The cultural calendar is now starting to enter its customary winter hibernation, though there are still some things to keep you entertained before you finally hunker down for the holiday season. Have a good one.
Exhibitions
- A solo exhibition of JaeJun Lee’s ceramics at Flow Gallery continues into January
- The KCCUK’s winter exhibition New Gen – Emerging Voices continues into February
- Fashion artist Kim Hye Lim has a solo exhibition in Marylebone, 9 – 15 December
Talks and seminars
- Bath’s Museum of East Asian Art hosts an online seminar on traditional Korean embroidery by Heehwa Jo, 4 December
- SOAS hosts an in-person talk by Nuri Kim on The Power of the Clan: Contesting Kinship and the Making of South Korea’s Fifteenth President, 5 December
Screenings
- K-QUEER: Intimacies of the Invisible – a showcase of queer films by Kim-Jho Kwang-soo – takes place in Manchester and Preston, 9 – 12 December.
Music
- Singer / producer Sion comes to the Lower Third with his “eigensinn” tour, 1 December
- Kollab & Kulture wrap up their season of events at the Poplar Union on 5 December with performances by Yoo Ka Youn and the contemporary music collective Rito
Everything else
- The Squid Game experience continues into early January
- Keep an eye on EventBrite for other events such as K-pop club nights, foodie sessions and the like, which come thick and fast and don’t get listed here.
Books expected
- Bong Joon Ho: Philosopher and Filmmaker, by Anthony Curtis Adler pub Bloomsbury
- The Invention of a Language of Emptiness: The “Chojang chungga-ŭi,” the Earliest Korean Exposition of Buddhism, tr Jörg Plassen and Choe Yeonshik, pub University of Hawai’i Press
- Artificial Truth, by JM Lee tr Sean Lin Halbert pub Amazon Crossing
- Hail, Che!, by Pak Jeong-de tr Ed Bok Lee and Yang Eun-mi pub Black Ocean (December US release; January UK release)
Recent publications I managed to miss
- The Courage To Die: A North Korean Woman’s Escape and Rebirth in Freedom, by Eunhee Park published independently
- International Relations and the Development of Korea’s Film Industry, by Jimmyn Parc, Stephen Ranger pub Routledge
- The History of Korean Popular Culture, by Kim Chang-nam tr Jiyoung Suh, Oul Han pub Brill