A Fantastic Journey to North Korea

( Original text published in Good Youth Poison Room - Philosophy Department )

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Let me have a wonderful trip, let me remember how happy I am.

Make me curious about the world, make me sleepy and playful.

How to remember this journey? I think of what Lu Xun said: "When I am silent, I feel fulfilled; when I speak, I feel empty at the same time." This journey is unique, so unique that I can't even think about it and condense it in words. But when I think that these experiences will disappear with the wind of time, I feel even more empty. So I can't help but write.

no the same

        After graduating from Taiwan that year, I had already gone to North Korea with a few friends. Of course, we all embrace the novelty mindset. I am a Zuojiao, and I would like to see how this one of the few remaining socialist countries in the world is doing, and why it is doing this. [1] As a result, we survived for several days in a big drama, cooperating with their performance. It's quite enjoyable to be like an undercover agent, investigating all the absurdities and flaws in this drama.

Four years later, I never imagined that the North Korea I would see would be so different. Four years ago, as soon as I got off the plane, my friend's tablet was confiscated by the customs (it seems to be my fault, haha). Inspection; four years ago, I was on the train driving to Dandong, desperately hiding the photos in my mobile phone, and finally because of a package of Double Happiness, the customs stopped the inspection. Four years later, we never asked us to take out the mobile phone at all; Four years ago, Pyongyang looked like an underground city where conspiracies were being hatched and terrorist weapons were being developed. North Korean "soldiers" hard at work on construction sites can be seen everywhere. Four years later, those terrible construction sites have been transformed into a glamorous "Future Science Street", leading to the utopia not far away, and not a single soldier-like worker has appeared again. The team leader partner who has been to North Korea eight times told me that before, people in Pyongyang didn’t hum when they watched fireworks or football games. This time, during the countdown event in Pyongyang, all the Pyongyang people around us seemed to be participating in Clockenflap. put.

Everything is like the harbinger of "reform and opening up". As a result, as their great Marshal Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in danced cha-cha in Panmunjom, and talked and laughed happily with US President Trump, the North Koreans seemed to release themselves from depression and become individuals from the collective.

in a foreign land

        Modern people love to travel, but why do they want to travel? In this age of information explosion, throwing yourself into a foreign land may be the most important value of travel. For Hong Kong people, what place is more worthy of the word "exotic" than North Korea? In those days, we broke into the living places of Pyongyang people, tried to integrate into this "foreign land", and did all kinds of the most novel and ordinary things.

Buying something in a shopping mall is normal, but buying something in a shopping mall packed with Pyongyang people and waiting in line with them for half an hour is novel. Cutting hair is common, but cutting hair alone in a room full of Koreans is a novelty. It is common to watch fireworks during the New Year’s Eve countdown, but it is novel to walk out of the main road with Pyongyang people in the middle of the night.

Surprised faces looked at us who entered in disorder. They are shooting us, and we are shooting them. Who is traveling and who is the attraction? Those of us in Kim Il Sung Square are also a little confused. On this drunken night, while being pushed by the Pyongyang uncle beside us, we watched the fiery trees and silver flowers blooming on the Juche Thought Tower. For a moment, we all forgot that we were in Pyongyang and our original identities, and we just swayed and shouted to the rhythm with thousands of them. For a moment, we seem to be all part of this "imagined community", witnessing "human progress and harmony" together.

However, it was only for a moment. As a "free man" who can think rationally, he quickly knows how to take a step back and ask: Is this a whitewashed peace, or the truth?

unfree happiness

        Are they happy? This is the question every "free" traveler asks when he visits North Korea. You think: "Looking at the fireworks in the sky, they smile so happily and sincerely, they are all very happy." But soon you think: "No, this is just an anesthetic, living in such a totalitarian country They cannot be happy."

Then you think about what you saw when you visited the kindergarten. It was a shiny building, dressed up to look like a school. The "principal" first takes you to see the sleeping triplet babies, and a weird nausea rushes into your head. Then you see a group of kids learning how to sing about the Kim family. Finally, there is the talent show of "elite students". You think: "Isn't this "Brave New World"? They are brainwashed from birth, how can they be happy?" But soon you think: "At least they won't starve to death, they can be in this play It’s already pretty good to play this kind of role. What’s more, what’s the difference between us? If you look at the current primary and secondary schools, don’t they also instill “correct” values, add value to students, and do a good job for them to enter the society? Are you ready? Where is the difference?" You can't answer.

On New Years Day we went to something close to a carnival. In that square, there are many primary and middle school students. There was joy and laughter. What are those children in Pyongyang playing? Jumping rope, running around, a shuttlecock with only one piece of iron, and socks that are thrown like a ball. In short, they are all extremely "primitive" "toys". But they were all having fun, really having fun. In that scene, it is hard for you to imagine that all this is still a whitewashed peace. After all, why do we, who come from the so-called free world, accuse their smiles of being fake and judge whether they are happy or not? You can't answer.

        Perhaps, when we face them, we still wonder: "Are they really happy when they smile so brightly?" This doubt itself shows that happiness is not equal to happiness. Maybe their smiles are real, maybe they are happy and happy. But they are still missing something. "The unreflected life is not worth living." Socrates said. What really puzzles us is not whether they are happy or not, but whether they are happy or not, and whether their life is worth living. The reason why the kindergarten makes me sick is not because those children will starve to death soon, but because of the overwhelming lies that completely destroy human dignity from the bud. "Freedom, reason, introspection, these possibilities are what separates us from them!" This is your last resistance.

But, "freedom, rationality, introspection, isn't it another kind of brainwashing in the modern world? This is just another capitalist ideology?" You still can't find the answer in the end.

Utopia

Freedom and autonomy are actually Marx's ideals. Many people in this world once believed that these values ​​can only be realized in a Marxist utopia. Treat each other as equals and express yourself sincerely. The so-called "progress and harmony of mankind" is just that simple.

This socialist dream is so simple that it seems to have been realized on this journey. Marx's utopia of equality and freedom is in the bar on the forty-seventh floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel. In the past few days in North Korea, we talked about everything. Talk about music, talk about politics, talk about mathematics, talk about philosophy, talk about Hong Kong, talk about North Korea, talk about the world. The problem of capitalism may be like those new clusters of buildings pretending to be kindergartens, which are glamorous, but they can only accommodate one form of life. "Go to North Korea? Why don't you go to Japan to enjoy it during your vacation?", "Are you reading Baishui 's article on Nietzsche 's philosophy? Why don't you just scroll through your IG photos after work?" The marginalized people of society do not necessarily refer to those who are materially poor , Those who endure the Great Hunger in the social gap and struggle to survive are also "marginal". In this "free" capitalist society, thirst for knowledge, curiosity about the world, appreciation for art, pity for suffering, and respect for others have become strange words. People who feel a little bit about these things will always feel lonely in society.

Thank you to everyone I met on this journey, especially our roommates. We all know we are not alone. On the forty-seventh floor of Yanggakdo Hotel, drinking Daedonggang beer, discussing Juche, the meaning of travel, and the modern world. This was an incredible experience.

It's still early, don't open your eyes.

Goodbye.

[1] To be precise, North Korea has changed from a socialist state to a Juche state.

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