Pyeong Yang Play

Korea is much different than my home.  The people, culture, architecture, scenery, etc,. but Korea has many subtle hints of western influence.  I can't buy a coffee without calling it a 커피(Kah-pi), and there are many English words that have somehow made into the daily lives of many Koreans.  Add to the fact that I've lived in this country for a few months and it has started to feel like home.

Tuesday, however, I got a sneak peek into a culture that is so foreign to my western mind.  My Korean Grandpa took my friend and I to a play at the Cultural Center in Samcheok.  I wasn't expecting much, but soon found out the play he was taking us to was going to be performed by North Koreans, escapees that is.  The country is so isolated that once I heard North Koreans were going to be performing a cultural play, my ears quickly shot up.  There is simply an exotic taboo factor that I have associated with North Korean culture and people.  I've heard so much of this country and understand so little about it and I was going to see North Koreans in real life. It's safe to say I'm one of the very few Americans to experience this and I felt honored to expand my cultural horizons above the limits set by the American media that I've been exposed to all my life.  

However, I have to take everything about North Korea with a grain of salt.  Kim Jong Il could have sent these ladies out of their country to further promote the "greatness" of his country, or not but all I did was enjoy the performance.

It mainly consisted of ladies dancing around to old Korean songs and karaoke singing to the old songs.  In many situations that would have been boring, but these ladies were just simply different.  The way they moved and their appearance was very noticeable.  My eyes were first drawn to their faces.  I don't know if it was the amount of old soviet style make-up on their face or something else, they looked slightly different than most South Koreans I've seen.  Their smiles also lit up the auditorium for the whole duration, 2 hours, of the performance.  I caught myself thinking that they must be very happy but I quickly reminded myself of the tortures these women must have went through in their lives.  You could see in their faces and arms that these ladies missed a few meals while they were growing up.  I wondered what status they must have been when they were in North Korea?  If they fled they must have been of the lower class.  

It was also interesting to listen to the differences, as well.  Their dialect and pronunciation was very different from what I had been use to.  Every word was overly enunciated but I couldn't tell if that was speech talking or normal talk.  My understanding of Korean at a natural fluent speed is roughly 20% these days but I couldn't understand more than a few words by these ladies.  The music also felt like it just came out of the 1950's but all of the older folks in the audience sang the lyrics.

I couldn't imagine what it felt like for the large majority of the crowd because many of them grew up during the time when Korea wasn't split.  I just simply sat their and enjoyed everything I could from it.