Thanks to guest contributor Sinae Hong for this report from the conference earlier this week. The ROK-UK Forum on Peaceful Unification of Korea and Human Rights in North Korea was held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel on Friday 19th November, 2013. The Cromwell Suite was full with well over 150 people, from British Veterans of … [Read More]
Category: Conference reports (page 4)
The challenges of marketing and translating Korean literature explored at the KCC
Shouvik Datta reports from the Korean Literature Forum at the KCCUK on 15 October. It was an interesting and well-attended discussion at the London Korean Cultural Centre on October 15, well chaired by the BBC journalist Samira Ahmed. My own knowledge of Korean literature is confined to the modern classic “Three Generations”, by Yom Sang-seop, … [Read More]
Ancient and modern ceramics at the KCC
Shouvik Datta reports from the talk on Korean ceramics at the KCC on 15 July, which was part of a series of events accompanying the current Moon Vase exhibition. It was a warm July day, and Ms Heena Youn, who is currently completing her PhD at SOAS (on a specialist area of ancient Chinese ceramics), … [Read More]
Collaboration and adaptation for inspiration – the second SOAS Years of Radical Change conference
SOAS’s second Years of Radical Change conference, held 31 May – 1 June this year, expanded its remit to deal with Korean screen culture in its widest sense. We are used to conferences about South Korean films, but this year TV and video games were among the topics discussed. And on the second day of … [Read More]
Engage Korea conference – a welcome perspective on North Korea
When is a good time to hold a conference on engaging with North Korea? When the organisers set the date for the 4 May conference they couldn’t possibly have known the heightened level of tension that the peninsula was going to go through in the early months of 2013. Mainstream press coverage has veered from … [Read More]
London Book Fair 2013 – an overview of the Korean publishing market and a brief meeting with Choe Yun and Jung Young-moon
London Book Fair 2014 will see Korea as the Market Focus Country. And in 2013 Korea was there to prepare the way. The Korea Publishers Association and the Literature Translation Institute of Korea jointly occupied a stall at the Earl’s Court exhibition, displaying among other things a wide range of translated Korean literature, including a … [Read More]
Futurology in Korean Studies: hell in a handcart or hallyu heaven? LKL reports from the 2012 BAKS conference
The annual BAKS Conference on 17 November ambitiously attempted to look into the crystal ball to see what the Korean peninsula might look like in 20 years time. To help in that crystal ball gazing, the list of speakers included some non-Koreanists in a valuable initiative to introduce specialists to provide a different perspective. The … [Read More]
Moral didactic literature and diversity in 1950s North Korea
(A sketchy write-up of the talk How does the rise of moral didactic literature fit into narratives of North Korean history? given by Andre Schmid (University of Toronto) at SOAS on 16 November 2012) When we think of North Korea, we mostly look at it through a 21st Century lens, and are tempted to think … [Read More]
Aidan Foster-Carter on North Korea: Shouvik Datta reports from the recent LSE talk
Aidan Foster-Carter is an Honorary Research Fellow at Leeds University in Sociology and Social Policy, writes about Korea for the Economist Intelligence Unit and Oxford Analytica and contributed to ‘Exploring North Korean Arts’ (published 2011). I was therefore very interested when he came down from the major university in the North of England, to talk … [Read More]
Kkokdu – a cortege’s colourful attendants
Accompanying the KCC’s exhibition of Korean funerary figures, Charlotte Horlyck gave a helpful lecture providing some historical background and context to these colourful wooden characters. The talk was particularly valuable as the introduction provided by the director of the Kkokdu Museum a few weeks previously had lacked much content. While generally admitting that not much … [Read More]
Kimchi for beginners at the Korean Cultural Centre
The Korean Cultural Centre was packed for a cookery demonstration by Master Chef Tony Yoo, executive chef at the Korean embassy, entitled Introducing Korean Cuisine. Slightly to my surprise most of the audience were Koreans, who have possibly spent such a long time in Britain that they feel more at home making baked beans on … [Read More]
Video highlights of Lee Bul’s talk at the Hayward Gallery
For those who like me didn’t manage to get to Lee Bul’s talk “From Me, Belongs to You Only” at the South Bank recently, the KCCUK have posted a quick video giving highlights of the evening: [Read More]
An Education in P’ansori – a report from last week’s All Eyes on Korea lecture
Annie Cole from Kimchi Soul gives her impressions. As the KCC hall packed out for the latest All Eyes on Korea lecture, it was clear that the concept of P’ansori had caught the imagination of Londoners. The audience were a mixed bunch of professionals, academics, writers and students with varied knowledge of the art form … [Read More]
Translation and cultural uniqueness – another take on the KCC Literature workshop
I’ve long been interested in knowing more about modern Korean literature. So I learnt with interest about the Korean literature workshop (Tuesday, June 26, 5-7pm) and looked forward to it as I arrived for the event at the Korean Cultural Centre on London’s Strand. The evening began with a talk by Dr Grace Koh of … [Read More]
The Word for ‘여’, and the Korean for ‘About Raindrops’ – Ra Hee-duk at the KCC Literature workshop
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]
The challenges of translation addressed at All Eyes on Korea literature talk
On 26 June, the KCC UK Korean Literature Workshop opened with a KCC official’s welcoming speech followed by Dr Grace Koh’s lecture (SOAS). Dr Koh emphasized the paramount importance of national identity in post-colonial literature. To introduce Korean literary works to the English-speaking world, we need to understand the issues surrounding translation. They are reception … [Read More]