My first K-pop Concert Experience: Mini concert with Super Junior'sDongHae & EunHyuk.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theatre was the stage. There was this huge lighting panels and bright lights with smoke and I thought, 'Yup this is it'!!! From when I got to the venue I could feel the general attitude and level of excitement, everyone was there because they loved Kpop and it was such a wonderful feeling being in that room. It was kinda like a community and this is where I belong...

Fans were handing out photo cards and banners and everyone was sharing kpop stories and asking about biases ( fave kpop idols) and what-nots. You could tell that the fans are very dedicated and this was not just a concert but it meant so much more...One of the fans designed a mini banner to celebrate the group's 9th Anniversary which was produced through Super Junior UK Fanclub and distributed at the event. The most surprising thing however is the demographic of the fans, as expected there were a lot of fangirls, but there were fanboys present as well as Mum's, Dad's and even Grandparents.

[ Event Review ] 'Brush' Korean Family Play by the Haddangse ~ 하땅세 Crew

The Haddangse crew are here in the UK to participate in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ahead of their performance at Edinburgh, they put on a ‘one night only performance’ at the Korean cultural Centre in London. Since I can’t make it to the festival, plus it looked  interesting to me I decided to go check it out and it was a good opportunity to introduce my family to Korea.

Haddangse ~ 하땅세 is a 28 member Eco-friendly theatre company based in South Korea. Their plays are performed brilliantly in the most unconventional style I have ever seen. They tell their stories by painting it out live on stage in an animated manner, capturing the essence of a story and bringing it to live before your eyes.

Photo Credit: KCCUK

I met up with the Producer/director of the show, Lee Kil Jun, before the play to have a chat and get a better understanding of Brush and the Haddangse crew, and also to have an idea of what to expect. He spoke Korean and I English, but with Chris Ryn of Coreamuser, a touring agency for Korean performing artists, translating for us, I got to learn a lot.

Webtoon: A New Trend in Korean Digital Comics with Yoon Tae-ho

Photo Credit: LBF.

The London Book fair is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually. This year the focus was on Korea. Our assignment for KPop Academy was to attend one of the events and write a review about it. I chose to attend the Toon Talk with Yoon Tae-ho hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre.

First off a Webtoon is an animated cartoon that is published online in episodes. The Korean term for it is Manhwa. This is fast becoming an important trend reaching a lot of adult audience. An estimated 10 million Koreans are downloading webtoons everyday. The comics are published on a website known as Portal.

Yoon Tae-ho is a renowned graphic artist who works both in the traditional media print and Webtoon. He is from Gwangju, South Korea. From an early age he had shown keen interest in drawing, which led him to apprentice under Jo Woon-Hak and Huh Young-man who are Known as some of greatest in the field. In 1993 he debuted his first work Emergency Landing. He later became popular for writing the Webtoons Moss and Misaeng leading literary critics to call him as one of the leading voices of the next generation of Korean cartoonists.