Alas, it comes too late to give me any useful input into the Korean Literature Translation Institute’s essay competition, but this is a worthwhile initiative: The Korean Literature Workshop With Ch’oe Yun, the author of ‘There a Petal Silently Falls’ The Korean Cultural Centre Tuesday 27th October 2009: 18.30~21.00 Facilitator: Dr Jo Elfving-Hwang, the University … [Read More]
Books and literature (page 39)
Troubles with the Petal
12 Sep: The only way I’m going to be able write anything on There a Petal is to leave it to the last minute and rely on the deadline pressure for inspiration. Having now read it three times I have no angle on it at all. 10 Oct: Really struggling to write 2,000 words on … [Read More]
Park Wan-suh’s Shinga reviewed in FT
The Weekend FT reviews Park Wan-suh's book "Who Ate Up All the Shinga?" "Lyrical … Gripping". The full review can be found here. # [Read More]
Margaret Drabble: the search for the Crown Princess
A couple of years ago at the BAKS conference Margaret Drabble gave a fascinating talk about how she came to be captivated by the story of Lady Hyegyong, wife of Prince Sado. Sado was son of a king and father of a king, but never made it to the throne himself. Lady Hyegyong wrote her … [Read More]
Yi T’ae-jun’s Eastern Sentiments published
A new translation of essays by colonial-period writer Yi T’ae-jun: “Eastern Sentiments”, translated by Janet Poole, Columbia UP: http://bit.ly/akMvg #; available at Amazon.co.uk. “Yi laments the passing of tradition with keen sensibility yet, at the same time, celebrates human perseverance in the face of loss and change.” [Read More]
Why North Korea is unlikely ever to produce a Solzhenitsyn
Christian Oliver reviews “Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor” in the weekend FT #. He observes: It is not uncommon for South Korean missionaries to meet defectors as soon as they flee into China, and for memoirs by penal camp survivors to end with the authors turning to Christianity. But Kim’s … [Read More]
The Korean War: the Korean version
General Paik Sun Yup: From Pusan to Panmunjom Potomac Memories of War, 2007 (original English version pub 1992) Your typical book on the Korean War centres on Generals MacArthur and Ridgeway, on the landing at Incheon and maybe (if it’s a British account) the battle at the Imjin. It’s a war fought by Americans, with … [Read More]
Korean Literature essay contest
Now here’s the kind of initiative I like. The Korean Cultural Centre has teamed up with the Korean Literature Translation Institute to bring you the inaugural Korean Literature Essay Contest. In what I hope will be the first of many contests of this nature, the subject text is the novel on which Jang Sung-woo based … [Read More]
The LKL Korea Trip 2009 pt 3: 20th century art and history
Friday 17 July Today I elect to revisit the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon (국립 현대 미술관). Very easy to get to: Seoul Grand Park subway stop on Line 4. Get out at exit 4 and get the free shuttle bus which leaves every 20 minutes. There’s a great Manhwa exhibition on at … [Read More]
The epic stand on the Imjin
Jennifer Barclay, author of Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi, looks at Andrew Salmon’s exciting new book on the battle of Imjin River: To The Last Round (Aurum Press, June 2009) To the Last Round by Andrew Salmon gives the most exhaustive account to date of what … [Read More]
A manhwa artist at war
The Manhwa exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre finished this week, in preparation for the new Living Heritage exhibition. It was an interesting exhibition, giving some of the history of manhwa from its beginnings in early twentieth century newspapers, to the graphic novels which are avidly consumed today and which form a major part of … [Read More]
Max Hastings: The Korean War
Pan Macmillan, 1987 There are so many books on the Korean War, which commenced 59 years ago today, that it’s difficult to know where to start. One history which has stood the test of time is by Max Hastings. Clocking in at 35% fewer pages than David Halberstam’s recent well-received account, Max Hastings’s The Korean … [Read More]
The Manhwa 100 Workshop
Celebrating a Centenary of Korean Comics The Korean Cultural Centre Tuesday 23rd June 2009 ‘Finding Your Own Way’ With Damian Gascoigne As a culmination of this summer’s centenary celebrations of Manhwa at the Korean Cultural Centre UK, we are proud to announce that the guest speaker for The Manhwa 100 Workshop will be established illustrator; … [Read More]
David Halberstam’s Korean War
David Halberstam The Coldest Winter – America and the Korean War 718pp, Hyperion, 2007 The subtitle of David Halberstam’s magnum opus, The Coldest Winter – America and the Korean War, at first seems a bit unimaginative. But it is to the point. After all, without Truman’s decision to commit US ground forces, the whole Korean … [Read More]
Ragnarok – one of Korea’s top manhwa
Manhwa in Korea was born 100 years ago. From their beginnings as cartoons in the newspapers, they have grown into long-running graphic novel serials with spin-offs in online games and big screen adaptations. Among the most celebrated of modern Manhwa series are Priest (Hyung Min-woo) and Ragnarok (Lee Myung-jin). Both of these have been translated … [Read More]
100 years of Manhwa at the KCC
Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) UK celebrate the centenary of Korean comics ‘Manhwa’ with a host of interrelated special exhibitions, events and film screenings, 21 May – 24 June 2009. Special Exhibitions Manhwa: A Language of Unlimited Imaginations Manhwa celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. This popular art form holds … [Read More]