Yellow Earth, who last year brought us David Tse Ka-shing’s version of King Lear, comes to the Oval House bringing a double bill of East Asian short plays. Coupled with Dogs, by Elangovan (from Singapore), is Getting Married by Yi Kang-baek. GETTING MARRIED by Yi Kang-baek A young swindler is looking for love. He has … [Read More]
Year: 2007 (page 7)
The FT’s smooth weekend in Seoul
I don’t usually spend much time reading the Weekend FT’s How to Spend it magazine – most of the things in the magazine being out of my financial reach. But this weekend, in their ongoing series of “Smooth Guides” to a long luxurious weekend they finally featured Seoul. So here’s the FT’s tips for how … [Read More]
Another industry in which Korea leads the world
We all knew Korea had some world-beating industries: ships, chips, LCD screens. Add to that the manufacture of condoms, where three Korean companies – Unidus, Dongkuk Trading and Hankook Latex – account for 30% of the global market, according to the Chosun. Maybe there’s a big domestic demand – for example for high school field … [Read More]
Anglo-Korean Society Annual Dinner
A reminder to members of the Anglo-Korean Society to get their cheques off to Sylvia Park soon. Deadline for cheques is 15 October. In case you’ve lost the application form, you can download it here. The details: Thursday 25th October at the House of Commons. Host: Peter Bottomley M.P. (Secretary of the Anglo-Korean Parliamentary Group) … [Read More]
Richard Stubbs: Rethinking Asia’s Economic Miracle
(Palgrave MacMillan, 2005) Stubbs’s thesis is simple: that one of the key drivers of Asia’s economic growth has been not free market economics, not Confucian values, not the developmental state, not Japanese or American hegemony, but war, both hot and cold. Stubbs takes seven countries – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and … [Read More]
Where next for Samsung and Chelsea?
The departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea is not good news from the perspective of Samsung’s multi-million, multi-year sponsorship deal (which still has a couple of years to run). I don’t pretend to be able to judge new manager Avram Grant’s ability to keep the team’s performance up — though an obvious comment would be … [Read More]
I-MYU opening exhibition: To the furthest verge
I-MYU projects celebrates the opening of its gallery in style this month. I-MYU’s first project in London was the jointly curated show at Ritter/Zamet, Abandoned Protocol. October sees the opening of its gallery on the eastern outskirts of the City, at 23 Charlotte Road, EC2A 3PB [Map]. I-MYU promotes emerging Asian artists, with a particular … [Read More]
4482: Korean Contemporary Artists in New Malden group show
The first formal self-organised exhibition of Korean student artists in London, dubbed 4482 (after the dialling codes of the UK and South Korea) takes place at King’s Park Studio, 152-178 Kingston Road New Malden, 10-15 October. More images of the works can be found at http://neolook.net/archives/20071011d [Read More]
October events 2007
Perhaps the highlight of October will be the strong Korean representation – including Secret Sunshine – at the BFI London Film Festival. Full listing of Korean films showing is here. On the academic front there’s The Korean Studies Graduate Students Convention in Edinburgh, 24-26 October Yuri Kim and Aidan Foster-Carter at Chatham House on 15 … [Read More]
October talks at Chatham House
Two talks at the Korea Discussion Group at Chatham House in October. Firstly: The Six-Party Talks & the Future of the Korean Peninsula Yuri Kim Monday 15th October 2007 Meeting: 2.00-4.00pm Chair: Jim Hoare Yuri Kim is chief of the DPRK (North Korea) Affairs Division at the U.S. Department of State. Her portfolio covers the … [Read More]
Korea still an emerging market
More than 10 years after joining the OECD, South Korea is still an emerging market. FTSE (the company owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange) has recently been reviewing the constituent countries in its various global equity indices. In drawing up the indices, they categorise countries into three lists: Developed, Advanced Emerging, … [Read More]
K-film at the 51st BFI London Film Festival
Not to be confused with the Korean Film Festival at the Barbican at the beginning of November (on which more later), the BFI London Film Festival in October has an excellent spread of recent Korean film. The Highlight: Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, 2007, starring Jeon Do-Yeon, Song Kang-Ho, 142 mins) “A devastating account of a … [Read More]
10 Comes to Europe
10, LKL’s favourite Korean-Japanese experimental indie music duo, is coming to Europe to challenge, amaze and entertain audiences in Spain and France. Half of the duo is itta, interviewed by Anna Lindgren in March this year. The other half is Marqido, who describes himself as a Noise Artist. Here are the tour dates: 28 Sep … [Read More]
Chuseok at the BM — part sprint, part marathon
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 … [Read More]
Moon jars old and new
There were moon jars a-plenty at the British Museum on Saturday: old and new, whole and smashed, real and fake and, as is the nature of these objects, none of them perfectly spherical. In pride of place in Room 3, just as you enter the museum, is one of the prized items in the British … [Read More]
Paekho’s architectural art on show at the DPRK Embassy
I happened to arrive at the DPRK embassy at the tail end of the afternoon, after the reception which welcomed numerous dignitaries to the exhibition of work produced by the Korea Paekho Trading Corporation. I therefore had the works to myself: it was just me, Pak Chang Sop (People’s Artist and president of the corporation), … [Read More]