Perhaps the highlight of October will be the strong Korean representation – including Secret Sunshine – at the BFI London Film Festival. Full listing of Korean films showing is here. On the academic front there’s The Korean Studies Graduate Students Convention in Edinburgh, 24-26 October Yuri Kim and Aidan Foster-Carter at Chatham House on 15 … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 199)
Korea still an emerging market
More than 10 years after joining the OECD, South Korea is still an emerging market. FTSE (the company owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange) has recently been reviewing the constituent countries in its various global equity indices. In drawing up the indices, they categorise countries into three lists: Developed, Advanced Emerging, … [Read More]
Chuseok at the BM — part sprint, part marathon
It is a commonplace observation that Korea is caught between two larger neighbours. Similarly, in marketing terms, the Korean events at the British Museum last Saturday were dwarfed by the blitzkrieg advertising for the Chinese “First Emperor” and the Japanese modern design exhibitions, both also at the British Museum at the same time. But although … [Read More]
Moon jars old and new
There were moon jars a-plenty at the British Museum on Saturday: old and new, whole and smashed, real and fake and, as is the nature of these objects, none of them perfectly spherical. In pride of place in Room 3, just as you enter the museum, is one of the prized items in the British … [Read More]
Paekho’s architectural art on show at the DPRK Embassy
I happened to arrive at the DPRK embassy at the tail end of the afternoon, after the reception which welcomed numerous dignitaries to the exhibition of work produced by the Korea Paekho Trading Corporation. I therefore had the works to myself: it was just me, Pak Chang Sop (People’s Artist and president of the corporation), … [Read More]
Chuseok at the British Museum
I haven’t had a chance to write anything yet – that will come in the next couple of days – but in the meanwhile I’ve uploaded my snaps onto my flickr page. Let me know of any other photos you wish to share. [Read More]
Rags in the Wind – some photos
Here are some photos from Rags in the Wind – a group show in the Graz Botanical gardens, on now. It’s featured here because it includes the work of London-based, Korean-born artist Francesca Cho. Her “Floating Soul 1” is below: View a slideshow of the complete set here. The set includes a couple of shots … [Read More]
Book review: Kim Young-jin on Lee Chang-dong
(Seoul Selection, 2007) I can imagine that there was a certain amount of discussion about the timing of this book. After a break of some years — enforced by his stint as Roh Moo-hyun’s first Minister for Culture and Tourism — the well-regarded director Lee Chang-dong was active again. His new film, with two of … [Read More]
Pictures from the Thames Festival 2007
Thanks to Tristan Kinslow for letting me post some of his photos of the Korean Village last weekend’s Thames Festival. View the rest of the photos at Tristan’s flickr account. And here’s one of the lantern procession, from the London SE1 site: [Read More]
DPRK travellers’ tales
Two travel accounts have recently been highlighted in the BAKS list. First, a long account by guitarist Jason Carter of his 10-day trip to Pyongyang earlier this year to perform in a spring music festival. Like many DPRK travel accounts, we find the author having moments of frustration with the minders as well as appreciating … [Read More]
Korean dancers at The Place, Euston
First, thanks to Colin Bartlett for letting me know about Korean dancers from the Robin Howard Dance Theatre performing at The Place, near Euston. We’ve already missed one of the performances, which was yesterday evening: Jin-Yeob Cha, who has worked with a variety of Korean and international choreographers, including Ismael Ivo, Itzik Galili, Iztok Kovac, … [Read More]
Dokkaebi ate my post
I’m not sure what happened to today’s post. I definitely wrote it last night, and scheduled it for publication this lunchtime, but somehow it’s vanished into the ether. It’s nowhere to be found in the database; google desktop hasn’t cached it; and altogether it’s as if yesterday’s labours were in vain. I’ll just have to … [Read More]
Focus on a piece of happiness
The story goes that Bernard Leach, browsing in a Seoul antiques store in the mid 1930s, came across a Choson dynasty Moon Jar and held his head in disbelief at its beauty. And, after one of the more inspired impulse buys in recent art history, he walked out of the shop “carrying a piece of … [Read More]
British veterans remember the Korean War on Radio 4
Yesterday’s edition of The Reunion had Sue MacGregor talking with five veterans reminiscing about the Korean War. A familiar theme – the British troops being poorly equipped and having to scrounge off the Americans; a clip of an interview with Michael Caine talking about night patrol – trying to outwit the Chinese in paddy fields … [Read More]
Upgrade to WP2.2.3 completed
Please report any bugs by leaving a comment below. Apologies for the temporary disruption. [Read More]
The great category explosion and other statistics
Expanding our navigability Number of article categories at the end of July: 91; Number of article categories at the end of August: 212 I’ve increased the number of categories to make it easier to find all my posts about particular individuals without using the sometimes unreliable search function. There’s about 30 celebs, 20 film directors, … [Read More]