Cultural Relations
Yongusil 45: PRC Power Consolidation, the Korean War, and the “Cold Front” of Historical Research in Hong Kong
In a conference which took place on September 15-16 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an array of new scholarship was presented which indicated the scope and depth of the Chinese Communist Party’s power consolidation during the Korean War. Sino-NK’s own Adam Cathcart presented his work alongside several up-and-coming students and established scholars.
Yongusil 35: Qualitative Inquiry from Pyongyang to the Illinois Prairie
The 10th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, starting May 21, will cover a number of analytic bases, from conceptions of Utopia in American children’s literature to Chinese governmentality and Koreatown’s place in transnational urbanization. Sino-NK recaps the forthcoming event.
A Bifurcated Review of De-bordering Korea: Tangible and Intangible Legacies of the Sunshine Policy
Seven full years have passed since the second and final “sunshine policy” president, the late Roh Moo-hyun, left office. Yet debate over the historic value of the decade of sunshine persists. In Sino-NK’s latest review, two members of the team look at a brand new Routledge edited volume that attempts to assess the social legacy of the era.
China’s Soft Power Strategy and the DPRK
Are the Chinese really “ahead of the game” when it comes to their North Korea policy, or is this long-held assumption no longer valid? Adam Cathcart and Franz Bleeker examine Chinese “soft power” over North Korea from the Chinese perspective.
Sino-NK 2013 Rewind: Pop Politics and the Narrative of the Bizarre
Sherri L. Ter-Molen takes the “outside” tack on North Korean cultural production and media engagement in 2013. From Dennis Rodman to Jang Sung-taek via Angry Birds and the Samjiyon.
Yongusil 21: North Korean Review on the Unhasu Orchestra in Paris and the AP in Pyongyang
The Unhasu Orchestra has disappeared from North Korean cultural life. Adam Cathcart and Steven Denney explore that orchestra’s role (and that of the AP) in diplomacy within North Korea’s political repertoire, in a newly-published scholarly article for the North Korean Review.
Mass Games for a Mass Audience: Another Sign of Cultural Diplomacy?
With Seoul and Pyongyang both set to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, English- and Korean-language media pick up on different points of a similar theme. Is the DPRK reaching out to foreign audiences for its “Victory Day”?
Eternal Recurrence: North Korean Iconography
Highlighting continuities and nuclear disjunctures in North Korean depictions of the Kim family, Adam Cathcart glosses a Heonik Kwon essay and tags the Mansudae Art Studios.
A Soupçon of Anger: KCNA-China File No. 23
Looking back at a period of bilateral agony, Sino-NK returns to December 2012, capturing several critical months of North Korean discussion about China.
