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Books

LKL Weekly Tweets, 2010-03-14

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by Philip Gowman on 14 March, 2010

in BoA, DPRK, Food & Drink, General book news, Hallyu, Koreans elsewhere, Twitter Tweets, VoDs, Younee

BoA is back, with an upcoming Korean album: is she giving up on the US? http://bit.ly/auBVVD Meanwhile, the growth in Korean entertainment exports is slowing: http://bit.ly/8ZHrNU #
RT @GIKorea: New blog post: Have Korean Researchers Discovered Alcohol That Doesn’t Give You A Hangover? http://bit.ly/doANrW 11:17 PM Mar 5th via Twitter Tools
RT @rjkoehler New blog posting, [...]

Tagged as: Entertainment industry

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Nothing to envy: it brought tears to the eyes of a jaded cynic

20 February 2010 Book reviews: DPRK
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LKL reports from the book launch of Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea
It was a well-informed audience attending Barbara Demick’s book launch at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday, many of whom had been to North Korea. As the strains of a Mozart Symphony wafted upstairs from the concert hall [...]

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Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain

17 February 2010 Book reviews: DPRK
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Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain
Translated by Suh Ji-moon and Julie Pickering
East Gate / UNESCO, 1997. Originally published 1954

Novels set in post-liberation Korea, or during the Korean war, often make uncomfortable reading, particularly those set in the Soviet sphere of influence, and where the story is set in the countryside. The historical context of freeing [...]

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Contributions sought for adoptee anthology

14 February 2010 Classifieds
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A message just received from Perlita Harris for the British Association of Adoption and Fostering.
We are editing an anthology of writing and poetry by adopted adults who were adopted in England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland including adoptees born in another country (e.g. Korea) and raised by their adoptive family in the UK. This collection will [...]

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LKL Weekly Tweets, 2010-02-08

8 February 2010 Bloggers and newspeople
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I never understand the Korean celebrity system: Jang Dong-gun reveals when it is that he will reveal his wedding plans with Ko So-young. How about spilling the beans now? http://bit.ly/9JCqtB #
Another story demonstrating the popularity of Japanese fiction in Korea: Murakami dislodged from #1 slot after 19 weeks http://bit.ly/cqOrVm #
Bibimbap as funeral food: how not [...]

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Barbara Demick talks about her book Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea

7 February 2010 DPRK
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In her new book Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea, Barbara Demick uncovers the secrets of the world’s most secretive country, through the stories of six North Koreans. Covering illicit love affairs, party loyalty and crippling poverty, the stories are the result of tenacious investigations and interviews in a country not connected [...]

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LKL Weekly Tweets, 2010-02-01

1 February 2010 Business
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I wonder how much KIA had to pay for all those advertising billboards at the Australian Open men's final? #
Park Ji-sung scores in Man U's 3-1 rout of Arsenal. http://bit.ly/dgCYoK #
President Lee promotes Korean food at Davos (and pays his wife a nice compliment) http://bit.ly/9yiX5u #
A whole month has gone by without an events notice [...]

Companies:
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Book Review: From Wonso Pond

15 January 2010 Korean literature in translation
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Kang Kyong-ae: From Wonso Pond
Tr Samuel Perry
Feminist Press, 2009
Originally published 1934 in the Donga Ilbo

It’s the 1930s. In colonial Korea, economic development brings factories and work to Incheon, Seoul and other centres of population, while in the countryside the semi-feudal lifestyle continues. The local yangban plots which local lass to deflower next, and keeps the [...]

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Book review: The Wandering Ghost

7 January 2010 Book reviews: Foreign literature
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Martin Limón: The Wandering Ghost
Soho Press, 2007

While North of the DMZ we have the ongoing series of the enigmatic Inspector O to keep us entertained with mystery, suspense and action, south of the border we have the maverick military police sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom. Where Inspector O inhabits a contemporary world, Sueño and [...]

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Michael Breen: The Koreans

30 December 2009 Book reviews: History
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Michael Breen: The Koreans – Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies
Thomas Dunne Books, 1998 & 2004

With a commendable dose of filial piety appropriate to the subject of his book, Michael Breen dedicates his work to “Mum and Dad”. Having lived in Korea on and off since 1982, maybe some of the [...]

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Brief review: A Ricepaper Airplane

28 December 2009 Book reviews: Foreign literature
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Gary Pak: A Ricepaper Airplane
University of Hawai’i Press, 1998

Synospis (from the back of the book)
From a hospital bed a dying man unfolds the tale of an arduous life on the fringes of a Hawai’i sugar plantation in the 1920s. There Kim Sung-wha – labourer, patriot, revolutionary, aviator – envisioned building an airplane from ricepaper, bamboo, [...]

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Kang Sok-kyong: The Valley Nearby

18 December 2009 Korean literature in translation
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Kang Sok-kyong: The Valley Nearby
Tr Choi Kyong-do
Heinemann Asian Writers Series, 1997.

Living in the country, Yun-hee is engaged in a solitary struggle. Her two worlds, that of a rural housewife and that of an advocate for equality, are at odds with each other. As her artistic, alcoholic husband increasingly cuts himself off from the world, Yun-hee [...]

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Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 3

15 December 2009 Korean literature in translation
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Peter Corbishley offers his entry into the “There a Petal Silently Falls” essay competition.

A Korean novella – a human tragedy
It is unnerving to have images from a half-recollected film [1] play through a reading of There a Petal Silently Falls. [2] Yet that sense of disorientation evocatively models how the girl’s bewildered spirit-awareness [...]

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Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 2

11 December 2009 Korean literature in translation
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The LKL Editor contributes his own unsuccessful entry into the “There a Petal Silently Falls” essay contest.

Ghosts of Kwangju
Ch’oe Yun’s There a petal silently falls is an interesting choice for a first Korean literature essay contest. Elusive in content, obscure in characterisation and insubstantial in length, it encourages a discussion not about the book itself [...]

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Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 1

10 December 2009 Korean literature in translation
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Earlier this year the Korean Literature Translation Institute sponsored an essay competition based on Ch’oe Yun’s There a Petal Silently Falls. Now that the finalists have been announced, Michael Rank is the first to offer his submission for publication on the pages of LKL.
The Kwangju (Gwangju) massacre of 1980 has been called the most traumatic [...]

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