Sophilicity: Photography

If anyone of you actually remember, I took part in the 10th K-Pop Academy programme late September 2016! Sorry for such a long hiatus but I didn't think it would be right to leave a blog series incomplete~

I was actually really looking forward to taking part into class. I've had various opportunities to try out a hanbok before if I'm perfectly honest, I've actually known much about it.

Injoo Lee, founder of Moon Lee artwear presenting us a lecture about K-Fashion (Hanbok).
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

The class this time was taken by Injoo Lee, a London-based contemporary womenswear designer. She founded a brand for herself called Moon Lee artwear, which was established in 2015.

You can check out some of her designs and works below:

https://www.moonleeartwear.com/

Moving onto the class~ Let me give you guys a bit of information which I gathered from this class!

What is Hanbok?
Hanbok is the traditional clothing for Koreans as is acknowledged as the beautiful, cultural treasure of Korean. "Hanbok" means "Korean clothing" and has a history of over 16000 years.

What is the Hanbok composed of?
For women, the basic composition of the hanbok is the jeogori (‎저고리) which refers to the top, along with a chima (치마) which refers to the skirt.

For men, the basic composition of the hanbok is similar to the women however instead of a chima, the jeogori is paired with a baji (바지). The baji refers to trousers.

Other additions to the women's hanbok can include the daenggi (댕기) which is a traditional Korean ribbon added to the end of a women's braided hair. Along with the norigae (노리개) which is a typical Korean accessory added to chima (치마). It can also be attached to the goreum (‎고름) of the jeogori (저고리) which are the coat strings.

Whilst other additions for the men's hanbok can include the gat (갓) which is traditional hat worn along with the hanbok - although this was only seen to be worn during the Joseon period. It was restricted to only men who had passed their gwageo (과거) exams. These were the civil servant examinations which took place during the Goryeo and Joseon eras. Men were also seen to wear durumagi (두루마기), which is an overcoat, worn over as the top-most layer for their hanboks. In current times, the durmagi (두루마기) is usually worn for formal occasions.

Lee Junki wearing a gat (갓) along with his hanbok - Did anyone watch him in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Ryeo? The feels-

History of Hanbok
The baji (바지) was usually worn by men and the chima (치마) by women, however in mural paintings dating back to the Gorguyeo (otherwise known as Goryeo) kingdom shows that there is no distinct difference in the hanbok between the sexes.

During the Goryeo kingdom, as a result of the influence from nearby Mongolia, traditional design of jeogori (‎저고리) underwent a change, adopting shorter lengths and narrower sleeves.

Whilst in the Joseon kingdom, women's jeogori (‎저고리) in particular were being worn shorter and tighter than previous periods - a decisive turning point leading to the gradual transformation of the hanbok.

Lesson over!! Did you learn something new today?

The variety of hanbok pieces available for us to choose.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

After our lecture, we were shown a demonstration on how to wear a hanbok. Our lecturer for the day, Injoo Lee selected candidates from the audience to show us. We had Charley and Yi-Ling for the girls, and Michael for the boys - although Michael was the only boy in our class but that doesn't mean he didn't receive just as much love... Even more to be honest aha!

Charley wearing the women's hanbok.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Michael wearing the men's hanbok.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK

Once the demonstrations were completed, we all headed off to pick our hanboks. The group who worn last week's contest (where we had to perform Arirang as a group, the best performance was awarded first choice of the hanboks the following week) headed up to pick their hanboks. Then the rest of us went to collect our hanboks and get dressed!

Irena getting ready in her hanbok with Marta assisting her.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Of course we all had to have a photo session with all of the students aha! From selfies to photographer moments, it was a great laugh! -cough- time for a selfie spam -cough-

The previous week, we were all given plain fans to go home and design, so as you can see, me and Jamila decided to design our fans, mine with cherry blossoms with my name written in Hangul, whilst Jamila designed hers with various women in different hanbok styles.

Me and Lisa - Lisa ended up wearing a men's hanbok because they ran out of women hanboks aha!

Me and Kira, also wearing a men's hanbok - but that jawline tho- ahaha

Group selfie, featuring Kira, Drew, Yi-Ling, Lisa and myself!

Natasha, Yi-Ling and myself! Yi-Ling wore a royal robe from the demonstration, but she's gone without her crown and wig in this picture aha! I heard it was quite heavy...

And of course, we did take a couple pictures which show our outfits better!

I'm sure whenever I wear a hanbok I'm usually attempting not to trip over the skirt...

Top row (L-R): Irena and Jamila
Bottom row (L-R): Zeinab, Lisa and myself.

After our own individual photo sessions, the staff made us split into two halves and form a catwalk. We each went up and walked the catwalk with our hanboks and as we got to the end, we were made to pose for the camera. For some of us, like myself, we dragged another to walk the catwalk with us aha! I decided to walk with Lisa~

Yass Jamila~~ Slay gurll!!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

On the other hand... Me and Lisa were in laughing fits that we couldn't even do the catwalk properly... And although this wasn't captured, we ended our catwalk with a straight dab LOL.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

After the catwalks were complete, we proceeded to get individual pictures taken of our hanboks. I'm gonna post my squad's photos ahaha!

I couldn't find a picture for Kira, but this one is on pointe!!!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Lisa being cute and sending her hearts to you ahahaha.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Tasha wearing her elegant black hanbok~
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Deciding between two pictures of Drew was a struggle aha! She's looking super cute in this!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Jamila constantly looking amazing in her hanbok along with her fan~
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Last but not least, myself~ You can't really see my hanbok properly because I blocked it with my fan like an idiot lmao.
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

But of course we couldn't end the class without taking a group picture! Although... I feel like most of us weren't ready for the group picture omg.

Ahahaha although there's quite a few of us caught off guard, this group are such a lovable bunch, this picture pretty much summarises a lot of our characters a lot!
Cr. Korean Cultural Centre UK.

Looking back at this day, I had a lot of fun dressing up, and it was probably the one lesson where I actually took loads of pictures! It was quite a photo opportunity!

Homework of the Week!

And of course, each lesson means there's a new homework. For this week, I chose to research a Korean Fashion brand. I decided to research about the brand, Human Potential (HUPOT). You can check out my presentation below:

I hope you enjoyed my next blog entry! I'm nearly half-way through my blog series~ Next up, K-Cuisine! Check back soon, to read more~ Thank you for reading!

18:18 3 comments

I completely went on a hiatus over these past couple of months, but I didn't think it would be right to leave my blog forever... I was planning to go straight back into blogging but it's been so long I didn't know how to throw myself back again! But don't worry I actually have so many posts coming for you! I promise you I haven't died guys - Well not just yet... OTL

(I mean if this guy hasn't probably tried to kill me everyday - Yeah ready to expose myself, I am a BIG fan of Jungkook from BTS (-cough- T R A S H -cough-) - RIP when he performed Rainism for the End of Year shows :))) Why is life so hard... If you haven't seen the performance imma link it here because I appreciate... and when I say appreciate, I mean APPRECIATE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WOxFTrFw70)

Anyways... My last blog post was late October... Jesus it's been at least 5 months- But I think I'm going to go back to being more personal so my writing style might change a tad bit for you guys to get more personal with me and my life!

How about a little insert of my life from me to you?

I'll try to keep this short as I can because I don't want to spoil too much of the content for my upcoming posts aha!! (By the way, I say short, but my short is on another level...)

OCTOBER

If any of you guys have been reading, I was attending the K-Pop Academy at the Korean Cultural Centre in London (Damn I seriously need to catch up with that blog series... Got a bit lazy there didn't I-- RIP - Seriously, they've already started the 11th K-Pop Academy and here I am...).

Moving on... I also had a chance to attend the Sik-K concert in London ran by Beatcraze. I went as press and managed to get some pretty cool footage - So hopefully you'll be seeing a blog post about that soon!!

I'd also managed to attend a dance show ran by DGC! I was working as a photographer at the time and it was a pretty lively experience - I'd actually never been to one of their dance shows before but the talent shown, there were some phenomenal performances! You can check out my FB album with all the photos I took from the show - just click the link below:

DGC Dance Show Photography

Did you also know, that there have been numerous K-Pop/K-Hip Hop nights going around in London. I managed to attend my first one in October located in Surya! Hosted by Arpeggios Entertainment (the company who brought MYNAME and HISTORY to London!). It's been amazing so far, to subscribe to more of these nights (unfortunately you've got to be 18+ - Sorry young ones!), check out the links below to find out more~

Young Bros Facebook Page

Asian Nights London Facebook Page

And of course, I took the opportunity to go to Comic Con in October. There's not much I can say about it since I've attended lots of times, but it never fails to be filled with numerous cosplays and many attendees aha~

NOVEMBER

If I'm honest, I spent majority of this month just working as I was preparing to leave to South Korea at the end of the month, however I did manage to do a couple of things this month... I mean other than eating-

Remember K-Pop Academy? Well, I actually graduated from the academy in this month but along with the graduation I also got to attend the K-Pop Friends Reunion hosted by the KCC. (I will take the chance to explain more when I get round to finishing my K-Pop Academy blog series... Eventually...)

2 days before D-Day (aka. my flight to Korea) I actually got to attend a concert in London! I think this actually had to be the first concert... Which I actually paid for... LOL. But I got to see CRUSH live! Unfortunately it was the second date - I cry, I heard DEAN and Miso etc. attended the first concert but I got the second date... Sad that the set was so short, but I got to appreciate CRUSH's voice - I was totally singing the entirety of "Don't Forget ft. Taeyeon", like CRUSH pass me the mic because I will sing the Taeyeon part for you :') I ended up on a binge of CRUSH songs after the concert aha...

Other than that, I actually left for South Korea for 2 weeks from the 30th of November - I was planning to excite you guys with a vlog but it failed after landing in Korea... However, I do have quite a few things to say and share with you regarding my trip to Korea - And thus another few blog posts to share with you guys~ But I'm gonna leave you with a little hint below regarding my Korea stories... Huehuehue...

DECEMBER

Let's be honest, I pretty much spent about 2 weeks of the first half of December in Korea - and do I regret it... Nah. It was lit, but more information soon...

Otherwise... I didn't actually do much in December without spoiling my trip to Korea-- But it was amazing either way... From drinking times to clubbing times to much food - Food is love, food is life.

JANUARY

And thus after my trip from Korea... Did I become quite a party animal... I had the chance to check out the clubbing scene quite a bit around London, varying from Ministry of Sound to even clubs near home... Such as PRYZM.

OH! But I can say for one thing, later than ever, but HAPPY BELATED CHINESE/VIETNAMESE/LUNAR NEW YEAR! If you didn't know already, I'm actually half Vietnamese and half Chinese, so we celebrated the new Lunar New Year on the 28th of January - How did I spend it? I actually spent it Asian clubbing at a PlayKrown event-

The work life has been pretty hectic otherwise so that's probably my only excuse to my long hiatus for the lacking of blogging...

FEBRUARY

I've actually had some pretty exciting opportunities during this month. And I can definitely say I've eaten pretty luxuriously as well - To think I finally managed to tick off another one of my food bucket list places, Duck and Waffle!

Throwback to Sunny's birthday celebration at Duck and Waffle ❤️ - The traditional Duck and Waffle dish is definitely a recommendation at £17 per portion. - #sophilicityeats

A post shared by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Feb 21, 2017 at 11:38am PST

I actually spent about 2 days working with some Korean artists who came all the way from South Korea, and it was an exciting experience which I hope to share more to you in the future~ I will definitely be sharing with you the music videos I helped create with an amazing team - Shoutout to Maisie and Michael especially! More information soon~ Hint: One of the artists has been compared as a mixture of DEAN and Heize! (Thus I feel I need to insert a song from them because their collabs are lit tbh-)

MARCH

And here we are, hello March! I hope this can be the month were I will share with you all my experiences - Hopefully some of them can be exciting for you guys to read~

Thus... I will attempt to be more productive this month with my blogging and I hope you guys reading can deal with me a tad bit longer aha!~

How should I end it? How about something that you rarely see ever? A selfie -coughs- Instagram promotion -coughs- You should follow me tbh, I post lots of food -coughs-

A post shared by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Mar 2, 2017 at 3:48am PST

See you soon~ Much love xoxo

19:48 No comments

Currently straying away from my Rome posts for now, but don't worry I'll be back! But first, let's talk about the recent MYNAME concert held at O2 Academy Islington in London on the 10th of September. Why is this so significant? Well, to a fellow K-Pop fan like myself, it wouldn't be right to not talk about my experience working backstage and behind the scenes of the concert! Let's get started...

For starters, I did not expect to be running around as much as I did, but in a way that's my exercise done for the month aha! I was already in London for 9-10AM to meet the concert promoter, the staff and other people at the hotel. Who would of thought that as soon as I walked up to the hotel, the MYNAME members would casually be standing around outside the entrance. What did I do? Casually walk in through the entrance and sit down and wait for the concert promoter to meet me - I actually arrived early for once haha! After, we finally met, the members went off to London with the photographer to complete a photoshoot whilst I went to meet the staff with the promoter. I got to meet the concert agent I met from the HISTORY concert in February - I was so surprised he recognised me! He asked me if I knew Japanese, as he knows I don't speak Korean, but I could only say I understood some (thank god for anime, Japanese dramas and Korean dramas).

TIP #1 - Knowing multiple languages can draw to your advantage

(From my experience, I've learnt that it's quite difficult to do a job like this when you're limited to speaking the language which is why I've decided to start learning Korean and possibly Japanese.)

After breakfast, everyone began to get ready, whilst I ran to do some small jobs. I won't go into too much detail because well... Let's just say it's not too necessary ahahaha... But anyways, I ended up taking a bus later to Oxford Circus as the Japanese staff were interested in shopping in Oxford Street. We later returned to organise where to eat lunch, and sort out the timings for the day.

Let's say the food plans didn't go as well as they should have... The MYNAME members were very interested in watching the football match so they ended up going to a pub by the hotel to watch Manchester United play Manchester City. Most of the Korean staff stayed with them, whilst the Japanese staff and the photographer joined me to eat lunch nearby.

TIP#2 - Make sure that if you separate as a group, that you know whereabouts everyone is located

(Not going to lie, I was slightly worried because I didn't want to lose track of the members however as it is a foreign country it was unlikely they would go off to places they don't know, so they more or less stayed by the hotel which was handy!)

As everyone returned to the hotel, I had to work out the best time to call the cars so we could arrive at the venue at a reasonable time so the members could do sound checks and get ready. Whilst using my limited Korean, I managed to converse with the staff and members - I did stress out in a way because I was worried people wouldn't arrive on time, and some of the Japanese staff came down quite late. Originally, we were meant to split into 2 cars, all staff in one car, whilst I accompanied the MYNAME members to the venue however... It didn't work out that way... Fortunately, we managed to get there all in the right place.

TIP#3 - When struggling to communicate, attempt to use hand signals to assist you

(I found this quite helpful when I was trying to direct the Korean staff to certain places or explain certain situations. I have to thank some of the MYNAME members, such as Insoo for speaking some English to me to help me out aha!)

I'm going to be honest, when you don't know what to say it can be quite awkward... I was sitting in the car thinking what I could say, and I ended up just conversing with the driver. The driver even played the radio to fill the awkward silence. One thing is for sure, I was most worried about the members arriving at the venue in one piece. From my previous experience, we've had K-Pop fans run over to the members, so I made sure to stand in front to help assist the situation and lead them. I totally felt like one of the those managers who take the lead, with my umbrella - trust the British weather...

Once we arrived, I've never felt so relieved. I was exhausted but the day had barely begun. We still had the concert to go and we had a lot of preparations left to complete. Seeing my friends/family working alongside me definitely gave me a boost considering I was mainly working independently throughout the day. Thanks to Tracey and Aneeqa for the hugs! Before I went in, I decided to check out the queue line to see any familiar faces and meet my friends, Shirley and Jacky who were assisting with queue management. The queue was quite long considering the concert didn't start until 7PM and we arrived around 4PM.

Finally, I went in and it was good to be able to return to a familiar place. Despite the promoter telling me I could rest, I couldn't keep still and decided to go help out with the merchandise stand and much more. We only had a few hours left till the show started, and the members were settling in before going to perform sound checks.

The volunteers were assigned different jobs, whether it was to assist the member's needs, to completing runs (getting food, drinks etc.) to queue management to merchandise. Some people were busier than others, but we were more or less reunited by the end of the day.

TIP#4 - Always be on alert
(You never know where someone might require your assistance. Even if you might not be doing anything for a while, there are cases where you will be needed so try not to get distracted - Even if it means leaving the sight of your idols aha...)

As we got closer to the concert, I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of the members. Insoo was probably the most confident in English since he was requesting me for certain things when I was walking past their dressing room. Although, I believe my longest conversation was with Chaejin, alongside Stevie. We were talking with the Japanese stylist, Coba and assistant, Natsu too. Using Stevie's Japanese (which he had learnt for 2 years) with my minimal Korean and Japanese along with English, we managed to form somewhat of a conversation. I think it was hilarious talking to Chaejin. We were talking about ages, and found that Chaejin's birthday is the 26th of December (born 1995) whilst Stevie's birthday is the 12th of January (born 1996) - so they were like "친구 (friend)" aha! Then, there's me as the "막내 (maknae aka the youngest person of the family/group)". After that, Stevie and Chaejin got super close, close enough to be able to take a selfie together after the Meet&Greet.

My new brother, Chaejin from MyName! わたしの男, 채진. 😎👍

A photo posted by Steve (@kpopsteve) on Sep 10, 2016 at 6:26pm PDT

Our conversations ranged from K-Pop groups in general to ideals, we were talking about whom Chaejin was friends with for starters, and how Stevie likes VIXX but Chaejin seem displeased to hear that aha! We also talked about the prettiest girls in K-Pop, Chaejin seems to highly approve of After School's Nana. Personally, I'm a big fan of Ailee, I adore her voice and her personality seems great! This conversation only proceeded to the talk of the prettiest girls after Chaejin said that he really likes London, and thinks that British girls are very pretty - To think, Stevie and Chaejin could of switched positions aha! This all happened whilst Chaejin was casually eating KFC aha...

Unfortunately, we had to cut our conversation short as we realised it was time for the members to get ready for the concert, whilst everyone else got into place. Stevie went to do some last minute drink runs whilst Aneeqa tagged along with me as I got ready at the front of the stage for the photography. Being right at the front of the stage always gives me great closeups of the members that's for sure, and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

Someone threw the Union Jack flag onto the stage, signed with various messages from MYGIRLs and Insoo held it up whilst he was talking to the audience,

Seyong is probably one of the most charismatic members, he seems like a member who seems rather like a casanova aha!

Insoo's voice is amazing live, just like the other members. His rendition of "See You Again" with JunQ was probably one of my favourite English covers from K-Pop idols.

Okay, let's be honest here, I was literally right in front of him when he was performing his dance solo to "Sex You" and when he stripped his shirt, I was mentally nose-bleeding. I mean who wouldn't if you saw a sight like this less than a metre away.

I couldn't help but capture many pictures of Gunwoo. His smile was definitely a winner in the fan's hearts and he definitely a bright character, he seemed to always be smiling even when I saw him before the concert.

JunQ, what can I say, his rapping skills are definitely on pointe. Two of my volunteer friends, Shirley and Aneeqa definitely fell in love with this guy by the end of the concert that's for sure.

Chaejin is probably the cutest member. His actions to the crowd was just undeniably adorable. Whether it was putting a rose in Seyong's hair or just making cute actions to the audience members.

The set list for the night is listed below:
Intro: Get Ready Just That Little Thing Baby I'm sorry Message Day by day Hello and goodbye 잠을 너무 못 잤나봐 My Love SEYONG SOLO Insoo&JunQ - See you again 끌리짆아 EDM Luvtaker EDM Reason 너무 very 막 Just Tell Me Summer Party We are the night Personally, loved so many of the songs, I came back singing "Day by Day" and after the concert I couldn't stop listening to MYNAME. After the concert, we moved onto the Meet&Greet session. This meant assisting with the fans making sure they got a handshake from each member and then in groups of 10, a photo was taken with the fans and group. There were so many gifts given, so it was hard to keep track, and unfortunately we couldn't let fans take up too much time at the Meet&Greet session. After we finished with all the fans, the concert agent allowed us all to get into a photo for ourselves which was super sweet!

The struggle when you there are two cameras and you don't know which one to look at...

And of course we had to take a work selfie after we finally finished! Everyone was relieved to be finished, with a big thank you to all the volunteers along with our personal Korean translator, Katy! Don't think we would of survived without her support aha!

Work selfie after the MYNAME Meet & Greet session 💁🏻

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Sep 12, 2016 at 4:52am PDT

As we got ready to leave, we took a couple more selfies, but who knew that members of MYNAME would end up accidentally photobombing our selfies aha! I remember JunQ's reponse when he realised he had accidentally got into the photo, the mere "oh" response made me laugh. However, we ended up inviting him to join our selfie, which he kindly accepted... But then Seyong ended up photobombing our second picture aha!

I swear the amount of times MYNAME members photobombed our selfies 😂 Last night's concert was amazing, it was great working with MYNAME 🎤

A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on Sep 10, 2016 at 5:25pm PDT

Overall, despite how stressful and tiring the day was, it was indeed worthwhile! I hope you guys enjoyed reading the post, and how it can be somewhat relatable as a K-Pop fan. But one thing is for sure, if you want to gain opportunities like this one, create a name for yourself! Don't be afraid to ask about these opportunities, it's always worth trying out. What's the worse that can happen? You get rejected? That's life! Good luck to you guys if you try out for these opportunities, and I hope you tune into my next post. Thank you!

PS: Don't forget to check out the photos taken of the concert. You can check out photos on my FB page, along with pictures taken by KIUK!

(Just click on the KIUK picture and you should be able to go through the pictures by using clicking left and right).

UPDATE:

Don't forget to check out Stevie's video on his MYNAME concert experience! It's a super interesting video, and definitely worth a watch! Check it out below:

12:16 No comments

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