Reading North Korea: An Ethnological Inquiry by Sonia Ryang (review)

Abstract

Sonia Ryang, Reading North Korea: An Ethnological Inquiry. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. 244 pp.As title Reading North Korea implies, Sonia Ryang invites readers to approach North Korea as if it were a text. Yet, as Ryang boldly pos- its, less effort has been made to recognize North Korea as a land of human beings, and more effort has been made to advocate for, accuse, or ridicule country (4). Anthropologists, in general, pride themselves on their sci- entific and ethical commitment to years of ethnographic fieldwork in order to interpret societies and people a native viewpoint. Therefore, why not direct these approaches toward North Korea? It is in this sense that Ryang calls for general readers, anthropological scholars, and students in particular to humanize or, in author's term, (re)anthropologize the faceless Koreans (8) by employing ethnological approaches, just as Ruth Benedict did among Japanese during World War II. The purpose of book is to comprehend North Korean logic, structure, and operative mode of everyday life (3). Ryang's methods include reading and analyzing select novels and films that develop themes of love, war, and a sense of self that, she suggests, ground North Korean human relations.The book consists of five interconnected chapters that develop proj- ect of humanizing what is often infamously described as world's most isolated country. In introduction, A Journey into Abyss, Ryang stresses how her stance diverges existing popular opinions that fig- ure North Korea as either a neo-Confucian or a guerilla state (cf. Lee 1976, Kwon and Chung 2012, Wada 2002, Cumings 2004). Instead of labeling country with concepts already familiar to outsiders, Ryang stresses critical transformation of Kim Il Sung, Supreme of North Korea, in symbolic topology of 1970s and 1980s. The shift from a theoretico-ideological leader into an ethico-spiritual one (25) is essen- tial to understanding relationship between leaders and people. The leaders, Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il and to Kim Jong Un, cannot be compared or interchanged. In particular, Kim Il Sung's position as Supreme is permanent, while position of his successor Kim Jong Il as is not. This point is reminiscent of that raised by Heonik Kwon and Byung-Ho Chung (2012) on resilience of charismatic leadership in North Korea. Namely, Kwon and Chung investigate not characteristics of charismatic leadership per se, but ways by which charisma carries over decades and is further inherited by next genera- tions. Using Clifford Geertz's concept of theater state, Kwon and Chung pay attention to varied yet coherent state-run cultural performances, products, and practices that are ritualized and serve to routinize Kim Il Sung's personal charismatic power in form of hereditary succession. Returning to Ryang's standpoint, however, Kim Il Sung's supreme power is not transferred to his successors but remains solely in him and with people eternally. In other words, Ryang asserts that Kim Jong Il and current leader Kim Jong Un cannot replace Kim Il Sung's image and power but can only replicate it (or pretend to). Sanctification of Kim Il Sung is thus seen as a politico-cultural project and historical process accentuated in 1970s and throughout 1980s by which the Great Leader came to be embed- ded in, and thus determine, people's everyday human relations. The subsequent chapters continue to explore love, war, and a sense of self that Ryang claims are essential aspects of North Korean society.Chapter 1, Love, examines how North Korean exemplary love is ani- mated in an eternal triangle between men and women (i.e., people) and Great Kim Il Sung, whose position is at apex of triangle. Readers will enjoy main storylines of selected novels that Ryang suc- cinctly describes and then further analyzes to show how they demonstrate nature of North Korean love, which includes a core revolutionary spirit and sensitivity for a greater self and nation-state. …