Here’s a selection of Jennifer Barclay’s pics. Jennifer’s article will be up soon.
I seem to have mislaid my camera, and am therefore dependent on my phone for pictures at the moment. Hence the snaps I took in Trafalgar Square this afternoon are very poor.
Please feel free to send in any photos you’re particularly proud of (my email address is philip at this website’s URL), or upload them to the London Korean Links Facebook group for all to see. All photos shown on this site will be credited to you.
For me, as I suspect for many of you, the unexpected stars of the show were Noridan, the wacky percussion group from Seoul. More on them soon. Until I get some better pictures, here’s the best my phone could do:
One of my minor complaints with Seoul Magazine is their slapdash approach to visual material. Particularly in their events listings they splatter pictures around the page with no description of what the image depicts and what article or event it relates to. We bloggers have a partial excuse for not putting captions under pictures, because as far as I’m aware html currently only supports captions for tables, not images. But publishers of printed media have no excuse.
Take as an example the listing of festivals and events on page 60 of April’s edition. One of the events listed is the Gyeongju Traditional Drink and Rice Cake Festival (19-24 April). It does not take a genius to link the image below with that event, but what on earth is going on? Other than to say that if you had drunk that amount of soju, you’d probably need a bit of a sit-down as well.
In the past few days I’ve loaded into Flickr some photos from my recent long weekend in Seoul and Busan. Nothing terribly sophisticated, and I rather overdid the pictures of pretty palace rooves, but it was a nice day.
Photos are on my Flickr page here.
First, some pictures of Namdaemun as it used to be:
In 1890
In 1904-6
In 1906-7
The YouTube Namdaemun Then and Now group contains loads of more recent, pre-fire, images. Here’s a couple of samples:
Next, a YouTube (maybe from YTN) of the fire itself
Some spectacular stills of the fire are on pwalks’ flickr page (HT to Seoul Man for the link). In fact pwalks has a load of excellent photos of Korea.
And a very moving video entitled 다시 ë˜ëŒë¦´ 수 있다면 (If we can go to the PAST), via Gusts of Popular Feeling:
And one or two of my own snaps, taken on 15 February, five days after the fire.
Here’s the top ten. And probably not all that work-safe.
#10: The second appearance of LKL’s favourite ex-playboy model, Lee Sabi (806 views):
#9: The Chejudo Love Land theme park (884):
#8: Sassy girl and last vampire Jeon Ji-hyun displaying her smooth thighs as a rock chick (969):
#7: Pop diva, CF queen and all-round girl-in-the-celebrity-blogosphere Lee Hyori (1,174):
#6: Lost, Ardor and Swiri star Kim Yun-jin, from the Arena spread (1,312):
#5: Star of soap and film, Ha Ji-won. “Horrible” © The Times (1,537):
#4: The second appearance of BoA, this time in her Nike campaign (2,636):
#3: The priceless photo of North Korean military marching (6,461):
#2: Jeon Ji-hyun again, in her Laneige campaign (13,609):
#1: LKL’s man of the year 2006, Time Magazine’s most influential entertainer 2006, Time Magazine’s Reader’s Choice of 2007, and the most invisible hallyu star of 2007 since parting company with JYP Management. Yes, it’s Jung Ji-hoon, aka Rain, and his six-pack, inspiration for LKL’s comment of the year 2007 (40,231):
Of course, you can understand why most of the pictures in the top 10 are so popular.
But in terms of what I want this site to be all about, I’m most pleased with the variety of pictures in the first of these posts (#21-30): some art, an indie musician, a still from an indie film, an historical photo, a Korean footballer in the UK, a post which answered a lot of questions about the magic straight perm, and a good smattering of celebrities for eye candy. So while the rather camp-looking Rain, with over 40,000 viewings, was 138 times as popular as the gutsy Hobak from Bloody Cookie (290 viewings), this site will continue to give web space to indie music and other topics under-represented elsewhere. And to prove it, here she is again, together with the rest of the band.
Hobak (bass):
Jihye (drums):
Noji (lead guitar):
Binna (vocals):
of Bloody Cookie:
Thanks to Anna for her efforts in interviewing these bands and getting the images.
Links:
Here’s #11-20, in reverse order
#20: Tottenham Hotspur’s Lee Young-pyo:
#19: 1970s Seoul:
#18: The first appearance of top K-pop star BoA, in her campaign for Olympus:
#17: Shinhan Bank’s Manchester United Credit Card:
#16: The cover image from Kyung-Hyun Kim’s heavyweight book on Korean Cinema — a still from Peppermint Candy:
#15: Robot Taekwon V, recently remastered:
#14: The wonderful Lee Young-ae:
#13: Moon Geun-young as an Easter bunny:
#12: 2006 Miss Korea Honey Lee modelling some jeans:
#11: Timeless beauty Choi Ji-woo:
What? Nearly into the top 10 and still no picture of Super Junior?
The top 10 will be coming soon.
Links:
Part 1: #21-30
Inspired by the cheap TV programmes which seem to have taken over the evening schedules in the UK, simply recycling clips from other TV programmes (The 100 most embarrassing celebrity moments, and the like), here’s a chance to sample again the pictures most viewed on this site during 2007, according to AWstats.
In reverse order.
#30: Hobak from LKL’s favourite rock-chick band Bloody Cookie:
#29: The first appearance on this list of Lee Eon-jeong, LKL’s favourite ex-playboy model:
#28: Fly to the Sky Transition album cover. (This one would have been higher on the list, but I stopped the particular individual hotlinking to it.):
#27: Stage 1 in a magic straight perm process, of consistent interest to LKL readers:
#26: Kim Yeon-ah, who had a disagreement with Lee Teuk of Super Junior:
#25: A still from Don’t Look Back, the indie film success at Locarno:
#24: An early photo of South’s South Gate, from the Rev Corwin and Nellie Taylor collection:
#23: Yeondoo Jung’s Wonderland from the Through The Looking Glass exhibition:
#22: SG Wannabe, who participated in the “Big 4″ concert in New York in August:
#21: Reading’s, now Fulham’s, Seol Ki-hyung:
More soon.
Links
BoA advertises Hite
A still to go with this current TV commercial:
The rather unrefined drinking mannerism brings to mind the classic Boddingtons commercial from the 1990s:
and while we’re on the subject, the one featuring Melanie Sykes:
Of course, it’s the spokesmodel rather than the product that would be welcome in the local boozer. The general consensus is that Hite is rather watery. I’m quite content with the Young’s Ordinary.
Changdeokgung Palace in winter. From Sueann’s NWPR Blog
Regent Street lights, from the London Moleskinecity blog
And an interesting seasonal post from Robert Neff: Christmas comes to Old Korea, OhMyNews, 24 December 2007
Samuel Cho has a great collection of photos from the Chuseok celebrations at the British Museum last month, really capturing the energy of some of the performances. Here’s a sample:
Links:
It is a commonplace observation that Korea is caught between two larger neighbours. Similarly, in marketing terms, the Korean events at the British Museum last Saturday were dwarfed by the blitzkrieg advertising for the Chinese “First Emperor” and the Japanese modern design exhibitions, both also at the British Museum at the same time. But although the façade of the museum was plastered with giant posters of terracotta warriors, all eyes were on the Korean festivities in the museum forecourt.
Most people could tell that all the jollifications were Korean. “Korean Harvest Festival” was hastily written in front of the changseung (totem poles) which formed the centrepiece of the first performance in the forecourt. And more importantly, the large group of helpers from the Cultural Centre and elsewhere were present handing out leaflets. The Korean community itself had turned out in force, many of them in colourful hanbok. Maybe not all the spectators knew precisely what was going on, but the blue man on a stepladder plying the skies with a large aluminium oar was certainly eye-catching, and the white earth-god figure who joined the moon-jar potter rooted the performance in something to do with the turning of the seasons. The drums and voices of Dulsori as ever provided the energy and the backbone for the performance.
Inside the museum, the performance continued at the foot of the steps to the old reading room. These celebrations were a bit quieter — the kayageum could only just be heard above the general hubbub, but the full battery of drums would have been deafening.
In one corner of the great court, long queues were forming. Not for the terracotta army exhibition, but for people to try their hand at Korean woodcut printing. The queue for getting the results signed by the woodcut artist, Ahn Jun-young, was even longer.
Downstairs, Im Kwon Taek’s Chihwaseon was being screened, and people had to chose between that, Gina Ha-Gorlin’s moon-jar gallery talk, and vocal performances from Dulsori in the Korea gallery itself. There was a feast of entertainment on offer, and unfortunately at each point choices had to be made. The whole day was a cross between a marathon (because there was so much on offer) and a sprint (because if you wanted to cover everything you had to experience but a short burst of each activity) But which ever way you looked at it, somehow the spirit of Chuseok somehow kept your energy levels high.
An hour later, Dulsori were again warming the crowds on the West Lawn. Two changgo players (though it sounded a lot more as the beats echoed off the BM’s porticoes) gave a spirited performance of the Hwimori. Then the earth-god made a reappearance, scattering petals against an aural backdrop of music which some might call “timeless” and others “new age”. But it there was no time for further musicological analysis as there was another choice to be made. And never having seen Dae Jang Geum we rushed off to see the edited highlights in the lecture theatre under the Great Court. As far as we could tell, apart from a slightly choppy beginning the editors had done an excellent job of condensing some 50 hours of broadcasting into the mere 90 minutes demanded by the BM’s punishing schedule.
I could see why the drama has millions of fans. The wonderful Lee Young-ae triumphs over all adversity with her mixture of submissive respect, steely self-assurance and a culinary inventiveness surpassing the most accomplished celebrity chef. If only I had the time to watch it all. But I couldn’t even afford to watch all of the edited version if I was to complete the marathon (or serial sprint) we had been set. A quick look in on the studious lantern makers, a quick visit to the paradoxically messy soap sculptors, and it was time yet again to make our way outside to the Ganggangsullae and other dances on the west lawn of the BM’s forecourt. For all we knew, Dulsori had been at it all afternoon, but as we arrived the lawn was full of people forming human chains, wrapping round each other in the carpet-rolling game, encouraged all the while by Dulsori’s energetic singer. Troops were at last rallied for the final event of the day, the maypole dance.
Amazingly for the number of people involved, the whole day had gone like precision clockwork. Events happened pretty much as advertised, and had started and finished on time. If Gina Ha-Gorlin, mastermind of the event for the BM, was concerned about making sure the visiting artists were well-looked after, or worried about the security risks of the vastly increased footfall in the Korea gallery, she did not show it as she chatted with visitors upstairs or at her gallery talk downstairs. Kim Yoo-jung, who masterminded the Dulsori involvement, was totally relaxed as she lectured the attentive students on the rudiments of lantern-making, while holding a side conversation with us impromptu visitors. The myriad of helpers from the embassy’s cultural centre and no doubt numerous other volunteers were happily handing out leaflets, brochures and prayer-paper for hanging on the prayer-trees behind the totem-poles. In fact the most stressed people were probably the representatives of the Diamond Sutra Recitation Group, worried that they were going to run out of supplies of their user-friendly books on traditional Korean culture. They were right: they had to replenish their stocks, and by the end of the day had handed out more than 16 crate-loads to people eager to find out more.
The whole day was a huge success, and congratulations are due to all concerned. A lot of the spectators were, if you like, passing trade, maybe visiting for the terracotta army, or just on the BM tourist route. Maybe a few went along having read about the event on this site. Certainly a lot had been at the Thames Festival the previous weekend, had enjoyed themselves and wanted to come back for more. And in fact that is the test of an occasion like this: do people leave the event wanting more? Based on the conversations and comments I heard, the answer is a definite Yes.
Links:
I haven’t had a chance to write anything yet - that will come in the next couple of days - but in the meanwhile I’ve uploaded my snaps onto my flickr page.
Let me know of any other photos you wish to share.
Here are some photos from Rags in the Wind - a group show in the Graz Botanical gardens, on now. It’s featured here because it includes the work of London-based, Korean-born artist Francesca Cho. Her “Floating Soul 1″ is below:
Some thumbnails of the work of some of the other artists are below:
View a slideshow of the complete set here. The set includes a couple of shots of a dancer interpreting a little fable written by one of the artists, accompanied by a recorder player. Most of the photos were taken by my 7-year-old niece, Heather. Not bad, huh?
Thanks to Tristan Kinslow for letting me post some of his photos of the Korean Village last weekend’s Thames Festival.
View the rest of the photos at Tristan’s flickr account.
And here’s one of the lantern procession, from the London SE1 site:
I just got an email from Samuel Cho telling me about the photos he took at the Trafalgar Square Dano festival a couple of weeks ago. His site is well worth a visit. Some great photos of the b-boys and the taekwondo display, as well as some colourful pics of the procession. And of a totem pole (right). It’s good to get another viewpoint.
Links:
Many thanks to Katie, Mark and Sung-min for letting me use their pictures of the Dano festival last Sunday. Mark has uploaded a full set of his photos over at the Korean Language Meetup site. Go visit the gallery - there are some other good photos over there too. I’ll also be asking people to send in photos of the Kingston Korean Festival on 30 June as well, so make sure you all take your digital cameras down to the Fairfield recreation ground next Saturday.
First, some of Katie’s pics:
She also took the photo of the b-boy in Monday’s post. Next, here’s a sample of Mark’s photos. Remember it was also the day of the parade commemorating 25 years after the Falklands war:
Mark also snapped the logo at the top of this post. And here are some more photos from Sung-min which didn’t really go with Jennifer’s post on Monday.
Thanks to all of you.
Links:
As I’ve been on a plane for what feels like the last 24 hours, a lazy post today.
Insadong on a Sunday morning, before it gets busy:
One of the products for sale:
Question: If the diary is designed for the Japanese market, why is the writing in English?
And a British style icon somehow perching on a slanting roof:
Update 22 Feb 2007:
A pic from the Chosun Ilbo: A promotional event involving the above mini and some b-boys:
45 minutes from the downtown area of Seoul is a rather special place. Take line 4 to Seoul Grand Park (Gwacheon, 과천), and board the free shuttle bus which runs from near the exit. The Lonely Planet says it would take 20 minutes to walk to the gallery, but it seemed to take the bus about that long to get there.
You are greeted by a rather spacious sculpture park. Walking up the sloping path towards the gallery entrance, the first thing you see is a giant steel sculpture of a human figure, his mouth opening and closing with a regular rhythm. He stands there presenting himself to the sun, gazing out over the parkland to the mountains beyond.
There is chattering all around you, coming from your excited fellow-visitors, but behind all the noise some strange music is emerging. You think someone has got their personal stereo on too loudly, but it’s not the sort of music people in general choose to listen to. You then realise that the sounds are coming from the statue. Behind his mechanical jaw is a loudspeaker which is revealed each time the mouth opens. Part absent-minded humming, part lamentation, part prayer or religious chant, you are drawn to it. You want to sit behind the sculpture, look out over the valley with it and let the haunting sounds permeate through you. This first exhibit is worth a 15 minute pause, and you haven’t got to the front door yet.
Further diverting sights distract you on the way. One of them demands you to interact with it: a giant shiny steel ball, with four life-size male figures, one at each point of the compass, struggling against each other with futile effort get it rolling. Kids feel compelled to join in (right).
Beyond the lofty entrance hall, and having paid your 1,000 Won to get in, is the giant video work of the recently-deceased Paik Nam-June. Given pride of place in the lobby, the whole museum is built around it. You can walk all the way round it courtesy of the Guggenheim-like spiralling pathway which takes you to the main exhibition areas. Truly a landmark.
I only had time to visit the Korean abstract art and contemporary drawing galleries. They benefit from huge amounts of space which allows you to contemplate each work without being distracted by the other works. The collection is impressive, with most of the big names in the post 1950’s art world represented and all the key movements present - though minjung art, being neither abstract art nor drawing - is not to be found.
In a rushed visit I had no time to sit and absorb the work, and I’m left with a keen desire to go back as soon as possible. When that will be, I do not know.
Links: National Museum of Contemporary Art website
First, some boring stuff
December was a record month for advertising revenue: the princely sum of $11.17, making my life-to-date total $24.32. But if it stays at December’s levels I’ll be happy: that more than pays for webhosting.
And something I get lots of, and wish I got less: my life-to-date spam comment count (as of the time of writing) is a staggering 34,000
Now this
For those not hunting for celebrity news, or details of bookshops or restaurants in London, a very popular generator of traffic in 2006 was Chejudo Love Land theme park (100 visits to my site). The most work-safe image is above (credit: Matthias Streitz at Der Spiegl). There are links to less work-safe images in my original post here.
Less popular (46 visits) was the seemingly innocuous search phrase “North Korean Army Marching”. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see why people should be googling that particular phrase.
Other topics
One thing I’m reasonably pleased about, though it’s very small beer at the moment, is that people are coming to this site to read about artists. Most popular artist is Lee Dong-wook: at 40 visits he’s as popular as Kangta (29) and Yonsama (11) put together - though it seems there’s also a person on TV by that name as well so maybe people are looking for the latter person. Next on the list is Choi Jong-hwa (12) and Lee Hyung-koo (11). If that means people are visiting this site as a result of its coverage of the visual arts, that’s great.
London Koreatown
One of the biggest generators of traffic to this site is questions about things Korean in London. What’s the best restaurant? Where can I buy soju or get a haircut? Where are the Korean churches and what are the newspapers? Where can I learn Korean? Tell me about the Anglo-Korean Society, the Cultural Centre or any other organisations (a lesson here: if you’re a twenty-first century organisation, you need to be on the web).
And if people are looking for money-making opportunities, it looks like there could be a market (albeit a small one) for a Noraebang and a Korean tea-shop in London / New Malden. I know some of the restaurants in town (Young Bin Kwan and Kaya spring to mind) have karaoke machines. Does anyone know of any others, or of a proper noraebang? I don’t know anywhere to buy decent ($50 a packet) Korean tea myself other than Korea, but then I haven’t explored in New Malden yet.
People also came to my site looking for Korean cooking lessons (many specifically wanting to know how to prepare sea squirt) and Korean dating agencies. And went empty away.
Business coverage
I’m glad that some of my business coverage seems to be read. One topic I have been following is the alleged opening of the Korean legal services market. As the only other site to be covering this seems to be the UK Law Society, I’ve had 70 visitors to my site to find out about this. People have even been moderately interested in my brief coverage of Credit Suisse’s unfortunate debacle in Korean reverse convertibles. De gustibus, and all that.
Films
I tend to steer clear of film reviews and the like as Darcy, Jase and others cover those more than adequately. But on the rare occasions when I have something to say, people seem to be interested. 115 visits for the Host, but the star article seems to be Pororo the little penguin. Only 91 visits, but I was expecting zero interest.
Conclusions
All of which leads me to conclude: well, I’m gonna continue to write about whatever takes my fancy. But maybe I should make this site the home of the official UK Lee Sabi / Lee Eon-jeong / Lee Un-jung / ì´ì–¸ì • Fan Club just to make sure. Then I could post photos like this every day.
And finally, before I get to that priceless photo…
Those traffic statistics updated to December:
Daily visits to December
Daily page views to December
Daily hits to December
And here it is. Hurrah!
Apologies to those who saw an imcomplete earlier version of this post on Monday. Slight glitch on the button-pushing front when I was distracted by snails-pace server response times.
In the year-end spirit of reviewing the highlights and lowlights of 2006, here are the winners of the first LKL Awards - a personal and unscientific selection. The awards are in the following categories:
Man of the Year
I don’t think there’s any competition. Rain, Rain, Rain. Time’s most influential entertainer, Seoul’s tourism goodwill ambassador, a starring role in Park Chan-wook’s latest film, a sell-out concert in New York, a Christmas eve gig in Las Vegas, a good selling album (below). What have I missed? He hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Woman of the Year
There’s a lot of Lees in competition for this award. Soo-young, for being so totally wonderful (if a little flat) at the Fairfield Hall on Mayday; Hyolee for having the most photos on my website (but she’s disqualified for alleged plagiarism), Sabi for being the most searched-for Korean on the internet, despite having done nothing this year apart from making a diet video and re-adopting her birth name Lee Eon-jeong in order to take up acting, Young-ae for, well, I guess most of it was last year (Miss Geumja, Dae Jang Geum), but hey she’s still up there. But beating them all is an unexpected choice: Rowan Pease, for three (maybe more) hugely fun public lectures, with a baby born in between. The woman’s a human whirlwind.
Next, two awards, in the spirit of UK-Korea mutual visit year, for a national of one country living in or temporarily visiting the other. Criteria for winning are either being prominent or in some way successful in the other country, or promoting mutual understanding. And a third award for a non-Korean promoting Korean culture in the UK.
Best cultural promotion: Briton in Korea
Runners up are David Kilburn for his campaign for the preservation of Kahoidong and Charlie Moores for his campaign for nature conservation in Saemangeum; but the winner is Paul Bateman, guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic for his May tour of Korea accompanying Vibe, Lee Soo Young and others. Despite being totally baffled by the performers at the Fairfield Hall concert there was a strange chemistry going on, which can only have grown in Korea.
Best cultural promotion: Korean in Britain
Where to start? With all those who tirelessly work to promote Korean culture in the UK? Oh Tae-min, Justina Jang? The Embassy and Cultural Centre staff? The performers themselves? The designers at Jackie Choi, for winning an enterprise award? Seol Ki-Hyeon for his sparkling performances at Reading? Kim Sun-wook for his at Leeds? There’s a long list.
OK. Runners up are Dulsori, for their energetic teaching at the SOAS Summer School and the way they work an audience at a public performance. And the winner is Lee Jiyoon, for curating the Asia House Through the Looking Glass exhibition and the Exposed show earlier in the year.
Best cultural promotion: Non-Korean in Britain
Joint winners are ukfan for his fun forum focused on cartoon strips related to Dae Jang Geum, but also with a more general Korean cultural remit, and Alice Bennell for her Show Dae Jang Geum on the BBC campaign. Sign it if you haven’t already.
Photo of the year
I want to make a special mention of Yeondoo Jung’s surreal “Wonderland” photographs, but they’re disqualified because they were created in 2004/5. Visit his website for examples. So here’s the winner: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, summing up the disappointment at Korea’s exit from the World Cup:
Album of the year
Provisionally awarded to Humming Urban Stereo’s Monochrome. When I started writing this post just before Christmas I was going to refrain from announcing an album award because while I agreed with the Chosun that Vibe’s Re-feel was the best I’d heard up till then, it doesn’t merit an award. Since then I started listening to my December purchases, and Humming Urban Stereo’s Monochrome has rarely left the CD machine. It’s head and shoulders above the run-of-the-mill R&B fare that comes out of Korea, and Humming Girl has got to have the cutest voice in the business.
But I can’t confirm this album as my pick of 2006 until I’ve followed up on Anna’s recommendations.
Book of the year
Provisionally awarded to Keith Howard for his book on K-pop. It’s been a strong field this year, with a couple of art books, literature in translation, a fascinating compilation of foreign correspondents’ output, a more heavyweight book on Korean music (again by Keith Howard) and the graphic novel on Pyongyang. But I think Keith Pratt’s Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea could also be a strong contender for book of the year, and I haven’t had a chance to read that one yet.
The turkey of the year is the appreciation of Kim Ki-duk published in France by Dis Voir. A huge disappointment which tells you virtually nothing and gives you no desire to explore the films further.
Film of the year
It’s got to be Bong Joon-ho’s The Host. Quirky, inventive, funny, maybe a little bit scary at times, a bit political. And just plain enjoyable.
For connoisseurs, Darcy’s provisional top five of the year also includes Hong Sang-soo’s Woman on the Beach, Kim Tae-yong’s Family Ties, Lee Yoon-ki’s Ad Lib Night and Min Boung-hun’s Pruning the Grapevine.
London event of the year
It’s a hard decision. Two film festivals, dance events, music, art exhibitions, plays. We’ve been really spoilt.
Headline of the year
And the miscellaneous awards
