Apple's old work repost series: North and South (South Korea) family

Foreword: In Hong Kong, there are too many digital codes, 8964, 71, 689, 831, 612, 101 (read: 11), 721, and even 2 million + 1. The real Hong Kong people must know the story behind them. Of course, the numbers are getting more and more Many, sometimes need to be reminded. What day is 624? It's the day the last Apple Daily was published, and it's been a year! I was fortunate enough to have contributed to the Apple website, but once Apple was destroyed, all the text, pictures and videos came to nothing. Some people have already put old articles back on the Internet, but there are too many. At this moment, I specially selected ten of my old articles to repost here, to commemorate and refuse to forget.

Original title on the webpage: Shadow Flowers Film Review | A North Korean aunt accidentally stayed in Seoul for seven years, "Homecoming to the North" records that "the North Korean defector" tried every means to go home and break through the barrier to no avail

"Shadow Flowers" is a rather unusual documentary, telling the story of a so-called "North Korean defector". But the protagonist didn't flee North Korea voluntarily, she just came to South Korea unwillingly. She tried every means to go home and reunite with her family, but to no avail.

The protagonist is an ordinary woman who lives in Pyongyang with her husband and daughter, as well as her elderly parents. She is plain but content. In her own eyes, it is a life with an explosive happiness index. Why did she end up in South Korea, because she has a chronic illness, she believes that China's medical technology is advanced, and she has relatives in China, so she went to China to seek medical treatment. But when she arrived, she found out that everything costs money. She said that everything is free in North Korea, and she thought it was the same in China. She had no money, and her relatives had already taken care of food and housing. She was embarrassed and went to work to earn money. The wages were not much. Dao heard Tu said that going to Seoul to work was the easiest way to earn money, so she followed a large group of people to Seoul. At the airport, because she was North Korean, she was treated as a traitor, completely passive. It was 2011.

According to the director in the video QnA, in South Korea, North Korean defectors are generally arranged to learn to adapt to life, and then arrange work and settle down according to their background and experience. The fastest case is to apply for a passport and become a South Korean after half a year of arriving in South Korea. However, due to the political situation of North and South Korea, citizens are not allowed to travel across borders to visit relatives at will. They must apply to the government for very convincing reasons, which are generally not accepted. Part of the film was filmed in Pyongyang, and the director was unable to go there in person. He asked a Finnish director he knew for help. The foreign director went to China twice, and then took the nearly 23-hour train to Pyongyang. The North Korean side also sent personnel to follow the director throughout the process to monitor his filming content, so the clips were not easy to come by.

The North Korean aunt has a lot of personality. She is eager to go home and reunite with her family, and gradually realizes the complexity of the situation, but she is isolated and sometimes behaves abnormally. Originally, she had to report regularly, but she refused to ask for leave because of her work, and she would scold each other on the phone with the staff. She later received an interview on TV and asked for help to allow her to return to North Korea, so she was spotted by the director and contacted her to make a proposal for this documentary. It was 2014. Unable to achieve her wish through official channels, she used her own method to seek political asylum in the Vietnamese embassy. During the Ice Hockey World Cup, because the North Korean national team was participating, she tried to break into the team's locker room and contact the team's staff. Even the team chasing bus, like those star chasers, was surrounded by the South Korean police and could not break out.

What excited her the most was the first video call with her family. On the tiny phone screen, she finally saw the faces of her family members. Everyone could only hug and cry, but couldn't say a complete sentence. In fact, it was because he was careful with his words, fearing that he would hurt his family by saying the wrong thing, because the phone was bound to be overheard. When the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party did not communicate with each other since then, and even letters could not be exchanged. It was only gradually opened in the 1990s. The first batch of Taiwanese who returned to the mainland to visit relatives had the same situation. Back then, Beyond's "Earth" was a description of the ego in that era.

Relatives are separated from each other, but cannot meet because of the political situation. This kind of thing seems to have been happening since ancient times. Sometimes, the atmosphere is not too tense, and it can still be carried out in a low-key manner with the regime opening its eyes and closing its eyes. At that time, Hong Kong was between China and Taiwan, so we had to be careful. Many Hong Kong citizens were not born locally and could not obtain any kind of passport issued by the United Kingdom. The Hong Kong government replaced it with a certificate of identity, referred to as Cl. At that time, not too many people traveled abroad, and most of them were from countries near Southeast Asia, including Taiwan. However, to travel to the mainland (and Macau) to visit relatives, you must use another document called the Hong Kong Repatriation Permit, and you cannot use the CI. There are rumors that it is precisely to prevent the governments of China and Taiwan from knowing that the holder of the document has ever entered and exited the border of both sides. At that time, Taiwan was under martial law. If someone knew that someone had visited the mainland and came back to Taiwan, they would have been refused entry, or they might have been detained as a spy.

This kind of thing seems very far away, but in fact it has continued in different forms. For example, those who are on medical parole, if they are not well-known and low-key requirements, there are examples of successful return to China, but if it is Wang Dan, I believe the chance is very small. Speaking of the aunt in the movie, could her high-profile shouting be the reason why the South Korean authorities have been obstructing her? Auntie sometimes decides to lose, and probably lives alone in South Korea. When she saw that South Korean President Park Geun-hye was ousted, she was also very excited. Although her reasons were very personal, the president couldn't help me, so there is new hope for a new one. And seeing the leaders of the two Koreas meet and sign a new ceasefire agreement, the situation between the two sides eased, which aroused her fighting spirit even more. And it wasn't long before she finally got her passport, having been denied two previous applications.

She was full of hope, especially bought a few household appliances to take back, and said that she slipped her tongue, and the household appliances were still relatively advanced in South Korea. However, she started receiving government notices banning her from travelling for a month, citing an ongoing investigation. It's a bit frustrating, but as she herself said, I've waited seven years, not one more month. After that, I received this kind of letter once a month, and it was postponed for a month without a deadline. Both the director and the executive producer had been optimistic that the movie would have a happy ending, but the director told the audience that, as far as he knew, Big Mom was still in South Korea.

When the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to meet, and the US President intervened, everyone signed an agreement, what is peaceful reunification, the North and the South are one family, blood is thicker than water, and the release of political prisoners from a humanitarian standpoint once brought a ray of light. It is a pity that the vision of the upper class cannot be given. The ordinary wish of a humble commoner. Everyone can laugh at her ignorance and brainwashing, but she is always a living person. Is such a punishment disproportionate?