produced | Tiger Sniffing Young Group

Author | Zhazha County

This article was first published on the Huxiuyou content public account “It’s Hard to Escape” (ID: huxiu4youth). Here, we present the faces, stories and attitudes of young people today.

The driver patted the horn in despair, and issued a mechanical curse.

A quarter of an hour later, our Jinbei commercial vehicle is still standing still on Shengli Street in Pyongyang. The congestion in Pyongyang at 6 pm is like that in Sanlitun, Beijing. People don’t give way to each other, but they can’t move.

Pyongyang traffic jam map

Pyongyang, a city inhabited by more than 3 million people, is the capital of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and the holy land of Juche thought. It is the most prosperous city north of the 38-degree line of the Korean Peninsula. Electricity has never been interrupted, and residents have Is a model.

Therefore, the intersection of traffic jams, a vocabulary with a sense of modernity and the most mysterious country, will make tourists feel magical and amazed, but it will not cause any ripples in the expressions of Pyongyang citizens.

The 20-year-old tour guide with the group took advantage of the gap when we looked at the scenery of the “Main Thought Theme Park” outside the window, picked up the plastic microphone made in China, and prepared to openBegin to tell another story.

She said that yesterday someone asked her to buy the leader badge on her chest, which made her angry; she said that the leader badge on her left chest is something more important than the heart. Trying to buy with money is a kind of blasphemy. . Speaking of the excitement, she cried, loudly and wailing.

North Korean citizens love the leader, and even more love the leader badge. There are invisible class symbols hidden behind each sacred and inviolable badge. Therefore, it is also regarded by tourists as a difficult to obtain and the most distinctive tourist souvenir.

The religious fanatical worship of leaders surrounding the badge of leaders and tourists’ greed for rare souvenirs have allowed thin copper pieces to flow into the world through underground pipes and become high-value collections; these phenomena are common It outlines an absurd picture and becomes a footnote to the beautiful new life in North Korea.

photo from: Mark Fahey Public Domain

01.

North Korean leader like a chapter の起Source and development

The North Korean badge is like a pigtail in the Qing Dynasty. It is a national symbol.

In the introduction of the North Korean tour guide, Dai Xiangzhang is a fanaticism formed by the North Korean people because of their love for the leader. It is already a subtle habit.

So, no matter where they are, they will put a small badge on their chest. On domestic social media, many people have said that they have seen North Koreans wearing badges on their chests in the subway, and their images have become clear because of the existence of badges.

Picture source: Weibo

According to North Korean expert Andrei Lankov in his book “North of the Demilitarized Zone—The Daily Life of Korean Society and People”: The North Korean badge was inspired by the experience of the older brother, which is said to be the earliest In the 1950s and 1960s, North Korea appeared for the first time a gold-ribbon stamp designed by Mansudae Creation Agency.

The shape of the badge in this period was rectangular and round. The main body of the badge was mainly made of reliefs of Kim Il Sung in the early stage, and then the physical portrait of Kim Il Sung began to appear gradually in the later stage. During this period, the badge of the North Korean leader was an exclusive accessory for senior cadres in the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Picture source: NK News

In fact, during the journey to North Korea, when the Jinbei car finally passed the traffic light slowly, the tour guide also asked us if we should apply for the leader badge.

When she talked about the first half of the process-writing the faithful letter, the uncles and aunts who were born in the 1950s and 60s looked at each other without answering. Until a while later, an aunt from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, holding on to the small handle, asked the tour guide timidly as the car swayed:

“Girl, when shall we go to the restaurant?”