Former K-pop entertainer Rebekah Kim will give a presentation titled “Hi, Seoul! Nice to Meet You: My Journey into K-pop” Thursday, March 28, 2019. The program will take place in Business Administration A102. Event sponsors are the Center for Korean Studies and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Asian Studies Program.

Kim, a Honolulu resident, was a member of the K-pop girl group After School from 2008 to 2011. The group won numerous awards, including the Korean Popular Culture and Arts Award in 2011, and was ranked among the top ten best K-pop girl groups. It was “among the first groundbreaking girl groups that represent the rise of K-pop as global music,” according to Jayson Chun, associate professor of history at the University of Hawai‘i at West Oahu.

Chun will begin the program at 4:30 p.m. with an introductory talk, “The K-pop Phenomenon.” Chun is writing a book exploring how much of the music in East Asia is transnational music with heavy U.S. influence.

Hanwoori follows Chun at 5:00 p.m. with a K-pop dance demonstration.

Kim, known as Bekah in her After School days, will talk about her life as a K-pop idol beginning at 5:30 p.m.

This program is free and open to the public. For information about the Center for Korean Studies, including information about access for the handicapped, telephone the Center at (808) 956-7041. For further information about the program, contact Prof. Cathryn Clayton, chair of the Asian Studies Program, at cclayton@hawaii.edu or Prof. Jayson Chun at jmchun@hawaii.edu.