In The Last of the Sea Women, an extraordinary band of feisty grandmother warriors wage a spirited battle against vast oceanic threats. Often called real-life mermaids, the haenyeo divers of South Korea’s Jeju Island are renowned for centuries of diving to the ocean floor – without oxygen – to harvest seafood for their livelihood. Today, … [Read More]
Place: Jeju-do
Selected publications
- Park Hyun-joo: Romancing on Jeju tr Paige Aniyah Morris, Amazon Crossing 2024
- Kim Sok-pom: Death of a Crow tr Christina Yi, Seoul Selection 2022
- Michael Gibb: A Korean Odyssey: Island Hopping in Choppy Waters, Camphor Press 2020
- E. J. Koh: The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir, Tin House 2020
- Changyong Yang, Sejung Yang, William O'Grady: Jejueo: The Language of Korea’s Jeju Island, University of Hawai'i Press 2019
- Kyoim Yun: The Shaman’s Wages: Trading in Ritual on Cheju Island, University of Washington Press 2019
- Lisa See: The Island of Sea Women, Scribner 2019
- Hyun Ki-young: Suni Samchon (Bi-lingual, Vol 3 – Division) tr Lee Jung-hi, Asia Publishers 2012
- Kim Sok-pom: The Curious Tale of Mandogi’s Ghost tr Cindi Textor, Columbia University Press 2010
- Hyun Ki-young: Aunt Suni tr Song Jong-do, Gak 2008
- Hyun Kil-un: Dead Silence tr John Michael McGuire, Kang Hyunsook, Lee Jin-ah, Eastbridge 2006
[Manchester] Jane Jin Kaisen: Halmang, at esea contemporary
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Manchester’s esea contemporary presents internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker Jane Jin Kaisen in her first UK solo show ‘Halmang’. Jane Jin Kaisen was born on the volcanic island of Jeju, fifty miles south of the Korean Peninsula’s coast. In this first UK solo exhibition of her work, Jane Jin Kaisen weaves oceanic cosmology and landscape … [Read More]
[Manchester] Jane Jin Kaisen: Community of Parting screenings
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Community of Parting (2019) traces a different approach to borders, translation, and aesthetic mediation by invoking the ancient shamanic myth of the Abandoned Princess Bari and engaging female Korean shamanism as an ethics and aesthetics of memory and mutual recognition across time and space. Rooted in oral storytelling and embodied by female shamans, the myth about … [Read More]
Dislocation Blues: Jane Jin Kaisen screenings at Tate Modern
Delve into the work of artist Jane Jin Kaisen with the UK premiere of Burial of this Order and the world cinema premieres of Offering – Coil Embrace and Halmang Jane Jin Kaisen negotiates and mediates the political history, cosmology, and spiritual culture of Jeju Island through feminist re-framings of myths, and by addressing the … [Read More]
Haenyeo Exhibition: Experience the value of living heritage of Jeju
Haenyeo are female divers in the Korean province of Jeju. UNESCO recognised the value of the culture of Jeju Haenyeo in that the female divers dive undersea without any breathing apparatus, pass down their muljil (haenyeo diving) skills for many generations, practice a sustainable fisheries system to coexist with nature, emphasise the role of women, … [Read More]
Michael Gibb’s Korean Odyssey: a great way to enjoy Korea without the the visa and quarantine
If I were to win an insane amount of money on the lottery, here’s how I might spend it. I’d charter a boat (and crew – I’m no sailor), and maybe a guide / interpreter, and go on a slow sea voyage for a couple of months from Busan to Mokpo, taking in some of … [Read More]
Brief book review: Suni Samchon
Hyun Ki-young: Suni Samchon Translated by Lee Jung-hi Asia Publishers Bilingual Edition, 2012, 186pp Jeju Island, in Korean literature of the late 70s and 80s, is not the honeymoon destination of more recent years. It was a place of poverty, of bitter memories – a place to escape from rather than a destination to visit … [Read More]
Review: Hyun Kil-un – Dead Silence and other stories of the Jeju Massacre
Translated by Hyunsook Kang, Jin-ah Lee and John Michael McGuire Eastbridge Books, 2006, 206 pages On a trip to Jeju Island a few years ago I remember having a slightly tipsy interaction with a Jeju-based journalist and intellectual, as we staggered from 2cha to 3cha via a liquor store. “I don’t like America”, he solemnly … [Read More]
Book review: Mary Lynn Bracht — White Chrysanthemum
Mary Lynn Bracht: White Chrysanthemum Penguin Random House 2018, 320pp White Chrysanthemum, the debut novel from Mary Lynn Bracht, tells the story of two sisters, brought up on Jeju Island, who were tragically separated in the last years of the Second World War. The elder sister, Hana, is abducted into sexual slavery by a Japanese … [Read More]
South Korea: Earth’s Hidden Wilderness – BBC2 documentary
To complement their coverage of the winter Olympics, the BBC is screening what looks like an interesting documentary covering things you might not often see in coverage of the peninsula. With plenty of Korean experts advising and behind the camera, this should be well worth a watch. South Korea – Earth’s Hidden Wilderness BBC2, 8:00pm … [Read More]
Jeju teachers in Kingston exchange
I do like receiving these occasional press releases from Kingston Council as I wouldn’t normally get to hear about things like this: Kingston schools welcome teachers from Korea in cultural exchange programme Seven teachers from Jeju in South Korea, Kingston’s partner town, are working in local schools and staying with local families as part of … [Read More]
Screening and discussion: Village vs Empire — Jeju and Gangjeong
A free screening (a premiere) and discussion relating to Jeju Island and the US naval base. Planetary Poetics Workshop: Village versus Empire (2016) Premiere and Panel Discussion 23 September 2017, 6pm – 8pm Darwin Lecture Theatre (LT40) | Darwin Building | UCL | Gower Street | London WC1E 6XA Please register here. As part of our … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Haenyeo, Women of the Sea, at National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Maritime Greenwich, played host to an exhibition featuring South Korea’s latest inclusion in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Life-size photographs of Jeju’s famous diving women were dotted around a building which began life in 1807 as a school for the children of British seafarers. … [Read More]
Exhibition news: Haenyeo – Women of the Sea, at National Maritime Museum
Korea’s latest addition to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage register makes an appearance in Greenwich this month. Full-size portraits of Jeju’s famous diving women by Hyung S. Kim; another chance to experience Mikhail Karikis’s video and sound installation Sea Women (LKL reviews the 2012 Wapping installation of the work here); plus, if like me you … [Read More]
Exhibition news: Baek Kyung-sook’s donated Haenyeo photographs, at Jeju Stone Park
What has an exhibition in Jeju Stone Park got to do with the normal remit of London Korean Links? Above everything else, friendship. On my first trip to Korea back in 2001 I met the future director of Jeju Stone Park, Baek Un-cheol, who at the time was in charge of his private museum of … [Read More]
Event news: The Wind is Blowing + Jeju’s Aching Heart, at Deptford Cinema
Two Jeju-related films coming up at the Deptford Cinema: Gureombi: The Wind is Blowing + Jeju’s Aching Heart Deptford Cinema | 39 Deptford Broadway | London SE8 4PQ | deptfordcinema.org Sunday, April 30, 2016, 4:00pm Two documentary films covering the remarkable peace movement on Jeju Island, South Korea. Villagers and activists have fought daily for … [Read More]