In this discussion, authors Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai, respectively from North Korea and South Korea, will talk about what they shared and what differences they felt they had, while writing The Hard Road Out together. How did they overcome that sense of alienation? Could their encounter serve as a micro-reunification model going forward? The … [Read More]
Category: Living abroad (page 2)
Homeland – A new play by HeeJin Kim
“I just want to start a new life in this country. I worked so hard you know, to f*cking survive.” Theatre Company Knee presents the world premiere of Homeland, a comedy-drama that explores the idea of home from the perspective of recent migrants to the UK. Written by award-winning Korean Playwright HeeJin Kim and featuring … [Read More]
Documentary screening: Chronicling London Korean Hankyoreh School
We are London Korean Hankyoreh School that started in New Malden in 2014 and the school was created to educate the second generation of Koreans. You may not have heard of our school, but we have been working hard to educate the second generation of Koreans every Saturday at a church located in the heart … [Read More]
Discussion: North and South Korean women in the UK speak of peace
We rarely get the the chance to hear the views and experiences of North Korean exiles in the UK. This should be well worth investigating. Second Peace Forum of Peaceful Unification Advisory Council in the UK Thursday 11 November 2021, 13:30 – 15:00 (10:30pm – 1am Korea time) Topic: “North and South Korean Women in … [Read More]
Rising to the Top – Sports Talk with So-Hyun Cho and Jack Aitken
Tottenham’s playmaker So-Hyun Cho and Williams F1 reserve driver Jack Aitken joins the KCC for a talk on living and working as elite athletes. Sports Talk: Meet elite athletes in the UK Thursday 5 August 18.30 (60 mins) Free Online Webinar on MS Teams | Registration Required on Eventbrite The Korean Cultural Centre UK is … [Read More]
Online symposium: Muslims in Korea – Past, Present and Future
Details of the below conference just arrived in my inbox – organised by SOAS Centre of Islamic Studies in collaboration with Salam Nuri, an Islamic NGO based in Korea. Muslims in Korea – Past, Present and Future Sunday 6 June 2021, 9am UK time (5pm Korea time) Online | Register via SOAS website Conference Schedule … [Read More]
Son Heung-min reaches another milestone
The 2020/21 season isn’t over yet, but Tottenham’s Son Heung Min and Harry Kane have just become the top goal-scoring partnership in the history of the English Premiere League. The milestone was reached in Spurs’s 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace yesterday, when Son assisted the final goal from Kane. Son scored his 100th goal for … [Read More]
Building bridges between North and South in New Malden
We do not need reminding that the Korean peninsula is divided. But the implications of that division for Koreans in Britain are not so obvious. I remember at a British Korean Society event ten years ago at which the North and South Korean Ambassadors were speaking, as audience and speakers mingled over drinks afterwards, one … [Read More]
Julie Park wins Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award
Belated congratulations to London based violist Julie Park for winning the prestigious Arts Club Sir Karl Jenkins Award in October. She follows violinists Songha Choi, who won second prize in 2019, and Joo Yeon Sir who won the prize in 2014. Julie Park performs tomorrow in Korean Cultural Centre UK’s ‘Home Theatre’ season of online … [Read More]
Eat Out to Help Out your local Korean Restaurant
In these terrible times, when people are too nervous to venture out onto public transport, still less to their local restaurants, I’ve been fearing that some of my own favourite haunts may not survive the crisis. As you may know, to try to encourage people back to restaurants and to save a vital part of … [Read More]
Councillor Bora Kwon interviewed in the Guardian
Bora Kwon, Labour councillor for Hammersmith and Fulham, and one of only two councillors of Korean background in the UK, gets a nice interview in the Guardian this week. She talks about her life in the UK, politics and of course health. Read the interview in full here. You can follow Councillor Kwon on Twitter … [Read More]
Jeronimo Lim Kim – revolutionary father of the Korean community in Cuba
Those who have read Kim Young-ha’s Black Flower will know about the Koreans who migrated to Mexico in 1905 as farm labourers, just before Korea became a Japanese protectorate. By the time their contracts were up, Japan was about to absorb Korea into their growing empire. Now stateless, some of the migrants stayed in Mexico; … [Read More]
Jeronimo: an untold tale of a Korean Cuban revolutionary screens at the KCC
Some London based readers may know the person who assisted with the Spanish in this documentary. Great to see it on screen. Jeronimo: An untold tale of a Korean Cuban revolutionary + Director Q&A Thursday 20 February 2020, 19:00 – 22:00 GMT Korean Cultural Centre UK | 1-3 Strand | London WC2N 5BW Admission free … [Read More]
A visit to New Malden’s 2019 Korean Independence Day celebrations
Having arrived back in town from the Edinburgh Fringe around midnight the previous evening, I was never going to make it to the 11am speeches and other formalities that kick off the traditional Korean Independence Day celebrations in New Malden. But it was clear that there had been a good turnout: by the time I … [Read More]
The Kimjang Project is officially launched
The Kimjang Project launched yesterday in New Malden with congratulatory messages from the Mayor of Kingston Thay Thayalan and the local MP Sir Ed Davey among others. The project celebrates the various aspects of kimjang, for example the communal character of kimchi-making and its health-giving properties. New Malden, sometimes known as New Mal-dong (뉴몰동), as … [Read More]
Book review: Min Kym — Gone
Min Jin Kym: Gone — A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung Viking, 2017, 256pp When Min Jin Kym’s Gone came out, I mentally heaved a sigh of relief. Here’s one Korea-related book, I thought, among the dozens that will be published this year, that I don’t need to read. The story of how her … [Read More]