North Korea’s Mass Games are surreal, photogenic
The Boston Phoenix’s Web site features a captivating photo essay on the Mass Games, North Korea’s creepy annual homegrown take on the Olympics (less swimming, more joyless dancing). The Mass Games are “state ideology set to music, says photographer Michael Gao, who also calls them “the most surreal sight in the most bizarre nation on the planet.” After viewing his photographs, I’m not inclined to disagree.
Photo credit Michael Gao, Boston Phoenix
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
While there are plenty of things you can say about the situation in North Korea, it's unfair to describe the Mass Games as 'creepy' and 'joyless'. It is a spectacular choreographic achievement which left me lost for words when I saw it in 2007. In his excellent book 'Comrades and Strangers', Michael Harrold (who spent several years living and working in Pyongyang) says that everyone he ever met who performed in the Mass Games was immensely proud to have done so. Propaganda aside, I would have nothing but praise for the personal achievement of the thousands of individuals who take part in this event.
Posted by David on Thu 14 Aug 2008 at 05:58 AM
In North Korea you have no choice other than to say you are immensely proud to participate in the Mass Games. To do otherwise means forced labor camps.
Posted by Phillip on Fri 15 Aug 2008 at 11:47 AM
@Phillip: That was sort of my take, too. I think David is right that the Mass Games are a spectacular choreographic achievement. Certainly Michael Gao's photographs are breathtaking. But it seems like that kind of choreography can't be achieved without some sort of compulsion. And compulsion, at its heart, is joyless.
@David: Am I way off base here? I've never been to the DPRK, so it's possible that what seems creepy to the outsider might actually be very special to those who have lived their entire lives in that environment.
Posted by Justin Peters on Fri 15 Aug 2008 at 12:16 PM
I've never been to the DPRK, so it's possible that what seems creepy to the outsider might actually be very special to those who have lived their entire lives in that environment.
Now we know why the caged bird sings.
Posted by TDC on Fri 15 Aug 2008 at 12:51 PM
Hey, when in Pyongyang...
Speaking of which, Guy Delisle's book "Pyongyang" is a pretty engaging take on North Korea. He spent a month there supervising an animation studio a few years back, and kept a sketchbook/diary which he later published. If I'm recalling correctly, he smuggled a copy of Orwell's "1984" into the country and gave it to his translator to read. A few days later, Delisle asked the translator what he thought of the book. The translator coughed nervously and said that he didn't like science fiction. Ha. Anyway, the whole thing's worth a read.
Posted by Justin Peters on Fri 15 Aug 2008 at 01:09 PM
@Justin: I think you're right - what seems weird to Westerners may well seem special to those that live in DPRK. If you've not seen the film 'A State of Mind', you should get a copy on dvd. It gives you some sort of insight into the state of mind of two girls in training for the Mass Games, and how they love to work hard to be the perfect communist by being a tiny part of a huge performance. Of course, if they had doubts, they would never have been able to voice them, so we can't ever really know what's going on inside their heads. But when our guide in DPRK talked about relatives who had taken part in the Mass Games, it was with a sense of pride and honour that she did so. Also, residents of Pyongyang live comparatively privileged lives (though not necessarily by our standards), so they are less likely to question the propaganda.
Posted by David on Sat 16 Aug 2008 at 05:22 AM
I don't think it's so much that the event itself is creepy, but the city itself (is propoganda, a facade). If every thing looks pretty, Kim can pretend like it is. There are nothing but dirt roads into pyongyan, but huge monuments, and a partially finish world's-tallest-hotel, which they abandond a decade ago, and have apparently just started again. The whole country is a dustbowl, people are starving, and they go out of their way perform public executions everyday. The few elite that have access to public computers, have extremely restricted access to the WWW. There is only 1 channel in pyongyang, and they're all movies starting, writtent and direct by their "Dear Leader" The loyal North Korean soldiers sneak over the paralell at night to cut off S.Korean heads, and are rewarded for each head, while the S. Koreans continue to send humanitarian aid when Sun allows it. Every aspect of this "country" is creepy, eerie and highly demented. The streets of pyongyang are generally empty for a reason; It gives me chills to know a place like this exisists.
Posted by David J on Thu 16 Jul 2009 at 03:24 PM