Here is an English translation of the official Joint Communique from the Inter-Korea Summit held earlier this month (2-4 October). Declaration on the Advancement of South-North Korean Relations, Peace and Prosperity In accordance with the agreement between President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea and Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defense Commission … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 198)
The Han Style campaign
Realising that the Hallyu may not last for ever, and recognising that the best marketers do not stake the financial health of the company on just one product, the Culture and Tourism ministry earlier this year decided to diversify their product portfolio. Recognising that some of the key differentiating features of Korean culture are designated … [Read More]
Rent-a-loo
The Korean Toilet Association makes it into the news again. If you’re looking for an innovative public-hygiene-themed mini-break in Korea you could do worse than rent a toilet-shaped house for the night. All proceeds will go to support that splendid and worthwhile organisation. HT to Jim Hoare. Links: World’s first toilet house to be built … [Read More]
A Chuseok-themed marketing campaign
US retail banking giant Chase have been aiming to show their cultural awareness. They missed the golden opportunity to launch this marketing campaign at the turn of the lunar Year of the Golden Pig, but have made up for it by running it to coincide with Chuseok. The deal is this. You have to go … [Read More]
Clazziquai #2: Color your Soul
Clazziquai’s second main album has some of the same formulae as their first, the blend of lounge, electronica and Latin, but includes an additional influence: a slight funk element. There’s a slightly greater emphasis on the bass, and the horns in the background of some of the tracks – for example, #4, Cry out loud … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: To the furthest verge
I-MYU’s new gallery space was launched last week with a show by two Korean and one Korean-American artist. The gallery itself is situated in the slightly unfashionable north-east fringes of the City. Unfashionable at least from the perspective of us City types, but if your eyes stray slightly northwards on the map from I-MYU’s street … [Read More]
Che in Verse launched
Loyal readers who have followed this site from its early months may recall a question posed by a visitor about a year ago. Gavin O’Toole was working on assembling a compilation of poems from around the world about the great revolutionary Che Guevara. He’d heard that there was a couple of poems about him by … [Read More]
Busan, hub city?
OK, so I didn’t make it to PIFF this year. I don’t think I’m ever likely to: time away from work is precious, and to be spent with one’s beloved. If one’s beloved isn’t in to sitting in a darkened movie theatre straining to read the subtitles for days on end (and I’m not sure … [Read More]
September statistics
Popular posts and search terms Joining the list of popular search terms such as Super Junior and Rain is an unlikely new celebrity: disgraced curator and art lecturer Shin Jeong-ah. For a while last month my collection of links on her story even overtook anything to do with those 12 or 13 cute K-popsters. Even … [Read More]
Dramatic pictures of Chuseok at the BM
Samuel Cho has a great collection of photos from the Chuseok celebrations at the British Museum last month, really capturing the energy of some of the performances. Here’s a sample: Links: See the remainder of his album at www.samuelcho.com [Read More]
Thomas steams in to Korea
A while ago I saw the following headline in the Chosun Ilbo: ‘Thomas the Train’ Toys Recalled. Rather like the Mattel “Sarge” toys recently recalled, there were fears that the paint contained lead. I wondered if the headline meant Thomas the Tank Engine, that friendly, hard-working little creation of the Reverend W Audry, whose books … [Read More]
A look at the London Korean Film Festival 2007 programme
Not to be confused with the excellent range of Korean films on offer at the 51st BFI London Film Festival in late October, this is the second London Korean Film Festival to be organised by the Korean Cultural Centre and the Korean Culture and Content Agency (KOCCA). Last year they sprung it on us at … [Read More]
The FT’s smooth weekend in Seoul
I don’t usually spend much time reading the Weekend FT’s How to Spend it magazine – most of the things in the magazine being out of my financial reach. But this weekend, in their ongoing series of “Smooth Guides” to a long luxurious weekend they finally featured Seoul. So here’s the FT’s tips for how … [Read More]
Another industry in which Korea leads the world
We all knew Korea had some world-beating industries: ships, chips, LCD screens. Add to that the manufacture of condoms, where three Korean companies – Unidus, Dongkuk Trading and Hankook Latex – account for 30% of the global market, according to the Chosun. Maybe there’s a big domestic demand – for example for high school field … [Read More]
Richard Stubbs: Rethinking Asia’s Economic Miracle
(Palgrave MacMillan, 2005) Stubbs’s thesis is simple: that one of the key drivers of Asia’s economic growth has been not free market economics, not Confucian values, not the developmental state, not Japanese or American hegemony, but war, both hot and cold. Stubbs takes seven countries – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and … [Read More]
Where next for Samsung and Chelsea?
The departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea is not good news from the perspective of Samsung’s multi-million, multi-year sponsorship deal (which still has a couple of years to run). I don’t pretend to be able to judge new manager Avram Grant’s ability to keep the team’s performance up — though an obvious comment would be … [Read More]