The Mass Games
아리랑 축제
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"Between August and October, takes place one of the biggest and most impressive performances in the world - even the Beijing Olympics ceremony can’t compete with the Mass Games organized by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...The well-called "mass games" are designed to emphasize group dynamics rather than individual performances as the supreme emblem of communism."
- Eric Lafforgue, photographer |
"We prepare Mass Games every time there's a national holiday in our country, so at the time of our Great Leader, Kim Il-Sung's birthday, at the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or on the anniversary of the founding of the Korean Worker's Party, those times."
- Kim Jong Ho, Mass Games organizer |
Girls use hula hoops in the 2012 Arirang Mass Games. AP
" I have never been happier than the three times I performed in the presence of the general [in the Mass Games]"
- Pak Hyon-son, North Korean citizen and gymnast in the Mass Games
- Pak Hyon-son, North Korean citizen and gymnast in the Mass Games
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The impact of the Mass Games is twofold - they are designed not only to enforce the ideas of submission to the group but also to reassure the audience in the power and supremacy of North Korea. In addition, the games provide a feeling of something greater than its participants themselves - they become not individuals, but rather han-nara: one people, one nation. This idea of sacrificing individualism is a key element of Juche, as the North Korean people give up their individual liberties to the glory of the state.
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The sheer spectacle of the Mass Games. A State of Mind
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"Group gymnastics is not an exercise performed by one person, but by a synchronized group. Even though it's tiring, when you do it with your classmates, group power develops and individualism completely disappears."
- Pak Hyon-son, North Korean citizen and gymnast in the Mass Games |
"Developing mass gymnastics is important in training children to be fully developed communist people, to be fully developed communist man, one must acquire a revolutionary ideology, the knowledge of many fields, rich cultural attainments and a healthy and strong physique. These are the basic qualities required of a man of the communist type. Mass gymnastics play an important role in training schoolchildren to acquire these communist qualities. Mass gymnastics foster particularly healthy and strong physiques, a high degree of organization, discipline and collectivism in schoolchildren. The schoolchildren, conscious that a single slip in their action may spoil their mass gymnastic performance, make every effort to subordinate all their thoughts and actions to the collective.’"
- Kim Jong-Il, On Further Developing Mass Gymnastics. Talk to Mass Gymnastics Producers. April 11, 1987
- Kim Jong-Il, On Further Developing Mass Gymnastics. Talk to Mass Gymnastics Producers. April 11, 1987