There has been a number of stories of fakes recently. Here’s a brief round-up of links 1 Shin Jeong-ah. Dongguk University Fires Bogus Professor, Korea Times, 20 July Stroke of luck, raw talent fueled Shin’s ascent, JoongAng Daily, 14 July. Some selected extracts: Shin Jeong-ah was 23 when the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong Department … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 202)
Welcome to a new guest contributor
I’d like to thank Susan Pares for stepping into the breach today to report from the opening of the new exhibition of art from the DPRK. I wish I could have been there myself. Thank you, Susan, and also to Jim Hoare for some additional material [Read More]
How many Koreans have never heard of Rain?
I don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe a reader can help. But seeing as I’m over in the States visiting my US co-workers right now, I thought I’d do a bit of market research. We had a team-building dinner yesterday. And on an impulse, I asked the person sitting next to me: so … [Read More]
London & South East to coordinate Korea campaign
A press release issued yesterday: Think London and South East England Development Agency join forces in promoting London and South East in Korea July 18, 2007 Think London, the foreign direct investment agency for London, and SEEDA, the South East England Development Agency, announced the establishment of their joint representative office based at KOTRA in … [Read More]
Book review: Ha-Joon Chang — Bad Samaritans
Random House, 2007 Read a typical book which espouses liberal free-trade globalisation and a typical reaction is “Yes, but…” Books such as “Lexus and the Olive Tree” are well written, and carry you along in the sweep of the argument. But you have a niggling sense of unease that something must be wrong with what’s … [Read More]
Surrender your jeans — win a beer
Doesn’t sound a very good deal, huh? But let me explain further. Korean artist Choi So-young specialises in creating work out of denim. She’s going to be exhibiting at the Union Gallery in 2008… but she needs the raw materials to work with. So the deal is this: YOU can be part of a collaborative, … [Read More]
Here we go again
Bear with me while I upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. Hopefully this won’t take too long… Update 1: OK, So far so good apart from the fact that I need to upgrade the Flickr plugin… Update 2: Done, so I can now make posts. Please report any other bugs. [Read More]
Samulnori Summer School at SOAS
The Samulnori Summer School at SOAS is next week. If you can spare five evenings you’ll have a great time. I can’t promise you’ll end up being able to drum like the fellow on the right, but you’ll be able to do a convincing imitation of being able to hit a changgo. And by the … [Read More]
PyeongChang beaten fair and square?
So Korea is not to host the 2014 winter games. Beaten by Sochi in Russia. Cynics will say that the real winners from PyeongChang’s energetic campaign were CNN, who gave PyeongChang’s campaign global reach by screening the commercials (HT to Tom Coyner). Despite the optimism (above), did Korea ever have a hope? A cutting article … [Read More]
Beware the mystery killer
As we get into the heat of the Distinct Season of summer we can expect to start hearing stories of the uniquely Korean cause of death — the electric fan. Urban legend has it that sleeping in a sealed room with the fan going can kill – though all the detailed explanations of how death … [Read More]
Round-up of recent business stories
Some recent stories I don’t want to lose. Mercer’s annual cost of living survey for expats has recently been published. Seoul, last year’s number 2, has been pushed to number 3 by London. Moscow stays top of the list. Tokyo is fourth. Korea is also slipping in the GDP rankings. Bank of Korea data shows … [Read More]
“Korea, Sparkling” explained
Hiding at the bottom of the goody-bag we were handed at the Korea Tourism Organisation’s “Korea, Sparkling” launch ten days ago was a little booklet which you could almost have missed. But for those who are puzzled as to what “Korea, Sparkling” is all about, the booklet contains some of the answers. It is published … [Read More]
June statistics
After a couple of months of strong growth the statistics are now levelling off a bit. Maybe it’s because I haven’t done a post about Super Junior recently, maybe it’s because my site is taken offline for a cooling off period when there’s too much traffic and so people are giving up visiting; maybe it’s … [Read More]
Tom Coyner and Song-Hyon Jang: Mastering Business in Korea
(Seoul Selection, 2007) With a title like “Mastering Business in Korea” the current book might well turn off the casual reader. But as well as having, as its title suggests, a business angle, it can also be used as a more general cultural guide. And because this is a practical book written by people who … [Read More]
Last chance to book your makeover
Seong Won Kim’s brief tenure at the Dior counter in Selfridges ends tomorrow. This is your last chance to book a makeover with one of Dior’s international beauty commandos. Details here. Here’s a picture in from a makeover last Friday, with artist Francesca Cho doubling as catwalk fabulous supermodel. [Read More]
DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts Anti-Chongryon Campaign in Japan
An interesting prelude to the two talks at Chatham House this week… A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK on Sunday issued the statement : Japan has taken harsh actions against Chongryon and Koreans in Japan such as forcible search of its facilities and their houses, assaults and arrests of them … [Read More]