Quarantine Free Talk

Kim Jong-Un Looking at Potatoes; or, Bro Listens to Kpop

This is (purported to be) a real (North) K(orean) pop song. I was going to write “propaganda pop song”, but then I realized that all North Korean (pop) music is propaganda, so the word is redundant. I guess it’s been on Youtube for years, but it’s just now getting noticed. Here are the lyrics. I encourage you to read them one more time to reflect on their poetic beauty. All together now:

Potato pride! Many on many,
The flowers of our lives are blooming.
Oh, oh, oh, potato pride!

In our village [was] an old man,
And on the day of potato distribution [editor’s note: lol],
[He] layed [sic] out a feast on the birthday table:
Chewy potato tteok and Hamhung cold noodles,
Delicious ggwabaegi and potato pancakes.

Potato pride! Oh so many,
Lost count at thirty,
Oh, oh, oh, potato pride.

Potato pride, oh so many,
Potato chaltteok—honey flavored,
The grandmothers cluck their tongues.
While the children go to and fro,

“Potato taffy is the best!”, they say.

The old man who ate a lot and lived to a ripe old age [editor’s note: fat old guys are generally auspicious figures in Chinese culture too, cf. small shops and such in China having on the wall paper cutouts of Santa throughout the year. He’s even wearing red, also considered auspicious, cf. Chinese wedding dresses],

Says [sic], while emptying a glass of potato liquor,
“Our world is oh so good,
And in my hometown there’s a potato bumper harvest!”
Oh, oh, oh, potato pride!

In the past, people lived poorly
In this far-flung region,
Which, today, under the arms of the Party,
Has become a paradise on Earth.
Build many potato farms and live to an old age,
Have many children and enjoy the pleasures of life.

Sing of the good times

Did the old man from the long-lived family 

As he dances [sic] a dance,

Oh, oh, oh, potato pride!

Potato pride! Many on many,
The flowers of our lives are blooming,
Oh, oh, oh, potato pride!

I'd like to begin by wishing everyone a happy Day of Potato Distribution. 

That said: devilish. This song is diabolically, but brilliantly, written. It's just generic enough for the "agricultural laboring masses" to identify with: old men in the village having a shot of potato liquor, kids running around while grandmas peel potatoes, etc. The happy Mao-suited official holding some potatoes in the video looks sort of like your village commissar. There’s a big, happy Kim Jong-Un looking at potatoes, who, come to think of it, himself much resembles a potato. 

But don't say that, or you and everyone in your family will be shot. Your organs will be sold on the black market.


The lyrics tiptoe on the edge of overt political propaganda--you can feel the tension building, and you start kinda wondering if this song isn't even going to mention the regime--until the
last verse. Then it unleashes a torrent of praise for the Party's leadership. See how the party takes care of us and lets us get fat on potatoes!
It hits its demographic perfectly: people who remember times of relative prosperity followed by extreme hardship. I would imagine that the average middle-aged North Korean sees pre-1991 (under the USSR) as being more plentiful than it actually was. This perception is due to nostalgia, propaganda, and the severity of the famine which would follow. I imagine that this song reminds them of a comparatively potato-rich past. And they can have those good times back, with lots of potatoes, all their favorite potatoes, if they follow the Supreme Leader and get back to work! I can imagine this song being written in a year when every crop except potatoes failed. And the potatoes aren't enough to feed everyone by themselves, but they're the only thing that anyone has to eat, so now it's the Great Proletarian Potato Revolution. And the potatoes are given out on the Day of Potato Distribution. Before the revolution this day was a millennia-old religious festival, but was repurposed to be about potatoes so people would forget its original significance. Enjoy your daily potato (singular) ration, comrade. If you're good, Kim Jong-Un will put an extra potato in your stocking.
Of course, a diet of nothing but one potato per day is bad for you(r immune system), so now you have to worry about getting sick. "Now", being "during the worldwide coronavirus epidemic that started next door, in the country that you do all of your trade with, which covered up the virus for weeks". So now you're starving and sick. If you point out the incongruity between this song and reality (or are perceived to have pointed it out) or in any way suggest that you're not, in fact, living in bucolic plenty, you and everyone in your family will be shot. Your organs will be sold on the black market. But it's a great year for potatoes!
Communism sucks, dude.

[Found the original music video, worth a watch. -Ed.]