Join Sang-ah Kim and Yoojin Kwak Choi, curators of the Korea exhibition, as they explore the context, scope, themes and highlight objects of the exhibition.

Featuring outstanding examples of sculpture, painting and decorative arts over two millennia – up to the present day – the exhibition presents the most comprehensive chronological survey of Korean visual and material culture seen in Europe for over 40 years.

This major exhibition draws almost exclusively from the 23,000 works bequeathed in 2021 by the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee to the National Museum of Korea (NMK) and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA). It offers a dynamic journey through the art and material culture of the last 2,000 years. It also includes many National Treasures or Treasures, objects so designated for their exceptionally high quality and historical significance.

From ancient goldware to contemporary works of the 20th century, this talk traces 2,000 years of Korean creativity.

This event is part of the public programme supporting the exhibition Korea (1 October 2026 – 31 January 2027).

Su Scott is a Korean food writer and author based in London. Her first book, Rice Table (Quadrille, 2023), was shortlisted for Best First Book at the Guild of Food Writers Awards, and her latest title, POCHA: Simple Korean Food from the Streets of Seoul (Quadrille, 2024), was shortlisted for Best Cookery Book at Fortnum and Mason Awards 2025. She has contributed recipes and features to publications including Waitrose Food, BBC Food, and Condé Nast Traveler New York. She writes the weekly Substack newsletter Simple Supper, where she shares intimate, observational essays about family, food, motherhood, migration and the changing meaning of home.

Pocha; short for pojangmacha, which literally translates as ‘covered wagon’; pocha is a tented or tarpaulin-covered stall, bar or market vendor serving up cheap and unfussy Korean comfort food, snacks and drinks.

In Pocha, Su Scott is going home to the streets where she grew up and the food that shaped her. From daybreak to sundown, 80 delicious and playful recipes take you on a journey through the narrow streets of Seoul and sheltered halls of tarpaulin-roofed markets where dust motes and steam glitter in the glow of orange tungsten lights.

Filled with vibrant location photography from Seoul that weaves a tale of Su's touching return to her home country, Pocha is an electric and tender cookbook.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Refreshments will be provided.

The Korean Cultural Centre UK, in collaboration with CJ ENM, is pleased to present a special screening of Dear X.

At the centre of the story is Baek Ah Jin, a woman who hides a ruthless nature behind a beautiful façade. As she manipulates those around her in her pursuit of success, Dear X explores ambition, deception and the masks people wear to survive through a dark and psychologically charged story.

Following the screening, Diane Min, Head of European Content Sales at CJ ENM, will share some insights into the drama, followed by a short audience Q&A.

Sohn Won-Pyung studied sociology and philosophy at Sogang University before studying film directing at the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA). Her debut novel, Almond, won the 10th Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction and has since been translated and published in more than 30 countries, including the UK and the US. She is the author of the novels Counterattacks at Thirty, Prism and Tube, the short story collection The House of Others, and the children’s book series The Mighty Fox Tail. She also wrote and directed the feature film Intruder. Her honours include the Cine21 Film Criticism Award, the Jeju 4·3 Peace Literary Prize and the Japan Booksellers’ Award. Her fifth novel, The Land of Youth, set in a near future shaped by declining birth rates and an ageing population, explores the lives of young adults navigating a rapidly changing society and is slated for publication in English by HarperVia.

Ela Lee, is a London-based author. Her debut novel Jaded was published as a lead title by Vintage in the UK, and Simon & Schuster in the US. In 2024, Jaded was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year and Lee was named a Spotify Breakout Author. She has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Class of 2025. Her second novel, Minbak, published in 2026, and was a BBC Book Club pick.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Refreshments will be provided.

This seminar examines the contrast between the growing global visibility of Korean content and the structural challenges facing the Korean broadcasting sector, particularly terrestrial broadcasters. It discusses the global rise of K-content, before turning to the domestic challenges facing legacy broadcasters, such as audience fragmentation, declining advertising revenue, competition with OTT platforms, and rising production costs. These developments will be connected to broader questions about public service media, media diversity, platformisation, and national media policy. It will be of interest to anyone working on or interested in audiovisual media industries, streaming and OTT platforms, public service media, media policy, and East Asian media.

Meet Korea’s fox, ghost and princess to uncover how folklore carries women’s grief, resistance and transformation. Followed by Q&A.

Every culture has women who were wronged and refused to disappear. In Korean folklore, they return as foxes, ghosts and princesses, figures shaped by grief, injustice and a fierce determination to claim what society denied them.

Join Korean poet, scholar and educator Dr Melanie Hyo-In Han to meet three of the tradition’s most enduring female archetypes: the Gumiho, a seductive nine-tailed fox who can shapeshift into a woman; the Cheonyeo Gwishin, an unmarried maiden whose restless spirit exposes the constraints Confucian society placed on women; and Princess Bari, abandoned for being a girl before journeying to the underworld and returning as the Mother of Korean Shamanism.

Threading their stories together is han, a Korean feeling of unresolved grief and injustice that can settle in the body and outlast death. Through myth, gender and cultural history, discover how Korean women have carried, released and transformed han across generations, and what these stories reveal about women’s anger, ambition and resistance. Whether you’re new to Korean mythology or already fascinated by it, you’ll leave with a deeper understanding of these unforgettable figures, and perhaps new questions about the stories your own culture tells about women who refuse to conform.

Kim Choyeop is a South Korean science fiction writer. She studied chemistry at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), where she went on to earn a master’s degree in biochemistry. She made her literary debut in 2017, winning the Grand Prize in the novella and short story category of the 2nd Korea Science Literature Award for 「관내분실」, as well as an Honourable Mention at the same awards. Her debut short story collection, If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light, won the 43rd Today’s Writer Award in 2019, and her short story Cognitive Space received the 11th Young Writers Award in 2020. Her published works include If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light and 『원통 안의 소녀』 (The Girl in the Cylinder).

Barry Pierce is a critic and culture writer whose work has appeared in the Sunday Times, the Big Issue, i-D, GQ, and British Vogue. He regularly chairs discussions at venues across London, including Foyles, the Southbank Centre and the British Library, as well as at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. He has also contributed to documentaries produced by RTÉ and BBC Radio.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Refreshments will be provided.

Yun Ga Min, a student at the struggling Yusung Technical High School, is determined to go to college despite his poor grades and knack for fighting. He forms a study group but is forced to use his fighting skills to protect his friends from bullies. His teacher, Lee Han Gyeong, who tutored him while he was a middle school student, returns as a temporary teacher with a secret and hopes to improve the school.

This event will look at the original Study Group publication and the adaptation that has come from it.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Refreshments will be provided.