Think Korea 2006 was an ambitious programme of cultural and other events organised by the Korean Embassy as part of the “Korea-UK Mutual Visit Year”. There was, I believe, a reciprocal series of UK-related events organised in Korea, but I never saw any publicity about it. One event I do know of: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra paid a visit to Seoul and performed with the Korean R+B band SG Wannabe. Strangely, their appallingly-advertised concert in Croydon with Korean ballad singer Lee Soo-young, traditional singer Kim Young-im and pianist Richard Joo Hyung-ki, in which they also performed Ahn Eak-tai’s Korea Fantasy, did not appear to be part of the Think Korea 2006 programme in the UK. Nor did the second of two London Korean Film Festivals organised in the year, event though the second festival was organised by the cultural department of the Embassy, while the first was organised by an independent agency, CnE (Culture and Entertainment) Limited.
Mind you, I’m not sure that the official listing of Think Korea 2006 events which I reproduce below (and which is extracted from the Think Korea 2006 website) is actually complete. I discover in my notes that the programme was officially launched at a performance event on 23 February in Asia House, and that is omitted from the table below.
Frustratingly, the advance publicity for the Korean events in the UK was pretty dire: the Think Korea 2006 website was launched sometime during June 2006, meaning that people interested in the line-up of events for the year (including us) missed some of the earlier ones. Since 2006, the website has been sporadically offline, but it now seems to have re-emerged with some consistency. Below is a recreation of the website’s events page, listing out the events in 2006 that were organised under the Think Korea 2006 branding. I am capturing it here for archival purposes, because with over 10 years of experience online I know how temporary some websites can be…
If some of the above sounds negative, I am happy to report that the events themselves were of a high quality. You can read our overall roundup of the year here, or read our individual event reports by browsing the archive.
This material is posted in 2017, during a project to organise LKL’s event archives to make them more accessible. Links under the thumbnail images take you to the event notice (the Embassy provided no event notice for the student event in September) and from each event notice you can find a link to LKL’s review of the event, if we managed to find out about it in advance and get to it.
Welcome to ‘Think Korea 2006′, an exciting programme of Korean events taking place in the UK this year. We hope that you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to gain an insight into Korea’s rich cultural heritage through this varied calendar of traditional and contemporary performances.
As we present ‘Think Korea 2006′, we look forward to further enhancing mutual friendship and understanding between the UK and Korea. We also seek to encourage future cultural exchange, and to inspire further interest in Korea and its people.
In recent times Korea has become synonymous with cool, as enthusiasm for Korea’s popular culture especially in the fields of cinema, music, and television dramas has swept across much of Asia in what has become known as the ‘Korea wave’. Yet, the dynamic, ultramodern Korea of today co-exists in harmony with Korea’s wealth of cultural history and tradition, which remains highly valued and appreciated.
The events programme has something for everyone, so please join us and ‘Think Korea 2006′.