North
Korea: More revealing than
Mickey James Pearson
SEOUL - The world's media buzzed with
rumor over the weekend as the Associated Press
broke the news that the stage of Pyongyang's
latest musical gala had been dominated by North
Koreans dressed up as famous Disney characters.
According to the videos and images released by
North Korea's official YouTube channel
Uriminzokkiri, not only were Mickey Mouse and
friends a central part, the entire performance was
accompanied by various clips from Disney classics
via a large TV screen in the background.
While headlines focused on the more
sensational aspect of quintessentially American
Mickey Mouse in what many see as a deeply
anti-American state, many observers failed to pick
up on an even more significant change the original
article revealed: the short skirts, high heels and
shoulder-revealing dresses worn by
the all-female Moranbong
Band at the center of the performance.
Seasoned Pyongyang-watchers will know that
Disney characters are not a rare occurrence in
North Korea. From school children's backpacks to
washing-up bowls in state-run markets, the smiley
face of Mickey Mouse is perhaps a little more
omnipresent than we think. And the use of Disney
film clips should also come as no shock: thousands
of North Korean citizens use small,
easily-concealed USB sticks to transfer foreign
films and e-books between each other, creating one
of the few genuinely social networks of its kind.
Titanic, Snow White and a few other
classics are not necessarily state-approved
material, but they are fairly well-known titles
among many North Koreans.
Another often
forgotten but nevertheless important point to note
in the on-going relationship is the involvement of
North Korean workers in creating Disney classics
The Lion King and Pocahontas, both
of which were reportedly outsourced for animation
to graduates of the Pyongyang College of Arts in a
process set up by Korean-American producer Nelson
Shin (the same man responsible for outsourcing
animation for The Simpsons to South Korea
in the 1980s). The existence of Disney characters
in North Korean popular culture is therefore not a
surprise.
What should have raised a few
eyebrows was the significant departure from the
more traditional and conservative dress usually
worn by North Korean state-performers.
Instead of chima-jeogori (the
traditional Korean outfit for women known for its
bright colors and simple design), the girls of the
Moranbong Band wore short, black, strapless
dresses and adopted more modern hairstyles than
the typically 1950s-style quiffs and plaits that
the state normally approves of. For the first
time, legs, shoulders and arms were exposed in a
spectacle that would have perhaps looked more at
home on state television in the South than the
North.
Thanks largely to ethnic-Korean
traders who frequently pass between the more
porous border between Korea and Northeastern
China, South Korean trends have often trickled
across to urbanites in the North. For example,
with the current boom in mobile-phone handsets,
some of the 1 million gradually more tech-savvy
North Korean subscribers are now resorting to
South Korean equivalents of "LOL" and popular
emoticons in their text messages.
However,
this kind of imported slang normally remains at a
colloquial level and is unlikely to be recognized
by the state itself, especially when Pyongyang has
worked hard in recent years to keep its identity
distinct and impervious to outside influence.
But if we take into account the fact that
Kim Jong-eun was said to have personally organized
the creation of The Moranbong Band, this tolerance
of a contemporary and revealing image in the
public domain might represent a more pragmatic and
liberalized view towards the arts under Kim's new
leadership. Keen to show that North Korea is a
"strong and prosperous nation", perhaps the
youthful face of the new regime is more in touch
with how it is perceived from the outside.
In the 1980s, North Korean fashion was far
more relaxed than it was under Kim Jong-Il in the
1990s - could this be another in a long line of
attempts by the new government to model Kim
Jong-eun's leadership on that of his grandfather?
If his clothes, hairstyle and his coached
public-speaking voice are anything to go by, such
a suggestion might not be as bizarre as it
appears.
However, until things change and
access to information becomes easier, we'll
probably never know. Working with North Korea is
notoriously difficult, and most of what we know,
or what we think we know, is often based on
second-hand sources or educated guesses.
Nevertheless, we should at least have an idea
about what to look for when evidence of tiny
changes emerge. In this case, the clothes worn by
Kim's favorite new band were far more revealing
than the old news that Mickey Mouse is big in
Pyongyang.
James Pearson is
editor ofkoreaBANG,
a daily-updated blog that translates popular and
trending articles from the South Korean Internet
into English. He is also involved in DPRK-related
NGO work and makes regular trips to both North and
South Korea.
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