London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

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Selected publications

Online talk: Music for Healing — BTS, radical love and becoming other

An interesting talk coming up this week: Music for Healing: BTS, radical love and becoming other Speaker: Dr Colette Balmain, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Kingston University Research series: ArCC (School of Arts, Culture and Communication) research seminar series organised by Visconti Studio. Mode: Online via Microsoft teams. Email c.balmain at kingston.ac.uk for link. … [Read More]

A review of the Korean cultural year 2020

It would be an understatement to say that the cultural year 2020 has been markedly different from previous years. The pandemic has had a huge impact on the cultural scene, with most live events cancelled and event promoters falling back on the internet to provide us with our cultural fixes. Some of these attempts have … [Read More]

BTS: Break The Silence movie theatrical release

Relive the Wembley experience from last year with this behind-the-scenes documentary from BTS’s Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. Break The Silence: Persona Limited theatrical release from Thursday 10 September 2020 Visit www.breakthesilencethemovie.com for showtimes and to book tickets BTS WORLD TOUR ‘LOVE YOURSELF: SPEAK YOURSELF’ is over. The worldwide stadium tour topped the Billboard … [Read More]

Bang Bang Con: The Live

What is likely to be the biggest global livestreamed event of the Covid lockdown kicks off at 10am BST on Sunday 14 June. Runtime is expected to be 90 minutes. The concert will be streaming on Weverse. The event will provide some consolation for BTS’s UK fans who were looking forward to their appearance at … [Read More]

KJOU: the new UK hallyu mag

Over on the KCC Facebook page they recently posted about a new hallyu magazine: KJOU. I visited the magazine’s website today and ordered myself a copy of their first issue. If you’re interested, there are a few copies left, but as the second issue is imminent don’t hesitate because they’ll be gone soon. Of course, … [Read More]

Connect, BTS art projects in London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul, New York

For full details of the projects organised under the CONNECT, BTS umbrella visit the official website, www.connect-bts.com, which explains that: CONNECT, BTS is a global project to connect five cities and twenty-two artists, each of whom contributes their unique philosophy and imagination to it. This project aims to redefine the relationships between art and music, … [Read More]

A review of the Korean cultural year 2019

A review of some of the highlights and trends in the Korean cultural year, primarily in London but also with half an eye to anything we might have seen elsewhere in the UK. The review is a personal one, inevitably skewed towards the events we managed to get to. Introduction This time last year I … [Read More]

BTS: Fandom Culture in the age of New Media

For those that can’t make it to the two-day conference in Kingston, here is some consolation. I expect this one will be popular. Book soon. BTS: Fandom Culture in the age of New Media Monday 6 January 2020, 6:30pm @ KCCUK Reservation essential via KCC website Dr. Jeeheng Lee will present a lecture at the … [Read More]

BTS: A Global Interdisciplinary Conference Project at Kingston University

Media & Communications & Music at Kingston University present: BTS (방탄소년단): A Global Interdisciplinary Conference Project Dates: Saturday 4 January – Sunday 5 January 2020 Venue: John Galsworthy Building | Penrhyn Road campus | Penrhyn Road | Kingston upon Thames | Surrey KT1 2EE Price: to be confirmed Booking and full conference programme is now … [Read More]