Home Forums Short Online Seminars Two Koreas, Summer 2020 Session 5 (July 23) - Depictions of North Korea

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  • #43789
    Hilda Dixon
    Spectator

    Juana Evink, what is worrisome is that after 20+ plus years of malnutrition, North Koreans are 5 inches shorter compared with South Koreans. The lack of good food has also impacted their cognitive abilities, too.  I just wonder what the Kim monarchy has done in order to preserve the legitimacy of its existence. A good leader wants that their citizens grow in all the different human domains. Instead, we see many of the socialization scenarios where the Kim monarchy has persistently embedded through different collective experiences and activities that loyalty to the Kim family should be first and should be perceived as the greater virtue. The propaganda is first to “guide” the entire society in all its elements.  

     

    #44081
    Julie Wakefield
    Spectator

    Amazing read by a genuinely nice person! I was fortunate to attend a seminar at Stanford through SPICE (https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/)and he was a guest speaker one morning. Then I was fortunate to see him speak in Reno (where I live) later that year as a part of a literary community project. He allowed my students to have their pictures taken with him and he signed books for them! https://125.stanford.edu/adam-johnson-writer-of-uncommon-experience/

    He also talked about one of his classes at Stanford in which the students write and illustrate graphic novels then they get published. So cool!

    #44204
    Juana Evink
    Spectator

    The reading by Amy Qin "North Korean Orchestra gives an emotional concert in the South," shows how most North Koreans view their neighbors. There is a quote in the reading that resonated with me, since before taking seminars with USC-China Institute, I also thought that all North Koreans were unsophisticated. Qin quotes, "“But they were much more sophisticated than I expected,” Mr. Lee said. “It made me more open to the idea of unification.” With this quote Qin introdcues that impact that the North Korean orchestra had in some South Koreans, some who had never seen a North Korean in person before the performance. After reading the above quote, I too believe that tehre is hope for a Korean inification some day.

    #44205
    Juana Evink
    Spectator

    Hi  Hilda,

    I enjoyed reading your post about "Flowers of Fire," since I haven't had the chance to read it yet. However, I have read in the past "The Cranes," which if I remember correctly aslo deals with two friends who were separated after the Korean War.  The cranes is a metaphor for this situation of two friends being separated after the Korean War, just like Flowers of Fire. I agree both stories are a metaphor for what happen to Korea after the war. Some Koreans believe that there is a chance for reunification after decades of separation and tension between the two countries.

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