BAKS Newsletter Spring 2004

 

STOP PRESS!!!

URGENT NOTICE JUST RECEIVED FROM THE PRESIDENT, DR HOARE::

I received a fax, unfortunately not good enough to reproduce, from the Korea Development Institute, about their on-line, free course on "Korea's Economic Development and Economic Crisis Management".

Details and registration can be found via their homepage at

http://www.kdischool.ac.kr or from Ms Beodeul Kang, programme officer,

tel.82-2-3299-1104, or doors@kdischool.ac.kr

Registration for the first period is up to 14 May.

 

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Also for the sake of urgency, this season's Newsletter kicks off with programmes of two Korean festivals for your attention and possible delight: 

 

Asia House presents Korea Contemporary

a mini-festival of events in London celebrating contemporary Korean culture.

 

Korean Buddhism

Talk by The Venerable Hyon Gak Sumin

Thursday 29 April 2004, 6.30pm

The Great Britain China Centre, 15 Belgrave Square, London SW1X

 

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ??and Spring

Preview of the latest film by director Kim Ki Duk

Wednesday 5 May 2004, 6.30pm,

Curzon Mayfair, 38 Curzon Street, London W1J

 

Imagining Hangul

Talk on Korean contemporary design by Ahn Sang Soo

Thursday 6 May 2004, 6.30pm.

Stevenson Lecture Room, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1H

 

Contemporary Art in North and South Korea

Talk by Jane Portal

Tuesday 11 May 2004, 6.30pm

Stevenson Lecture Room, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1H

 

Contemporary Korean Theatre: Tradition and Western Influence

Talk by Dr Kim Ah Jeong

Thursday 13 May 2004, 6.30pm

Stevenson Lecture Room, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1H

 

Seoul Stirring

Talk on contemporary Korean cinema by Tony Rayns

Thursday 20 May 2004, 6.30pm

Stevenson Lecture Room, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1H

 

Booking information

Tickets from Asia House 020 7499 1287

_7 / _4 Asia House Members, British Museum Friends, Anglo-Korean Society Members

_2 Full-time students with ID

 

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The 2nd London Korean Festival

An opportunity to experience the heart and soul of Korean contemporary culture

The 2nd London Korean Festival hosted by the Korean Anglican Centre (KACC) kicks off with a classical concert on Saturday, 15th May in the Regent Hall, at 7.30 pm. World class Korean tenor PARK In-Soo will appear with six of his best understudies to sing a variety of pieces including opera arias and Korean folk songs known as "Minyo". On the 17th and 19th of May a Korean film festival will take place at the New Theatre of the London School of Economics (4 - 6pm, 6.30 - 8.30pm). It will feature four of last year?™s Korean box office hits, such as??i>Memories of Murder??/i> by BONG Jun-Ho, Untold Scandal by LEE Jae Yong, Baramnan Gajok??/i> by IM Sang-Soo and Please Teach Me English by KIM Sung Su, Old Boy by PARK Chan-Wook; all films will be subtitled. On Saturday, 22nd May at 7.30 pm, KACC will present a rock concert by KIM Jong-Seo, one of the most famous rock singers in Korea. He will join forces with Love and Peace, another popular Korean rock band, for a special London performance. As contemporary Korean art is rarely on view in the UK, the 3rd London Korean Festival offers a unique opportunity to see an exhibition of Korean culture and its vibrant creative spirit.

 

Classical Concert

Since graduating from the Julliard School of Music in New York as a prestigious Maria Callas Scholarship student, PARK In-Soo has received worldwide recognition. Respected American music critic Peter Block has praised him as ?˜the world?™s greatest tenor of our time?? After returning to Korea as a successful opera singer, he started to teach at the Seoul National University. He has instructed a large number of great vocalists, and many of them have already distinguished themselves on the world stage.

 

Korean Film Festival

The Korean film industry has emerged as a leading influence in Asian film, attracting more international interest than ever before. Korean films have captivated their audiences with a high level of individuality and creativity, winning over fans of Hollywood films. International reviewers have also focused much attention on several celebrated titles. While BONG Jun-Ho's groundbreaking film Memories of Murder grossed $26 million with five million admissions, IM Sang-Soo?™s A Good Lawyer's Wife (Baramnan Gajok) also enjoyed success at the box office in 2003. PARK Chan-Wook?™s Old Boy shows a troubled man seeking for the reason of his imprisonment that has kept him in the private prison for 15 years. These films have attracted mature Korean audiences by raising a series of questions on contemporary Korean values. KIM Sung Su?™s acclaimed comedy ?˜Please Teach me English??targets a younger generation, empathising with the trials and tribulations of Korean students learning English.

 

Rock Concert

Since he burst onto the stage in the 1980s, KIM Jong-Seo has been proclaimed as the King of Korean rock music. His style ranges from rock ballad to punk rock, and he has overwhelmed his audiences with his awesome stage presence, powerful voice and evocative lyrics. As a fan of British rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and Queen, he has said that their music has inspired him throughout his career. As such, we expect KIM Jong-Seo?™s performance in the UK to be electrifying, and we are looking forward to this event. If KIM has popularised and pushed back the boundaries of Korean rock music, ?˜Love and Peace??has its roots at the foundation of Korean rock history, with a successful career spanning back to 1976. As one of the senior members of the Korean rock community, ?˜Love and Peace??provide backing for KIM Jong-Seo?™s performance.

 

About the Korean Anglican Community Centre (KACC)

The Korean Anglican Community Centre (KACC) is a non-profit and non-political organisation (Registered Charity No. 1096690). It was founded in 2000 through an agreement between the Church of England and the Anglican Church of Korea for the Korean Community in London. The KACC has been offering programmes, projects and services with the aim of enhancing and deepening the understanding of cultures, societies and educational relations between Britain and Korea. The KACC has been expanding its capacity to provide various services to the Korean community as well as British people who are seeking to gain insight into Korean culture.

 

Ticket Information

Tickets for all events are free, however spaces are limited and tickets will be distributed on a first come first served basis. For booking and further information please contact KACC.

In Jeong Kang 0870 350 1472, LKF@kacc.org.uk

The Crypt Centre, Munster Sq, London, NW1 3PL

Tel 0870 350 1472 /Fax: 0870 350 1473, Website: www.kacc.org.uk/LKF

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Electronic BAKS

As many members will already know, the British Association of Korean Studies has launched an electronic announcements and discussion list for Korean studies scholars based in the United Kingdom.

It is the aim of this list to provide an easily accessible and central forum which encourages closer cooperation and interaction between the diverse and geographically scattered students and researchers of the Korean studies community in the UK. It is also hoped that this list will provide an additional way for individuals and institutions in the UK to advertise their Korea-related seminars, workshops, conferences, books, articles, etc.

Membership of the electronic list is not restricted to BAKS members but is free and open to all scholars, students and researchers interested in the study of Korea.

BAKS members have to register their wish to participate in this list in order to be added. It is possible to join electronically via the list web-page at www.jiscmail.ac.uk/BAKS. Alternatively you can send a request to join to Dr David Prendergast who can be reached through email at d.prendergast@sheffield.ac.uk, by telephone on 0114 222 6480 or by post to:

Dr David Prendergast

Department of Sociological Studies

University of Sheffield

Elmfield

Northumberland Road

Sheffield S10 2TU

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BAKS PAPERS

BAKS 9, the latest collection of BAKS Papers, has now been published. It includes papers delivered at the Association?™s 2000 Conference on ?˜Religion and politics in contemporary Korea??and at BAKS Study days held in 2001 and 2002. For details see the relevant page of this website.

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In March 2004 a party of DPRK parliamentarians visited the UK for discussion. They included Choe Tae Bok, Chairman of the Supreme Assembly, who gave a speech on 17 March. Mr Choe is the most senior North Korean official ever to have visited Europe.

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A visit of a very different kind was made by thirty Korean pastors to assist in a Christian mission organized by St Luke's Church, Redcliffe Gardens, London SW10, in April 2004. St Luke's has a link with Yonsei Baptist Church. Its website address is www.stlukeschurch.co.uk

 

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A joint study day was held in conjunction with the London School of Economics in November 2003 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. The first set of papers has appeared: The Korean Armistice of 1953 and its Consequences Part 1: James Hoare and Gordon Daniels. Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines Discussion Paper No. IS/04/467, February 2004. It can also be downloaded from http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/publications/is.asp/

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A study day was also held in the British Library on Saturday 4 April 2004 entitled KOREA IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. Speakers and papers were as follows:

James Dator (Honolulu) Korea as a wave of the future in democracy and culture

Ok-kyoung Kim (Sheffield) Women's articles and commentaries on the Internet in relation to 'Gobaldung' (conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law) in Korea

Thomas Cieslik (Mexico City) Communication technology in the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea and its impact on society

Andrew Mullen (General Manager, Communications and New Technologies, Lucky Goldstar )

Jiyoon Lee (London) Korean contemporary art: at the eye of the hurricane of change

Ruediger Frank (Vienna) Telecommunications regulation in South Korea and Japan: a comparative approach (For an electronic copy of Professor Franks' paper, go to http://www.koreanstudies.de/London_4_2004/Frank_Paper.pdf)

Rowan Pease (London) The Internet and Hanliu (the Korean vogue) in China 

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The Korea Foundation 'Koreanists' site is currently undergoing an updating process and KF would like to ask for cooperation and support in making it a more reliable site.

BAKS members are asked to visit the Koreanists site (http://www.koreanists.net) and update their profile in the "Update Your Profile" section. Please contact KF via email (koreanists@kf.or.kr) if you have forgotten your ID and/or password.

At the same time, if you know of any Korean Studies scholars that should be included in the database, please recommend him/her to KF or introduce them to the Koreanists site so that he/she can enlist himself/herself. Please feel free to contact KF with any future comments or suggestions that can help to improve the website.

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A four-year project, under the auspices of the Korea Foundation, has been under way since January 2001 to produce a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, descriptively annotated, classified, and indexed bibliography of all known Western-language doctoral dissertations that deal in whole or just in part with Korea and with Korean emigrants and students overseas. Click here for further details about this useful and worthwhile project.

It will be valuable if British dissertations are comprehensively and authoritatively covered in this bibliography, and all interested members of BAKS (whether British or otherwise) who wish their dissertations to be included in this bibliography should contact Professor Frank Shulman at fshulman@umd.edu Those who have completed their dissertations in recent years (post 2000) are also strongly encouraged to make contact.

Please note that all communications by e-mail from individuals who are contacting Professor Schulman for the first time should carry the subject line "Dissertation of XX" and that attachments will not be opened (out of a concern for viruses and worms) until he has established that the attachments in question are bona fide messages.

 

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OF FUTURE INTEREST

 

BAKS members may like to know of

1 a postgraduate conference on Friday, 9 July 2004, hosted by research students from the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Durham, which will bring together postgraduate scholars studying all aspects of both ancient and contemporary East Asian culture.

Interpretation of the theme of the Conference - Exploring East Asia - is intended to be broad: as a body of researchers into China, Japan or Korea, we are engaged in multifarious explorations of East Asia. This conference will comprise papers which together reflect the diversity of the explorations made by postgraduate researchers.

For details, application form, and abstract submission form, go to Exploring East Asia

 

2 a symposium to be hosted by the School of East Asian Studies at Sheffield on 12 and 13 August 2004, entitled

'Apolitical? East Asian postage stamps as socio-political artefacts'

The symposium, hosted by the Korea Foundation and GB Sasakawa Foundation, will bring together political scientists, anthropologists, geographers, historians, and semiologists from many countries to discuss how nationalism, cultural identity, and government policies are reflected in the stamp designs of East Asian countries including both South and North Korea.

For more information, contact Hugo Dobson at h.dobson@sheffield.ac.uk (tel 0114 2228437)

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The 'special theme' issue of the Kyoto Journal in 2005 will be devoted to the cultural dynamism of the Korean people. For further information, and offers of contributions (by 1 October 2004), contact Robert Fouser at fouser@yuldo.net as soon as possible.

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NB THE NEXT NEWSLETTER WILL NOT APPEAR UNTIL SPRING 2005