Peace as a techno-futurist fantasy: interpreting the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics

Abstract

ABSTRACT South Korea hosted the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games nearly 30 years after the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games and almost 16 after the 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup. The national narrative of these sporting mega-events shifted from a grand display of industrial triumph during the Seoul Olympics to the celebration of a global nation during the World Cup to a nation of cutting-edge technology during the PyeongChang Olympics. The Opening Ceremonies of the PyeongChang Olympics were planned to showcase South Korea’s hallyu cultural juggernaut and technological prowess. Just a month prior to the start of the Games, a delegation from North Korea agreed to compete, thereby changing the narrative of the show. The planned story line shifted to include the idea of reunification not as an urgent matter of the present, but as a techno-futurist fantasy of world peace. While the Olympic leadership fawned over this hopeful display of détente through sport, the joint appearance failed to garner a great deal of excitement in South Korea given the failure of decades of cultural interactions to bring the two countries closer together. Nevertheless, the presence of North Koreans created a level of interest that added an element of historical and political curiosity otherwise missing from an overwrought program that lacked spontaneity. Thus, ironically, the presence of the North Korean delegation worked to improve the overall storyline by offering a dramatic depiction of a technologically mediated future free of conflict.