In 21 October, 2009 KCC hosted a Korea Literature Workshop in the presence of Ch’oe Yun of ‘There a Petal silently falls’. The session, facilitated by Dr Jo Elfving-Hwang of Sheffield University, turned out to be a ‘creative’ response to the aspects of the author’s work. It was something of a deja vu to turn … [Read More]
LKL articles by Peter Corbishley
Will Samsung Electronics innovate again?
Peter Corbishley analyses two recent books on the subject of the company that epitomises Korea Inc. Samsung v Sony In 2010 Tony Michell published his long awaited work on Samsung Electronics.1 Sea-Jin Chang wrote Sony v Samsung2 in 2008. The opposition between the two companies seems to be stimulated by the nationalistic perception that Samsung … [Read More]
FTA brings new opportunities for British companies in Korea
Monday 15th March 2010 was the first public UK speech of the new ambassador Choo Kyu Ho, which he made before 150 business people at the launch of the UKTI report “South Korea Open for Business – 100 Opportunities for UK Companies in South Korea following the EU–South Korea Free Trade Agreement.” The agreement, though … [Read More]
Korean pensioners buy in to London
At a total cost £1,040.5m, the National Pension Service of South Korea, the fifth biggest pension fund in the world, has bought three properties in London. These are half of a six storey commercial building in Grosvenor place, followed by a tower at 88 Wood Street in the heart of the City. But the most … [Read More]
Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 3
Peter Corbishley offers his entry into the “There a Petal Silently Falls” essay competition. A Korean novella – a human tragedy It is unnerving to have images from a half-recollected film1 play through a reading of There a Petal Silently Falls.2 Yet that sense of disorientation evocatively models how the girl’s bewildered spirit-awareness3 interweaves, recalls … [Read More]
Uncertain States: a second look
Peter Corbishley also pays a visit to the photographic show in Commercial Road Alerted by LKL, it was a pleasant surprise, on my way back from eating Korean food in New Malden, to pop into Photo Space at the bottom of the road where I live. Two Korean photographers, Jo Seong-hee and Park Ju-young, are … [Read More]
A view of Korea from Bangladesh
Peter Corbishley has just returned from a trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the Koreans are also active. In 2009 South Korea is putting some $320m investment into the Bangladeshi economy and nearly 160 companies are working there, including a third of all companies operating in the export processing zones. In addition in 2006, for example, … [Read More]
Gateways to Korea
Peter Corbishley digests some recent Korean history lectures at SOAS and the KCC, and a recent book by Alexis Dudden My introduction to the nasty side of Korean history over March and April of this year began with a heartwarming UK personal interest story from 1908. At the Korean Cultural Centre 10th March, Patrick Cockburn … [Read More]
A North Korean Feelgood Lecture
By Peter Corbishley The first of the Spring Term SOAS Lectures heard Nicolas Bonner (right) talking to extracts from his and Daniel Gordon’s three films on North Korea: The Game of their Lives (2002), A State of Mind (2004), Crossing the Line / 푸른 눈의 평양시민 / A Blue-Eyed Pyongyang Citizen (2006). The often almost … [Read More]
Watching Korea with the British Museum
Peter Corbishley reviews the recent Korean Film double bill On Saturday 6th November 2008, Margaret O’Brien of The British Museum and Jeon Hye-Jung of the Korean Cultural Centre put on a somewhat sparsely attended family programme of Korean films. Margaret O’Brien, who has been Head of Lifelong Learning at the Museum since 2000, presented the … [Read More]
Inlaying techniques in Korean craft
Peter Corbishley digests the discussion on Korean crafts at the KCC on 2 Dec Korean porcelain, jewellery, religious artefacts and patchwork is distinguished by inlay using different materials. While inlay techniques might be a common feature of Korean crafts, however, they are not uniquely Korean. The techniques of jewellery making, for example, may well not … [Read More]
A week is a long time in … Korean economics
By Peter Corbishley Given the present economic world order, last week was an opportune time for an update on Korean peninsular economics. First Aidan Foster Carter tells BAKS that in August President Lee Myung-bak’s military banned “Bad Samaritans,” by Chang Ha-joon, an economics professor at the University of Cambridge, for being un-Korean. Then on the … [Read More]
Pansori and bibimbap – fusion in Korea’s cultural content
By Peter Corbishley Last Thursday and Friday 24-25th September an itinerant band of Pansori sellers displayed their wares at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) and the School of Advanced Study, University of London. The main event was Yonsei University’s (Institute of Media Art) Jeong Taeg Lim and Jung A Huh’s talk on ‘The Aesthetic modernity … [Read More]
The new ambassador’s first outing
Peter Corbishley adds to the appreciation of the day, and Noridan gets another vote Congratulations to Justina Jang on this year’s Dano festival, especially, especially the Noridan performance. The festival dropped a generation or two from last year. Tomi Kita was somewhat as his name suggests when pronounced – viz Tommy Guitar. Somewhat less of … [Read More]
Hanbok by Lee Rhee-Za
Hanbok by Lee Rhee-Za: an exhibition in the seminar rooms of the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore SW7 2EU. Review by Peter Corbishley In fact this is three, or perhaps, at least at the opening event, three and a half, exhibitions rolled into one. The first was a display of copies of garments typically … [Read More]
Shades of Shamanism: Chuseok celebrations at the British Museum
Peter Corbishley‘s sketch of the BM’s Chuseok festivities. Times change. The small but significant Korean Collection at the British Museum includes a Moon Jar which so inspired the English potter Bernard Leech. But the drum beat of Shamanistic trance was not perhaps what Dr Sloane or the Smirke family had in mind for the front … [Read More]