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Behind the Curtain – A Look into North Korean CultureEvent Date
Location
Address
Speaker(s)
B.R. Myers, Director, International Studies Department, South Korea's Dongseo University
B.R. Myers is an American-born, German-educated scholar currently teaching North Korean literature in South Korea. Myers specializes in the research of North Korea's official culture, a subject on which he has written numerous op-ed pieces for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic Monthly, where he is a contributing editor. He contributes frequently to NPR as a commentator on North Korea and his book Han Sorya and North Korean Literature (1994) remains the only English-language history of North Korean culture. He is also the author of A Reader's Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose. Event Details
This event is co-sponsored by the Asia Society of Northern California. Watch or listen to the program recording or visit our online archive for other event recordings. |
While considerable attention has been focused on following the actions of DPRK officials in Pyongyang, how well do we understand the mindset and culture of North Korea’s ordinary citizens? B.R. Myers argues that we know more of North Korea’s clandestine nuclear program than of the motivation behind it. We know more about Kim Jong Il’s potential successors than about the unique worldview that North Korean citizens share. Drawing from decades of research on the country’s ideology and propaganda, Myers offers a new understanding of North Korean culture; using multimedia to tell the story of modern-day life in this closed society through its art, unique historic perspective, literature, film, and iconography. A specialist on North Korea, he is a contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and a frequent contributor to both NPR and The New York Times, as well as author of The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves - And Why It Matters.