On the first day of Vancouver’s Cherry Blossom Festival, Jennifer Barclay reports on a recent visit to the Canadian city’s Koreatown Driving around Vancouver makes you hungry. There’s a Vietnamese restaurant next to an Indian next to a Greek next to a Korean. That’s especially on the big roads like Kingsway that lead away from … [Read More]
Front Page
Five from the archive
Festival Film Review: Chung Chang-wha focus
Each year the LKFF includes a few golden oldies among its line-up of the latest commercial and art house offerings. This year the festival gave us the opportunity to get to know three films by veteran director Chung Chang-wha, made before he was scouted by Shaw Brothers in 1969. The earliest film to be screened … [Read More]
Inheriting the gifts of grief: Brenda Paik Sunoo’s moving memoir
Brenda Paik Sunoo: Seaweed and Shamans – Inheriting the gifts of grief Seoul Selection, April 2006 I remember logging this book in my memory sometime in early 2006, having read some advance notice of in, I think, the Seoul Selection weekly email. I didn’t read the small print too closely, and confess I didn’t read … [Read More]
An introduction to Hangeul – part 1
By Matthew Jackson. I heard a few years ago there was a plan to make Hangeul1 Korea’s National Treasure No.1. Given that there are a number of candidates for this position, I was puzzled, although aware that Hangeul’s technical merits are not disputed in the world of linguistics. John Man, for example, in his book … [Read More]
Book review: Jinhee Choi — The South Korean Film Renaissance
Jinhee Choi: The South Korean Film Renaissance Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs Wesleyan University Press, 2010 There seems to be an ever-growing pile of available books of Korean film, with more to come over the next two years. This is testament to the established interest in Asian film and the growth of media studies as an … [Read More]
Recent Posts
April events 2025
Bong Joon-ho is on the cover of this month’s Sight and Sound, marking the special season of his films at BFI and the theatrical release of his Mickey 17, and Park Jiha has a three concert tour to celebrate her new album. You probably didn’t manage to get tickets to Yunchan Lim’s Wigmore Hall recital, … [Read More]
Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet – the perfect opening to BFI Flare 2025
BFI Flare launched yesterday with a humdinger of an opening movie: Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet. Ahn’s partner in creating this update, James Schamus, also co-wrote Ang Lee’s version. While the original film features a single gay couple and a marriage of convenience, the reboot has two gay couples, which … [Read More]
Festival of Korean Dance 2025 – programme details announced
Here’s the official press release for the 2025 Festival of Korean dance. This year, in addition to performances at The Place in London, the festival tours to Bournemouth, Salford and Newcastle. A Festival of Korean Dance returns for its eighth year with 17-strong ensemble headliner and a live rock band Presented by the Korean Cultural … [Read More]
Snowy Day – a new collection of Lee Chang-dong short stories
I’ve been following Korean literature in translation now for around 25 years. Back in the day, I’d buy everything I could lay my hands on – after all, there wasn’t much of it around, so there wasn’t much financial commitment involved. At the time, most of the literature available was originally written more than thirty … [Read More]
2024 in review part 1 – the cultural year in London
In the first of three articles – which have taken far longer than they should have done to write – we look back over the past year of Korean events in London and elsewhere. At this point in the year we always ask ourselves the question as to whether there is any sign of the Korean … [Read More]
2024 in review part 2 – the books that caught our eye
2024 was a busy year for Korea-related books in English. Over one hundred books from the year made their way into the LKL Korea Book DataBase, and there were many more that didn’t make the cut. As translated Korean literature becomes ever more prominent in our bookstores, 2024 was, of course, the year in which … [Read More]
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Recent Event updates
K-Beauty Academy: Personal Colour Analysis Workshops
The Korean Cultural Centre UK is delighted to host a series of Personal Colour Analysis Workshops, offering you a unique opportunity to explore the shades that complement your natural features and elevate your personal style. Led by a professional colour specialist from Korea, each session includes a personalised colour consultation and practical styling tips—especially tailored … [Read More]
Han Collection x Icheon Ceramic for London Craft Week 2025
Han Collection is proudly partnering with Icheon Ceramic to bring Korean works of art of exceptional quality to the UK. Icheon is a small city to the south-east of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Since 2010, it has been designated as a UNESCO City for Arts and Folk Art. It is home to over … [Read More]
Korean crafts at London Craft Week 2025
London Craft Week runs from 12 to 18 May. It’s a great opportunity to meet with some of the finest makers around and appreciate their craft. This year you can visit the V+A on 13 May to see horsehair weaver Dahye Jeong demonstrate her craft. In addition, two exhibitions displaying traditional and contemporary Korean crafts … [Read More]
SMTOWN LIVE 2025 in London
The SMTown 2025 world tour kicks off in Korea on 11-12 January at Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul, with performers including K-pop veterans Bada (S.E.S) Hwanhee (Fly to the Sky) and Tony An (H.O.T). Wouldn’t it be great if similar legends made it to the London show on 28 June? This is the roadshow’s first visit … [Read More]
Korean performers at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival and Fringe
The Edinburgh International Festival has announced its programme for 2025, and the Fringe website is up and running with their acts. Below are the performers with Korean connections that we’ve managed to identify so far. We’ll update this post if we discover more productions – it’s likely that this is not a complete list as … [Read More]
Korea Day 2025 in Liverpool
On 29 April 2025, Korea Day in Liverpool will be held at Mountford Hall, located in the Guild of Students at the University of Liverpool. This special one-day event is co-hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre UK and the University of Liverpool Korean Society, offering a unique opportunity to experience the diversity and global influence … [Read More]
The above events list includes recent updates to events which might have been uploaded some time ago (eg an update confirming venue or ticket link). A chronological listing of all event notices published, most recent first, can be found here. A list of all upcoming events can be found here.
Recent Book updates
Snowy Day and Other Stories
The first story collection published in English by Lee Chang-dong, one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential literary and cinematic figures. Much like Lee Chang-dong’s internationally renowned films (Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry), these brilliant, unsettling tales, originally published in Korea in the 1980s and now translated into English for the first time, investigate … [Read More]
Green Frog
Here are fifteen pitch-perfect stories about women trying to make their own way: featuring daughters, divorcees, fox demons, a praying mantis, and . . . green frogs. A young girl reconnects with her Korean grandmother; an artist considers her connection to the Korean folktale of the green frog; a praying mantis living in a beautiful … [Read More]
Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea: A Translation of the Samguk yusa [forthcoming]
Vestiges of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea (Samguk yusa) is the first annotated English translation of one of the most important premodern Korean historical texts. One of only two surviving works on the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668) and Greater Silla (668–936), the Samguk yusa is a rich collection of historical, supernatural, and mythical stories, including one of … [Read More]
Luminous
In a recently reunified Korea, robots have integrated seamlessly into society. They are our teachers, our bus drivers and policemen. They are our lovers. They are even our children. Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scrap metal in a Seoul junkyard, searching for anything that might repair her failing body. There amongst the piles of junk she … [Read More]
Against the Chains of Utility: Sacrifice and Literature in 1970s and 1980s South Korea [forthcoming]
The 1970s and 1980s were pivotal decades in South Korea, marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization. The language of sacrifice was constantly employed by the developmental state to justify its exploitation of workers and violation of countless civil rights as necessary for the nation’s economic growth and security. As a counter to this prevailing rhetoric, … [Read More]
Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean [forthcoming]
Drinking is an essential part of Korean culture, one that’s guided by a complex web of unspoken rules, deep tradition, and lots and lots of food. With Soju Party, food writer, chef, and co-owner of Brooklyn’s Orion Bar Irene Yoo has written the book on drinking like a Korean. She introduces the classic Korean alcohols and … [Read More]
The above booklist includes recent updates to books which might have been uploaded some time ago (eg an update to reflect a release of cover art, or a new review). A chronological listing of all books uploaded, most recent first, can be found here.