[KS] KCTV's hour-long paean to Kim Jong-un yesterday can now be seen in full by all
Frank Hoffmann
hoffmann at koreaweb.ws
Tue Jan 10 13:15:47 EST 2012
>I agree; if there is no image, there is no news ...
Let me then rephrase the main point I was trying
to make (that did not come over, I think, was not
supposed to be our reception of NK)--and this may
more be a question to be discussed from a
sociological point of view:
I do not wonder so much about the reception of
North Korean paraphernalia as communist chic
here, there is no doubt that this is what
happens. The question is, to my mind at least: is
NK outliving itself while it turns its country
and political culture into a paraphernalia flea
market for the rest of the world? NK propaganda
posters and "art" are serving the voyeuristic
needs of the international (incl. South Korean)
public, and that is not a public of "Korea
watchers" and other certified spies anymore but a
very general wider public that talks this out
over Facebook and posts things in YouTube. So far
I am still talking of our side of the fence, of
course. What has changed is that there is now no
filter through those Korea watchers anymore, they
are being replaced by an immediate
reception--WITHOUT the authoritative filer on our
end, therefore a loss of authority of both sides!
(Which again will likely help to shift the
perspective of North Korea to one that is a
little less manipulated by mostly U.S. government
visions of the world.) Can you see that? North
Korea is loosing its mojo as a thread, as an
enemy country because of the way reception has
changed, especially visual reception. If North
Korea becomes a kind of Manga theme, the
country's official propaganda films (as Don Baker
also remarked) are perceived as slapstick that do
not need any further editing, then our still new
modes of communication and visual reception via
the Internet and all its tools--and this is now
an INTERACIVE reception process--now allow the
spectators a direct gaze and a direct response,
and this inevitably results in Stalinist
propaganda to be turned into a comic at first,
but results in a more balanced view over the long
run. That is what happens on our side of the
fence and that is a major part of why visuality
now plays such a big role, and why the perception
of North Korea is changing.
Though, what I was hoping to discuss is if the
situation is not possibly going into a similar
direction in North Korea itself. In a monarchic
system the leadership cult can seemingly be
reduplicated indefinitely. In Europe the
remaining monarchies have over the past hundred
years just been operating as tokens of democratic
states, build into democratic systems--with
exception of Spain, where a dictatorial monarchy
survived until the 1970s. In North Korea such a
cult reduplication is still happening under
serious conditions with serious consequences, not
just to feed the yellow presses with nice visuals
and stories. Seeing their own propaganda films,
posters, "art" being understood as slapsticks and
Mangas overseas is one thing, but actually--AND
that is what happens--there is a mass production
and mass reproduction of these kind of images for
a foreign market (done in North Korea to an
absolutely amazing degree). That again is one
further step into a very different direction than
we saw in the past. If our new modes of gazing at
North Korea are voyeuristic (see above), then
what does that make North Korean traders and
middle-aged party leaders who turn themselves and
their leaders and official ideals into objects of
communist chic paraphernalia, converting their
official visual icons into international sales
objects and prototypes for computer games while
still ruling the country? Nobody should care
about those leaders. Yet, this must have a
possibly decisive impact on the people in North
Korea, at least in P'yôngyang where there is
quite a bit of contact to the outside world. If
the middle-aged party leadership is already now
treating the Kim family cult icons like Mao
Zedong was treated since the early 1990s inside
and outside of China, and with all the exchanges,
Koreans from China and elsewhere who visit North
Korea, then such a change of perception from
serious thread to Mickey Mouse might well
undermine any sort of leadership. No? (Maybe not
so in China, because their is a bargain, because
people get their economic needs being taken care
of ... but in North Korea?) There are
preconditions for state initiated "cults"--and I
wonder if this will destroy these conditions for
some sections of the population, which would then
create space for alternative thinking and
movements. That may have already happened.
Best,
Frank Hoffmann
--
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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