For those with time on their hands, here’s a few articles about how far K-pop is spreading, whether K-pop culture is beating J-pop culture and other copy generated by the Psy phenomenon. Highly recommended: Will the Korean pop culture boom have legs?, Tao Jones, 22 November, Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog – has the shock … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 100)
Tesco rides Psy-driven K-food sales increase
Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, who via Homeplus is also Korea’s second-biggest retailer, has been making cautious, very cautious, steps into selling Korean food in the UK. They marked the launch of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement last year by stocking some Korean food in one of its UK outlets. Yes, just one. For … [Read More]
Book review: Yoko Kawashima Watkins — So Far from the Bamboo Grove
Yoko Kawashima Watkins: So Far from the Bamboo Grove Harper Collins, 1986 Reprinted with letter from the author, 2008 183pp This time last year, Wikileaks revealed that when Mitt Romney, then Governor of Massachussetts, visited Korea in December 2006, one of the topics raised by the Korean Acting Foreign Minister Cho Jung-pyo was this short … [Read More]
Which of these two should be the Time Magazine person of the Year?
Who would you vote for as Time Magazine Person of the Year 2012? This guy? Or this guy? I can’t remember there being two Koreans on the 40-strong shortlist before. And for the first time in recent history, you can’t vote for Rain. (HT Yoo Kwang-on) [Read More]
Futurology in Korean Studies: hell in a handcart or hallyu heaven? LKL reports from the 2012 BAKS conference
The annual BAKS Conference on 17 November ambitiously attempted to look into the crystal ball to see what the Korean peninsula might look like in 20 years time. To help in that crystal ball gazing, the list of speakers included some non-Koreanists in a valuable initiative to introduce specialists to provide a different perspective. The … [Read More]
Maybe one reason why Psy is the most-watched YouTube video ever
Me: So, he’s the most watched video ever! Korean friend: Yes. I click on it 50 times a day. Hmm. So is that how he did it? Well, maybe not (the video certainly deserves to beat Justin Bieber), but it’s an interesting thought. And on a related subject, the Joongang Ilbo reports on a story … [Read More]
South Korea’s boring beer and love of expensive whisky in the news again
It’s something of a paradox. Koreans are prepared to put up with some of the most tasteless, characterless beer in the world, but insist on top quality whisky. For an explanation of the former mystery, the Economist (Fiery Food, Boring Beer – a dull duopoly crushes microbrewers, 24 November 2012) expands on a theme discussed … [Read More]
2012 Travel Diary #21: Seong Cheol’s birthday, Park Chan-soo’s museum and Gaya period tombs
Sancheong County, Gyeongsangnam-do, Saturday 31 March 2012. The impact of the love shots is still fogging my brain when Mr Yoon arrives at 9:30 in the morning. Today, he is accompanied by his wife, who is to join us for the morning. It is, after all, a Saturday, so Mr Yoon is working overtime on … [Read More]
Who would YOU vote for as Woman of the Year?
Well, GQ Korea says it’s SiSTAR, but the girl group was picked “because there were not many other options.” Actor Ha Sung-woo was man of the year. Needless to say, Kim Ki-duk and PSY also get mentioned. [Read More]
Book Review: Martin Limón — Mr Kill
Damn. He’s never done this before. This is Martin Limón’s 7th novel in his exciting, action-packed series featuring George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, investigators in the military police attached to the US 8th Army in 1970s Seoul Although the novels have been written over the course of some 20 years (the first novel, Jade Lady … [Read More]
PSY vs the generic K-pop girls
PSY has thrashed the lot of them when it comes to YouTube views. And now he’s up against KARA, SiSTAR and 4Minute in the Soju Wars. According to Koreabang, Jinro’s Chamiseul outsells Lotte’s Cheoeum Cheoreom by almost 3 to 1. PSY has now signed up to promote Jinro, while Hara, Hyolyn and HyunA have just … [Read More]
Book review: Modern Korean Literature — An Anthology 1908-65
Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology 1908-1965 Edited by Chung Chong-wha Routledge / Kegan Paul International, 1995, 467pp If you are looking to sample Korean literature in translation, the chances are that you’ll find more short stories than full length novels. This collection, though not universally enjoyable, is extremely useful in giving an overview of the … [Read More]
Film Festival Highlight: Eungyo – A poet looks into his glass
Korea’s most famous poet, Lee Jeok-yo, is well into old age. He has taken as a student cum in-house assistant an aspiring but not very talented novelist called Seo Ji-woo. A neighbouring high school girl starts takes a cleaning job at the poet’s house, and a connection soon forms between the poet and the young … [Read More]
Moral didactic literature and diversity in 1950s North Korea
(A sketchy write-up of the talk How does the rise of moral didactic literature fit into narratives of North Korean history? given by Andre Schmid (University of Toronto) at SOAS on 16 November 2012) When we think of North Korea, we mostly look at it through a 21st Century lens, and are tempted to think … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Masquerade deserved all the awards it got
It swept the board at the recent Grand Bell awards – best film, best director and best leading actor among them. And for all-round entertainment, the closing film of the London Korean Film Festival 2012 deserved all those awards. Was a uniquely reformist tax policy set by a pantomime performer who was pretending to be … [Read More]
K-film at the BFI London Film Fest: A Fish — mysterious, tantalising and rewarding
What a stunning first film. Park Hong-min is still a graduate student at Dongguk University, but this debut is amazingly confident. A truly mysterious creation which has you wondering throughout what is going on, and when it finishes you want to watch it again immediately to see if it makes more sense the second time … [Read More]