1. "Project Obangsaek" at 7:30 is having a launch party... the lovely Nanoomi people are making a few presentations about building cultural bridges between expats, non-Koreans, and Koreans. Obangsaek is a group dedicated to presenting the modern, actually interesting world of Korean culture and life to the world outside, lest the old men making tourism policy convince the world that there's nothing to Korea except bronze dishes, hanbok, overpriced fermented side dishes, and four-hour long spoken-word performances drum accompaniment. It's led by Benson Lee, whose latest film you may have heard of: Planet Friggin' B-Boy! (on IMDB) (Trailer)
2. The Royal Asiatic Society (a super-cool group of super-long-term scholars, koreaphiles, and other such People Who Know A Lot About Korea And Have Been Here A Bloody Long Time (also known as the highest concentration of advanced Korean Studies degrees in one room outside of an academic conference) is having a talk about a topic of much interest to many of us: Korean film! The Topic is
Before the Korean Wave: Treasures of Classic Korean Cinema and a fella named Dr. Earl Jackson Jr., will be giving brief overviews of three of the very important Korean film directors who laid the foundation for the excellence in film that led the first swoosh of the Korean wave.
It's on the second floor of the Somerset Hotel, near the north end of Insa-dong, at 7:30pm. More information here.
4 comments:
These look cool--thanks for the notice!
I'm sorry but #1 shows that either the people of Obangsaek or you yourself have not been following Korean policy and how Korea is promoted to the world. I'm sure it'll be an interesting event but the flippant attitude is based on misunderstanding that seems rather un-scholarly.
The description in #1 referencing pansoori and hanshik was my own caricature, not part of Obangsaek's materials... some, but I'm sure not ALL global Korea promoters, however, ARE far enough off-base to dismay me (charging for banchan? THAT's gonna take Korean food over the top?) http://www.zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal/news-media/globalization-news-media/the-korea-herald-stirs-up-debate-over-banchan/
But as we go, please don't expect every post here to meet standards of academic rigor, or you'll be looking forward to one per month. :)
@ CedarBough: As somebody actually involved in carrying out Korean policy and how Korea is promoted to the world, I'll say that the attitude is flippant, but not necessarily that far from the truth. I mean, please, do show me your sources about how the Korean gov. is doing a fabulous job promoting the country?
I don't mean to be snarky, but the response you gave seems more out of touch to me than Rob's, as someone who both is professionally involved and has an acedemic background and interest in the subject.
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