SCMP/AP: Harry Potter, Bollywood, hot pants and K-pop: in North Korea, Kim Jong-un’s cultural revolution gathers speed
* North Korea has long dismissed Western pop culture as bourgeois and corrupt, but lately it has adopted a more relaxed attitude
* Kim-approved changes include grittier TV shows, pop music and even a factory making fancy footwear
Dancers in hot pants. Factories pumping out Air Jordan lookalikes. TV dramas that are actually fun to watch.
North Korean pop culture, long dismissed by critics as a kitschy throwback to the dark days of Stalinism, is getting a major upgrade under leader Kim Jong-un.
The changes are being seen in everything from television dramas and animations to the variety and packaging of consumer goods, which have improved significantly under Kim.
Whether it’s a defensive attempt to keep up with South Korea or an indication that Kim is willing to embrace aspects of Western consumer culture that his predecessors might have viewed as suspiciously bourgeois isn’t clear.
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WNU Editor: North Korea cannot stop the smuggling of USB drives, CDs, and other cultural products. This is an acknowledgement that they cannot stop cultural change.
