“This is The Woman,” opens a new ad for French Connection. “The Woman of All Women.” The voiceover is rather reminiscent of British children’s TV programming from the 1960’s (Watch with Mother). The footage is in black and white, adding to the slightly dated feel. And in the background, we hear, as if in the distance, a solitary solo oboe playing Arirang.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s interesting that the Korean folk-tune is well known enough in the West to be in the repertoire of the advertising creatives. The campaign represents a step forward in sophistication for the fashion brand, which has for the last decade has been playing (in the UK at least) with the deliberately provocative FCUK acronym.

“Going forward we will present French Connection as a credible and focused fashion brand that speaks through its product. It is a brand that celebrates personal style without the gimmicks,” says the French Connection website.

To go with this change of focus, the fashion brand hired Fallon as their advertising agency earlier this year. This is Fallon’s first campaign for the company.

HT to Nami Morris for spotting the ad.

For me, 2009’s live performance of the year was Nah Youn Sun’s spell-binding gig in the Vortex with Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius. It drew a rave review from one of London’s top 10 blogs, London Jazz (“sheer magic” said its blogmeister, now jazz blogger for the Daily Telegraph, Sebastian Scotney)

For those who didn’t manage to find their way to the Vortex, Nah is returning with Wakenius to London in a more central venue to act as support for Dan Berglund’s Tonbruket: the Swedish band has just released their first CD. I can recommend the CD, though it’s outside the remit of this site. John Bungey of The Times describes it thus: “Understated and playful, there are echoes of early Pink Floyd and Röyksopp – or Brian Eno on a Scandinavian mini-break”. And of course, Nah Youn Sun and Ulf Wakenius, as well as being LKL’s Live Gig of the year 2009 was my runaway winner of Album of the Year 2008 with Voyage.

So make sure you get your tickets for the concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Monday 15th March at 7:30pm

Links:

• Book tickets at the South Bank website

This Friday’s lecture at SOAS looks like a must-see.

See you all there.

Friday, March 12th, 5pm, room G50 (main building)
Dr. Katarzyna Cwiertka, Leiden University
Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War: Food in 20th Century Korea

Abstract:
In this talk, I will introduce my forthcoming book Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War: Food and Eating in Twentieth Century Korea. The key argument states that Japanese colonialism (1910-1945) and Cold War (1950-1990) largely shaped Korean dietary ‘tradition’ as we know it today. It demonstrates that an array of dietary practices by now identified as ‘Korean’ not infrequently have been conceived through colonial encounters or greatly affected by the colonial legacy. It also points out how the militarized reality of Cold War has further determined the trajectory of dietary change on the peninsula, both South and North. The scope of the book extends beyond dietary concerns, owing to the all-embracing and yet very intimate character of food. It may serve as a very effective tool for investigating phenomena, such as colonialism, capitalism, war, modernity and democracy, which influence society and culture simultaneously at many levels, but their full effect is difficult to pinpoint.

The talk is centered around two topics: the restaurant culture of colonial Korea and the post-liberation standardization of the Korean taste through the industrialization of soy sauce production. Both topics vividly reflect the persistent legacy of Japanese colonial rule and the ambiguity of lived colonial experience. While Koreans willingly embraced the colonizer as a trendsetter, the economic survival of café’s, restaurants and department stores was often heavily dependent on the patronage of the colonized Korean public. In the case of industrialization of soy sauce production the situation was entirely different. A typical example of ‘Japanese for Japanese phenomenon’, industrial soy sauce unfolds its impact on the Korean cuisine only after the liberation.

Speaker Bio:
Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is Associate Professor in Japanese History and Material Culture at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her research to date has utilized food as a window into the modern history of Japan and Korea. Cwiertka is the author of Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity (Reaktion Books 2006) and co-editor of Asian Food: The Global and the Local (University of Hawaii Press 2002). Currently, she is putting finishes touches to her forthcoming monograph Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War: Food in Twentieth Century Korea (Reaktion Books 2010). She also acts as Principal Researcher of the project “Sustaining Total War: Militarization, Economic Mobilization and Social Change in Japan and Korea”, which is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and investigates the role of war in the development of contemporary East Asia.

Aashish Gadhvi managed to interview two key members of the South Korean world cup squad after the match with Ivory Coast last week: Lee Young-pyo, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur:

Click here to view the embedded video.

and probably Korea’s best known player, Park Ji-sung:

Click here to view the embedded video.

No subtitles this time: both interviews are in English.

This wraps up LKL’s coverage of the South Korea – Ivory Coast match. Next time we talk about the Red Devils it will be in the World Cup tournament itself.

Saharial reviews one of 2009’s murder-mysteries:

The Case of Itaewon Homicide

Director: Hong Ki-seon
Writer: Lee Maeng-yu
Release Date: September 10, 2009

Cast: Jang Geun-suk, Jeong  Jin-yeong, Shin Seung-hwan, Oh Kwang-rok, Ko Chang-Seok

Synopsis

Based on real events that have been ‘dramatised and changed for dramatic purposes’ the story tells of an incident in 1997 when a student was found murdered in the bathroom of a burger restaurant. Two suspects are found, both of whom are American-born Korean and both of whom blame each other for the murder. It’s up to prosecutor and defence to discover the truth and jail the killer.

Review

Jang Geun-suk

It might seem unfair to compare ‘Itaewon Homicide’ to ‘Memories of Murder’ but seeing as the latter is the Gold Standard of murder films based on real events, and that its a personal favourite of mine, it’s inevitable. The film isn’t bad, and maybe the extensive review of the real events that I have read prevented any real shock or surprise in the narrative, but I felt that there was something lacking overall and that it was a touch flimsy and too many obvious devices in places.

That being said it’s still a good film to watch, the casting is cleverly done with Jang Geun-suk as the ‘innocent’ accused, his popularity allowing the audience to feel some empathy and warmth to an otherwise unattractive character. He does well in this role, a break from his normal cheerful persona and, combined with the fact he has to speak English through most of the film, it’s quite impressive. Its not perfect American accent of course, but it plays a vital part in itself.

Shin Seung-hwan

Shin Seung-hwan who plays the other accused also does well as the spoiled rich kid, perhaps his heavy build and the almost porcine nature of the father also adding to the casting. It makes them seem more distasteful, after all, the audience needs to take sides between the two very flawed leads. Unlike ‘Memories of Murder’ there is no clear delineation between who is right and wrong.

One of the interesting angles I feel it portrays the best is how the battle between the lawyers goes beyond the actual case and how it’s so easy to forget the real victim and his family. Also, that the US system and the Korean system are at odds with each other demonstrates very clearly you cannot have a country with sets of laws for people. This particularly applies  if the two investigations are at odds with each other, particularly if one interferes with the process and the other shows incompetence and corruption.

In the end I give the movie three stars – worth watching, but lacks something special. It is hard to build suspense when the audience already knows the ending, but compare it to how Bong Joon-ho managed to do so for ‘Memories of Murder’, it might have been wiser to have taken a different angle with this case, namely that of the victim’s family.

Trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Girls Generation latest album “Oh!” gets a trashing in the JoongAng Ilbo: http://bit.ly/cdKGL5 10:28 PM Feb 22nd via bit.ly

   Click here to view the embedded video.

   • TchmilFan: @lklinks You can even get SNSD/Girls Gen “Oh!” on iTunes UK now! http://bit.ly/cVOel7 (Look out for the Oh! areia remix on youtube) 1:28 PM Feb 23rd via Seesmic
2. You thought Korea was a great place for medical tourism? A hub, even? Check the costings before you go – Korea Times: http://bit.ly/adwsZU 10:30 PM Feb 22nd via bit.ly
3. You know that tubby kid in Pixar’s animation “Up”? He’s a Korean. Chosun Ilbo: http://bit.ly/blcPyb 10:32 PM Feb 22nd via bit.ly
   • Stephanie Seungmin Kim: Had a no idea- he looked quite spoiled though. 23 February at 11:21
4. The Chosun tips the celebs most likely to be featuring in commercials over the next year. Kim Yu-na tops the list: http://bit.ly/apLkNw 10:35 PM Feb 22nd via bit.ly
5. SuJu and TVXQ albums edge out Lady Gaga in Philippines: these boy bands keep on going http://bit.ly/9ZCjgD 11:14 PM Feb 22nd via bit.ly
6. RT @ JamesTurnbull @suzyinseoul: it’s been 5 years since she took her own life. Lee Eun-ju ‘only when i sleep’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jij9Vrvzu_Q 2:20 PM Feb 22nd via HootSuite

   Click here to view the embedded video.

7. Not so long ago Korean boffins invented space kimchi. Now they’ve moved on to space bulgogi. Next, space poktanju? http://bit.ly/bOSuGM 8:27 PM Feb 23rd via bit.ly
8. It doesn’t seem possible: Kyung-wha Chung’s 40 years in the recording industry. One of her best was the Walton. http://bit.ly/bZ5YcJ 8:40 PM Feb 23rd via bit.ly
9. 어머나! Jang Yoon-jeong is “Putri Cia Cia”. Her Indonesian hangeul diplomacy is rewarded – honoured by local tribe. http://bit.ly/9fNfM7 11:27 PM Feb 23rd via bit.ly
10. If you’re going to get locked up in a foreign country, Korea doesn’t seem such a bad place to get jailed: JoongAng Ilbo http://bit.ly/amlzj2 12:06 AM Feb 25th via bit.ly
11. Finally dropped off the front page of the blog that was sending 1,000s of people daily to my pics of Jeju Love Land. What a relief. 8:47 AM Feb 25th via Twitter Tools
12. I hope KimYu-na continues to excel. It just makes me nervous when expectations are so sky-high. 1:29 PM Feb 25th via Twitter Tools
13. Congratulations to Kim Yu-na on record-breaking gold. What a relief! Hope they bring out a DVD. http://bit.ly/bfFbSh 9:57 AM Feb 26th via bit.ly
14. Korean-American girls tough to date http://bit.ly/c87UKY – maybe because Koreans most materialistic people in the world http://bit.ly/8XUOGQ 9:48 PM Feb 27th via bit.ly
15. 50 new Korean Studies centres to be set up in 27 countries, and major archive to be reopened, in international expansion of Korean Studies http://bit.ly/d6nEh1 10:01 PM Feb 27th via bit.ly
16. Good to see so many new members at the Korean Artists Association meeting the other night. Planning an event/workshop in the KCC in August. 12:35 PM Feb 28th via web
17. North Korea’s woman traffic-cops and the robotic mime they do: Boing Boing http://bit.ly/9Ajs6w 1:11 PM Feb 28th via bit.ly

    Click here to view the embedded video.

18. RT @newkoreancinema: This is great news: ‘Breathless’ is getting a 2-disc DVD UK release on 22nd March with a stack of extras… 5:44 PM Mar 3rd via web
19. FSA’s Lord Turner seems to approve of Korea’s move in regulating new banking products. Will the UK follow? FT. http://bit.ly/dvihah #
20. So excited – Nah Youn Sun, responsible for LKL's gig of the year 2009, is performing at the QEH as support act 15 March http://bit.ly/cKjrUH #
21. Yay! 2-0, and Ash managed to get an interview with Park Ji-sung and Saharial got some good pics. All in all, a good afternoon #
22. Vote for your favourite Korea blog at 10 Magazine – if you don't see one you like you can add one to the list: http://bit.ly/bpzVjn #
23. Finnish model looking for husband in Korea http://bit.ly/dpYAZ3. Coincidentally, Mr World contest starts the next week http://bit.ly/bXePLo #
24. Good to see a feature on Debbie Han, a regular in the London Korean Art scene, in the Korea Times: http://bit.ly/9vd99B #
25. Jang Dong-gun and Ko So-young: enough already. http://bit.ly/8ZI8Kf , http://bit.ly/c6JJhH , and just about everywhere else #

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Good news for K-rock fans near Southampton. Biuret, the overall SUTASI Pan Asian winner 2009, will be performing at The Brook, Sunday March 14th at 9.20pm. They’ve also been invited to perform at the International Live Music Conference in London on 12 March. After their Southampton gig they’re off to Vietnam to perform in Ho Chi Minh City, where they headline at The Hi-Fi on 19 March.

Here’s a sample of their style:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At present the only English-language information I can provide about the band is the following press release:

Formed in 2002, Biuret, is a high energy, dynamic Rock Pop Band led by the stunning Hye Won Moon (Lead Vocal, Guitar, Songwriter) and supported by Jai Hyun Ahn (Bass Guitar) and Gyo Won Lee (Lead Guitar)

Biuret released their first EP in 2005 and within months sold out the first pressing. Since then the band has been working extremely hard to perfect their performances, original songs and sound, performing in over 600 live shows from Clubs, College Festivals, TV Appearances, Musical Theatre Productions, Rock Festivals to Opening for British Rock Group Oasis.

This energetic, dominate band manages to deliver what we love about rock whilst still keeping elements of pop in the mix, it is no surprise that they are the Sutasi 2009 Overall Winners (A Pan-Asian Music Search to find the Best Contemporary Act across Asia). Since winning the Sutasi title, Biuret have been busy working on a new album as well as performing in Korea, Australia, Japan and London.

The Sutasi Prize will see the band collaborate with major US Songwriters and Producers to create their first International Release scheduled for May 2010.

Biuret are three beautifully stunning, sexy artists who incorporate strong emotional vocals, infectious live performances and superior musicianship.

This, together with their amazing natural talent, energy and charisma delivers a band that you won’t forget and everyone is going to want to know about.

Their first full-length album, Be full of Spirit: Beautiful Violet, was released in 2007, with their second, Dreams Come True, following in 2009. Both are available from YesAsia, and will appeal particularly to fans of Cherry Filter.

Some more samples:

Find your way – part of the soundtrack for the online racing-MMORPG “Raycity”

Click here to view the embedded video.

거짓말 (Lies), from their first full-length album Be Full of Spirit – Beautiful Violet (2007)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Brook is at 466 Portswood Road, Portswood, Southampton SO17 3SD [Map]

Appearing with Biuret will be The Macaulay’s, Saracens, Melodramas and Summers.

Links:

• Biuret on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/biuret1
• Biuret on Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Biuret
• Official Biuret website: http://cafe.daum.net/biuret
• The Brook website
• Buy tickets here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/73231

News of next Thursday’s screening at the KCC. A Korean film expert at Cambridge tells me: “Daytime Drinking is very good. A young person’s film that even old geezers can appreciate, I found.”

Film title: Daytime Drinking, 116mins
Director: Noh Young-seok
Cast: Song Sam-dong
Genre: Drama / Comedy
Venue: Multi-purpose Hall, The Korean Cultural Centre, Grand Buildings, The Strand, London WC2N 5BW
Time: Thursday, 11th March, 7:00pm

Before this film screening, guests will be invited to enjoy Soju Korean vodka tasting and light snacks.

Hyuk-Jin has just broken up with his girlfriend and decides to take a trip to Jeongseon in the province of Gangwon-do. The next day, his friends are too hung over to get up, so Hyuk-Jin makes his way to his destination alone. A trip of opportunity takes a cruel and unexpected turn as misunderstanding and crossed paths occur over and over again.

“Daytime Drinking” is proof that a good script and simpatico direction and performances can overcome budgetary restrictions. An ultra-Korean tale, anchored by the social courtesies of soju consumption, is a mildly black comedy of escalating misadventures that should speak to audiences worldwide.

Some of the movie’s humour trades on the niceties of South Korea’s drinking culture (which, unlike in the West, always involves food as well) and of accepting beverages out of politeness. But the film is never about drinking itself, or its pernicious side effects.

The script’s humour reflects the grim, gray wintery locations, and has much fun with the locals’ gruff social attitudes – way different from those in Seoul, which seems light years away.

Source: www.variety.com

Booking is required, please RSVP to info@kccuk.org.uk or call 020 7004 2600
Admission is free.

Aashish Gadhvi reviews South Korea’s resounding 2-0 victory over the Ivory Coast. With photos by Aashish and Saharial.

Have you ever had a dream that was so perfect that the moment you wake up you try your very best to go back to sleep and experience it all over again? Well I had one of those experiences, except that when I woke up on Thursday morning, I realised that it wasn’t a dream at all but sweet sweet reality. The build up to this game had been a particularly difficult one for myself in terms of organisation. I don’t know what it is about football clubs, but they seem to be run by the most incompetent people in the wide world of sports. As an armchair Brentford supporter, I do not have the most positive view of our blue striped West London rivals Queens Park Rangers. This Tuesday did absolutely nothing to help that view, and after a long battle with security and stewards, getting to our seats was an almighty relief. Our seats were right in the nosebleeds but we were in some good company. Amongst us were like managerial elite, the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Dunga, Sven Goran Eriksson, Mick McCarthy, Roy Hodgon, Peter Reid and Ray Wilkins. No doubt some of the players on display were on their shopping lists for next year.

The attendance was similar to that of the Serbia friendly. Only one side of the ground was open and all of the spaces there were occupied, and this time it was 99.9% Korean. The noise was great throughout as expected and the free t-shirts that were being given away added an extra sweet taste to the start of the day! Getting back to the football, in all honestly, I am very happy to be proved wrong. A French journalist next to me said ‘score’ in a heavy French accent, and with the little French I learnt at GCSE I said back to him ‘Coree un, Cote d’Ivoire un’, being the diplomat I am and going for a 1-1 draw. I asked him the same question and he responded ‘Cote d’Ivoire trois, Coree zero!’ What a start to the day. The match then got underway and I was convinced that Korea’s white and blue strip was a bad omen, added to that the Ivory Coast’s home kit is in the colours of the Indian flag, and how can any patriotic Indian like myself wish defeat upon a team who wears the tricolours of the Motherland? It was then that I looked on in astonishment as Lee Dong-gook’s side footed volley smacked the roof of the net inside three minutes. I jumped out of seat and screamed, turned around to my French companion who simply had a look of Gallic confusion on his face.

The Korean team celebrate after the first goal

The second sweet moment of the day. But remembering the experience of the Serbia friendly I didn’t get too excited. But Ivory Coast were simply not up to the task, and amazingly, Korea completely outclassed them. Many of the players in the Ivory Coast team may have their minds on other competitions, i.e. Didier Drogba, but they did attack and they did have chances and Korea met them at every point. Cha Doo-ri had the right wing on lock down, and no one was able to get past him. Didier Drogba who is twice the size of most of the Korean defenders struggled as well. Every time he got the ball three or four Korean defenders would pounce on him like a group of little Jack Russells. But even then Ivory Coast did have some good chances. Abdul Keita had a great chance, but Lee Woon-jae, who had an outstanding game, made save after save and kept the Ivory Coast out. In fact it was Korea who went closest from there on with captain Park Ji-sung hitting wide from just inside the box.

The second half was even better for Korea. The midfield kept the ball moving and created numerous chances. All in all Korea were the better team. What was most pleasing was we were treated to a vintage FC Seoul exhibition show as the ‘Double Dragon’ twins Lee Chung-yong and Ki Sung-yong linked up and turned on the style. These two created to chances on their own, one ending in Ki Sung-yong hitting the ball into the side netting and the other with Lee’s cross just going a little too far for Ki to turn the ball in from point blank. Korea finally killed the game off in the dying moments when Kim Jae-sung crossed the free kick into Kwak Tae-hwi who headed in the second. What was most pleasing is that both of these two came on as substitutes, which could be a good sign as to Korea’s strength in depth.

Lee Jung-soo

The only dampener on the day was defender Lee Jung-soo being stretchered off, which was a bad sight as he was having a great game. Hopefully he will recover soon. All in all every player played their part but my man of the match would have to be Cha Doo-ri who performed so brilliantly down the right wing in closing the Ivory Coast down at every given opportunity. Lee Dong-gook also looked sharp, as did Lee Chung-yong. This is a fantastic result for Korea, but they still shouldn’t get carried away. Playing a friendly and playing in the World Cup are two completely different ball games, and no one should start thinking that this is any kind of indication of what will happen in South Africa. It is however a great confidence boost for now, and if Korea can perform like they did here, then they will be able to compete with the best in the world.

After the match, I attended the press mixed zone, which no QPR member of staff seemed to be aware of. After the interviews, I saw my teenage hero Ahn Jung-hwan, and I was just as giddy seeing him at that time as I was seeing him on television in 2002. I screamed out his name and showed him the replica 2002 World Cup shirt I was wearing with his name and number on it. He walked over to me, asked for a pen from one of the KFA officials, and signed his name on my shirt, just above his number 19.

Ahn Jung-hwan's autographed shirt

I thanked him in Korean for the kind gesture. He shook my hand and commended me on my pronunciation. He was then whisked away again. And in a heartbeat it was all over. In this day and age, football, money, scandal and celebrity all seem to go hand in hand. In the past week, the actions of Ki Sung-yong and of Ahn Jung-hwan have shown why I support this team despite not being Korean myself. The Korean players are by no means angels; Lee Woon-jae and Lee Dong-gook have proven that. Perhaps there is no real explanation for it, but there is something about this team and its supports, for what it represents and for what is evokes, that just makes you want to support them above anyone else. Even though I had an amazing day and got closer to my heroes than I have ever done before, I just wish that I could tell Ahn Jung-hwan, just for a moment, how much what he has done means to me.

Stay tuned for Aashish’s interviews with Lee Young-pyo and Park Ji-sung. More of Saharial’s photos of the match are here.

Saharial took some great action shots at the international friendly at Loftus Road yesterday. Shame there weren’t more spectators there to see the action:

Celebrations after the first goal

Earlier this week, Aashish Gadhvi joined the South Korean squad at their training day at the Bank of England Sports Club in Roehampton – the only non-Korean journalist present. Here’s his video of the proceedings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out his article, including an interview with Celtic’s Ki Sung-yong, here.

South Korea meet Ivory Coast at Loftus Road this afternoon, kick-off 2:30pm.

News of an unusual installation at the Jerwood Space:

Yeon Lee: Re-use me
(curated by Gyeyeon Park)
Project Space, Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London, SE1 0LN
Exhibition: 1 March – 6 April 2010
Open: Monday – Friday 9 – 5pm, Saturday 11 – 3pm
Admission: Free

‘Re-use me’ is an installation of new work by Yeon Lee. Made for the project space the work transforms the cafe into a banqueting hall of sorts. The installation consists of a magnificent chandelier of crocheted flowers made of more than two hundred plastic bags from supermarket chains. The inherent irony of a chandelier – signifying wealth, prestige and history – composed of discarded carrier bags – signifying waste and rubbish – is heightened by the neutral and somewhat prosaic context of the Café.

Each element of the three-stage production: plastic bags (material), flowers (intermediary) and a chandelier (artwork) is a huge labour intensive process which builds a work that will exist for a short period of time. This reinforces Lee’s interest in what she describes as ‘ephemeral value caused by temporal demand’ – the short term value of objects that will be discarded shortly after their use.

Yeon Lee (Born in 1976, South Korea) completed her MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2008 after finishing her MFA and BFA in Sculpture at Hong-Ik University, Seoul in 2002 and 1999 respectively. Solo exhibitions include: Cloth Drawing, KUNST FORM, Austria Tirol (2003) and DRAW, PICI Gallery, Seoul (2003). Selected group exhibitions include: Five Years, Sesame Gallery, London (2009), UK’s FUTURE GREATS 08, Salon Gallery, London (2008). Selected Awards include: Danfoss Art Competition – Silver Medal (2008), Jung-ang Art Competition (2000).

Further information: www.yeon-lee.com / www.gyeyeonpark.com

Aashish Gadhvi catches up with Team Korea in preparation for Wednesday’s friendly.

The South Korean national football team are back in town folks, and I caught up with our favourite red shirted devils to check out the team on their one day of training here in London. In a leafy and somewhat swanky end of South London the Korean team trained in the beautiful sunshine in a pretty quiet set up, with only the team, coach, some staff and a handful of journalists. All in all it was a pretty ideal situation for a team to train in. Although the holiday spirit never really left the camp, the Koreans got in an hour or two of training before heading back off and preparing for their friendly against the Ivory Coast on Wednesday at Loftus Road. As the only non-Korean there, many of the people seemed a little bit more interested in me than I was in them! Manager Huh Jung-moo really took to me and we shared a couple of jokes in the broken Korean that I knew. The players were in high spirits and many of them were joking around with some of the journalists they knew, but unfortunately the media vultures swooped in to break up any unnecessary chitchat.

Aashish Gadhvi with head coach Huh Jung-moo

I found the strangest part of the training session the fact that Koreans started off with a bleep test. The dreaded P.E lesson favourite! Strangely enough Park Ji-sung didn’t train with the rest of the team, but just did a couple of laps around the field with another trainer, most likely due to him playing in the Carling Cup final yesterday.

Park Ji-sung does some laps

Having seen the Korean team on numerous occasions I was worried about becoming numb to the fact that my heroes were right there in front of me, but that all changed the minute I spotted one of my all time heroes – Ahn Jung-hwan. The man who made history looks much older now compared to the night he headed in the golden goal against Italy, but it was still a real moment when I finally saw him for the first time. He was also one of the more sharper looking of the players in training. No doubt he will have some points to prove coming back into the team, and although I do feel his time may have gone, I do hope he does well. The likes of Ryan Giggs have shown that age cannot stop sheer application and desire; lets just hope that Ahn follows in that mould. Bolton’s Lee Chung-yong was in smiles for most of the session, as was his former FC Seoul team-mate and Celtic’s new signing Ki Sung-yong. All in all the sun was shining, there wasn’t much stress and everyone had fun kicking the ball around.

The team then departed back to the coach, but a few players stayed back for interviews. While all the Korean journalists huddled around Cha Doo-ri for an interview, I quietly (and somewhat mischievously!) slipped away to a near bench where I spotted Ki Sung-yong with some ice on his foot. Knowing that he spent a good part of his life in Australia I assumed he spoke some English, so I approached him with a smile, and a camera! Unfortunately another vulture buzzed around me before I went in for the kill, and I wasn’t allowed to interview him on camera (most likely due the media team being worried about something getting lost in translation), but I would just like to say a big thank you to Ki Sung-yong, who despite being told he wasn’t allowed to talk to me on camera, invited me to sit with him and have a lengthy chat.

Aashish Gadhvi with Celtic's Ki Sung-yong

I asked about moving to Celtic, and not surprisingly he wasn’t too happy about the bonnie Scottish weather. He strangely enough talked very enthusiastically about his football boots, which were the new Nike T90 Laser III (the same kind worn by Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres). He even asked me about the safety of Glasgow, to which I couldn’t really reply that it was the knife capital of Europe! I just told him to be careful. What really caught me off guard though was when I asked him about getting together with Lee Chung-yong again, and if their friendship had lasted since the FC Seoul days. He replied with somewhat painful honesty that the travel away from home had taken some toll on him, and that being away from his peers, friends and family was difficult for him, but that he wanted to try his best for Celtic. And truly I wish him well. I must say that his attitude was extremely pleasing to a cynic like myself who is all too familiar with the egotistical Premier League types. Ki Sung-yong is a thorough gentleman and it amazed me just how down to earth and normal he was. After nervously asking him if I could take a photo with him he simply replied ‘Of course’. He even apologised to me about the fact that he had to go, but before going I could not help but ask him the question that has been on my lips for the entire time I was with him. I asked him ‘Do you listen to Girls Generation?!’ He replied ‘A little bit!’ What a legend!

Stay tuned for Aashish’s fly on the wall video of the training session.

While Kim Yu-na’s victory – now celebrated across every media – still hung in the balance, an unusual article about Korea appeared in the Financial Times. It was distinguishable from most articles about Korea in that a) it did not primarily concern the situation in the North and b) it was pretty much unreservedly upbeat.

Its thrust was that South Korea’s status as an underdog is ‘wearing thin’, given that:

1) Its economy is practically as big as India’s
2) It exports more goods than the UK
3) This year it could make more money than the top 15 Japanese electronics firms combined.

A slew of further positive economic data followed this introduction, charting Korea’s path through the financial crisis (growth this year is expected to be 4.7%)

“Urbanised, sophisticated, wired-up and with a per capita income in purchasing-power terms of some $28,000 – only $5,000 behind arch-rival Japan – South Korea is on the verge of long-cherished rich-country status. It even makes Asia’s most popular soap operas.”

There was praise for Hyundai as the world’s fastest growing auto manufacturer, who, as a side note, were named Carmaker of the Year at the AM Magazine awards in Birmingham in the past week.

The article concluded with a list of the challenges that Korea faces, which it acknowledged to be ‘products of success’. Whatever you make of these problems, it was refreshing to see an article in which Korea’s problems took up a single paragraph.

As Seoul kicks off its Year of Design, Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s initiative to reshape the city and turn it into a ‘mecca for design talent’, one can only hope that this represents a turning point in the world’s perception of Korea.

Featured events

• South Korea play the Ivory Coast at QPR football club, 3 March
• A one-day seminar at SOAS and the British Museum on Korean Court Painting, 29 March
• Nah Youn Sun, responsible for LKL’s Live Performance of the Year 2009, performs at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 15 March

Exhibitions

• Kim Yeon’s work will be on show at the Albemarle Gallery until 13 March
• There’s something on at the Jerwood Project Space from 3 March, but I haven’t had details yet.

Classical music

• Younee returns to the UK. Her big gig is in April, but she is doing a classical recital at the Stables in Milton Keynes at lunchtime on 28 March.
• Pianist Grace Yeo plays Barber, Ravel and Schumann at St Martin in the Fields on Friday lunchtime, 19 March
• Soprano Seo Sung-eun sings Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate at St Johns Smith Square on 3 March
• Jung Ha-young (double-bass) performs at the Wigmore on 4 March with members of the Razumovsky Academy

Social

• Anglo-Korean Society members are reminded of their AGM at the KCC on 9 March, and of their trip to Standard Chartered on 25 March
• The Korean Language Meetup will have a couple of get-togethers during March – check their site for details.
• Kiejo Sarsfield will be giving weekly cookery classes on Saturdays, 11 – 2pm. Contact kiejosarsfield at hotmail dot co dot uk for details

Film

• The first KCC screening this month is Daytime Drinking on 11 March at 7pm. No news yet of the screening on 25 March

Talks / Conferences

• The SOAS evening seminars this month look good: Korean food culture on 12 March and Adoptee Artists on 19 March.
• The CBI and UKTI host a conference “Korea – Open For Business” on 15 March at the BIS conference centre in Westminster
• The KCC has announced its first Global Korea lecture of the year: Dr Kirsteen Kim on Korean protestant missionaries. 6:30 on 31 March.

South Korea will take on Ivory Coast in a friendly International football fixture at Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers, on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 – kick-off 2.30pm.

Both nations are keen to bring their football to London to entertain the estimated 20,000 Koreans and 10,000 Ivoriens that live in and around the city.

The game will take place in the early afternoon as it is being broadcast live to Korea by KBS Television.

Both nations are preparing for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. With the match in London, all the European players are expected to play including Manchester United’s Park Ji Sung and Chelsea’s Didier Drogba.

LKL’s Aashish Gadhvi will be there to report on the match from the QPR Press Box, though Ash hears from his contacts at the Korean Football League that access to the players might be limited – so maybe no interviews this time. The Korean team arrives in London this evening and leaving straight after the match.

대한 민국 !

Tickets / Seating arrangements:

Ivory Coast Supporters:
South Africa Road
Block A – £15.00
Block B – £20.00
No concessions

Korean Supporters:
South Africa Road
Block F – £20.00
Block G – £15.00
East Paddock – £15.00
No concessions

Tickets can be booked in the following ways:

Online at https://www.eticketing.co.uk/qpr/default.aspx

Over the telephone on 08444 777 007

Or in person at QPR FC, Loftus Road Stadium, South Africa Road, London, W12 7PJ

Links:

• Aashish meets Team Korea on their training day in Roehampton, 1 March 2010.

“Right now the biggest thing in Korea is the Olympic skater Kim Yu-na. It’s a mania for us Koreans,” was a message left via the LKL contact form by a UK-based correspondent, shortly before the free skating element of the women’s figure skating event in the wee small hours this morning.

I think I knew that. The blogs and the newspapers are full of it. You can’t go anywhere without seeing coverage of her.

“So where’s your coverage?” she demanded.

Interesting question.

In general, I try not to cover topics where I have nothing special to add, though that hasn’t stopped me in the past from doing a celebrity news roundup which is nothing more than a summary of what everyone else is saying.

With Kim Yu-na it’s something different.

Being a Brit, I’m used to our national teams and national sporting heroes failing at international level. I watch as the written and broadcast media feed off each other in building up expectations, speculating about victory until everyone believes that the medal is already in the bag. And then of course we are all disappointed. The gallant second place won by Andy Murray in the Kia-sponsored Australian tennis tournament recently is a good example of this. It’s as if the media hype contributes to the ultimate failure of the sportsperson in question. So the contrarian view is that the best way to ensure victory is not to hope for it too much. Admittedly, Kim Yu-na is more of a world-beater than any British sportsperson that I can currently think of, but the expectation of disappointment is deep-rooted for some of us Brits.

So I dared not watch the figure skating, in case my enthusiasm for victory led to a bone-crunching fall or twisted ankle. (That, together with the fact that it was at an anti-social hour of the morning). I watched the men’s short-track speed skating cheering for the Koreans (the Brits had done reasonably well but were never going to make it to the finals). And what happened? The Korean silver and bronze almost-medal-winners skidded off the track just before the finishing line.

The only evidence of my interest in the women’s figure skating was the uneasy tweet which read as follows:

“I hope KimYu-na continues to excel. It just makes me nervous when expectations are so sky-high.”

So, congratulations to Kim on her stunning gold. I claim that by not getting worked up about it in advance, LKL contributed to that victory.

Pacific Plaza is a new Asian mall by Wembley Stadium, including a supermarket and a Korean food outlet. They’re having a belated celebration of the New Year this Saturday, with all sorts of fun events. The festivities start at 12:30pm and continue till around 6:30. Korean cultural interest is scheduled for 2:15pm, 4pm and 5pm, when some familiar faces from the Korean Artists Association will perform – a folk singer and dancer accompanied by daegeum (flute) and kayageum (zither). Pop along for the fun and buy some kimchi. And to be truly multi-cultural, you can also

• Be dazzled by Chinese Elvis.
• Experience the hypnotic beats of Japanese Taiko drums.
• Be blown away by beautiful Thai dancers.
• Marvel at martial arts from the Philippines.

Here’s the details, lifted from Pacific Plaza’s Facebook Page

Chinese New Year Celebrations
We’re thrilled to announce our line-up for our Chinese New Year event on Saturday 27th February.

Celebrations open with a Chinese Lion dance from the car park at 12:30 leading into the centre. The rest of the day will be as follows:

13:00 ICA Singing Group
13:15 Chinese Elvis singing
13:30 Japanese Taiko Drummer
13:45 Ballroom Dance
14:00 Traditional Thai Dance Group
14:15 Korean instrument & music
14:30 Yi Dao lion Dance in food court
15:00 Elvis and other singers from Philippines
15:30 Japanese Taiko Drummer
15:45 Traditional Thai Dance Group
16:00 Korean instrument & music
16:45 Elvis and other singers from Philippines
17:00 Korean instrument & music
17:15 Traditional Thai Dance Group
17:30 Japanese Taiko Drummer
18:00 YiDao Kung Fu

Pacific Plaza is at Engineers Way, Middlesex, HA9 0EG [Map]
The nearest tube is Wembley Park (Jubilee & Metropolitan lines)
Free parking at Wembley Park Retail Park
Pacific Plaza is open every day, 10:00am – 22:00pm (last orders 21:00)

Links

• Pacific Plaza website
• Pacific Plaza on Facebook

LKL reports from last Saturday’s half-day conference at Cambridge: “60 years of overseas Korean adoption and the Korean adoption issue”.

What is it like to be yellow on the outside but white on the inside? Adoptees freely joke about the banana analogy. But simply being a white person in a yellow skin is only part of the complex web of issues which can face adoptees. The conference at Cambridge was a fascinating introduction to some of the issues, which South Korea as a nation has the unenviable privilege of being a pioneer.

Tobias Hübinette gave us a potted history of Korean transnational adoption, also pointing out that domestic adoption was not unknown throughout Korean history – for example the famous Admiral Yi Sun-sin adopted a son, while Queen Min and her husband were both adopted. More recently the Yi royal line has been “preserved” by the posthumous adoption of the latest crown prince.

It was the Korean War which first gave rise to the need and the opportunity for transnational adoption. While there were around 5,000 “institutionalised” children at the end of the Pacific War in 1945, the number after the Korean War was closer to 50,000. Not only were there many orphans, but also mixed race offspring of US GIs and local women. Children were adopted and taken home “like mascots”.

Things started getting organised in the US when Harry and Bertha Holt saw a documentary about Korean orphans – that was in December 1954 and since then the Holt organisation has become synonymous with Korean transnational adoption to the States.

During the 50s and 60s, transnational adoptions ran at around 1,000 per year, but it was the 70s and 80s which saw the peak of up to 9,000 per year. All-told, it is thought that up to 200,000 Koreans have been adopted overseas over the past 60 years – which represents 20% – 25% of all transnational adoptions globally. Over half of the adoptions have been to the US, with the remainder being to Europe, particularly the Scandinavian countries. Adoptees in the UK number fewer than 100, mainly because of policies against transnational adoption in many authorities.

Kimberly McKee later told us that around 80% of Korean adoptees in the US are female: whether the mix was driven by supply or demand was not addressed, though this would make for a seriously interesting discussion.

Madonna is not the first celebrity to have adopted a child from overseas: Andre Previn and Mia Farrow adopted eight-year-old Soon-yi in 1978, having already adopted two Vietnamese children a few years earlier.

With the adoption process becoming something of an industry, other countries started to notice. Needless to say, propaganda from north of the border portrayed the South as selling Korean children into slavery, while at the time of the Seoul Olympics the one thing that many foreign journalists knew about South Korea was that babies came from there. The cover of one US magazine covering the issue had a picture of a Korean baby with the caption “Made in Korea, sold in America”.

Kim Dae-jung, on meeting adoptees overseas after the beginning of the post-Olympics democratisation process felt shame at the situation and when President apologised to the adoptees for their treatment. Successive governments have pledged to end the practice of transnational adoption. But throughout the last decade such adoptions have been running at around 1,000 per year. For the first time in 2008 the number of domestic adoptions exceeded the number of overseas ones – though a member of the audience pointed out that it was not uncommon for domestic adoptees to be later handed back to the adoption agency.

It was a shame that Tobias Hübinette didn’t have more time, because he had another half hour’s worth in which he could have analysed the portrayal of adoptees in popular culture such as film and TV drama. A treat for another time.

Time is always at a premium in these events, and presenters inevitably have to rush through their material. I always think that those who speak from slides and bullet points should be given more time, at the expense of those who read verbatim from their (no doubt ready-for-publication) paper. When a lecturer is simply reading the text, the words go in one ear and out the other. While there was much food for thought in Kimberly McKee’s and Eli Park Sorensen’s talks, its richness and density did not make for easy digestion.

Daniel Schwekendiek also had a lot to get through in a short time. His project was studying heights and weights of adopted Koreans to try to draw conclusions about their biosocial welfare. With a wealth of statistics, he explained how adoptees are 2-3cms shorter than non-adoptees. Unfortunately because we were pressed for time it was not clear whether the benchmark population was native Koreans back in Korea (South Korea, of course, because North Koreans are significantly shorter than Southerners) or Korean Americans brought up with one or both natural parents. But moving on from the statistics he moved on to something which everyone could relate to: getting laid. Research showed that some adoptee males found it difficult to get a date because of their (lack of) height, while the dating success of female adoptees seemed to be marginally impacted by a higher body mass index.

We moved on to more complex issues relating to identity and emotion. Linnaea Manberger gave a very personal view of her own experience growing up in Sweden, remote from anything to do with Korea. Inevitably referred to by her classmates as a “damn Chinese”, she initially felt resentful of Korea. More personal stories came out of the discussion afterwards of which here are a few samples

• Adoptive parents are usually told that their adopted children are orphans. This is often not true. Children may be given up for adoption because they are disabled, or because their parents have split up, or because the mother is single. Adoptive parents prefer orphans – it’s cleaner.
• When trying to trace their birth parents, adoptees often find that their real family name is not what is on their adoption papers.
• “You must be really grateful to your adoptive parents” adoptees are told, until they come to believe it. The assumption is that the child has been rescued from a life of starvation, destitution or prostitution. Meanwhile, often they have been adopted because their adoptive parents are infertile, and they have to compete with the ideal child that the adoptive parents never had.
• When they grow older in a white community, people who do not know them assume that they are their adoptive family’s nanny, or if the adoptive mother is no longer present, a mail order bride.
• On returning to Korea there is another sort of discrimination: they look Korean but they can’t talk Korean. Often the only asset they have to sell is their English language skills, but often the private tutorial market prefers white teachers. ^[1]

Having been the first country to support transnational adoption, Korea is now leading the way in studying and supporting the adoptees. A Journal of Korean Adoptee Studies has launched – they are calling for papers for their third issue – under the umbrella of G.O.A.’L. (the Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link). The British Association of Adoption and Fostering is working on a collection of writings by transnational adoptees, so it seems there is a reasonable amount of interest in the adoptee issue in the UK. Maybe Linnaea Manberger can be persuaded to come down to London to talk at the KCC.

1. In addition, while researching and fact-checking this write-up I came across this adoptee’s blog, which makes for unsettling reading.

LKL reports from the most recent Friday evening seminar at SOAS, in which Isabelle Sancho examined the letters of Confucian Scholar Yulgok Yi I

Yulgok Yi I

But when you consider that these are the letters that survived, the letters to other noted Confucian scholars, letters that perhaps were written with the thought that they might be retained, collected or published, you revise your expectations about whether you will encounter anything risqué.

As part of her research, Isabelle Sancho is reviewing the correspondence of Confucian scholars to give an alternative to the more familiar views of the Confucian Scholar, the first, which Sancho called the “angelic” view – of the scholar as great philosopher – while the second view of the Confucian system presents it as simply a tool for social control. Sancho has the ambitious aim of exploring what it was like to live as a Confucian official. In selecting Yulgok Yi I (1536-1584) as her subject, Sancho was influenced in part by his prominence, by the availability of his letters, and by the fact that he is the son of the almost sainted ideal Confucian mother, Shin Saimdang, artist, calligrapher, poet, whose portrait graces the KRW50,000 banknote. A little bit of celebrity makes the research a bit more entertaining.

Shin Saimdang

In terms of intimate content, this is somewhat limited. If Yulgok’s letters to his wife or his concubine had survived ^[1] maybe we would know more about his family life. What we do know is that he had two sons and two daughters, both by his concubine.

We learn from his letters that he was a modest, maybe an over-modest person, castigating himself for being lazy, saying frequently that he was not up to the task, that he was like a “mosquito” trying to bear his burdens which threatened to crush him under their weight. He also claims that he didn’t really start reading until he was 17 years old. What was his sainted mother doing – that paragon of Confucian motherhood – letting her son lounge about doing no work for so long? But how did he pass the civil service exams at the precocious age of 13 without opening a book?

Another surprising element of the letters is his readiness to talk about his physical ailments – he confessed to having a bowel disease at the age of 18, and later in life wrote to his peers about his constant puking. ^[2] Yulgok often talked about the question of whether he should retire or continue in public service; about the poor state of his health; about his failure as a Confucian official. What comes across more than anything else is a sense of melancholy. Whether the letters were designed for publication or not, they bring a dusty old historical figure to life.

Yulgok Yi I on the 5,000 Won note

1. Letters to his wife or concubine would have been written in Hangeul, whereas the letters which have survived to fellow scholars are in classical Chinese.
2. The easy way of the Choson dynasty Korean with bodily functions is something which merits further attention. For example, Michael Pettid in his fun book on Korean food culture quotes some advice to scholar families about table manners: “When you are having a meal with others, do not speak of smelly or dirty things, such as boils or diarrhea … Even when the food is bad, do not compare it to urine, pus or body dirt.”