News of an interesting half-day seminar in Cambridge: This is an invitation to the seminar “60 years of overseas Korean adoption and the Korean adoption issue” which will take place in Cambridge on Saturday the 20th of February 2010. Ever since the Korean War Armistice in 1953, almost 200,000 Korean children have been adopted to … [Read More]
Category: Language & Learning (page 64)
Barbara Demick talks about her book Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
In her new book Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea, Barbara Demick uncovers the secrets of the world’s most secretive country, through the stories of six North Koreans. Covering illicit love affairs, party loyalty and crippling poverty, the stories are the result of tenacious investigations and interviews in a country not connected … [Read More]
Korea’s Ancient Culture and Art, and Modern Economy
An invitation to an informational event at the Korean Cultural Centre on 10 February, from the Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion Project. We would like to invite you to a series of short films on Korea’s artistic and cultural treasures, and the remarkable economic growth of the past 30 years. The films will cover, amongst … [Read More]
The Economist on the hallyu
“China is used to running a trade deficit with South Korea, but its deficit in the trade of cultural goods is ten times greater than in industrial goods.” The Economist has an interesting piece on the hallyu. http://bit.ly/dCQxvx # [Read More]
A glimpse of a Confucian scholar’s intimacy
More details of this Friday’s free seminar at SOAS Friday, February 5th, 5pm, room G50 (main building) Isabelle Sancho, EHESS “A glimpse of Confucian scholar’s intimacy: the correspondence of Yulgok Yi I (1536-1584)” Abstract: The talk will focus on the correspondence of Yulgok Yi I (1536-1584), one of the most outstanding Confucian scholars of the … [Read More]
Free love, chastity and nationalism in Han Yongun’s novel “Death”
Brief notes from the recent talk at SOAS, which probably involve getting hold of the wrong end of several sticks… Han Yongun was the most renowned Buddhist nationalist poet of the colonial period. He was jailed for his involvement in the March 1st movement, and composed his famous poetry cycle “Silence of my love” while … [Read More]
Han Yongun: Questioning a monk’s nation-building project
More details about this Friday’s seminar at SOAS Friday, January 29th, 5pm, room G50 (main building) Jung-Shim Lee, Leiden University Han Yongun’s posthumous novel Death: Questioning a monk’s nation-building project Abstract: This paper will explore how a Korean monk Han Yongun produced Confucian-inspired nation-building ideas in his novel Death (죽음, 1924). Han Yongun (韓龍雲, 1879-1944) … [Read More]
Two Korea-related talks at the Senate House
News of two upcoming Korea-related seminars in the Comparative Histories of Asia Seminar hosted by the Institute of Historical Research at Senate House, University of London. Thursday 28th January, 5.30pm Dr Owen Miller (Cambridge / SOAS) “The Idea of Stagnation in Korean History from Fukuda Tokuzo to the New Right” Thursday 25 February, 5.30pm Professor … [Read More]
Kim Jeong-ho’s Daedong Yeojido online
An amazingly detailed 1861 pictorial map of the Korean peninsula is now available online. Well worth a look. # The Daedong yeojido was produced by the great Korean geographer Kim Jeong-ho. The map is at a scale of about 1:162,000 and is a wood block print that includes two inset maps of Seoul, texts and … [Read More]
A Witness to Change: Three Decades of Korea-watching
A reminder of this Friday’s talk at SOAS. Friday, January 22nd, 5pm, room G50 (main building) Warwick Morris, Former UK Ambassador to ROK A Witness to Change: Three Decades of Korea-watching Abstract: Posted in Seoul in January 1975 as the FCO’s first Korean language student, Warwick Morris was to experience the start of tremendous economic … [Read More]
A belated look back at 2009
For the past 3 years LKL has concocted a quiz of the year as a way of gathering together some of the news stories which have most caught our eye. This year, as I came to draw up the list in mid December I found it hard to think of anything amusing or diverting: most … [Read More]
Wonder Girls One to Watch
The Wonder Girls have been picked as ‘Ones to Watch’ for 2010, by advertising agency JWT. First Koreans to make it into US Billboard charts top 100. # The “girl group has conquered Asia and has its sights on the rest of the world,” JWT said. Source: Chosun Ilbo [Read More]
The Chaebolization of the Korean music industry
The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Mark Russell on how Vietnam is following Korea’s example in how to produce pop stars http://bit.ly/68KLpD #, while in a related series of articles Richard Stansfield talks about The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry http://bit.ly/8W37mD #. [Read More]
Transeurasian languages: are Japanese and Korean related?
Darren Southcott reports from the SOAS seminar given by Dr Martine Robbeets on 20 November: “Korean and the Transeurasian languages: similarities that make a difference”. With additional material from Peter Corbishley Korean and the Transeurasian languages was not the title of a talk designed to bring in the crowds. But slowly SOAS room G50 filled … [Read More]
January-March Korean class season at the KCC
Next term’s Korean language courses at the KCC are open for subscription: APPLICATION DEADLINE: by Wednesday 9th December 2009, 10am. via Email only 1. NEW STUDENTS FOR BEGINNERS 1: Wednesday 9th December 2009, 10am This is for new absolute beginner students who have not studied at KCC before. 2. CONTINUING STUDENTS: Wednesday 25th November ~ … [Read More]
Melodrama of the Modern Girl: Jaesaeng by Yi Kwang-su
Further details of this Friday’s talk at SOAS: Friday, December 4th, 5pm, room G50 (main building) Dr. Michael Shin, University of Cambridge Melodrama of the Modern Girl: The Novel Jaesaeng by Yi Kwang-su (1924-25) Abstract: Yi Kwang-su’s Jaesaeng (Rebirth) was one of the most popular novels in colonial Korea during the 1920s. One reason for … [Read More]