Centuries of conservative morals and Confucian culture has led to a traditional sense of gender in South Korea. Gender roles are still widely very stereotypical and the ‘macho male’ image still prevails across the country – yet South Korea is the male make-up capital of the world. It has the…
With three YouTube channels and nearly 130 million views combined it would be hard to come across a K-pop fan that had not heard of Eat Your Kimchi. Starting out in 2008, Simon and Martina (along with their adorable furry family Spudgy and Dr. Meemersworth have become so popular…
It’s another busy week in London with several interesting events with insights into Korean history, art and culture taking place throughout the week. The KCC is kicking off its K-MUSIC 2013 festival with a discussion forum featuring several music professionals and experts, it also continues its ‘Women on…
South Korea is richer, more stable and more influential that it has ever been, but as the country rapidly developed and became ever more prosperous, suicide rates climbed to give South Korea the nickname of ‘suicide capital of the world’.
There was a time when South Korea had one of…
K-pop girl group SECRET’s leader Hyosung has been having a bit of a tough time recently. At first it was all the articles and comments about her diet which overshadowed the group’s recent comeback and then something a little more serious happened. Yesterday on a radio show…
There are two things I would like to get across to K Drama makers and viewers: 1. Paternalism is not support, controlling is not caring. 2. Falling in love is not a math equation and you can’t blame someone for who they love.
When I watched the first four…
It’s a busy week at the KCCUK as the 3rd K-pop Academy comes to an end, their new art exhibition continues, as does the ‘Year of 4 Actors’ with another screening and then all rounded off with its 3rd Annual K-pop Contest and K-pop night on…
It is easy for people to dismiss ‘idol’ culture as irrelevant. Up until recently, cultural critics and music journalists versed in the ‘authentic’ rock canon of the 1960s and 70s paid little attention to the workings of girl group or boy groups deemed too ‘commercial’ and ‘artificial’ for their own…
A few days ago, my evening was ruined just a little bit by a series of videos that appeared on allkpop. They featured a four year old girl on the popular TV show Star King dancing to a series of songs by Hyuna including her big hits Bubble Pop and…