People might find it strange that, despite the fact that I’ve been following Korean culture for 20 years now, I’ve never watched a complete TV Drama series. There have been several reasons for this, but basically it boils down to lack of time, and the prohibitive cost of the DVD boxed sets. I made the … [Read More]
Category: Society
2020 LSE East Asia Forum: Youth in the East Asia – Pioneers of Change CANCELLED
Another Coronavirus casualty The LSE hosts its second big conference of the year: 2020 LSE East Asia Forum: “Youth in the East Asia: Pioneers of Change” Saturday 28 March 2020, 10am – 5pm Old Theatre | Old Building | London School of Economics | London WC2R 1DH Tickets | £15.00 (Early Bird Student) | £30.00 … [Read More]
2020 LSE SU Korea Future Forum: Korea’s Ascent to the Global Stage
News of this years Korea Future Forum at the LSE: LSESU Korea Future Forum 2020: Korea’s Ascent to the Global Stage LSE Old Theatre | Houghton St | London WC2A 2AE Saturday, 29 February 2020 from 10:00-17:30 £10.00 (Early Bird Student) | £30.00 (Early Bird Standard) | Buy tickets Official website: lsesukfa.com Panel 1. Fourth … [Read More]
Discussion: Digital Sexual Violence in South Korea
Another interesting event organised by the SOAS Korean Social and Environmental Justice Society: Digital Sexual Violence in South Korea Monday 24 June 2019, 18:30-20:30 Room S312, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London, United Kingdom (enter via north door on SOAS campus) Spy cams in hotel rooms and public toilets, revenge porn, date rape … [Read More]
Seungri’s shame makes it into the FT
It’s not often that you find a K-pop story in the pink pages of the Financial Times. In fact, if you search their site for “BTS” you will simply get a list of articles about the company formerly known as British Telecom. So what brings them to report the ins and outs of Lee Seung-hyun’s, … [Read More]
2019 LSE SU EAST ASIA Forum: “New Chapter for Cooperation?”
This year the LSE’s North Korea conference, which for the past couple of years has followed closely on the heels of the Korea Future Forum, has expended its scope to cover the whole region: 2019 LSE SU EAST ASIA Forum: “New Chapter for Cooperation?” Saturday 23 March 2019, 9:30am – 6pm Old Theatre | LSE … [Read More]
Korea’s Metoo, Withyou: A Conversation with Pros. Seo Jihyun
Join the SOAS Korean Social & Environmental Justice Society for a conversation with Prosecutor Seo Jihyun, the initiator of the Metoo movement in Korea. Prosecutor Seo Jihyun shocked the Korean society in January 2018 by appearing on national television to reveal the sexual harassment she had experienced at work and the serious career setbacks she … [Read More]
2019 LSE SU Korea Future Forum: Progression or Regression?
This year’s Korea Future Forum looks particularly interesting for the two keynote addresses, especially prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun. Full speaker details and more on the conference’s website and Facebook page. 2019 LSE SU Korea Future Forum Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE Saturday 2 March 2019, 9:30 AM – 5:20 PM Tickets £40 (students £20) | Buy … [Read More]
The LKL quiz of the year 2017
I’m currently going through my 2017 press cuttings and trying to make sense of them, in the hope that as in (some) previous years I’ll be able to pull together a series of posts summarising some of the most newsworthy stories of the year. In case I don’t manage to get that done (after all, … [Read More]
Film review double bill: Bamseom Pirates and Criminal Conspiracy
This weekend gave us the opportunity to watch two very different documentaries which cast their critical eye over contemporary Korean society and recent political history. Part of the fascination of both of them for UK-based Korea-watchers is the way they resonate: they provide, in the one case, a laser-like dissection of an issue of which … [Read More]
Screening: Criminal Conspiracy
News of a free documentary screenings courtesy of the Birkbeck International Documentary Society: Criminal Conspiracy 공범자들 Dir: Choi Seung-ho (2017, 105 mins) Birkbeck Cinema | 43 Gordon Square | London WC1H 0PD 7 October 2pm | Event’s Facebook page During the Lee Myung-Bak presidency Public Broadcasting in South Korea came under heavy government control and … [Read More]
Korea – The Antifragile Kingdom
Editor’s note: every now and then Matthew Jackson submits a cracking article from out of nowhere. Here’s one such article which, if I may paraphrase, wonders whether maybe han is healthy. I hope it’s not too long before the next one! The author and philosopher Nicholas Nassim Taleb (of ‘Black Swan’ fame) developed a concept … [Read More]
2017 travel diary 9: Sewol victims remembered at the Ansan Street Arts Festival
Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, 5 May 2017, 6:30pm. It is said that at the height of his efforts to build the Republic of Korea into an economic powerhouse, Park Chung-hee happened to be flying in a helicopter over western Gyeonggi-do. He looked out and saw what he considered to be a lot of under-utilised real estate, and decided … [Read More]
Event news: King’s College London Contemporary Korea Speaker Series
The London Asia Pacific Centre will be hosting the Contemporary Korea Speaker Series in October-November 2016. Thanks to funding provided by The Academy of Korean Studies, the series will bring to London four top Korean professors to discuss contemporary Korean economics, politics and society. The talks are as follows: 13 October 2016 – Prof Kim … [Read More]
Looking back at 2015: Domestic news
Our final look back at 2015: mainly domestic news stories from South Korea. In the news After 62 years of adultery being a criminal offence in the ROK, the constitutional court decided to decriminalise it by a vote of 7 to 2. Four out of ten married Korean males heaved a sigh of relief and shares … [Read More]
In Korea, historical grievances last down the generations
Today’s Korea Times article, Man fined for obstructing ancestral rite, is nicely timed to ensure good behaviour over the Chuseok period. But the ancestral rite Mr Kim disrupted was not any old rite. This is a family grievance that goes back to 1453 and the reign of King Sejo: The court said Kim got into … [Read More]