March events 2026

This month, LKL enters its 21st year online – we launched 20 years ago on 1 March 2006. And it’s shaping up to be a good month, including three book launch events, three K-pop concerts, four major classical music concerts, a play and the UK theatrical release of a film that is currently topping the Korean box office.

Film

• The King’s Warden (왕과 사는 남자) gets a UK theatrical release from 6 Mar
• The KCCUK hosts a screening and discussion event featuring Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, 13 Mar

Music and theatre

• The Comfort Woman, written and performed by Minjeong Kim, with original live music by Jieun Jung, is at Clapham’s Omnibus Theatre, 3 – 7 March
• Laura Bowler’s The White Book, for soprano and orchestra and inspired by Han Kang’s novel gets its UK premiere at the Barbican, 4 – 5 March
• Sumi Jo is Mad for Love at the Cadogan Hall, 12 Mar
• Yeol Eum Son plays Bartok and Finzi at the Barbican, 13 Mar
• Da-Hee Kim gives the London premiere of 24 Preludes for Piano by Nicholas Scott-Burt, 16 Mar

K-pop and dance

• FIRE Vauxhall hosts their K-pop / Hip-hop night on 6 Mar
• Jay Kim is running a K-pop dance academy, 10 – 12 Mar at the KCCUK
• JustB’s “Aqua Halo” tour comes to the Islington Assembly Hall on 12 Mar
• NMIXX’s “Episode 1 – Zero Frontier” tour comes to the Hammersmith Apollo on 26 Mar
• 82Major’s “Bebeom: Be The Tiger” tour comes to EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney) on 27 Mar

Talks seminars and meetings including book launches

• Ela Lee launches her new novel Minbak at the KCCUK on 4 Mar
• Hyo Jung Lee launches Jeong: The Spirit of Korean Craft and Design at the KCCUK on 5 Mar
• Remco Breuker, Boudewijn Walraven and Grace Koh launch the new translation of the Samguk Yusa at SOAS on 13 Mar
• Dr Seunghye Sun gives a talk entitled K-Everything with AI: Rethinking Cultural Diplomacy at the University Women’s Club and online, 24 Mar
• The British Korean Society’s AGM is on 30 Mar at the KCCUK (tbc)

Exhibitions

• Christine Sun Kim is in 1880 THAT at the Wellcome Collection until 6 Apr
• Children’s drawings from North and South Korea feature in Drawing Hope: Children’s art for peace at the Friends Meeting House in Euston until 3 Apr. There will be a launch event on 3 March
• Collect 2026 closes on 1 March at Somerset House

Books expected

• Minbak, by Ela Lee pub Harvill
• The Memory Bookshop, by Song Yu-jeong tr Shanna Tan pub Harper Collins
• The Legend of Lady Byeoksa, by Esther Park tr Gene Png pub Wildfire
• Jeong: The Spirit of Korean Craft and Design, by Hyo Jung Lee pub Phaidon
• Light and Thread, by Han Kang tr Emily Yae Won, Maya West, Paige Aniyah Morris pub Hamish Hamilton
• The Cultural Diplomacy of South Korea: Exhibiting the Nation in International Museums, by Sumi Kim pub Routledge
• Korean Relations with Japan and Ryūkyū in the Early Chosŏn Period: A Translation of Sin Sukchu’s Haedong Chegukki, ed Kenneth Robinson, Sin Sukchu pub University of Hawai’i Press (US publication. Expected in the UK in May)
• A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan, by KumHee Cho, Sayaka Chatani pub Stanford University Press

Let me know what books or events I’ve missed.