We await a comprehensive analysis of why Carrefour failed to succeed in Korea. An article in yesterday’s JoongAng Ilbo suggests a failure adequately to “localise” — having French rather than local management; and despite having French management it is suggested that the need to refer decisions to head office (a familiar gripe) resulted in slow … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 229)
A Scent of Eastern wind: music at St James’s Piccadilly
At very short notice I head of a Korean classical music fusion concert entitled “Scent of Eastern Wind” at St James’s Piccadilly on 6 April 2006. I approached the concert with some trepidation, being nervous about the blending of eastern and western instruments, particularly in playing western music. I was partly right. The least successful … [Read More]
How to boost your stock price
Get Yonsama to buy some shares. Though I guess this would only work with Korean small-cap media stocks: [Ottowintech]’s share price, which stood at W12,700 on March 27 right before resuming stock transactions, quadrupled in less than 10 days, netting Bae, who invested a total of W9 billion in the company, more than 10 times … [Read More]
Elevator music leads to defection
To many it’s the sort of music one would endure all sorts of hardship to get away from — but to a talented North Korean pianist it was a revelation which led him to defect to the South. Yes, it’s the easy-listening grooves of Richard Clayderman which inspired the conversion. It says something about the … [Read More]
Eric promotes Spam
Not the unsolicited email, but the processed pork luncheon meat so ridiculed in the Monty Python sketch. As Rowan Pease said in her recent talk on the hallyu in China, the only way for stars and studios to make money out of hallyu is via celebrity endorsements; but it’s certainly puzzling that such a (to … [Read More]
Korean art the latest hot investment
Elton John profits from his investment in the work of Korean photographer Bae Bien-u [Read More]
More on Lone Star / KEB and the US Kaesong visit
I’m guessing that Douglas Anderson from the US House of Representatives has now reported back to base following his visit to Kaesong. Jay Lefkowitz, the US envoy for NK human rights has condemned the low wages and poor conditions there, to the understandable irritation of the South. I’m also guessing that the messages taken back … [Read More]
What a difference a region makes
East Asian popular culture currents and counter-currents, Birkbeck College, 17/18 March 2006 Thanks to Chris Berry (Goldsmiths) and Nicola Liscutin (Birkbeck) for putting together a stimulating day and a half symposium discussing regional popular culture in East Asia. Presentations mainly covered the creative industries in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The focus on Taiwan was puzzling, … [Read More]
Korea and foreign investment
Standard Chartered Bank chairman Brian Sanderson, in a recent meeting with Roh Moo-hyun, said SCB’s experience in Korea had been positive so far. It will be remembered that SCB bought Korea First Bank, South Korea’s eight-largest lender, from US private equity firm Newbridge Capital and the Korean government for around $3.2bn a year ago, sneaking … [Read More]
North-themed update
The Xinhua newsagency reports the cordial meeting between Kim Jong-Il’s brother-in-law Jang Song Taek and a member of the Chinese politbureau, as the DPRK’s tour of Chinese economic zones draws to a close. Meanwhile, Yoduk story, the musical based in a North Korean concentration camp, is a sell-out success. The BBC is now featuring the … [Read More]
Hyori withdraws “plagiarism” single
Lee Hyori has decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and has withdrawn performances of her single Get Ya!, from her album Dark Angel, which allegedly steals from Britney Spears’s Do Somethin’. [Read More]
Korean protests baffle Belgians
I can’t put it better than the Chosun Ilbo’s own headline. One of the more peculiar stories. In fact today’s Chosun is packed with entertaining stories: Britney Spears’s songwriters accuse Lee Hyo-lee of plagiarism; and a sex survey by pharmaceutical company Bayer finds Korean men the most selfish in bed. [Read More]
Koreans and sport #2
Korea has now crashed out of that international baseball tournament, after a 6-0 whitewash at the hands of Japan [Read More]
New Jeon Ji-hyun vehicle crashes
OK, so it’s not a complete box office turkey, but after one week at the top of the charts, it’s now down to number 4 and predicted to head south quickly. The vehicle, a film entitled Daisy, is a blatantly commercial effort to cash in on the marketability of the My Sassy Girl star outside … [Read More]
New book on Kim Ki-duk
For all you fans of this inventive director, there’s a new book out. I’ll post some comments once I’ve read it, but that won’t be for a while as I’ve got quite a backlog to get through. That plus the fact that the English version won’t be available until November 2006, according to Amazon. Update: … [Read More]
Yom Sang-seop: Three Generations
(Archipelago, 2005) Translated by Yu Young-nan. First published in Korean in 1931 as 삼 대 and revised in 1948. Chronicles the lives of an extended wealthy family in Japanese-occupied Seoul. The old order gradually fades, the vultures descend for the pickings, while an underground of nationalists and socialists struggle to make a difference. Recommended. Available … [Read More]