist. In 1950, Paik and his family had to flee from their home in Korea, during the Korean War. His family first fled to Hong Kong, but later moved to Japan, for reasons unknown. Six years later he graduated from the University of Tokyo where he wrote a thesis on the composer Arnold Schoenberg. Paik then moved to Germany to study the history of music at Munich University. While studying in Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the conceptual artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell who inspired him to work in the field of electronic art