They have contributed to the local art scene in many ways

Originally published on Global Voices

A painting by a Korean artist at the Art Museum named after Abylkhan Kasteyev in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Photo by the author, used with permission.

Starting in 1937, nearly 175,000 Koreans were forcibly deported from the Far Eastern Territory of the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. Descendants of the deported Koreans still live in Central Asia and are determined to make their history and presence known through art and by sharing their culture.

Their self-designation is Koryo-saram, a term used to describe ethnic Koreans of the Soviet Union. Their ancestors were deported under Stalin's decree “On the eviction of the Korean population from the border regions of the Far Eastern Territory.” At the time, Central Asia was part of the Soviet Union.

The decision to deport the Koreans was made to prevent their possible cooperation with Japan, with which the Soviet Union had hostile relations at the time. In September 1937, a rapid operation began, and more than 100,000 people, declared “unreliable,” were forcibly resettled to sparsely populated regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Koreans became one of the first peoples of the Soviet Union subjected to mass deportation.

Here is a YouTube video about the deportation of Koreans.

In Kazakhstan alone, there are over 100,000 local Koreans today. They are actively involved in the cultural and social life of the country. The country’s largest city and cultural capital, Almaty, is home to the Republican State Academic Korean Musical Comedy Theatre, the first national Korean theatre in the world. It also hosts the Republican Korean newspaper Koryo Ilbo, which is published in three languages: Korean, Kazakh, and Russian.

In addition, the city’s main art museum, named after Abylkhan Kasteyev, houses works by dozens of artists, ethnic Koreans exiled to the country and their descendants, who have become part of the region’s artistic landscape. Because of Central Asia’s isolation from the world during the Soviet era, this group remains little studied outside the Central Asian region and Korea itself.

Global Voices visited this museum with Elizaveta Kim, an art historian and employee of the museum, to explore the archive of Korean art in Kazakhstan and learn more about the most influential Korean artists.

In the following section, Kim talks about Korean artists and introduces their works through a first-person account. Journalist Alexandra Sharopina contributed to the article's edits.

Elivaveta Kim standing in front of her father Mikhail Kim's painting called “Mechta” (Dream) at the museum. Photo by the author, used with permission.

Elizaveta Kim: Shaping the local art scene

The first of the important Korean artists for us was Kim Hyun Nyun (1908–1994). He graduated from the Soviet Academy of Arts in 1937 and was deported to us from Leningrad. When the deportation began, he could not even come home to Vladivostok because he was told that everyone had been evicted and there was no one there anymore.

As our Kazakh artists, for example, Uke Azhiyev, recalled: “As students (in 1937–1938), we loved to run to Kim Hyun Nyun’s exhibitions because he painted large-scale historical works, multi-figure, with complex lighting. We learned from him because we had not seen such serious academic painting in Kazakhstan in those years.”

Kim Hyun Nyun taught at the college, worked in a newspaper publishing house, was involved in theatrical design, and painted pictures. There was a big shortage of professionals, so he was invited everywhere.

Here is a painting by Kim Hyun Nyun:

Photo by the author, used with permission.

My father, Mikhail Kim (1923–1990), was born in Vladivostok and was also deported to Kazakhstan in 1937, in his teenage years. He dreamed of graduating from the Leningrad Academy of Arts, but at that time, Koreans were not allowed to leave the country as “special settlers,” and he remained in Kazakhstan.

My father traveled to many cities in Kazakhstan. He was engaged in monumental painting. His monumental sketches are kept in our museum.

Here is a painting by Mikhail Kim called “Schastye” (Happiness):

Photo by the author, used with permission.

Another prominent artist is Boris Pak (1935–1992). When his family was deported to Kazakhstan, he was only four years old, and his mother died on the way. His father, Pyotr Pak-Ir, was a linguist, orientalist, philosopher, a major scientist, and an amazing personality.

Pak Boris received an excellent education. He graduated from the Leningrad Academy of Arts. He made wonderful illustrations for books and fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Wilhelm Hauff, and others.

Here are two book illustrations by Boris Pak:

An illustration is for the book “The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Photo by the author, used with permission.

An illustration is for the book “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Andersen. Photo by the author, used with permission.

People came to exhibitions of Pak's works and could not understand whether they were handmade. Such painstaking and delicate work. A book is a special structure; it has its own tectonics, and he took all of this into account; he calculated everything and was an excellent draftsman.

Konstantin Pak (1924–1987) was deported to Kazakhstan as a child. He worked for a long time in the Korean theater. He designed many performances there. Moreover, for a long time, the Korean and Uyghur theaters were in the same building. Their performances alternated, so Konstantin made decorations for both Korean performances and the Uyghur theater.

Here are two paintings by Konstantin Pak:

A sketch for Hong Din's play “Kim sung-der”. Photo by the author, used with permission.

A costume design for the play “Anarkhan” by D. Asimov and A. Sadyrov. Photo by the author, used with permission.

Continuing the family art tradition

Svyatoslav, Afanasy, and Sergey Kim are the second generation of Korean artists. They were born in Kazakhstan in the 1950s and are nephews of Mikhail Kim.

Svyatoslav Kim (1954–2017) worked in publishing houses for a long time. He has a perfect understanding of the structure of the book. He illustrated many books, was a laureate of various book exhibitions, and was a recognized graphic artist for books.

Here is an illustration by Svyatoslav Kim for the book “Kruglyi god” (All year around):

Photo by the author, used with permission.

Afanasy Kim (1952–1987). Svyatoslav's brother. A wonderful, talented draftsman. Unfortunately, there are no works by him in the collections of our museum.

Sergey Kim (born in 1952). He was very much looked after by Azhiev Uke, who believed in him, saying that he was a watercolorist with a God-given talent. Pavel Zaltsman also believed in him because he felt in him some continuation of the Filonov school.

Sergey is a wonderful watercolorist. There was a period when he painted teenage girls or old men. The middle generation didn't really interest him at the time — only those who were just open to life or those who had life experience.

Here is a painting by Sergey Kim:

‘Portrait of Gali Kopakli.’ Photo by the author, used with permission.

‘Portrait of Gali Kopakli.’ Photo by the author, used with permission.

For example: “Portrait of Gali Kopakli,” which is of a Moldovan girl. Pay attention to the rose at the bottom left. You can't see it right away, but it [is] a kind of color-tuning fork. And such tenderness of the image: all life is ahead, and what is there in life?

Author's note: Although uniting artists by ethnicity is not the most fruitful idea from the point of view of art history, our task in this article was not scientific but journalistic to highlight how modern Kazakh contemporary art was created with the help of different ethnic groups. A separate question is whether there is much “Koreanness” in these works, but there is definitely a lot of “Soviet Kazakhness” here — a lot.

Written by Ramil Niyazov-Adyljan

Soviet Koreans’ cultural transformation in Central Asia is still ongoing

Originally published on Global Voices

Abdusabr, Korean Muslim in Kyrgyzstan, sharing the story of his conversion to Islam. Screenshot from the Islamskii Jurnal “Umma” YouTube channel.

The story of Soviet Koreans in Central Asia keeps getting more fascinating. The YouTube video released by the Islamic magazine “Umma” in April 2023 tells the stories of six local Koreans in Kyrgyzstan who converted to Islam.

Koreans first came to Central Asia almost 90 years ago. In 1937, 171,781 Koreans living in the Soviet Union’s Far East provinces were forcibly sent to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which were under Soviet control. The authorities sent these Koreans away because they feared they were Japanese spies who might aid the enemy in the war between the Soviet Union and Japan.

Some of these deportees moved to and settled in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which is home to 17,000 Koreans. Koreans in Kyrgyzstan are mainly Christian, spread across Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant religious groups. Several dozens belong to Kyrgyzstan's small Buddhist community, consisting of around 120 members.

Local Koreans in Kyrgyzstan are substantially different from South and North Koreans. They have their own traditions and customs. They are integrated into the Kyrgyz society through local culture and interethnic marriages with Kyrgyz and other ethnicities.

Here is a YouTube video about the life of Koreans in Kyrgyzstan.

Their integration has become more complex as some started converting to Islam in the early 2000s. The six personal stories shared by “Umma” showcase this trend. All six men changed their names to fit their new identities. This name change has some precedence — Soviet authorities forced Koreans to change their names to Russian ones after their relocation to Central Asia in 1937.

Here is the YouTube video by Umma about how Koreans converted to Islam in Kyrgyzstan.

Yurii Muhammad Yusuf was the first among them to convert in 2004. His transformation is unbelievable, even to himself. “If someone told me in the early 2000s that I would read the Quran in Arabic, I would have replied that it was impossible and fantasy,” he says.

Their motivations for converting are different. Abdulvahid, formerly Vladimir, became Muslim in 2008 after his close Russian friend died after converting to Islam. After his friend had converted, he was the only non-Muslim in their three men friend group consisting of a Kyrgyz, Russian, and Korean person. He shares: “I took it [friend’s death] as a sign. Allah was telling me not to be late [to convert to Islam].” He adds, “Allah told me to be his servant, and I agreed.”

Four of them found answers to their questions about the meaning of life in Islam. Muhammad Ali shares that he converted to Islam to better deal with the voices inside his head. He believes he was possessed by jinn, evil spirits. Within a year after his conversion to Islam, the voices disappeared, and his life returned to normal.

They confess about being worried about the reactions of their friends and family to their decisions. Solih confessed: “I was anxious about what other people would say about my conversion to Islam.” In some cases, as it was with Muhammad Ali and Solih, their family members supported them and also converted. For Yurii Muhammad, it was different, and he had to cobble together a new support system. “Allah changed my family,” he explained, noting that he remarried and started a new family.

Their conversion is also the result of the re-Islamization of Kyrgyzstan, which started in 1991 after Kyrgyzstan gained independence. This process has led to an explosion in the number of mosques and madrasas (Islamic religious institutions), from 38 mosques and zero madrasas in 1991 to 2,699 mosques and 125 madrasas in 2023. Proselytization has kept pace as well, resulting in an ever-growing number of practicing Muslims and new converts. Among them are these six and other Koreans whose transformation in Central Asia is still taking place.

Written by Nurbek Bekmurzaev

The Netflix series has become an internet cultural phenomenon

Originally published on Global Voices

The groom (in blue blazer) looks for his bride at traditional Kenyan wedding ceremony that was inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game” (Image source; @ViralTeaKe via Twitter)

“Squid game,” the Netflix hit series that debuted in September has become the most-streamed television program ever and is an internet cultural phenomenon. Its reach has since gone beyond the internet and made its way into popular culture. A recent traditional Kenyan wedding ceremony was themed around the series, similarly, this year's Halloween celebrations in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa spurred an increased Google search for Squid Game-themed costumes.

“Squid Game” is a South Korean survival drama television series that revolves around a contest in which 456 deeply in debt contestants play a series of classic children's games for the chance to win 38 million US dollars in prize money, and face death if they lose.

The series — rated TV-MA for language, violence, sex, nudity, suicide, and smoking — has been streamed more than 111 million times so far. Within days of its September 17 Netflix debut, the series had taken the internet by storm, spawned Squid game challenge videos on TikTok, and inspired thousands of memes on social media.

“Squid Game” masks at a traditional wedding ceremony

A few days ago, photos and a video of a Squid Game-themed traditional wedding ceremony, known as a ngurario, began circulating on Kenyan social media. In the photos, young women line up waiting for the groom to identify his bride while wearing the famed Squid Game masks, including the square, circle, triangle, and full-black imagery. They also wore varied traditional attire, as is customary during such events in Kenya.

Originating from the Gĩkũyũ/Kikuyu community of central Kenya, the ceremony is the final part of the numerous Kikuyu Dowry and marriage ceremonies where the groom is expected to gũcagũra mũka — to identify his bride from a group of women whose identities have been deliberately concealed.

The women — often friends, siblings, or cousins of the bride — are wrapped from head to toe with khangas (wrappers) and presented in groups go the groom and the congregation.

The groom proceeds to uncover his wife by removing the head wrapping. When he identifies his bride, the ceremony is marked with loud jubilation. If he picks someone other than his bride, he will be penalized in the form of a cash payment to the bride's family. If stuck, he may request the assistance of his best man.

Wedding emcee Antony Gitau alias Mc Tony, who had taken and shared the video online, told Citizen Digital, a Kenyan media outlet, that he thought the masks each woman wore were especially symbolic. In the show, the circle, square, and triangular shapes each demonstrated the ranking of the guards. The bride aptly wore a mask with a triangle on Saturday, and according to Gitau, this was a symbol that she is always present, round the clock.

You see, from the show, you could tell the ranks and hierarchy of the guards based on the masks they wore.

Workers with square shapes oversee the other workers and the players. The triangle shape masks are traditionally the protectors/enforcers and armed with weapons.

Kenyans online found the video hilarious and ingenious:

When you thought you had seen it all then boom
A squid game themed Ruracio ??????
You gotta love Kenya guys…. pic.twitter.com/5IJ75D2Y04

— Lewis. (@Im__Lewis) October 31, 2021

Mmepeleka Squid Game Ruracio. pic.twitter.com/7RfQhJa186

— Maina | Travel ? (@AdamMaina_) October 31, 2021

You have taken Squid Game to a traditional wedding ceremony

Then there were those who speculated what would have happened had the groom picked the wrong bride:

That squid game at Ruracio — what happens if that man picks the wrong woman?

It’s trickyyyyyyyyy

— mumbi (@miss_mumbz) November 2, 2021

A Citizen Digital reporter opined: “We are just happy that the groom was not shot to death in case he picked the wrong girl in front of her parents and elders.” 

“Squid Game” Halloween costumes

Halloween — a holiday primarily celebrated in the US and Western countries on October 31 — has been catching on in some top African cities.

Since the series was released in its entirety on September 17, 2021, Google search trends indicate that interest among Kenyans, Nigerians, and South Africa has been growing steadily until the week before Halloween when searches of Squid Game costumes spiked. Searches for “Squid Game costumes” was the top trend in all three countries,

Kenyans celebrating Halloween over the weekend were eager to showcase outfits from the pop culture sensation, reports Star Newspaper

URGENT: LOOKING FOR A SQUID GAME MASK FOR WEEKEND. ANY SHOP IN KENYA THAT HAS ONE PLEASE DIRECT ME. RT

— ©Sunshyn Mrs. Q (@Siteiya) October 26, 2021

For many celebrating Halloween this year, it became difficult to tell whether they were celebrating the traditional holiday or the Netflix series.

Is this Halloween or squid game day ? What’s really goin on ?

— Christopher (@chrisiganga) October 31, 2021

In South Africa, Squid Game was the most popular costume search on Google for Halloween with Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Northern Cape, and Free State generating the most queries.

In Nigeria, data trends show that searches for the term Halloween had been steadily rising over the last 30 days, with Kwara, Oyo, Katsina, Bauchi, and Benue, states generating the most queries. Squid Game Costume, Cinderella Costume, and Father Christmas costumes took the top three search spots.

This year, many struggled to source for the costumes due to Global supply chain issues which made finding Halloween costumes harder for some shoppers.

As Squid Game becomes part of popular culture, some are concerned that children as young as 5 years old are watching the series. In an opinion piece published in The Elephant, as a mother of three, I pondered whether parents should be concerned that children are watching and even mimicking some of the scenes from the show, as reports emerged in Britain, Belgium, and Australia show that children are playing their own version of the show on school playgrounds.

Despite the criticism that the series has received for its violence, which has been described as dark and gory, it has unquestionably become a global cultural phenomenon exporting Korean pop culture to the world.

Written by Njeri Wangari

A former investigative reporter was arrested for criticizing the film

Originally published on Global Voices

A screenshot from the official “Battle of Changjin Lake” trailer on Youtube.

A former investigative reporter Luo Changping was recently arrested for mocking the newly released propaganda movie, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” (or Chosin Reservoir), a war drama featuring the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) during the Korean War (1950–53).

The film was released as part of the 100th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China. With a 200 million US dollar production budget, the movie is co-directed by award-winning filmmakers Chen Kaige, Hark Tsui, and Dante Lam and stars top actor Wu Jing.

The film was released on China's National Day, and mainland Chinese box office earnings passed 4 billion Chinese Yuan (600 million US dollars) in less than 10 days. The film tells a story of the Chinese Volunteer Soldiers’ self-sacrificing heroism which helped them dramatically defeat the US army in the battle of Chosin Reservoir.

The battle of Chosin Reservoir

The battle took place between November 27 and December 13, 1950 — one month after former Chinese leader Mao Zedong officially entered the Korean War. The three-year war between the Soviet-backed North and United Nations-backed South Korea was triggered after North Korean military forces crossed the border and entered South Korea on June 25, 1950.

Under the slogan “resist the US in support of Korea” (抗美援朝), Mao ordered the Chinese liberation army to attack the United Nation troops, which was composed mainly of US forces, in North Korea to prevent the unification of Korea under capitalist forces. To avoid declaring war against the UN and US, the Chinese troops were dubbed the “People's Volunteer Army (PVA).

About 3 million Chinese civilian and military personnel served in the Korean War.

During the war, 120,000 Chinese soldiers from the PVA's ninth army were sent to the battlefield in the middle of winter to attack 30,000 United Nations troops in Chosin Reservoir.

The Chinese volunteer army was so poorly equipped that tens of thousands froze to death as the temperature in the Chosin Reservoir reached minus 30 degrees Celsius. According to official Chinese reports, the army recorded 48,156 casualties during the battle, with nearly 29,000 being non-battle-related deaths. As for the UN troops, they lost 17,843 lives, with 7,338 killed by the brutally cold weather. However, the latter managed to retreat and eventually evacuate 98,100 refugees and civilians who wanted to escape the Soviet-backed military regime out of Northeastern Korea, a region surrounded by the Korean People's Army (KPA). 

Controversy and criticism

The choice of the battle as a patriotic propaganda film is controversial, as the Korean War was an incredibly painful period for both China and Korea. It is estimated that North Korea and China each lost between 200,000–400,000 soldiers while the South Korean army lost 162,394 and the American army lost 36,574 lives. The Soviet Union air force lost 335 planes and 299 lives.

China's intervention in the Korean War was largely controversial until recent years as the war caused huge causalities on all sides. More than 3 million Korean civilians died in the war. As pointed out by Adam Ni from Chinese political news analysis site, the battle Chosin Reservoir was considered a “failure at massive cost”:

even before the battle ended, already handed in to Party Centre a doc titled “9th Army Group self-criticism on the battle on the eastern front”, saying that it was a failure at massive cost.

Today, this failure is celebrated.

— Adam Ni (@adam_ni) October 6, 2021

However, in China today, reflecting on the war can have grave consequences. Former investigative reporter, Luo Changping was arrested for “infringing the reputation and honor of national martyrs” after he wrote the following comment on Chinese social media:

半個世紀之後國人少有反思這場戰爭的正義性，就像當年的沙雕連不會懷疑上峰的『英明決策』。

After half a century, people in this country seldom reflect on the cause of this war. The situation is like the frozen troops back then, they did not question the “acute decision” from the above.

While most negative comments about the movie and critical comments about China's intervention in the Korean War have been suppressed and censored, patriotic messages spread on social media. One netizen @fangshimin placed two video bloggers’ so-called “personal” interpretations of the film together to demonstrate the propaganda authorities’ effort to advocate for a “hot-blooded” (血性) patriotism, which means a willingness to fight for the country:

《长津湖》宣传通稿出新版了。 pic.twitter.com/ZUu2W3yCyN

— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) October 11, 2021

Here come the propaganda script of “the Battle of Changjing Lake”

It is common to see pro-Chinese government bloggers spreading authorities’ talking points. One notable example was a flood of video clips on Uyghurs’ life in Xinjiang. Investigative journalists pointed out that the so-called experience shared by over a thousand Uyghurs was taken from an identical script, which suggested that the videos were part of a coordinated influence campaign. The netizen @fangshimin believed bloggers were using the same tactic when discussing the patriotic movie — both bloggers said that they had a grandpa who fought in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and that history shows that it is necessary to suppress feminine masculinity and the fandom culture. The Chinese government recently launched a communications campaign to suppress “sissies” and fan culture. Below is the partial translation of the script:

…這個仗如果說我們不打，就是我們的下一代要打，電影的這句話一直劇在我的腦子裡面，我們現在的年輕人，只要多一點血性，多了解一點歴史，就不會去參拜靖國神社…我們現在口雖然能吃飽飯了，有肉吃的，但精神上還是竹很匱乏的，想想在戰場上的美軍吃著火雞，過著感恩節，而我們的戰士只能吃著冰凍的土豆填著肚子，這個就是我們1950年時候的年輕人，在那麼寒冷的環境裡面，裝備那麼落後的情況下，還創造了震驚世界的奇跡，只因為要保護我們的家園…我特別支持打擊娘炮和飯圈文化，讓我們重新立起了這份陽剛之氣，因為我們的生活和工作都需要，這不僅僅是軍人的事，而是整個社會的事…

… “If we don’t fight this battle, our next generation will have to fight this.” This line in the movie stays in my brain. If our young generation is more “hot-blooded” and has more knowledge about history, they would not visit Yasukuni Shrine [in Japan]… Now, we have meat to fill our stomach, but we have lost our spirit. Just imagine in the battlefield, the American soldiers were having their turkeys to celebrate thanksgiving, our warriors only had frozen potatoes. The young people in the 1950s were like this: in such brutal cold weather, with such backward equipment, they had created a miracle that shocked the whole world. All because they wanted to protect their homeland… Hence, I support the crackdown on sissies and fandom culture. This would help us to rebuild our martial spirit. We need this in our life and work. This [protecting the homeland] is not the soldiers’ duty, but the whole society should take up the duty…

The film has also triggered an editing debate on Chinese Wikipedia. William Long, a prominent tech blogger, noted that some Wikipedia users are continually attempting to edit the original entry of the Chinese term the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (長津湖戰役) to suggest that China gained a “decisive victory” in the battle, while others disagreed given China lost tens of thousands of lives in the battle and failed to eliminate the UN troops.

As there is no space for critical discussion on the movie's content in mainland China, some Chinese netizens turned to the movie production team and criticized them for making a profit by commercializing patriotism. They suggested that the movie production team should donate their profits to the Korean War soldiers and their families.

New York Times reporter, Evan Hill, notes that outside China, the space for critical deliberation on history is also shrinking because Hollywood has been self-censoring their production for the sake of gaining profit in the China market:

It's very funny that Western cinema won't do anti-China nationalism because Hollywood desperately wants the money while the most popular film in the world is going to be about Chinese chads defeating Americans in the Korean War https://t.co/y7y8vMuPs0

— Evan Hill (@evanhill) October 11, 2021

Written by Oiwan Lam

Originally published on Global Voices

Tourists visiting Hashima (“Battleship Island”) in 2017. The island, a former coal mine, was approved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2015, as part of Japan's Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution. In July 2021, UNESCO gave Japan a deadline to address the “insufficient” information available about the history of forced labor on the island. Photo by Nevin Thompson. Image license: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

In July 2021, the Japanese government and UNESCO briefly engaged in a war of words over heritage sites and Japan's legacy of forced labor. When UNESCO reprimanded Japan for failing to acknowledge the use of forced labor during wartime at a UNESCO heritage site, the Japanese government promised to issue a formal rebuttal, and said that it is “sincerely making good” on the promise to remember victims of forced labor.

On July 12, 2021, UNESCO issued a draft decision stating that Japan still needed to improve the way it talked about the historical use of forced labor at former industrial installations now recognized collectively as a World Heritage Site. UNESCO followed this with a formal reprimand on July 22, 2021, over Japan's seeming unwillingness to tell the “full history” of the former industrial sites.

The row centres around “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining,” 23 historical sites on the western island of Kyushu that are designated collectively as a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site. The 23 sites are recognized as the birthplace of Japan's rapid industrialization in the latter half of the 19th century.

The UNESCO reprimand came after an information center, built in Tokyo specifically to explain and celebrate the Meiji Industrial Revolution UNESCO World Heritage Site on Kyushu, failed to inform visitors that some of the locations were the scene of wartime forced labor of Koreans.

Prior to the reprimand, the draft decision on July 12 had noted that the Japanese government, as part of its original UNESCO submission in 2015, said it was:

[…] Prepared to take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites, and that, during World War II, the Government of Japan also implemented its policy of requisition. Japan is prepared to incorporate appropriate measures into the interpretive strategy to remember the victims such as the establishment of information center.

The UNESCO reprimand noted that Japan had not fulfilled this obligation and focused specifically on forced labor that occurred on Hashima, a coal mine located on an island off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture in western Japan. Best known around the world as “Battleship Island,” Hashima, also the site of one of Japan's first coal mines, was featured in the James Bond movie “Skyfall.“

Japan has until December 1, 2022 to implement UNESCO's recommendations about acknowledging forced labor.

The mine on Hashima was operated by giant conglomerate Mitsubishi, which relied on forced Korean labor during World War II to extract coal. At least 800 Koreans were sent to Hashima during the war, 134 of whom reportedly died while working there.

Another fact so far officially unacknowledged by interpretive materials is that other industrial facilities in UNESCO's “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining” also relied on forced labor. For example, Mitsui, another industrial conglomerate, relied on prisoners of war slave labor to operate its Miike coal mine in Omuta, Kumamoto.

Even before World War II, or even before Japan engaged in colonialist expansion in Asia at the start of the 20th Century, the Miike mine relied on forced convict labor to extract coal.

Despite its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there is no acknowledgement of this part of Miike's history.

“Japan has a responsibility under its UNESCO World Heritage agreement to tell the full history of [Miike] and other ‘Meiji Industrial Revolution’ sites.”
An important article by David Palmer on wartime forced labor at Miike mine: https://t.co/xrtlwDOwNa

— 永原宣 Hiromu Nagahara (@HiromuNagahara) July 7, 2021

Japan's transformative Meiji period Meiji period followed the end of the Edo period in 1867 and more than two centuries of strict control over nearly all aspects of everyday life.

With a new government and political system, Meiji entrepreneurs in Japan quickly capitalized on new opportunities to trade with Europe, the United States, and other places around the world.

These local entrepreneurs and the new Japanese government itself also imported new industrial technologies from abroad, including mining, steelmaking, manufacturing, and shipbuilding, in an effort to match the capacity of Western powers and in the process, jump-starting an industrial revolution.

While the center of Japanese economic and political life was in Tokyo, in the east, in the early Meiji era the western island of Kyushu is generally regarded as the cradle of Japan's industrial revolution. This was due to established trade routes with China stretching back more than a thousand years, and with relatively newer oceanic trade connections with Europe.

For example, the city of Nagasaki and the surrounding regions were the scene of Japan's first drydock and shipyards, which were powered in part by coal mined from nearby Miike and Hashima. The shipbuilding facilities in Nagasaki would eventually produce some of the biggest and most complex warships in the world, and would be targeted for atomic attack by the United States in August 1945.

Japan's “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” initiative, as well as the controversial UNESCO Heritage submissions seek to memorialize and celebrate this heritage.

Nagasaki Harbor. Illuminated in the center of the picture stands the Giant Cantilever Crane at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard, which, as a major naval shipyard, was targeted by B-29s for atomic attack on August 9th, 1945. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries conscripted at least 3,400 laborers to work at various facilities in Nagasaki during the war. Australian, British, Dutch and U.S. prisoners of war were also forced to work in Japanese war industries in Nagasaki. Mitsubishi Materials, a mining company, conscripted yet more laborers to work at various mines, including Hashima, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Photo by Nevin Thompson. Image license: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

“Very little of Japan's history of industrialization presented at their new UNESCO Heritage sites is true,” says historian Mindy Kotler in a July 2021 newsletter. Kotler is the director of Asia Policy Point, a Washington, D.C. research center studying the U.S. policy relationship with Japan and Northeast Asia.

In a July 2021 article about Japan's UNESCO initiatives, Kotler points out that the mines, foundries, and wharves that form the core of the Japan's UNESCO World Heritage list typically omit a key historical detail:

The Japanese, however, left out any mention of […] forced labor and abuse, which was the substance of the hundreds of war crimes trials throughout the postwar Pacific.

UNESCO approved the designations in 2015 but conditioned the designations on a promise to provide a “full history” of these sites. Yet, six years later, Japan has not fulfilled this promise.

While Japan has until December 1, 2022 to implement recommendations about acknowledging forced labor, there is little chance that the UNESCO designation will be rescinded, according to a South Korean government official.

A South Korea foreign ministry representative said:

UNESCO withdraws inscriptions only when the site has been altered beyond its original state and character that made it worthy of inscription […] UNESCO has informed us that the current issue regarding the sites in Japan is not something that calls for re-evaluation of the inscription decision.

Written by Nevin Thompson

‘There are three big Japanese right-wing talking points and Ramseyer has parroted them all.’

Originally published on Global Voices

Image caption: “Comfort women (comfort girls) captured by U.S. Army, August 14 1944, Myitkyina.” Image source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

A noted American professor at Harvard Law School has been denounced both at home and internationally after publishing an academic paper arguing that claims about Korean women enslaved by Japanese military forces as “comfort women” during the second world war are historically untrue.

Critics of the professor, J. Mark Ramseyer, who is the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, argue the paper ignores standard research methods, existing scholarship, and primary sources, and is full of inaccuracies and intentional misrepresentations.

Ramseyer's paper, which is titled “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War,” will be published in the March 2021 print issue of the International Review of Law and Economics (IRLE), but is already available online to academic audiences.

In the paper, Ramseyer characterizes the organized, methodical sexual slavery of approximately 200,000 women — so-called “comfort women” or ianfu (慰安婦) — by Japanese Imperial forces during the Second World War as a legitimate, contractual, economic exchange between willing participants.

Ramseyer's paper repeats common tropes typically employed by historical revisionists who seek to minimize or erase sexual slavery practiced by Japan during the war. His conclusions contradict rigorous, established scholarship, including a comprehensive 1996 United Nations report on the issue.

Ramseyer summarized the key points of the paper in a column published in late January in Japan Forward, an English-language opinion site for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners run by Sankei Shimbun, a hard-right Japanese daily.

In his Japan Forward opinion column, Ramseyer states:

…the claims about enslaved Korean comfort women are historically untrue. The Japanese army did not dragoon Korean women to work in its brothels. It did not use Korean women as sex slaves. The claims to the contrary are simply ー factually ー false.

In the Japan Forward opinion piece, Ramseyer also argues that Korean women (in fact, women from more than ten occupied countries in Asia were forcibly conscripted) entered into a mutually agreeable contractual agreement with brothel operators that protected the rights of both parties.

Following the publication of Ramseyer's Japan Forward column in late January, attention turned to the online version of his IRLE journal article, which was released in December 2020. Besides generating headlines in Korean media, the article sparked condemnation by students and faculty at Harvard University, where Ramseyer works.

The Korean Association of Harvard Law School, a student group, issued a statement in response to Ramseyer's article, stating:

Without any convincing evidence, Professor Ramseyer argues that no government “forced women into prostitution,” a contention he also makes in his editorial. Decades’ worth of Korean scholarship, primary sources, and third-party reports challenge this characterization. None are mentioned, cited, or considered in his arguments.

Ramseyer was also publicly criticized by colleagues. In a Twitter thread, Jeannie Suk Gersen, a legal scholar and the first Asian woman and first Korean professor to teach at Harvard Law School, said:

4: I disagree with my colleague as deeply as it’s possible to disagree. For now, I’ll say I disagree with his interpretations of his sources, his wrong legal analysis, and even applying his own disciplinary terms, his reasoning fails. We talked, and he knows I disagree with him.

— Jeannie Suk Gersen (@JeannieSGersen) February 7, 2021

In other public comments, Gersen called into question Ramseyer's interpretation of contract law, stating, “No legal system would recognize or justly enforce contract of this nature,” where people forced into sex in the context of Japanese military occupation in wartime were not free agents exercising agency.

In the IRLE paper, for instance, Ramseyer argues a ten-year-old girl entered into a contract with full knowledge of what sex work entailed:

When Osaki turned ten, a recruiter stopped by and offered her 300 yen upfront if she would agree to go abroad. The recruiter did not try to trick her; even at age 10, she knew what the job entailed.

The critique of Ramseyer's interpretation of contract law is notable, since Ramseyer, as Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, is widely regarded as an expert on Japanese law and economics. In spite of his long connection to Japan, however, Ramseyer's curriculum vitae indicates no apparent expertise on the topic of wartime sexual slavery or East Asia.

The child of Christian missionaries, Ramseyer attended elementary school in rural Japan before returning to the United States to attend college. While he would eventually attend and teach at top-ranked Japanese universities after completing a master's thesis on the merchants of early-modern Japan, his scholastic focus has always been law, and never Japanese or Korean wartime history.

Indeed, in a February interview, Ramseyer also admitted that he neither speaks nor reads Korean, indicating he cannot, for example, evaluate or even understand testimony by Korean victims of sexual slavery:

Asked why he did not cite any Korean sources in the paper, Ramseyer said he is “very upfront” about the fact that he does not read Korean.

Historians familiar with wartime sexual slavery perpetrated by Japanese armed forces also point out that Ramseyer has long championed historical inaccuracies and revisionism. Nick Kapur, a historian of modern Japan and East Asia notes multiple instances in the past where Ramseyer has promoted racist or questionable narratives:

Ramseyer finally went too far, but he has been a right-wing academic troll for decades.

Here is an article in which he claims Japan's discriminated burakumin minority is A) fake and B) deserves discrimination because they are basically all criminalshttps://t.co/WYz5xWH1a3 pic.twitter.com/tF1zw0l42N

— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) February 16, 2021

A transnational team of five professional historians of Japan and its empire published an open letter that focuses on the academic integrity of Ramseyer's recent IRLE article.

The five historians who reviewed Ramseyer's IRLE journal article, interviewed on Korean televison. Screencap from MBC website.

Their letter, at 33 pages, is four times as long as Ramseyer's eight-page IRLE article, and carefully examines every aspect of Ramseyer's article, with particular focus on his sources.

Asserting that Ramseyer mischaracterized, distorted and misrepresented sources, the historians questioned the fundamental academic integrity of the journal article, and called on IRLE to retract it:

Its inaccuracies are more than superficial errors; they completely undermine the article's claims. […] We believe that an article containing this level of academic misconduct should not have passed peer review, or have been published in an academic journal.

Miki Dezaki, a documentary filmmaker who explored the competing historical narratives about the “comfort women” issue in his film “Shusenjo,” notes that Ramseyer did receive a letter of support signed so far by six individuals, all of who are affiliated with a far-right nationalist group in Japan:

This open letter in support of Ramseyer's paper on the comfort women is signed by a whopping 6 people, who call themselves historians, but only one, Jason Morgan, has a degree in history. pic.twitter.com/44Xt7MUAQv

— Miki Dezaki (@MikiDezaki) February 17, 2021

In an interview with Global Voices, Dezaki also notes that in another academic paper discrediting the claims of “comfort women,” Ramseyer cites an individual named “Texas Daddy,” an American retiree with his own YouTube channel who is considered a mouthpiece for Japanese nationalists.

Dezaki says that like Texas Daddy and other foreign peddlers of historical revisionism, Ramseyer repeats common talking points:

There are three big Japanese right-wing talking points and Ramseyer has parroted them all. He claims the women were just well paid prostitutes, he claims that Asahi Shimbun’s retraction of a false testimony proves that the comfort women issue is a lie, and he claims, most despicably, that the victims’ testimonies are inconsistent, which suggests that they are lying.

Regarding what motivates Ramseyer and others, Dezaki suggests that:

It really boils down to fame, money and staying relevant. That isn’t to say that these people don’t believe in what they are writing or saying, but doing so in the public arena gets them praise, speaking engagements and book deals in Japan.

An editor for the academic publisher behind IRLE has been quoted as saying that the article is “considered final,” though IRLE has appended an expression of concern to the online version of the piece to inform readers that concerns have been raised regarding the article's historical evidence.

The March 2021 print issue in which the paper is to appear is also being temporarily held so that comments on the paper can be published in the same issue.

Written by Nevin Thompson

Yang Hengjun's wife is now blocked from leaving China

Originally published on Global Voices

Yang Hengjun & Yuan Xiaoliang: Screenshot SBS News YouTube video, 8 July 2019

Writer and popular online commentator, Chinese-Australian Yang Hengjun, has been held in detention for six months by Chinese authorities since his arrest at Guangzhou airport on 19 January 2019. He and his family were trying to board a plane to Shanghai. At the time he was living in the United States as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York.

The Chinese authorities suspect him of “endangering national security.” It is not the first time he has been detained. He disappeared for a couple of days in 2011. This time he left a letter to be released if he was arrested again. In it, he asked activists to:

[…] maintain belief in China's democratic future, and, when it doesn't put yourself or your family at risk, to use all your means to push China's democratic development to happen sooner.

He urged them to work for “freedom, human rights, the rule of law, and justice to occur sooner”.

Yang has been an Australian citizen since 2002. He had worked for the Chinese Foreign Ministry during the 1980s.

There have been concerns that he has not received adequate support from the Australian government or the media.

Until recently, prominent political journalist Chris Uhlmann has been one of few who raised the issue online:

It was noisy diplomacy that freed Hakeem al-Araibi. So where are the calls from politicians for Yang Hengjun’s liberation? Where is the mainstream and Chinese Australian media? The Chinese community groups? The academics and business leaders? To date we don’t even know his crime.

— Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) March 5, 2019

Hakeem al-Araibi is a Bahraini refugee football player with an Australian permanent visa but was jailed in Thailand during a vacation.

However, there was little coverage until it emerged that Yang's wife, Yuan Xiaoliang, had been prevented from leaving China on 7 July 2019. She is a permanent resident of Australia. However, according to the national broadcaster, she has not received help from the Australian government, as she is not a citizen:

Feng Chongyi, friend of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun, tells @mantsig Mr Yang's wife, who has been prevented from leaving the country, asked for help from Australian authorities but was denied as she's not a citizen #TheWorld pic.twitter.com/DQpAhgXbO5

— ABC News (@abcnews) July 8, 2019

In 2017 Yang's friend Feng Chongyi, a professor at University of Technology Sydney, was detained for a week in China, also under the suspicion of threatening state security.

Online Asia-Pacific current-affairs magazine, The Diplomat, has published some of Yang's articles over the years. In Fixing China's Intelligence System, published in 2015, he argued:

Some intelligence leaders are seriously enmeshed in ideological or factional struggles. Without proper supervision, they could purposefully use biased intelligence reports to mislead decision makers, forcing them to make inappropriate or even wrong decisions. And of course, it’s common for intelligence agents to abuse intelligence and counterintelligence resources to deal with ordinary people or to monitor their political opponents.

Yang's own website is not currently online. Snapshots can be viewed on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. His Twitter account is still live but inactive since his arrest.

Sydney-based online OP Magazine has reported concerns that Australia has not been active enough in pressuring the Chinese government for Yang Hengjun’s release:

Lawyers for Australian writer #YangHengjun, who has been detained in #China since January, are urging #Canberra to intervene. #Australia #auspolhttps://t.co/CL4UolC4tc

— OPMagazine (@OPMGnews) July 8, 2019

Foreign Minister Payne has rejected claims of inaction. However, comparisons were being made with the release of another Australian Alek Sigley from detention in North Korea for over a week. Australia does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea but used Sweden as an intermediary. Maree Ma, General Manager of Vision Times Media, ‘Australia's most widely circulated independent Chinese media’, tweeted a couple of days before Yuan’s attempt to leave:

Waiting for the day we hear that Yang Hengjun gets released. Would the same “discreet” ways work with China? https://t.co/a6jAQsCnBK

— Maree Ma (@maree_jun) July 4, 2019

While Yang Hengjun has been a critic of China’s lack of democracy, some believe his arrest and continuing detention have other causes. Yang may be a victim of hostage diplomacy.

Despite China being Australia's largest trading partner, there has been rising tension between the two countries recently. These were outlined in the article “Chinese-Australian relations have had a rollercoaster year in 2018“. Among the underlying causes identified in this article were the Australian government's:

• Anti-foreign intervention laws
• Exclusion of Chinese telco Huawei from its 5G network rollout
• Opposition to China's claims on the South China Sea
• Push back against Chinese influence in the South Pacific
• Growing military ties with the United States in the Asia Pacific region
• Human rights concerns over China's treatment of Uyghurs and other minorities

The last issue has been inflamed by reports in February 2019 that 17 Uyghurs who are Australian residents have been detained as part of China's repression.

Since Australia and China do have diplomatic relations, many netizens are hoping for a similar result to Sigley's.

Written by Kevin Rennie

Originally published on Global Voices

“The remains of a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft that crashed on board HMS Formidable off the Sakishima Islands, May 1945.” Image from Wikimedia Commons, Imperial War Museum. This work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

There’s a debate intensifying among political analysts on whether North Korea is heading down a suicidal course by continuing to develop nuclear weapons.

On the surface, North Korea and its supreme leader Kim Jong Un seems to be succeeding in its calculated risk of defying UN sanctions and circumventing the oil embargo. In January, Russian president Vladimir Putin declared “Mr. Kim Jong Un has obviously won this round. He has missiles of global reach, up to 13,000 km, which can reach almost any point of the globe.” The Russian authorities seem to believe that this “shrewd and mature” leader will succeed in facing down his “imperialist enemies” by manufacturing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can threaten every major city and military base of the US and its allies.

But these experts are overlooking the self-destructive impulse that underlies North Korean bravado. The question arises as to whether Kim’s regime would be willing to risk annihilation when options for negotiations exist, at least in theory.

Anyone who has studied the North Korean power structure knows that Kim Jong Un himself is being pressured by generals preoccupied with the humiliation of the Korean War. In fact, their views on suicidal attacks in some ways resemble the propaganda that the Japanese military disseminated during WWII. A North Korean defector recently revealed that the military has assembled a brigade of suicide bombers who are ready to attack the enemy with armed “nuclear backpacks” if the situation becomes desperate.

As much as North Korea and Japan despise each other, there are striking parallels in their attitudes toward suicide. Prior to and throughout the war years, all Japanese “subjects” were ideologically primed to sacrifice their lives for the Emperor. Similarly, North Korean “subjects” today are obliged to display fanatical devotion to the Kim dynasty by fighting to the last person. In both nations, the propaganda ministries were— and continue to be—successful in indoctrinating the masses to believe in their national exceptionalism relative to their decadent neighbors.

In Japan, ritual suicide has long been popularized in films about bushido and kamikaze pilots, but the voices of those who were ready to commit suicide, but who through unexpected circumstances survived the war, have often been suppressed. In a culture that fears shame above all else, the line between coercion and a freely chosen death often gets obfuscated. Even the 47 rōnin immortalized in the masterwork Chūshinguraand numerous other films can be seen as victims of the cynical practice ritual suicide known as seppuku or harakiri.

Narratives about the social pressure that was brought to bear on the warrior class to terminate their lives to “preserve honor”, reveal the uncanny resemblance between seppuku and public execution. Conservative Japanese politicians such as Shintaro Ishihara continue to extol the virtue of young soldiers who sacrifice themselves in novels and films, but the truth of the matter is that it was not unknown for kamikaze pilots to be drugged, bolted into their cockpits and given only enough fuel to reach enemy targets.

Despite the scarcity of North Korean statistics on this subject, Japan and South Korea have the highest rates of suicide today in the developed world. As it is well known that both Japanese and Korean societies are rigid and hierarchical, and offer few second chances to minorities or those who have fallen through the cracks. Unless one agrees to follow prescribed conventions and ritualized codes of subservience, one can easily be ostracized or punished.

While any individual death may merit sympathy, the legacy of ritualized suicide is particularly problematic. Korean attitudes towards death and suicide were shaped by three decades of Japanese occupation shaped. As North Korean defectors have reported, there is a possibility that Kim Jong Un’s special forces might employ kamikaze tactics if they see that their country cannot withstand attacks by the American Air Force and Navy.

Suicide often signals an inability to seek creative solutions to seemingly impossible dilemmas. Rather than reviving futile geopolitical struggles that should have ended in the 20th century, political leaders should be focusing addressing more urgent priorities, such as the mass extinction that is now being engendered by the environmental crisis.

Written by Jonathan Augustine

Originally published on Global Voices

Jilin Daily's full page feature on nuclear radiation.

On December 6, 2017, Jilin Daily published a full-page feature on nuclear weapons and how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear radiation. This led many, in particular, residents from northern China to ask if the newspaper report is an anticipation of a United States military action against North Korea's missile test.

Jilin province is located in north China near North Korea. Jilin Daily is affiliated with the local government of the province.

On November 29, North Korea launched a test on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching all part of U.S. mainland. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump warned to bring a “rain” of “fire and fury” on North Korea if the country’s leader Kim Jong Un continued to threaten U.S. security. China, in particular the northern part of China, would be affected by the “rain”.

Meanwhile, another leaked document from Jilin’s China mobile company indicated that the Jilin government has established five refugee sites in Changbai province, which shares 260 kilometers of border with North Korea.

Public discussion regarding potential warfare in North Korea was deleted quickly from social media platforms. Even party-affiliated Global Times had to withdraw its editorial upon publishing online (retrieved via Voices of America):

目前半岛局势紧张，朝鲜已进行了六次核试验，被广泛认为已经拥有了核弹头。另外朝鲜的导弹技术今年以来快速突破，成功试射了射程可覆盖美国本土的洲际弹道导弹。美国发誓扼杀朝鲜经济，美韩对朝军事压力进一步升级，美朝发生军事冲突的风险在增加。而吉林省与朝鲜接壤，该省省报在这个时候刊出核武器常识及其防护的整版介绍，立刻让人想到这是该省对半岛战争风险的一种反应。

Currently, tension is mounting in the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has launched six nuclear tests and it is believed that the country is already equipped with a nuclear bomb. Moreover, its missile launching technology has reached a breakthrough this year and has successfully launched a missile that can reach all parts of the U.S. continent. The U.S has vowed that it would destroy North Korea economy and exercise military pressure. The risk of military conflict between the U.S and North Korea has escalated. Jilin shares border with North Korea, the whole page feature on nuclear radiation precaution is believed to be a reaction to the risk of warfare in the Korean peninsula.

Despite censorship, anxious posts about military conflicts keep popping up on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo. One Weibo user believes that the news feature published by Jilin Daily was approved by the central government:

今天这事吧确实不是开玩笑，你们要知道中国的新闻审核制度有多严，这种内容能发出来一定是经过高层授意，又层层批准的。上边要告诉你们点什么，但又不能说的太明显，东北老铁可以密切留意沈阳美国总领事馆的动向，一旦老美撤了，啥也别管赶紧走

This is not a joke. You all know that news censorship in China is very strict. Such kind of content has to be approved by senior officials before circulation. The leaders want to tell you something but can’t say that explicitly. Fellows in Dongbei (northern China), please observe the U.S consulate in Shenyang, if they retreat, run away.

Even though state-affiliated news outlets had tried to downplay the possibility of a war, many are still worried about radiation if military action was taken by the U.S. against North Korea's nuclear facilities:

核弹没升空炸了，东北也危险吧？

Even if the nuclear missile exploded in the sky, Dongbei area will still be endangered, right?

More critical comments blamed the government for the nuclear crisis:

防朝核，韩国日本有萨德，爱国者导弹，航母作战群；台湾有铺路爪，俄罗斯有沃罗涅日M系统全天候防御，唯一看不清挡不住朝鲜核弹的，只有中国。核弹当前，吉林人民只有一张介绍常识的廉价报纸！当初反对萨德走上街头怒砸韩国车的愤青们呢，该你们到朝核第一线了。

To prevent a North Korea nuclear missile attack, South Korea and Japan are equipped with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), MIM-104 Patriot and Aircraft Carriers; Taiwan has Phased Array Warning System, Russia has Voronezh-M radar system as precaution. China is the only country which cannot clearly detect and counter North Korea missiles. Now with the threat of H-bomb, people in Jilin can only rely on newspapers which educate people with radiation common sense. Where have all the patriotic youths who protested against the THAAD by crushing Korean vehicles gone? Shouldn’t you be standing in the front line?

由于中国特色政府长期暗中支持朝鲜，致使朝鲜从无核到有核，现在已经威胁到世界人民的生命财产安全，为此，中国特色政府应该对朝核问题造成的恶果负全部责任。

Since government with Chinese character [China government] has been supporting North Korea in secret, the country eventually got its nuclear weapon. Now it is threatening the security of all people in the world. Hence, the government with Chinese character should be responsible for all adverse effects of the North Korea nuclear crisis.

Written by Oiwan Lam

Originally published on Global Voices

A detail from the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo by Stefan Krakowski via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The $20 million we spend daily maintaining the US nuclear arsenal could instead be used to provide $1,000 per day for every one of the twenty thousand children who die from hunger. – J. Philip Newell (A New Harmony)

Faced now with the possibility of nuclear war in East Asia, I often wonder what civilians annihilated in the heartless campaigns of modern warfare might have said about their untimely deaths that were ordered by tyrants and presidents far removed from the scenes of devastation.

So many innocent lives have been lost to conventional bombs, atomic weapons and in recent years, drones. Have democratically elected leaders searched their souls and come to terms with what really occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Technology has made warfare impersonal and cruel, yet it seems that the heads of nations are willing to discard their highest principles in exchange for the latest war technologies and weapons of mass destruction.

In the present confrontation with North Korea, the foremost consideration of the U.S. government is whether an attack on North Korea will endanger the American homeland. In theory, the United States is supposed to defend its allies, South Korea and Japan. However, if the authorities are truly concerned with the safety of their allies, provoking a desperate dictatorship that has openly declared its intent to launch missiles against South Korea and Japan is extremely problematic, both strategically and from a humanitarian point of view.

The U.S. military routinely advertises the pinpoint devastation that can be wrought by its ‘bunker-busting’ weapons, with the clear aim to ‘decapitate’ the North Korean regime. Military experts argue that 300 Tomahawk missiles are sufficient to disable North Korea’s military, but this does not guarantee that they can destroy all existing missiles and nuclear weapons, were these to be simultaneously launched from hidden bases, mobile launchers and nuclear-submarines.

It seems that the Pyongyang regime has been forced into a siege mentality—a rational fear that the U.S. will use its conventional forces to eradicate them at any moment. Ironically, however, the world now faces the troubling predicament that the current U.S. administration is itself caught in a similar psychological trap. While Pyongyang pushes ahead with the deployment of nuclear-tipped ICBMs, the Trump administration may conclude that its only recourse is to launch an immediate attack, in spite of expected collateral damage to its allies.

It is unnerving that presidents, prime ministers and dictators alike have the power to detonate weapons of mass destruction. The citizenry of these military powers has not officially sanctioned or granted them this authority through referenda or other democratic means. When one looks back at the Manhattan Project, it becomes painfully apparent how General Groves, the project’s director, swayed President Truman to authorize the dropping of the atomic bombs.

In the decades that followed, few checks were placed on the chain of command to prevent emotionally unstable presidents from acting impulsively on their animosity and fear. Simply put, both Trump and Kim Jong-Un have dangerous degrees of authority that neither the American Founding Fathers nor Marx and Engels could have envisioned.

It is surprising that the South Korean and Japanese heads of state are not more insistent in their opposition to a U.S. offensive against North Korea. Koreans above the age of 70 remember in graphic detail the devastating carpet bombing that wiped out Pyongyang, and are aware that Kim Jong-Un’s army will attempt to wipe out Seoul with equal fury. The Japanese position has remained the same since current Prime Minister Abe has ascended to power. Pledging unquestioning support to Trump’s foreign policies, Abe has repeatedly declared that Japan will soon try to amend the Constitution to allow for its own military to “defend the country”—a development that undoubtedly would destabilize East Asia even further. Instead of trying to seek mutual understanding of the past, Abe and his team of nationalist historians have promoted a revisionist view of the Second World War which denies the coercion of the so-called “comfort women” and downplays the conscripted labor of 600,000 Koreans under brutal conditions. In fact, in both North and South Korea, politicians and diplomats have long felt humiliated by the Japanese government’s lack of sincerity and contrition.

Any country that considers an attack on North Korea must confront the question of who turned the DPRK into such a defiant rogue nation. As much as Kim Jong-Un’s regime is to be blamed for the plight of the country, the three decades of brutal Japanese colonial occupation and the firebombing of North Korea—which exceeded the damage done to German or Japanese cities during World War II—bear partial responsibility for creating this vindictive military regime.

Resolving nuclear confrontation requires self-reflection and relativistic thinking. Looking back a few decades, it’s not difficult to find examples of national leaders who were willing to dispense with bombast to avoid disaster. Notably President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, who responded rationally to the prospect of a nuclear holocaust by meeting to address their political and strategic differences in the Reykjavík Summit of 1986, which led to a de-escalation of tensions.

To serve one’s nation can also mean to enter into dialogue with the citizens of every nation, and between individuals there is always a hope for healing and transformation. So why should it be impossible to alter the relationships between antagonistic nations?

Written by Jonathan Augustine

Originally published on Global Voices

A cartoon by @badiucao published on September 6, 2017, titled #NorthKoreaNukes: Dictators Are Dictators’ Own Nightmare.

Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao’s latest work, “Dictators Are Dictators’ Own Nightmares,” perhaps best captures public sentiment in China on North Korea’s recent aggressive military moves.

The cartoon shows a white-gloved Kim Jong-un slapping his adversary, US President Donald Trump, and his ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in exactly the same manner — one that would probably be embarrassing for a leader who tries to project an image of strength.

It was published after Pyongyang fired a missile on August 28 that flew over Japan’s Hokkaido island and landed in the sea after travelling for 1,700 miles – a distance that can reach major cities in northern and eastern China, including Beijing and Shanghai. Then a week later conducted a nuclear test and claimed that it was an advanced hydrogen bomb designed for long-range missiles.

The nuclear blast yield of the latest hydrogen bomb test, according to Norwegian Seismic Array’s estimation, is up to 120 kilotons, which is the strongest of North Korea's six nuclear tests and more powerful than the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US during World War II.

Pyongyang's actions followed a series of chest-thumping statements from Trump, and happened at a time when Xi was in the international spotlight hosting the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Xiamen, a port city in southeastern China.

Diplomatic analysts have theorized that the timing of the tests were meant to cause “maximum embarrassment” for Xi as a means to put pressure on him, in the hopes that he influences the US towards opening up meaningful negotiations with Kim Jong-un.

The matter certainly seems to have touched a nerve in China. Beijing’s official response was brief and moderate, and authorities began to censor key terms such as “hydrogen bomb” on Chinese social media.

But netizens are still finding ways to cynically comment on China's response and debate about what North Korea's actions mean for their own country.

On September 3, Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the Global Times urged people to stay calm in their editorial, arguing that China should stand firm on the possible radiation from North Korea's tests polluting northeast China, but implying that China should recognize North Korea as a defacto nuclear power:

朝鲜最新核试爆和最近的一系列中远程导弹试验显示，平壤软硬不吃，它决心获得中远程核打击能力，不会向任何外来压力屈服，朝核问题几近成为死结。
中国需面对这一复杂态势保持高度冷静，从中国的国家利益出发采取措施，最大限度地减轻中国社会从中面临的风险。
中国东北的安全是第一位的，我们需要通过各种管道明确告诉平壤，它的核试验不能污染中国东北。中国的战略安全与环境安全是中国对其采取克制行动的底线。

North Korea’s latest round of nuclear tests and missile launches indicated that Pyongyang won't accept neither hard-handed nor soft-handed negotiations. It is determined to equip the country with mid-range to far-range nuclear missile power and won't submit to any pressure from outside. The whole situation is in a deadlock.

China needs to be cool in this highly complicated situation. Decisions should be based on national interest — reducing the risk to Chinese society.

The security of northeast China is most important. We need to tell Pyongyang that its nuclear tests cannot pollute the Dongbei region. The strategic and environmental security is the baseline for Beijing’s restraint.

Readers responded critically:

谴责就行

All we have to do is condemn [Pyongyang].

不用理它，继续做我们的中国梦

Let it be. Let’s continue our China dream.

看完了 这文章重点就是 不能被拖下水 不能冲锋陷阵 前提是东北安全 但是问题来了 你咋保证东北安全……

The main point of the editorial is: don’t be dragged into troubled water, don’t fight. The premise is Dongbei’s security, but if there is no way to ensure Dongbei’s security when the problem of [radiation] arises.

Many discussions about the hydrogen bomb test happened underneath a post from the China Meteorological Administration on the popular social media platform Weibo that urged radiation monitoring stations in northeast China, also known as Dongbei, to keep a close eye on radiation levels.

The post, published on September 4, did not mention anything about North Korea nor the hydrogen bomb test. Netizens did the same, discussing the crisis without mentioning any keyword to avoid censorship:

在重大的历史节点上，大家都以为这是个平常的午后。

In a critical historical moment, everyone thinks it is just an ordinary day.

政府说没事，那就没事，继续跳舞，嗨起来

The government says it is okay, let’s continue our dance, come on, get up!

消除污染最有效的办法：封消息，抓人，然后组织民众看战狼

The most effective way to clean nuclear pollution is to block information, arrest people and organize people to watch [the patriotic movie] Wolf Warriors.

完全看不懂热评，首先，这已经是第六次核试验了，而且第六次也已经是48小时之前的事了，那些看过新闻开始觉得自己浑身疼的能不能不带节奏？还有那些说东北怎么样跟你无关的，你可能不在东北，一辈子也没去过东北，但你绝对吃过东北的食物，如果东北被污染，全中国就得玩完，14亿人口的口粮都没了。

I don’t understand why people are making such cynical remarks. This is the sixth nuclear test, and the latest one happened 48 hours ago. But the news hadn’t addressed people’s concern. The comments saying that what happened in northeast China has nothing to do with them [aren't accurate]. Perhaps you are not in Dongbei, or you’ve never been to Dongbei and never eaten Dongbei’s cuisine. But if Dongbei is polluted, China will be too, as the rice that feeds 1.4 billion people will not be edible.

这世界在变好。但没有想象中那么好。 这世界在变坏，远比你想象中坏。

The world is getting better, but not as good as imagined. The world is getting worse, but far worse than imagined.

可是山东这边真的没有什么很强烈的消息和通知告诉市民要注意规避户外什么的啊，如果不是朋友翻墙看到的新闻告诉我我根本不知道已经严重到这个地步。所以政府到底要干什么呢，自欺欺人很有意思吗？

No information or notice in Shandong [province, across the Yellow Sea from North Korea] telling people what they should be aware of. If my friend did not climb over the [Great Fire]wall and tell me the news, I would have no idea of the severity of the situation. What is the government doing? Why is it burying its head in the sand?

发这个有用吗？具体指数是多少？会不会有危险？低剂量有害核辐射人体在不知觉的情况下可能就受伤了。维稳就能拿人命抵？

This alert is useless. Exactly what is the level of radiation? Has it reached a dangerous level? Radiation even at a low level can be harmful to the human body. Maintaining [social] stability is more important than human life?

Written by Oiwan Lam

Originally published on Global Voices

On the left, one refugee asks, “Are you sure we can really eat as much as we want?” On the right, the other female defector says, “All the food in this restaurant is rotten.” South Koreans use the English word “buffet,” which sounds like the Korean word for “rotten.” A challenge for many North Korean defectors is to learn all of these borrowed foreign words that have become part of the southern vernacular. Credit: Choi Seong-guk

This story by Jason Strother originally appeared on PRI.org on July 6, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.

The escape of around 30,000 North Korean defectors to South Korea might not seem like a storyline rife with laughter. But an online comic strip series created by a North Korean refugee, who now lives in Seoul, attempts to bring some humor to what is an often-harrowing journey and difficult resettlement.

After his own defection to South Korea in 2010, Choi Seong-guk, 37, realized that the two Koreas were no longer the same country — many cultural and linguistic differences have arisen during more than 70 years of division.

For Choi, who had once worked for Pyongyang’s premier animation studio, SEK, one of the first differences that stood out was that cartoons in the south weren’t anything like the ones in the north.

“When I first saw South Korean cartoons, I just didn’t get them,” he says. “There were no stories about patriotism or catching spies or war. They just seemed useless to me.”

Choi has had a knack for drawing since he was a kid, when teachers praised him for his sketches of evil American soldiers that he says he made look “as ugly and violent as possible.”

This is a re-creation of a drawing Choi made as a young student. It depicts an American soldier kicking a South Korean soldier as they prepare to cross the border into North Korea. The caption reads, “Invasion from the South.” Credit: Choi Seong-guk

In 2016, Choi returned to drawing and began an online comic strip series called “Rodong Shimmun,” which means “labor interrogation” — it’s a play on the name of North Korea’s “Rodong Shinmun,” the labor newspaper.

The satirical series follows a group of newly arrived refugees as they spend their first months in South Korea at a government–run integration center. Choi pokes fun at their ‘newbie-ness,’ like their shock about all the food at a buffet restaurant.

He also tells the story of one lovelorn defector, which he says is based on his own embarrassing cultural misunderstanding.

The defector meets a South Korean woman, who says, “Interesting. I’ve never met a North Korean person before. Can I have your phone number?” Credit: Choi Seong-guk

“One time I met a South Korean woman who asked for my phone number and said she wanted to become my friend,” he recalls. “I somehow misinterpreted that as she wanted to marry me.”

The woman goes on to use a term of endearment that’s casually spoken in South Korea. In a subsequent text bubble, Choi explains to his readers how this caused mixed signals.

“In North Korea only romantic partners would say that to each other. Amongst friends, we just call each other ‘comrade.'”

Not all of Choi’s drawings are funny, though. Some depict scenes in North Korea of people starving in the streets.

Throughout Choi’s comic series are glimpses of life in North Korea. In this drawing, the person says, “Hey, you could die. We should eat this grass.” Credit: Choi Seong-guk

Others portray how some defectors made their escape under fire from border guards.

Choi says he hopes his comic series will help change the mindset of South Koreans, who are generally apathetic toward North Korean refugees.

The caption above the drawing reads: “Escaping North Korea is all about survival. Even if one of your family members get shot and falls down, you just have to keep running.” Credit: Choi Seong-guk

And it might be working.

“Rodong Shimmun” now receives tens of thousands of views and some readers leave comments saying it’s helped them better understand the cultural differences between North and South Korea. Others write that they feel more empathetic toward defectors.

Written by PRI/PRX's The World

Originally published on Global Voices

Political cartoonist @badiucao depicts the Lotte boycott campaign as “New Boxer Rebellion”. Image from @badiucao.

The conflict between China and South Korea over the United States Army's anti-ballistic missile system has escalated in the past week with widespread boycotts of Korean retailer Lotte.

Lotte announced in November that it had agreed to give up a golf course it owns in South Korea for the storage of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery. The anti-ballistic missile system is purportedly meant to deter attacks from North Korea, but Chinese officials fear it could one day be turned on them.

State news agency Xinhua News was the first Chinese media outlet to start calling out Lotte for assisting in the deployment of THAAD, and has continued to publish criticism since mid-February. Its commentary on February 27, for example, read:

如果说部署“薩德”是在中國背后“捅刀子”，那樂天此次不計后果的草率決定，無異於為虎作倀。對於這樣的樂天，中國不歡迎！

The deployment of THAAD is stabbing a dagger in China’s back, Lotte’s irresponsible decision is like assisting a bloodthirsty Tiger [which is threatening to human security]. China will not welcome Lotte.

Echoing Xinhua, China nationalist tabloid Global Times called for a boycott in its Chinese editorial commentary, titled “Slam Lotte and Punish South Korea, China Has No Other Option.” The English version of Global Times reported on netizens’ reaction and highlighted angry comments directed at Lotte, including the followings:

China did not welcome you, please get the hell out of here and go back home

It's a very simple logic…Lotte is making lucrative profit from Chinese consumers yet they are standing against us and supporting the South Korean government. In other words, the group is actually using our money to put us in danger. How can Chinese tolerate that?

It didn't take long for words to become action. Following the call for boycott, Chinese authorities took steps to punish Lotte. Thus far, four Lotte retail stores in China have been closed upon inspection. In addition, several online shopping platforms, including JD.com and Jumei Youpin, have removed Lotte brand products.

The boycott is not confined to the web. Small-scale protests have sprouted across China. Reportedly, a number of Korean brand vehicles were crushed in Shangdong province. And below is video showing a boycott demonstration outside a Lotte retail store in Jilin.

‘Follow the call and boycott this and that’

While Chinese social media outlets are flooded with nationalistic comments, beyond the Great Firewall Wu Zuolai, a famous blogger, argued on Twitter that the boycott is meant to cover up China's diplomatic failure to keep North Korea — which launched four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan just on Monday, March 6 — under control:

政府外交无能，就怂恿老百姓出来闹事给外国人看，这与当年慈禧利用义和团没什么二样，只是现在多了一个叫团中央的机构，闲的蛋疼，发散各种内部通知，要求团员青年反韩反乐天，乐天是韩国企业，当然得服从韩国国家利益，这怎么可能改变呢？抗议乐天，只会使合资乐天受损害，乐天的中国就业者首先受害。

— 吴祚来 (@wuzuolai) March 1, 2017

With the government's failure in diplomacy, it incites people to protest. The intention is similar to the Boxer Rebellion during the Qing Dynasty. Now there is a centralized authority which hand outs internal notices to all government and party branches, asking members of the youth league to participate in anti-Korea and anti-Lotte protests. Lotte is a Korean corporation and it has to serve the country's interest. You can't change its nature. The protest will only do harm to Lotte's Chinese partner.

Twitter user @redfireage also mocked the Xinhua commentary:

为虎作伥 中国不欢迎这样的“乐天”。
是韩国的萨德威胁大，还是三胖的核弹威胁大？朝鲜又是VX化学武器又是核武器，不是更威胁国家安全？脸面被金三打的啪啪的，共产党屁都不敢放一个，只敢对着南韩喷口水还挑动民族仇恨抵制一个南韩企业，真的是个low逼政府。 pic.twitter.com/TTMOBpob33

— Red Fire Age (@redfireage) March 1, 2017

Assisting the tiger. China cannot welcome Lotte. Which is more destructive, South Korea's THAAD or North Korea's nuclear bomb? North Korea has VX nerve agent and nuclear bombs, aren't these more threatening? Kim III keeps slamming China to its face, but the Chinese Communist Party doesn't even dare to fart back but keep cursing South Korea, inciting hatred, boycotting Korean corporations, such a government is so low.

A Radio France Internationale writer collected some of the critical comments found on Chinese social media:

我突然想到了一个逻辑，不知道对不对，大家抵制了这么多天的韩国乐天超市，无非是因为美国在韩国部署了萨德威胁中国的安全，然后大家还想打砸韩国车之类的，那问题来了，源头是美国啊，为什么不一起抵制买苹果手机呢？

Suddenly a logical question pops up. We have boycotted Lotte because the American THAAD system deployed in South Korea has threatened China's national security and this makes us want to crush Korean brand vehicles. The question is, the source of the threat should be the US, so why don't we boycott Apple phones?

这是奇特的社会现象，人们既极度关心政治，又极度不关心政治：一开口就是民族、国家和政府的安危、盛衰和荣辱，但对自己的基本权利、自由和尊严，却从不思 考，对于身边的各种不公和无数无辜、无助的弱者，却漠不关心。身边的小偷不敢抓，老人不敢扶，却一天到晚嚷着要灭日本、打美国…

This is a very strange social phenomenon. People seem to care about politics, while at the same time be extremely indifferent to politics: they keep talking about national, state and government interests, security and honor, but do not think about their individual rights, freedom and dignity. They don't care about the injustice, the poor and the weak surrounding them. They dare not chase after thieves, help old people, but they keep saying they would eliminate Japan and fight the US…

瞎起哄抵制这个那个，瞎起哄去街上砸几台韩国车，其实都是做亲者痛仇者快的事情，敌对分子还没有开始进攻，我们就自乱阵脚，就对自己同胞痛下狠手，你砸的车不是同胞的血汗钱买的吗？

Follow the call and boycott this and that. Follow the call and crush a few Korean vehicles. All these actions only make our enemy happy. The enemy hasn't launched the attack and we are attacking our own people. The vehicles you crushed belong to your people, right?

In reaction to Chinese boycotts, the South Korean government-subsidized media outlet Korea Times published an editorial titled “Grow up, China,” calling China a spoiled kid and urging:

…we Koreans should tough it out and respond to Chinese provocations with a cool head _ finding ways to reduce Lotte's losses, reducing our reliance on China for exports and bringing unity to our political voice, until China sees reason.

Written by Oiwan Lam

Originally published on Global Voices

Screen capture from NTD TV news.

In Western and South Korean media coverage the February 12 murder at Kuala Lumpur airport of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un, was immediately interpreted as an indicator of serious and growing tensions between China and estranged ally North Korea.

The broad, if unverifiable assumption at present is that Pyongyang ordered the hit on on the regime sibling, who lived with his two families in Beijing and Macau under China’s protection, in order to eliminate a potential pretender to the throne. If this version is true, it would be a major embarrassment for Beijing, whose relations with its communist neighbour are souring by the day.

Thus far, most Chinese state-affiliated media outlets have withheld from commentary on the news, reflecting, perhaps, a certain paralysis in China over how to react to the shock development. Certainly, after China's criticisms of North Korean nuclear policy, the two countries are no longer “close like lips and teeth”, as Modern China's founder Mao Tse-Tung once said.

Nevertheless, Chinese nationalist commentators who tend to see U.S hegemony as a major source of threat to the country — and North Korea as a traditional ally — filled the void of silence with speculation that pointed a finger at South Korea instead.

They accuse Seoul of carrying out the assassination in order to gain public support for deploying the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system that the United States supports, and which has ratcheted up tensions with the north.

Few users of the Chinese Twitter equivalent Weibo seemed to buy that theory, however.

The nationalist-leaning Global Times first quoted the online conspiracy theory in its news report dated February 17:

网上有阴谋论大胆推测，韩国保守派人士可能涉事，因为他们一向都对朝鲜持有强烈敌意，暗杀金正男后再将责任嫁祸于朝鲜，可令平壤政府受到国际谴责

There is an online conspiracy that the [government] in South Korea may have been involved in the incident as they are hostile towards North Korea. They may have killed Kim Jong-nam and blamed North Korea for the act, so that international society would condemn Pyongyang.

The paper then quoted Lu Chao, a researcher at the Liaoning social science academy to provide backing for the conspiracy theory:

韩国政界和媒体对金正男之死炒得不亦乐乎，各媒体不断“爆料”，这对他们来说好像兴奋剂一样。韩国似乎把这条消息当成抹黑、颠覆朝鲜的一个“重磅炸弹”，从这一角度来看，已经超出了新闻的范围，有很大的政治目的性。

South Korean politicians and media are overjoyed with the news about Kim Jong-nam’s death. These media outlets keep publishing “breaking news” [on the topic]. The effect of the incident is like LSD. South Korea sees the news as a “powerful bomb” to defame and subvert North Korea. From this point of view, it is no longer a piece of news but part of a political plot.

Seemingly, commentators such as Lu Chao view the  THAAD system as a greater threat to Chinese national security than North Korea's nuclear tests, despite increasing evidence that China has as much reason to fear Kim Jong-un's unpredictable regime as other countries in the region.

On Twitter, prominent Chinese journalist Gao Yu condemned those still backing North Korea:

金正男马来西亚遇刺，是震惊世界的恶性恐怖事件，刚刚听到VOA对中国两位学者的采访，他们认为这件事对中朝关系影响不大，金正恩大权在握，政权巩固，反而说这为刚刚上台的美国总统川普制造难题。中国产生这样泯灭人性的学者只能令人齿寒，也让世人看清杀（姑）父弑兄的金三胖有恃无恐搞核恐假谁威！ pic.twitter.com/ADbzPK98nJ

— 高瑜 (@gaoyu200812) February 15, 2017

The assassination of Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia is a terrorist incident. But I just heard two scholars talking to VOA who argued that the incident would not affect North Korea’s relationship with China because the fact Kim Jong-un remains in power creates difficulties for U.S President Trump. Such cold-blooded scholars are terrifying. Their view tells the whole world who is supporting Kim Jong-un, the maniac who killed his uncle and his brother.

On the Weibo comment thread under a China Central Television news report on the topic, most commenters stated their belief that North Korea was the most likely culprit in the assassination.

地球人都知道，这是三胖子在向中国示威而已。三胖子发射导弹，原以为会获得中国支持（因为这几年都是毛左路线），想不到这次不同，毛左开始失去控制权，中国严厉指责朝鲜，并通知要断绝对朝支持（包括禁止进口朝鲜煤），双方立即谈崩。三胖子担心中国扶持喜欢改革的正男上台。。果断出手杀了正男，。

The whole world know that the incident is a protest against China by Fatty the Third (Kim Jong-un). The fatty launched missiles and expected Chinese backing for his actions […] But this time, China condemned North Korea and claimed that it would stop giving support to North Korea (and banned North Korea coal import). Relations broke down. Fatty was worried that China would support the reformist Jong-nam to take over the leadership… and Jong-nam was killed.

蠢货才会相信朝鲜是中国的小弟，事实上中国是朝鲜大后方。中国对朝鲜内外政治毫无影响力，却不得不提供各种资源输血

Only the stupid ones believe that North Korea is China’s little brother […] China cannot exercise any political influence over North Korea, but it has to offer supplies to the country.

预感，中国要协助北朝鲜统一南北朝鲜了。萨德，是中国协助的理由。。。。。威胁到了，中国的安全。。这步棋下的很波折啊。只有，南北朝鲜统一了，中国的东北边防和东部海防环境才会安稳，前提是，中国协助统一。。如果是美国协助统一，就是另一回事了。

My gut feeling is that China will help the reunification of North and South Korea. As to THAAD being a threat to Chinese national security… that is very far fetched. Only when the two are reunified will northeastern China and [the region] know peace. But China has to help out… if the U.S takes the lead in reunification, it might be another story.

Unlike certain nationalist armchair pundits, meanwhile, residents of the northeastern region of China fear North Korea far more than they fear THAAD and South Korea:

不想说啥，我只知道三胖搞核武，我们这里都地震好几次了，去年最厉害的一次，上课的孩子们都跑到操场疏散，最后校长紧急决定放假。呵呵。替他叫好的，想想大东北的安危再说话。别忘了你是中国人。

I don’t want to say too much. All I know is that because of Kim Jong-un’s nuclear tests, we have experienced a few earthquakes here. The most serious earthquake happened last year, when kids in school had to run to the sports fields and the school headmaster decided to cancel the school day because of security concerns. Those who cheer for [Kim Jong-un], please think about the safety in Northeastern China. And don’t forget you are Chinese.

Written by Oiwan Lam

Originally published on Global Voices

Image: Pixabay

In early November, Vladimir Putin suddenly signaled his support for new federal legislation designed to clarify the government’s formal understanding of “the Russian nation.” A vague, symbolic initiative, the Kremlin’s push to codify the meaning of Russia as a nation-state has reignited a centuries-old debate about “the Russian idea,” as well as work on this subject from intellectuals and scholars across the world.

Alexander Uspensky's map of Russian domestic stereotypes. Image: Yod News!

It was in this spirit that Alexander Uspensky published a map on the website Yod News featuring Russia’s various regions and ethnicities, labeled with stereotypes gleaned from autocomplete suggestions generated by the website Yandex, Russia’s most popular Internet search engine. To make the map, Uspensky searched for the word “why,” followed by the name of a group of people, such as “Muscovites,” “St. Petersburgers,” and so on.

Uspensky used the autocomplete suggestions to determine the top stereotype for people of a particular region in Russia. Muscovites, for instance, were found to be “unkind,” while the defining characteristic of people from St. Petersburg is that “they don’t like Muscovites.”

RuNet Echo has applied Uspensky’s methodology to groups across the world, in order to uncover Russian Internet users’ most common stereotypes about foreigners. The list below is far from complete, but it features the most popular searches on the RuNet, when it comes to foreigners. Unlike Uspensky’s study, we have listed Yandex’s top three searches for each group.

The United States

Why do Americans say “oh my gosh”?
Why are Americans afraid of Russians?
Why are Americans afraid of clowns?

Mexico

Why do Mexicans flee to the United States?
Why are Mexicans so brutal?
Why do Mexicans eat spicy food?

Cuba

Why don’t Cubans like Americans?
Why don’t Cubans like Russians?
Why did Cubans support the revolution?

Canada

Why did Canadians play without helmets in 1972?
Why don’t Canadians like Russians?
Why are Canadians the villains in [the TV show] South Park?

Brazil

Why don’t Brazilians like Argentinians?
Why do Brazilians speak Portuguese?
Why are Brazilians so good at soccer?

Argentina

Why don’t Argentinians like the British?
Why are Argentinians white?
Why do Argentinians say Mexicans descended from the Aztecs?

Europe

Why do Europeans wear their wedding rings on their left hands?
Why did Europeans seek a sea route to India?
Why did Europeans know so little about the peoples of Africa during the Middle Ages?

The United Kingdom

Why don’t the British like to sit on their hands?
Why did the British oppose new public telephone booths?
Why do the British want to leave the European Union?

France

Why don’t the French like Russians?
Why do the French eat frogs?
Why are the French unable to pronounce “r” and “l” properly?

Germany

Why didn’t Germans like the Jews?
Why did Germans exterminate the Jews?
Why were Germans afraid of hand-to-hand combat?

Poland

Why don't Poles like Russians?
Why do Poles hate Russians?
Why don't Poles like Russia?

Italy

Why don’t Italians get fat?
Why do Italians look like people from the North Caucasus?
Why do Italians like Russian women?

Ukraine

Why don’t Ukrainians like Russians?
Why do Ukrainians kneel?
Why do Ukrainians say “h” and not “g”?

Estonia

Why are Estonians slow?
Why don’t Estonians like Russians?
Why do Estonians take the front seat, when sitting down in a taxi van?

Latvia

Why don’t Latvians like Russians?
Why do Latvians still call Russians “krevz”?
Why don’t Latvians like Lithuanians?

Lithuania

Why don’t Lithuanians like Russians?
Why don’t Lithuanians like Belarusians?
Why are Lithuanians tall?

Belarus

Why don’t Belarusians like Russians?
Why are Belarusians so built and handsome?
Why don’t Belarusians speak Belarusian?

Armenia

Why are Armenians so wealthy?
Why are Armenians so clever?
Why do Armenians wear their wedding rings on their left hands?

Africa

Why are Africans black?
Why do Africans run so fast?
Why don’t Africans become more advanced?

Egypt

Why did Egyptians worship Amon-Ra as the supreme god?
Why did Egyptians call Nefertiti “the mistress of happiness”?
Why did Egyptians worship cats?

Arabs

Why do Arabs write backwards?
Why do Arabs like Russian girls?
Why were Arabs able to conquer large territories easily?

Jews

Why don’t Jews like Armenians?
Why don’t Jews eat pork?
Why are Jews smart?

Israel

Why can’t Israelis come to a peace settlement with Palestinians?
Why aren’t Israelis Christians?
Why do Israelis marry Russians?

Islam

Why don’t Muslims eat pork?
Why don’t Muslims use toilet paper?
Why do Muslims say “amen”?

Iran

Why don’t Iranians wear neckties?
Why are Iranians fighting in Syria?
Why are Iranians Shiites?

Syria

Why aren't Syrians fleeing to Russia?
Why are Syrians fleeing to Europe?
Why don't Syrians fight for their own country?

Turkey

Why don’t Turks like Armenians?
Why do Turks drink coffee with water?
Why do Turks call all Russian women “Natasha”?

India

Why don't Indians kiss?
Why do Indians shake their heads?
Why don't Indians swim in the sea?

Asia

Why do Asians look younger?
Why are Asians shorter?
Why do Asians eat with chopsticks?

China

Why don’t the Chinese get fat?
Why don’t the Chinese drink milk?
Why don’t the Chinese like amber?

Japan

Why don’t the Japanese age?
Why are the Japanese thin?
Why do the Japanese live so long?

Korea

Why don’t Koreans sweat?
Why do Koreans wear masks on their faces?
Why are Koreans thin?

Vietnam

Why do the Vietnamese wear masks?
Why don’t the Vietnamese like the Chinese?
Why are the Vietnamese thin?

Remarkably, Russian Internet users’ chief searches for various nationalities appear to mirror significant geopolitical events relevant to Russia. For instance, one of the most common questions Russian Internet users ask about people from different countries is why those people dislike Russians, and this question is most common in searches for information about nations with which Moscow's relations have recently deteriorated.

Popular Internet searches in regions where Moscow has less invested politically and fewer cultural ties, meanwhile, seem to focus on questions that are physiological, and sometimes outright bizarre, like those about weight and aging.

Written by Kevin Rothrock