Personal accounts

2017 travel diary – reminiscences

Post image for 2017 travel diary – reminiscences

by Philip Gowman on 21 May, 2017

in Personal accounts | Travel diaries

Index Sat 29 April: Busan – Min Young-ki’s solo show Sun 30 April: Haman-gun – Gaya kingdom royal tombs Mon 1 May: Sancheong-gun – Hwangmaesan Royal Azalea festival Tue 2 May: Mungyeong-si – Tea bowl festival Wed 3 May: Buddha’s Birthday in Bongamsa | The Gyeongbokgung at night Thu 4 May: Jeonju Fri 5 May: […]

{ 2 comments }

Beth McKillop reports from the 2016 Culture Communication Forum in Seoul

by Beth McKillop 12 September 2016
Thumbnail image for Beth McKillop reports from the 2016 Culture Communication Forum in Seoul

Senior Research Fellow and former Deputy Director at the Victoria and Albert Museum Beth McKillop was the UK’s representative at Korea’s annual Culture Communication Forum hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute. Since 1990 when I first visited Korea to collect ceramics, outfits and furniture for a planned Victoria and Albert Museum Korea gallery, I’ve […]

Read the full article →

Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams installed on the Thames

by Philip Gowman 30 August 2016
Thumbnail image for Kang Ik-joong’s Floating Dreams installed on the Thames

For one reason or another, today at the office I had my eyes glued to my PC screen most of the day. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the view from my window, from where I can see the Thames around the Greenwich peninsula. Which meant that I managed to miss one of the […]

Read the full article →

Caught on the plane: Twenty and Memories of the Sword

by Philip Gowman 13 December 2015
Thumbnail image for Caught on the plane: Twenty and Memories of the Sword

I always look forward to long-haul flights as an opportunity to catch up on all the movies I should have been watching over the past year. And having just returned from an ultra-long-haul holiday, I can heartily recommend Singapore Airlines in-flight entertainment. My only complaint is that there was too much to watch: if the […]

Read the full article →

A lunchtime of ceramics and an evening of awesomeness

by Philip Gowman 5 November 2015
Thumbnail image for A lunchtime of ceramics and an evening of awesomeness

I wish the lunch break had been longer at today’s Korean film conference at SOAS. I was planning on having a quick snack at Mr Mok’s Bibimbap Cafe in Museum Street, maybe say a brief hello to my friends at It’s All Greek a few doors away, and then look in at the British Museum’s […]

Read the full article →

Please close your eyes and block your ears during the brief documentary on 2 Nov

by Philip Gowman 17 October 2015
Thumbnail image for Please close your eyes and block your ears during the brief documentary on 2 Nov

For all the wrong reasons, I’m not looking forward to the opening gala of this year’s London Korean Film Festival as much as I ought to be. Of course, I’m really looking forward to the actual movie itself. Ode to My Father has been a much-talked-about film, with admissions of over 14.25 million at the […]

Read the full article →

2014 Travel Diary day 11: The most expensive breakfast ever

by Philip Gowman 16 June 2014
Thumbnail image for 2014 Travel Diary day 11: The most expensive breakfast ever

The return home, with thanks to all who made the trip special. Eulji-ro, Seoul, Monday 16 June, 8am. My last morning in Seoul, and I was seriously hung over. I had arranged to meet the Seoul bureau chief of my favourite newspaper for breakfast: he had suggested that we meet at my hotel, not far from […]

Read the full article →

2014 Travel Diary day 3: 사십구재

by Philip Gowman 8 June 2014
Thumbnail image for 2014 Travel Diary day 3: 사십구재

The 49th-day ceremony (사십구재) for Sena Lee, who died in Seoul on 22 April 2014, held at Anjeoksa, Sancheon-gun, at which family and friends said farewell to her. According to dharma master Tim Lerch,  Traditionally, the period of 49 days after someone dies is seen as a time for that person to check their consciousness and digest their […]

Read the full article →

No-one’s in the mood for celebrating

by Philip Gowman 23 April 2014
Thumbnail image for No-one’s in the mood for celebrating

In a brief article two days ago, Variety noted the impact of the Sewol ferry disaster on the Korean box office, on TV schedules, and on pop concerts. No one is in the mood for enjoying themselves right now. Not that such an injunction is needed, but I hear that government officials and diplomatic staff […]

Read the full article →

How to organise and accommodate an ever-growing library?

by Philip Gowman 9 February 2014
Thumbnail image for How to organise and accommodate an ever-growing library?

When I started this Korean lark over 10 years ago, obviously I didn’t have any books on the subject. Over the years, the collection has been piling up, literally. Translated literature; novels in English by Koreans and by foreigners about Korea; the regrettably necessary section on North Korea; books on Korean art, history, film, music, […]

Read the full article →

2013 Travel Diary #30: New Connections

by Philip Gowman 14 September 2013
Thumbnail image for 2013 Travel Diary #30: New Connections

Museum of Modern Art, Gwacheon-si, Saturday 14 September, 1:30pm. I’m still wandering around some of the museum’s permanent collection when my phone rings and my 3pm appointment wonders if they can shift to 2:30pm. It’s 1:30pm by now, and City Hall is a one hour journey away, so the proposed new time is going to […]

Read the full article →

Kiejo’s Cambridge feast

by Kiejo Sarsfield 21 May 2013
Thumbnail image for Kiejo’s Cambridge feast

Kiejo Sarsfield tells how a housewife from Masan ended up supervising dinner for 60 in a Cambridge college. In March I had e-mail from Dr Michael Shin, Lecturer in Korea Studies and fellow at Robinson College Cambridge, about a Korean food event he was planning to organise in a couple of months. He was asking me whether I would be interested […]

Read the full article →

An apology to LKL subscribers

by Philip Gowman 17 October 2012
Thumbnail image for An apology to LKL subscribers

If you are reading this, it is because you are one of my loyal subscribers who get new articles delivered into your email inbox as soon as a post is published. You’re probably waiting for news of a recently-organised event. Instead, you find a post with no useful information in it. As you may know, […]

Read the full article →

Thank you

by Philip Gowman 17 May 2011
Thumbnail image for Thank you

Tonight at the Korean Cultural Centre, I’m told that it was a record attendance for a Global Korea Lecture. So, thanks to the people who came along to my talk. I think I said most of the things I wanted to, but missed a couple of things. More importantly, thanks to the Ministry of Culture, […]

Read the full article →

The LKL Korea Trip 2011 – first thoughts

by Philip Gowman 10 May 2011
Thumbnail image for The LKL Korea Trip 2011 – first thoughts

I’ve just returned from a few days in Korea – the usual programme of meeting new people, renewing old friendships, covering old and new ground and enjoying lots of good food. It was a less intensive week than last year’s because I was under my own steam rather than being hosted by the Ministry of […]

Read the full article →

A Special Global Community

by Bella Frey 18 October 2010
Thumbnail image for A Special Global Community

Bella Frey talks about life as a Korean adoptee in England. It was in the 1950’s when the first babies were adopted to the United States from a war torn Korea. Many of them had been left orphaned and others abandoned. Since then hundreds of thousands of Korean babies and children have been adopted overseas […]

Read the full article →

2010 Travel Diary #15: Korean Kites, Kim Ki-chan and Cho Se-hui’s Dwarf

by Philip Gowman 16 June 2010
Thumbnail image for 2010 Travel Diary #15: Korean Kites, Kim Ki-chan and Cho Se-hui’s Dwarf

Tuesday 4 May 2010. Although I’m very proud of the organisation I work for – a multinational company with a long heritage – I try to keep my Korean hobby and my day job separate. But I thought that as I was in Seoul I ought to pay a visit to some of my local […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries