London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Korean Film and Festivals: Global Transcultural Flows

This book examines the various film festivals where Korean cinema plays a significant role, both inside and outside of Korea, focusing on their history, structure and function, and analysis of successful festival films. Using Korean film festivals and Korean cinema at international film festivals as its primary lens, this interdisciplinary volume explores the shifting relationships … [Read More]

Hallyu!: The Korean Wave

South Korea has transformed from a country devastated by war in the late 1950s to a leading cultural powerhouse of the 21st century. Through the voices of fans, journalists, practitioners, novelists and academics, Hallyu! explores the makings of the Korean Wave of cultural influence over the interlinked creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty … [Read More]

South Korean Popular Culture in the Global Context: Beyond the Fandom

This book explores the recent landscape of Korean popular culture, including celebrity diplomacy, political activism, and inter-Korean relations in the era of ‘ontact’, with a special focus on K-pop and K-drama. Utilising the interdisciplinary approach, along with theoretical accounts, it redefines popular culture and its true power – beyond soft power – including discussions of … [Read More]

Mediating the South Korean Other: Representations and Discourses of Difference in the Post/Neocolonial Nation-State

Multiculturalism in Korea formed in the context of its neoliberal, global aspirations, its postcolonial legacy with Japan, and its subordinated neocolonial relationship with the United States. The Korean ethnoscape and mediascape produce a complex understanding of difference that cannot be easily reduced to racism or ethnocentrism. Indeed the Korean word, injongchabyeol, often translated as racism, … [Read More]

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea: Reflections and Future Directions

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea provides an in-depth look at the lives of families in Korea that include immigrants. Ten original chapters in this volume, written by scholars in multiple social science disciplines and covering different methodological approaches, aim to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about these multicultural families. Specially, the volume expands the scope of … [Read More]

Park Seo-Bo: Écriture

This is the definitive monograph on the “godfather” of Korean contemporary art, master painter Park Seo-Bo, also the founder of Korea’s Dansaekhwa movement. Park Seo-Bo was born in 1931, in Yecheon, Gyeongbuk, South Korea, as part of a generation that was deeply affected by the Korean War (1950–1953). While in Paris in 1961, he initially … [Read More]

The Two Koreas and their Global Engagements

This book departs from existing studies by focusing on the impact of international influences on the society, culture, and language of both North and South Korea. Since President Kim Young Sam’s segyehwa drive of the mid-1990s, South Korea has become a model for successful globalization. In contrast, North Korea is commonly considered one of the least … [Read More]

The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Korea

The phenomenon of South Korean Christianity is, in a word, remarkable. In less than 250 years, 29% of South Korea’s population adheres to Christianity, a staggering 71% of Korean Americans identify as Christian, and the powerful zeal of Korean Christians to spread the Gospel’s influence in South Korea already overshadows other established religious groups (i.e. … [Read More]

The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature

The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature consists of 35 chapters written by leaders in the field, who explore significant topics and who have pioneered innovative approaches. The collection highlights the most dynamic current scholarship on Korean literature, presenting rigorous literary analysis, interdisciplinary methodologies, and transregional thinking so as to provide a valuable and inspiring resource for researchers … [Read More]

Here Comes the Flood: Perspectives of Gender, Sexuality, and Stereotype in the Korean Wave

This collection breaks down the stereotypes often expected of Korean popular culture, specifically examining issues of gender, sexuality, and stereotype in a variety of cultural products including K-pop, K-drama, and cover dancing through the lens of how “Koreanness” can be defined. A diverse range of of contributors showcase how Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, began … [Read More]

Invented Traditions in North and South Korea

Almost forty years after the publication of Hobsbawm and Ranger’s The Invention of Tradition, the subject of invented traditions—cultural and historical practices that claim a continuity with a distant past but which are in fact of relatively recent origin—is still relevant, important, and highly contentious. Invented Traditions in North and South Korea examines the ways in which compressed modernity, … [Read More]

The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security

North Korea is consistently identified as one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. However, the issue of human rights in North Korea is a complex one, intertwined with issues like life in the North Korean police state, inter-Korean relations, denuclearization, access to information in the North, and international cooperation, to name a few. There … [Read More]

Future Yet to Come: Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Modern Korea

South Korea is home to cutting-edge electronics, state-of-the-art medical facilities, and ubiquitous high-speed internet. The country’s meteoric rise from the ashes of the Korean War (1950–1953) to rank among the world’s most technologically advanced societies is often attributed to state-led promotion of science and technology in nation-building projects. With chapters that discuss Korea’s dynastic past, … [Read More]

Interpreting Modernism in Korean Art: Fluidity and Fragmentation

This book examines the development of national emblems, photographic portraiture, oil painting, world expositions, modern spaces for art exhibitions, university programs of visual arts, and other agencies of modern art in Korea. With few books on modern art in Korea available in English, this book is an authoritative volume on the topic and provides a … [Read More]

The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea

From the publisher’s website: This book examines key features, problems and implications of the 2016-2017 Candlelight Movement, a historical cornerstone for democracy and social movements in South Korea. The Candlelight Movement brought profound social changes with important lessons and questions for scholars, practitioners, activists, and the public. To examine the full complexity of the movement, … [Read More]

On Translating Modern Korean Poetry

From the publisher’s website: On Translating Modern Korean Poetry is a research monograph exploring the intricacies and complexities of translating modern Korean poetry. This monograph highlights the difficulties entailed in translating Korean poetry, due to the lexical, structural, social, expressive and attitudinal levels with which the translator must be engaged. Featuring all-new translations, this book explores … [Read More]