Many of you will have come across Antonia Mochan’s Kimchi Project – her one-woman campaign to visit all the Korean restaurants within Zone 1 and to review the quality of their kimchi, while raising money for charity. She’s giving a little talk about her project at The Greenwich Tavern on 1 July at 8pm as … [Read More]
Category: Language & Learning (page 52)
The Pots that gave me Joy – the first of several talks related to the KCC’s Moon Jar exhibition
To go with their current exhibition – Moon Jar – Contemporary Translations in Britain – the KCC has a range of gallery talks and events. Last Monday was an informal gallery tour, and on 1 July is the first formal talk: The Pots that gave me joy Bernard Leach’s personal collection by Prof. Simon Olding … [Read More]
Global Korea Lecture celebrates UK-Korea diplomatic relations
Notice of the upcoming Global Korea Lecture: Korean War and the UK-Korea Diplomatic Relations in Defence Date: Wednesday, 3 July 2013, 18:00 Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW This year is the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and the United Kingdom. To mark the occasion, the Embassy … [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]
Talk, Tea & Books: KCC launches a new book club
An interesting new initiative from the KCC – a book discussion group. For discussion at its first meeting, Park Wan-suh’s Who Ate Up All the Shinga? in the translation by Yu Young-nan and Stephen Epstein, which many of you will remember as the subject of the KLTI’s second essay contest. The registration deadline for this … [Read More]
New Songdo City and South Korea’s Green Economy: An Uncertain Future
The previous presidency continued, in more ambitious scale, the green contruction initiatives that Lee Myung-bak promoted while mayor of Seoul. The Four Rivers project received much criticism before, during and after its construction. What of the even bigger project, Songdo? An afternoon seminar at SOAS considers the new city that will be the home 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]
Miscellaneous Writings by Autumn Lamplight – John Frankl on Yi Sang at SOAS
On his way through London after the Alternative Modernisms conference at Cardiff, John Frankl tackles Yi Sang at SOAS: This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land: Negotiating between Physical Geography and Political State in Yi Sang’s “Miscellaneous Writings by Autumn Lamplight” John Frankl (Associate Professor of Korean and Comparative Literature, Yonsei University) … [Read More]
K-music focus forum at the KCC
To warm you up for the festival of Korean music coming up during June, a panel of speakers will talk about Korean music at the KCC on 21 March at 7pm. It’s particularly nice to see Songlines on the panel. John Lusk from that magazine did a great article on Kim Duk-soo and other Korean … [Read More]
Years of Radical Change: Korean Screen Culture – a 2-day conference at SOAS, 31 May-1 June
Those who attended the free one-day Korean film seminar in SOAS’s Vernon Square building May last year won’t need persuasion. This year, it has expanded to two days, and is in the main Russell Square building. Free, but advance registration is required. Years of Radical Change: Korean Screen Culture Date: Friday 31 May & Saturday … [Read More]
Kim Sung Ok: A Literature of and for the Self – Steve Capener at SOAS
On his way to a conference on Alternative Modernisms in Cardiff, Steve Capener gives a talk on one of my favourite authors. Kim Sung Ok: A Literature of and for the Self Steve Capener (Assistant Professor, Seoul Women’s University) 14 May 2013, 5:15 – 7:00 PM Russell Square Room 4421 Abstract After he took power … [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]
LSE IDEAS conference marking 60 years after the end of the Korean War
To mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, LSE IDEAS is organising a conference to discuss the conflict, Monday 3 June 2013, 14:00-18:00. Invited speakers will begin by exploring why the war ended the way it did, and what arrangements were made for the immediate post-war period. The discussion will then … [Read More]
The Korean War in Colour screens at SOAS
Something slightly different for SOAS’s evening Korean Studies seminar this time: a documentary film screening, with Q&A with the director, in this 60th anniversary year of the 1953 armistice. The Korean War in Colour Stewart Binns (Documentary Filmmaker) Date: 10 May 2013, 5:15 – 7:00 PM Venue: Russell Square, College Buildings, Room 4418 Film screening … [Read More]
Krys Lee interviewed for Asia House
There’s a nice interview with Krys Lee, author of Drifting House, on the Asia House website. Drifting House was LKL’s book of the year last year, and so we’re looking forward to seeing Ms Lee at the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature next month. [Read More]
Engage Korea conference at Oxford: How can the international community effectively engage North Korea?
How do you engage with a country that says it can’t guarantee the safety of diplomatic staff in its own capital, and warns foreigners in its southern neighbour to go home? Is aggressive enough to threaten to reduce its opponents to a sea of fire, yet sensitive enough to complain that its dignity has been … [Read More]












