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 […]
Place: Jeju-do
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Free Screening of “Reiterations of Dissent”
After the successful screening of the Sewol political documentary last month, there’s a screening this month on another contentious issue: the 4:3 Jeju Uprising: Reiterations of Dissent (거듭되는 항거) Dir Jane Jin Kaisen 2011 South Korea/Denmark, 59 minutes Language: Korean & English, Subtitles: English Free screening followed by a Skype discussion with the director 21 […]
Ghosts of Jeju to get another London screening
Eighteen months ago there was a screening of this documentary about the 4:3 incident also known as the Jeju Massacre. There’s now an opportunity to see it again at a deli in Deptford on 27 April as part of the Free Film Festival. Free event. No ticket required, but capacity is only 40 so get […]
Why Jeju Islanders don’t want Chinese to be allowed to drive?
A while ago we noticed an article in the Korean press which suggested people in Jeju-do were unhappy about Chinese being allowed to drive rental cars on the island when on vacation. I wondered what it was that concerned them. Then, the other day, I came across this article in H’s Week in China publication, […]
Looking back at 2014: Culture, sport and tourism
In the first of four articles looking back over 2014, we recall some of the culture, sports and heritage stories that made the news. Arts Dansaekhwa emerged as flavour of the year. Following the MMCA exhibition in 2013 and Joan Kee’s book, Kukje Gallery had a monochrome retrospective, and dansaekhwa artists were included in MMCA […]
Burberry – the favoured brand of Korean flashers
In the last decade, British fashion brand Burberry manage to rescue itself from the chav associations caused by too liberal licensing of its check design to companies it couldn’t control. But you can’t control the use to which a raincoat is put. And according to the Hankyoreh: Burberry coats have long been sought after in […]
NLCS Jeju featured in the Telegraph
This week the Daily Telegraph featured the Jeju campus of North London Collegiate School: a piece of Stanmore in Seogwipo. The boarding school has now been running for two years. You can’t help but be inspired by the enjoyment, enthusiasm and confidence of the students, even though they are being taught in what, to them, […]