Links for July 30, 2010

As a stand-in for more narrative and original blog posts when I get back from “vacation,” please enjoy the following links in three categories:

Mao’s Forgotten Son, The Korean War Remembered

Photos

History education: 140+ photos of Korea before the war http://history.huanqiu.com/photo/2010-04/778072_2.html

New photos of Mao Anying, Mao Zedong’s son translating for Russians in Beijing, May 1950, just six months before he was killed by an American napalm raid in northeast North Korea http://www.360doc.com/content/06/0313/16/327_79191.shtml

Some Chinese are paying attention to how their forces are being portrayed in new South Korean war films http://www.cqzg.cn/viewthread-807779.html

English-language sources

KCNA on looting during fall 1950 US occupation of North Korea http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201007/news28/20100728-10ee.html

Yet again, NK calls for an armistice. Hard to believe in the context. http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2010/201007/news28/20100728-04ee.html

Chinese-language sources

North Korea stirs thoughts of Maoist legacy, long worshipful quotes from Deng Xiaoping (in Chinese) http://bit.ly/btPrxd

Huanqiu recalls the great Korean War films of the 1960s and 70s (in Chinese) http://history.huanqiu.com/china/2010-07/965492.html

Just another day of reminding Chinese people that North Korea needed help in the 1950s (in Chinese) http://history.huanqiu.com/photo/2010-06/872533.html

Photos of Liu’s visit to Mao Anying’s gravesite in North Korea, 2006 http://www.china.com.cn/news/txt/2006-05/22/content_6215728.htm

刘思齐, Mao Anying’s widow, describes his gravesite in North Pyong’an, near Kuandian http://culture.people.com.cn/GB/40479/40480/4517337.html

Rather interesting BBS debate on presence of Maoism in PLA & NK today http://www.huanqiu.com/content_comment.php?tid=965492&mid=1&cid=841

General North Korea

Sheila Melvin’s essential article on Chinese reception of North Korean opera http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/arts/29iht-sea.html?_r=1

DPRK, Kim Jong Eun losing face by running short of concrete in Pyongyang. China not helping, driving up price. http://tinyurl.com/2v2xrg4

BBC segment on North Korea flooding, crops and infrastructure destroyed excerpts from state TV http://bit.ly/bc4kGP

BBC interviews @BarbaraDemick http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8782000/8782849.stm

A worthwhile read re: visit to Kim Il Song’s tomb http://chovanec.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/a-visit-to-north-korea-part-1/

Joshua Stanton on “Why there is a Cold War in Asia” http://tinyurl.com/2wy4cyu

Isn’t this the definition of a poor state? NK trying to pay back Cold War-era debts to Czech IN GINSENG http://tinyurl.com/354dyz6

Sino-Korean Borderland News

On the cross-border trading habits and difficulties of merchants in Hyesan, NK http://tinyurl.com/297q6ny

“Once-proud Dongbei became the Chinese version of Flint, Michigan: a Rust Belt of decay…with no future.” http://tinyurl.com/257rbtp

DailyNK item re: prostitution is much more comprehensive in Chinese than English http://tinyurl.com/3xllzc7 Currency reforms to blame again.

North Hamgyong gov in a major effort to check Chinese computers http://tinyurl.com/3xjxur3 (English) http://tinyurl.com/2w64dbe (Chinese)

NK nervous about leasing ports? News items always about worshipful foreigners in Chongjin. http://tinyurl.com/2fxac92

Fatal mudslides in Kuandian宽甸县/Dandong, meaning: DPRK North Pyong’an also inundated. http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2010-07/962823.html

The Dalian oil spill was far, far worse than reported, says Richard Steiner in Beijing.  Steiner was on the scene for two days and notes that oil may well indeed clot up North Korea’s northwest coast.  Link to the story by Liberation (already Google translated for inveterate Anglophones)  http://tinyurl.com/27uctvr

Finally, don’t miss the Huanqiu photo galleries of South Korean society in the 1960s and 1970s — there is a lot of catching up to do in this very important relationship!