South Korea will take on Ivory Coast in a friendly International football fixture at Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers, on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – kick-off 2.30pm. Both nations are keen to bring their football to London to entertain the estimated 20,000 Koreans and 10,000 Ivoriens that live in and around the … [Read More]
Month: February 2010
Dating a Korean American woman…
Korean-American girls are tough to date, says You Offend Me You Offend My Family in a great article entitled How To Survive A Date with A Korean American Woman, from August last year. Maybe because Koreans most materialistic people in the world, according to a survey reported in the Chosun Ilbo [Read More]
Why LKL said nothing about Kim Yu-na. Until now.
“Right now the biggest thing in Korea is the Olympic skater Kim Yu-na. It’s a mania for us Koreans,” was a message left via the LKL contact form by a UK-based correspondent, shortly before the free skating element of the women’s figure skating event in the wee small hours this morning. I think I knew … [Read More]
Kim Yu-na’s record-breaking gold
Congratulations to Kim Yu-na on record-breaking gold at Vancouver 2010. According to the BBC: It will go down as one of the greatest performances in figure skating history, and is South Korea’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speed skating. A couple of days ago the Chosun Ilbo was trying … [Read More]
Belated New Year celebrations at Pacific Plaza
Pacific Plaza is a new Asian mall by Wembley Stadium, including a supermarket and a Korean food outlet. They’re having a belated celebration of the New Year this Saturday, with all sorts of fun events. The festivities start at 12:30pm and continue till around 6:30. Korean cultural interest is scheduled for 2:15pm, 4pm and 5pm, … [Read More]
The world’s first jail for foreigners
If you’re going to get locked up in a foreign country, Korea doesn’t seem such a bad place to get jailed: a new facility in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, has Korean etiquette classes, Korean language classes, and satellite TV in your own language. Source: JoongAng Ilbo # [Read More]
Life as a banana – Korean adoptees speak at Cambridge
LKL reports from last Saturday’s half-day conference at Cambridge: “60 years of overseas Korean adoption and the Korean adoption issue”. What is it like to be yellow on the outside but white on the inside? Adoptees freely joke about the banana analogy. But simply being a white person in a yellow skin is only part … [Read More]
Korean food technologists produce Space Bibimbap
Not so long ago Korean boffins invented space kimchi. Now they’ve moved on to space bulgogi, adapted to suit the weightless environment of outer space. Next, space poktanju? Now that would be something. Source: Chosun Ilbo # [Read More]
Yulgok Yi I – a learned slouch with a stomach problem
LKL reports from the most recent Friday evening seminar at SOAS, in which Isabelle Sancho examined the letters of Confucian Scholar Yulgok Yi I What should one expect from the letters of one of the best-known Confucian scholars? In some respects, the sort of thing you might expect from any correspondence: pleasantries about health, about … [Read More]
Korean Soldiers in the Japanese Army – talk at the Senate House
The Comparative Histories of Asia Seminar is pleased to present: Global Japan Series: Professor Takashi Fujitani, University of California, San Diego ‘Korean Soldiers in the Japanese Amy: Some Reflections on Inclusionary or Polite Racism in WWII’ Thursday 25 February 2010, 5:30-7pm Room G37, South Block, Senate House Building, University of London All welcome. [Read More]
The Korean connection in “Up”
You know that tubby kid in Pixar’s animation “Up”? He’s a Korean, modeled after Peter Sohn, a 32-year-old ethnic Korean production artist who has been working with Pixar since 2000. Source: Chosun Ilbo [Read More]
Lee Eun-ju, still remembered 5 years on
It’s five years to the day since she took her own life. To remember her, here’s a recording of her cover version of the Corrs’ song Only When I Sleep (1997). The version is from Lee Eun-ju’s final film, The Scarlet Letter. Via James Turnbull and SuzyinSeoul [Read More]
Lifting King Kong at the KCC
News of the next screening at the Cultural Centre, continuing this month’s sporting theme: Lifting King Kong, also known as Bronze Medallist: Film title: Lifting King Kong (Kingkongeul deulda), 2009, 120mins Director: Park Geon-yong Cast: Lee Beom-soo, Joan, Lee Seul-bi, Park Jun-geum Venue: Multi-purpose Hall, The Korean Cultural Centre, Grand Buildings, The Strand, London WC2N … [Read More]
Sole Searching in Korean funeral parlours
Kick a man when he’s down: steal his shoes from the funeral parlour. Sole searching in the JoongAng Daily http://bit.ly/adnzyI # [Read More]
Nothing to Envy: it brought tears to the eyes of a jaded cynic
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 … [Read More]
Lee Bul interviewed in Korea Times
Good interview with cyborg artist Lee Bul in the Korea Times. "Lee Bul Pioneers Korean Contemporary Art" http://bit.ly/cxvu6K #. “Becoming an artist is not possible from trying. If somebody tries ‘not’ to be an artist, the person will have a greater possibility of becoming an artist,” she says. [Read More]