Korea Day is a cultural event organised to introduce and celebrate Korean culture within the University of Sheffield community. The event offers participants a unique opportunity to experience various aspects of Korea, including traditional food, games, music, and modern pop culture.

Through interactive booths and engaging activities, attendees can explore Korean traditions while also enjoying contemporary elements such as K-pop and Korean trends. The event aims to promote cultural exchange, enhance diversity on campus, and create a welcoming environment where students from different backgrounds can connect and learn from one another.

Korea Day is not only a celebration of Korean identity but also a platform that fosters global understanding and meaningful social interaction.

The Shilla Ensemble will be performing at 2:30pm

The early modern history of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) in East Asia is often depicted as an era of political conflict between the king, the Hun’gu faction, and the Sarim faction.

The four major Sahwa (literati purges) reflect its seriousness through which Neo-Confucian scholars were sacrificed by the punishments of execution, exile, or dismissal. The Kimyo Sahwa was the most notorious incident for the Chinese ideology of the Sarim political party. What, then, happened in 1519? What kind of social transformation occurred in relation to the Sungkyunkwan scholars (the national university of the era)? Why did the public office of Daoist Sogyŏksŏ become one of the most controversial issues at the Joseon court? How was the royal shrine of Samch’ŏngjŏn criticised by the leaders of the Sarim faction? This paper explores the politico-religious landscape of early modern Korea through the key features of Jungjong coup (Royal Coup of 1506), Jo Gwangjo (1482–1520) and ‘the Literati Purge of 1519’, and argues the critical insight that the Daoist rituals and sacred sites (altars for the sky, stars, and gods) were traditionally maintained in the Pŏpcho philosophy of the Royal sovereignty even if the culture of Jongmyo (ancestral altars) and Sajik (altars of soil and grain) were legally implemented at the beginning of the Confucian Joseon.

About the speaker

David W. Kim (PhD: Syd) is a Visiting Scholar, Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University, an Associate Professor of Modern History at Kookmin University, Seoul, a Mission Specialist of ANU Institute for Space and an Honorary Lecturer at the School of History, Australian National University, Canberra.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, UK, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, UK, the Editor for the Book Series in East Asian Religion and Culture (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK), and a Member for UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Korea Government, and Chair of the National Association of Foreign Scholars in Korea (NAFSIK).

Kim’s publications (twelve books and 92 peer-reviewed articles) include Religion in Modern Education: Conflict, Economics, and Politics (2026), Silk Road Footprints: Transnational Transmission of Sacred Thoughts and Historical Legacy (2025), Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope (2024), Sacred Sites and Sacred Stories Across Cultures (2021), The Words of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas: The Genesis of a Wisdom Tradition (2021), New Religious Movements in Modern Asian History (2020), Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion (2020), Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History (2018), Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society (2017), Religious Transformation in Modern Asia (2015) and Intercultural Transmission in the Medieval Mediterranean (2012).

In Korean, the words for “Value” (가치) and “Together” (같이) are written differently but share the same pronunciation: Gachi. Rooted in this resonance, the exhibition takes place in the heart of a local café — a space where we pause, gather our thoughts, meet others, and form everyday memories. Here, we invite you to experience the Gachi of art: the creation of shared value through the act of being together.

In today’s hyper-mobile world, our surroundings often pass by as fleeting impressions — blurred into fragments of data and movement. This exhibition offers a quiet invitation to slow down and attend to the spaces we inhabit. As we move between places, we continually reshape our sense of self, carrying with us traces of past environments while forming new connections.

The works presented here reflect this fluid process. Through them, artists explore how personal histories are translated into new visual languages, and how a sense of grounding can be found in the companions — human, natural, and emotional — that accompany us.

This is the first of three exhibitions in the series, featuring works by Amber Jeong @happydust_illustration, Chaeeun Kim @everum_chaeeun, and Soon Yul Kang @soonyulkang

Lead Curator: GeeSun Hahn
Curator: Hyeryoung Jun

Dana Choi, head chef at my favourite upscale Korean restaurant in the City, is competing in one of my favourite TV cookery shows. This morning I received the following mailshot from Jang Restaurant – based in the Royal Exchange opposite the Bank of England:

We are proud as punch to announce that our very own Chef Dana Choi will be appearing in this year’s series of Great British Menu! Competing in the London heat airing this evening on BBC2 and BBC iPlayer.

Dana will be the first Korean chef to ever take part, so it’s an incredibly proud moment for her to shine a light on her home country’s cuisine and culture alongside three other very talented UK chefs.

This year’s competition is all about British movies and filmmakers, from which Dana took inspiration for six beautiful dishes.

Tune in tonight, Tuesday 7th April, on BBC2 and iPlayer at 7:00pm to see her in action.

She is in episode 19 of series 21.

Last year’s Queer East festival closed with one of my favourite films of the year – Edhi Alice. This year it offers the opportunity to see two Korea-related documentaries and another of my favourite features from last year, 3670. There are also three Korean shorts screening. Altogether a tempting line-up, and that’s before you consider the wealth of films from other Asian countries.

3670

Dir Park Joonho (2025, 124mins)
Thursday 7 May, 8:25pm @Barbican Cinema | Ticket link

Cheol-jun is a young North Korean defector who has recently arrived in Seoul. Despite having two close friends among his fellow defectors, he has always felt isolated, forced to hide his gay identity. But after summoning up the courage to attend a drinks gathering, he meets Yeong-jun, who introduces him to a group of gay friends who meet up regularly in the city’s vibrant clubs and bars. Powered by an outstanding performance from Cho Yoo-hyun, 3670 is a milestone in South Korean queer cinema, casting aside stereotypes to authentically examine the conflicts, complexities, and behavioural codes of Seoul’s gay scene. The film’s title, 3670, is queer messaging code for a meetup: Jongno-3-ga metro station, Exit 6, 7pm – those invited then amend the 0 to indicate the number of people who will attend.

The Girl Princes (왕자가 된 소녀들)

Dir Kim Hye-jung (2011, 79mins)
Friday 8 May, 7pm @Centre 151| Ticket link

Female Gukgeuk, a form of musical theatre in which women played male roles, enjoyed a golden age in 1950s South Korea. Travelling around the country, these performers were intensely popular, representing a liberated feminine energy that was otherwise suppressed in a male-dominated society. This 2011 documentary traces the history of this phenomenon and follows some of these legendary actors – by then in their seventies and eighties, and still acting – as they reminisce about their shared experiences, performances, and camaraderie. While the heyday of Female Gukgeuk has long passed, director Kim Hye-jung looks at the legacy of these ‘girl princes’, astutely scrutinizing cultural tensions relating to gender performance, manliness, and disguise.

Between Goodbyes (UK premiere)

Dir: Jota Mun (2024, 96mins)
28 May, 6:10pm @BFI Southbank | Ticket link

This poignant documentary follows Mieke, a queer Korean adoptee who was raised in the Netherlands; and her birth mother, Okgyun, who lives in South Korea. Okgyun was forced to give up her daughter in 1982, in a context of concerns around overpopulation, economic hardship, and social pressure on women to have sons. Entering their lives six years after mother and daughter were reunited, the film addresses the historical legacy of mass overseas adoption. The documentary follows Mieke as she returns to Seoul with her wife, to celebrate their marriage with Okgyun and her family; there, the two women seek to reconcile with their painful pasts. Tenderly directed by Jota Mun – a Korean adoptee themself – this emotionally authentic film questions our understanding of what a family is.

Jota Mun (they/them) is the director and producer of Between Goodbyes, which had its world premiere at the DMZ International Film Festival, where they won the Emerging Filmmaker Award. The film was selected to screen at DOC NYC, Chicago International Film Festival, Santa Fe International Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Award for Feature Documentary, and CinemAsia Film Festival where it won the audience award. As an editor, Jota’s credits include the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Who Killed Malcolm X?.

BodyHacking (shorts programme)

Total running time: 85 mins.
Thursday 28 May, 8pm @Rich Mix | Ticket link
Programme includes:

How to get your man pregnant (안 할 이유 없는 임신)

Dir Noh Gyeong-mu (2023, 30 mins)

South Korea, 2030. After ten unsuccessful IVF attempts, a couple decide to try the latest medical breakthrough: male pregnancy.

Part 1. Camera and Toe (1부. 카메라와 발가락)

Dir Jeon Suhyun (2024, 4 mins)

A camera and a toe stick their heads into each other’s holes in this moody stop-motion animation.

Womb Mates (자궁메이트)

Dir Noh Hee-jeong (2025, 16 mins)

Min-hee is frustrated that her irregular menstrual cycle prevents her from being intimate with her girlfriend. One day, she comes across an app called Womb Mates where users can exchange uteruses.

The Coronet Theatre is proud to present a major exhibition by Byoung Soo Cho, one of Korea’s most influential architects and a quietly radical figure in contemporary art and design.

For three decades, Cho has cultivated an international reputation through his practice BCHO Partners, creating buildings that appear at once elemental and deeply human. His collaborations with stonemasons, woodworkers, ceramicists, and engineers reflect a belief that architecture is not merely designed, it is crafted. His projects, from the Namhae Southcape to the Earth House, are marked by a disarming clarity: light, structure, material and landscape brought together with both sophistication and what he calls a “rough touch.”

Inspired by the humble maksabal (막사발) bowl, valued for its irregular, unfinished beauty, Cho developed the concept of mahk, a practice of creating with humility and spontaneity rather than rigid intention. His ink works on rice paper preserve the immediacy of movement; they are, in his words, “moments of experience”.

This new exhibition unfolds across multiple spaces of our building, offering audiences a unique encounter with one of Korea’s most influential creative voices.

Reflecting the broadening appeal of all aspects of K-pop, not least the appeal of Golden and other hits from K-pop Demon Hunters, there’s a proliferation of K-pop tribute act stage shows touring the country, bringing the K-pop’s energy in family-friendly packages to a provincial theatre near you. From Grimsby to Torquay, from Aylesbury to Aberystwyth, you should find an act coming to your part of the country while the craze lasts.

The acts, dates and venues are too numerous to list individually. I find that the best source of listings is www.ents24.com and the biggest touring shows at the moment seem to be

• K-pop Live
• K-pop All-stars
• K-pop superstars

… but there’s another show that has been auditioning recently that will be launching in the late summer, K-pop Dance Heroes

And the shows are a lot more affordable than going to see your favourite idol band live in a London arena show.

To coincide with London Craft Week and East Asian cherry blossom festivals celebrating the arrival of spring, an installation of 4,800 hand stitched mandus (Korean dumplings) created from hand-dyed organza silk will fill the Garden Museum’s baptistery.

Cherry blossom festivals in East Asian countries bring people together to celebrate the arrival of spring, gathering beneath the trees to share food and experience the fleeting beauty of blossom. Korean mandu (strings of dumplings) are often made to give to friends with a written message of good wishes wrapped inside.

In this project organised by textile artist Sara Cook and supported by the British Korean Society, an immersive display of blossom will be created with strings of handmade organza silk mandu dumplings, welcoming spring and connecting to a wider cultural tradition.

The exhibition is part of London Craft Week (11-17 May 2026) and will be accompanied by a programme of complimentary events and workshops.

It’s time for the usual spring cookery classes at Capital City College (formerly Westminster Kingsway).

The hands-on half-day workshops will be hosted in CCC’s world-renowned training kitchens in Victoria – the same kitchens where former students TV chefs Jamie Oliver and Ainsley Harriott learned their trade.

The workshops are a great opportunity for novice or more experienced chefs to try their hand at something new and to taste the fruits of their labour afterwards against their fellow chefs!

Each workshop will focus on different Korean Foods:

K-Street Food Workshop – 25 April

A hands-on cooking session inspired by the most iconic “foodie” moments in K-drama and film. We’re recreating the snacks that are currently taking over our screens

• Korean Corn Dogs – Master the crunchy, cheese-filled snack seen in the massive superhero hit Moving and the charming Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.
• Tteokbokki – Cook up the spicy, comforting rice cakes enjoyed by the leads in the global record-breaker Queen of Tears.
• Korean Fried Chicken – Perfect the “double-fry” technique for the ultimate crunch, a staple in every “Chimaek” scene from Business Proposal to the latest K-cinema hits.

Fermentation – Kimchi Workshop – 23 May

Try your hand at making this traditional Korean dish, abundant in flavour and health benefits. We’ll also incorporate the use of kimchi in a Korean favourite, Dubu Kimchi (Tofu with Kimchi).

Fermentation – Jang Workshop – 13 June

In Korean cuisine, jang (장) refers to a family of fermented seasonings. This workshop explores the three key jangs every chef should understand:

• Gochujang (고추장) – Korean red chilli paste
• Doenjang (된장) – Fermented soybean paste
• Ganjang (간장) – Soy sauce

Vegan Workshop – 20 June

This session will focus on food sustainability, so If you are interested in how a healthy plate can equal a healthy planet then this is the workshop for you. Dishes of the day will include Japchae, Bibimbap, and Yachae Bibim Mandu (vegetable mixed Dumplings)

Join the team at Waterstones Islington with Ela Lee, in conversation with Nicola Dinan, to discuss Minbak, a sweeping story of three generations of women who cross continents and decades to find truth, forgiveness and compassion, and an engrossing, heartfelt story of love, loss and the challenges of being true to yourself.

Incheon, 1985. A nameless baby is born in a minbak in South Korea and vanishes nine days later. London, 2008. When tragedy strikes, Hana faces ruin. She is forced to move her family – her teenage daughter Ada and ailing mother Youngja – into a single room with her, converting the rest of their home into a minbak, in a painful echo of her past life. In the confined space of their shared room, there is nowhere to hide. As the past collides with the present, all three women are forced to face not only their family’s dark history, but that of an entire country.

Ela Lee is a London-based author. Her debut Jaded was published as a lead title by Vintage in the UK, and Simon & Schuster in the US. In 2024, Jaded was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year and Lee was named a Spotify Breakout Author. She has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Class of 2025. Minbak is her second novel.

Nicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and now lives in London. Bellies, her debut, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize, Diverse Book Awards and Mo Siewcharran Prize, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. Disappoint Me, her second novel, won the New Adult Book Prize.

A band of ‘red’ partisans run up a mountain gorge under fire. We the spectators enter with them into Piagol – Pia Valley – at full speed, deep into the Jiri mountains. Their numbers will soon be reduced to a handful: captain Agari (‘big mouth’), his second-in-command Cheol-su, a few male adults, two women and a boy. This micro-society of revolution will gradually consume itself.

Piagol was one of only 15 films released in 1955. Hindsight suggests this year as the beginning of a Golden Age, at least a remarkable decade and a half, for film in Korea. While the best-known products of the post-Korean War cinema would be predominantly melodramas and/or period films, Piagol attempted something more challenging: a historically informed, though still anti-communist, representation of leftist partisan fighters left stranded in the South after the main phase of the war ended in stalemate and the Armistice of July 1953 confirmed the bloody status quo.

The introduction will be delivered by Júlia Pujals Antolin, a Film Programming and Curating MA student at Birkbeck, University of London.

Get Ready for Korea Day in Glasgow!

Experience the elegance and energy of Korea right here in Glasgow! We’ve curated a unique lineup that blends centuries of tradition with modern global trends.

Whether you’re a lover of classical music and fine arts or a K-pop fan, come join us for an afternoon of “cool cultural moments” and great company. Here is what we have in store:

The Programme Highlights

• A Fusion of Sight & Sound: Immerse yourself in a stunning trio performance (piano, cello, and violin) synchronised with a backdrop of the visual works by Korean artist Soonshil Baik.
• K-Pop Dance Floor: Feel the energy as we bring iconic choreography to life with a high-octane K-pop dance showcase.
• The Art of the Pen: Discover the beauty of the Korean alphabet through a live Korean writing (Hangeul) workshop.

Donation

We’re so excited to celebrate Korean culture in Glasgow! You can support our event by contributing directly through our Crowdfunder, where a £10 donation rewards you with a bundle of three vouchers to use on the day for traditional fans, drinks & snacks, and photo memories.

The Link: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/korea-day-in-glasgow

Why You Should Be There

This isn’t just a performance; it’s a lively, friendly gathering for anyone curious about Korean culture. Expect fun vibes, a welcoming atmosphere, and a chance to meet fellow enthusiasts in the heart of the city.