This is the first issue of the BAKS Newsletter since
Spring 2004. The editor, now more or less to grips with his new computer and
uploading software, apologizes for this, and hopes that regular bi-annual
service will now be resumed.
The past year
In March 2004 the first ever visit to the UK was made
by a group of DPRK parliamentarians. They visited London and Cambridge.
BAKS was well represented at the JEASC meeting in
Leeds, where various papers were read on Korean topics.
A symposium was hosted by the School of East Asian
Studies at Sheffield on 12 and 13 August, entitled 'Apolitical? East Asian
postage stamps as socio-political artefacts'. The symposium, hosted by the
Korea Foundation and GB Sasakawa Foundation, brought together political
scientists, anthropologists, geographers, historians, and semiologists from
Finland, Japan, the ROK, Sweden, the USA and the UK 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.
The Third Korean Film Festival on tour, November
? December 2004:
2004
saw a rapidly growing interest in Korean cinema in the UK. More films than ever
were shown in British cinemas such as Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter?Spring, Memories of Murder, and the Cannes success
Old Boy.
The Third Korean Film Festival, which visited London, Sheffield, Bristol, Manchester, and Edinburgh, presented the best of
contemporary Korean cinema to audiences in the UK. The number of films in the
festival was expanded and included both an award-winning documentary film and
some of the best recent Korean short films. Titles included If You Were Me, A Smile, A Hilarious
Mourning,
Failan,
Oasis,
Taegukgi, Old Boy, Waikiki Brothers, Untold Scandal, Repatriation, Saving My Hubby, and shorts Templementary, Chapter 2: How to
Breathe,
White Terror: the True Story of Ah Q, and 7 July Photographers.
The festival was jointly organised by the
Showroom cinema in Sheffield and Sheffield University School of East Asian
Studies, working with Ewha University in Seoul which also showed the films. It
was supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea; KOFIC; Seoul Selection;
Showroom Cinema; Ewha International Education Institute, Division of International
Studies; South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme; the Independent Cinema Office;
Soda Pictures; ADV Films (International).
In January 2005 a letter was sent to Sir Howard Newby,
Chairman of HEFCE, from the presidents of the three UK associations representing
Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies, welcoming the initiative to look at ways
of safeguarding national provision of these subjects and to offer full
co-operation. But more bad news followed, from Oxford, where the failure of the
University to pledge continuation of Korean Studies threatened to jeopardize
Korea Foundation support and end this valuable programme with effect from 2007.
Membership matters
Congratulations to Beth McKillop on her new job in
charge of the East Asian collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The President attended the 12th Annual Meeting of the
UK-Korea Forum for the Future. Its communique
and recommendations are attached.
Papers from British Museum/BAKS study days in 2001 and
2002, edited by Jane Portal and Beth McKillop, were published as North
Korean Culture and Society (BM publications). BAKS members are
entitled to purchase it as a special price.
Forthcoming events
BAKS members may like to know of the following:
A Korean Studies Graduate Students?Convention will be held at SOAS,
University of London, 11-12 May 2005, coinciding with the 3rd London Korean Festival which
includes a film festival, music concerts and a series of lectures.
Also in London, from 1000 to 1700 on 20 May 2005 in
the Senate House, the Symposium for Film Studies will present ?allyuwood:
Korean Screen Culture Goes Global?
The Asia House spring programme includes a number of events
entitled ?orean Spring? These include a Korean music soirŽe introduced by
Keith Howard on 19 May; a talk on the CheongGeCheon Restoration Project on 25 May; a lecture by
Rowan Pease on ?allyu, the Korean Wave? on 1 June; a talk on Korean food followed
by a Korean buffet (15 June); and Master Oh Tae Sok on contemporary Korean
theatre (29 June). This will be Asia House? first venture into Korean culture:
BAKS welcomes it, and hopes that all events will be well supported. For more
details contact clare.frankenberg@asiahouse.co.uk
The 2005 AKSE Conference will be held in Sheffield in
July.
Korea
will also be represented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The following is
reproduced with thanks from the Scotsman:
SOUTH KOREA GOES LARGE ON FRINGE
SOUTH Korea has formed an unlikely bond with the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe that will see four shows make the long journey from Asia this
year - including a Korean version of Shakespeare, The Scotsman can reveal.
Audiences at the festival will this year have the choice of a show that mixes
Korean martial arts and comic mayhem - entitled Jump - as well as an
alternative version of ? Midsummer Night? Dream? The new connection with
South Korea goes well beyond just another chapter in the Fringe? far-flung line-up,
however. Paul Gudgin, the Fringe director, travelled to Seoul in December at
the invitation of the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation. The trip saw nearly
200 performers turn up to hear him speak and put him on the front pages of the
national press. The Fringe is now planning a live video conference for Korean
acts hoping to get to Edinburgh, while the Seoul foundation has helped out by
translating the Fringe? guide in full for performers. "There are no
direct flights. I don? believe South Korea has any embassy in Edinburgh. But
this extraordinary connection has grown and will continue to grow," Mr
Gudgin said. "Loads of people running Korean cultural institutions have
been coming to study us. Their two main television stations come to the
Fringe." South Korea? interest in the Fringe grew out of a single show,
Cooking, which came to Edinburgh in 1999. The show, set in a kitchen, was an
energetic mix of rhythm and comedy using cooking tools, and proved such a hit
with audiences that it is currently showing on Broadway. "We think the
success of that performance is a great model for us. Many presenters in Korea
realise that we need to build up a market in Europe," said Hyuncha Kim,
the foundation? deputy manager for international exchange. "If we can join
with the festival in Edinburgh, it could be a great chance to show our talent
in the world market. We believe the Edinburgh festival is an essential pass to
go to the rest of the world," said Ms Kim. The Koreans now hope to emulate
Cooking? success this year with Jump. The show, with about ten performers,
mixes traditional Korean martial arts and comedy in a story centred on a single
family. "It is one family of strange characters," said Ms Kim.
"They fight each other but later they find their real enemy and are
unified." Also on the slate is Shakespeare? ? Midsummer Nights Dream?
The Koreans have already showcased the work in festivals in Armenia and Cairo.
It is in Korean but relies heavily on gesture, mime and costumes.
TIM CORNWELL, ARTS CORRESPONDENT, The Scotsman, 10 March 2005
Bibliographical matters
Among new books on North Korea, see Paul French, North Korea, the
Paranoid Peninsula ? a Modern History, Zed Books 2004 (ISBN 1 84277 4727
(HB), 1 84277 4735 (PB)
A new journal, North Korea Review, is also available.
For current websites on the DPRK, see the revised Links section of this Newsletter.
The Journal of Korean Studies resumed publication in Autumn 2004 under the auspices of the Stanford
Korean Studies Program. For more details go to the Books
page.
* * * * *
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