[imText1]There are distinctively different local characteristics in each of the province in North Korea. To classify them into two large groups, there is the “Hamkyung province” character in the upper side and the “Pyeongan province” character in the lower side. These characters also divided, into the “Hamhung” character in the Northern metropolitan area, and the “Pyongyang” character pervasive in the metropolitan area of the Pyeongan province.
There are many representative features of the character of Hamhung and the character of Pyeongyang, the view of women is given a great deal of weight on the difference.
In other words, while regarding the “new men” who are considered as “the civilized” or “the modern” for holding shopping baskets for their wives or providing domestic help like washing the baby diapers is widely accepted in Pyeongyang. On the other hand, those “new men” are considered as “men with no principle” in Hamhung.
A Man from Pyeongan and a Woman From Hamkyung Make an Ideal Match?
The different views on women in Hamhung and Pyongyang show that there is a clear difference in culture in the two provinces especially marriage culture. In Pyongyang, it is the tradition that the groom prepares the furniture and the bride prepares all the household goods, while in Hamhung, there was a common saying until the 80s that the bride prepares all the household necessities and the groom can marry in his panties.
People in Pyeongyang usually express their opinions on marriage as, “It is ideal to live with a woman from Hamkyeong province for the man from Pyeongan province.” At a glance, it could be heard as a praise for the women from Hamkyeong province, who are good householders and good cooks at the same time, but it also contains the meaning that the men from Pyeongan province are more easy-going (less traditional) compare to the men from Hamkyeong province.
There are many women past middle age from Pyeongan province married to the men from Hamkyeong province, who say “I want to dissuade women who hear an offer of marriage with man from north,” half in jest, half in earnest.
Before, I did not quite fee the different views people have for women from the two provinces. It was only after I witnessed the scenes of the patriarchal climate that women in Hamkyeong province were bearing, that I felt heavy at heart even more than I imagined I would.
The absurd scene of female and male students not eating on the same table
It happened in the winter on 1995. I took a part in the graduation party of the Hamhung Chemical Engineering College while I was on a business trip to Hamhung city. The graduation party was held in a house of the professor with about 20 students, and I felt happy by instinct when 7~8 female students came in on time. I read their faces from various angles since I wanted to talk to them so I tried to greet them, but all the female students with their shoulders drooped, gathered in a corner without saying anything. That irritated me without a particular reason.
Two round tables were unfolded and the dishes were set on both tables. Then male and female were divided and took each table just like black and white. I told to the female students to come over to this table on purpose while I was sitting with male students, however no one moved. They turned a deaf ear to my words even when I said that female students in Pyeongyang join with male students and drink in this kind of parties. Some unnoticeable movements were all the response I got even when I changed the tone of my voice and strongly said that nobody shall press the rights of women with their hands, and women have to fight for their own rights.
While male students were drinking and sharing their well-meant remarks, the female students ate the food diligently and went back to the corner on their hunker just like the cows laying down in the corner for rumen. I felt sick at that moment and I started to look at the female students differently.
It reminded me the northern men who talk about “the chauvinism of the people from Hamkyeong province” that they have much more civilized temperament than those people from Pyeongyang and at the same time I suddenly realized that all those words were just an empty talk. Is it possible to call those people as the civilized people while they are living in the cultural space where they segregate women?
How can you send a man to the market in the country of the courteous people of the East?
Once I heard the story of a writer from Hamhung who went on a business trip to Shinpo (the region near Hamhung) and met his ex-lover. The story was just absurd. The first greeting words of the woman from Shinpo in front of her ex-lover at the first sight in ten years were like this.
“Oh my god, I heard that women in Pyeongyang make men go to the market. Is it the right conduct of women from the country of the courteous people in the East?” (refers to Korea)
The worse thing was that the male writer speaks very highly his first lover’s remarks to everyone as if her words were a gold saying. I grilled the female, who transmitted that silly story without thinking. I angrily yelled back saying, “Then is that man a Buddha who only lives on air?” I meant to say it to that male writer from Hamhung.
When a young women pass by a so-called the person of high birth, referring a man from Hamkyeong province, she stops at the spot and sighs, saying “Oh, today is such a bad day from the start!” or picks up a quarrel with others passing by. This is not an unusual scene in Hamhung region.
Why over-busy on the other’s households?
Once I got a phone call from a man from Hamkyeong province. He was to drop by my house. This is after I came to South Korea. Nonchalantly I looked around my home, I found my son’s room messy. I cleaned his room just before but he was a child in of playing age so he messed his room in a moment. I thought I have to clean his room but he was not an important guest and because I was busy at that moment so I just opened the door without clean up. He frowned puckering up his brows at his entrance staring at the messy room and said, “Why is this house so messy?”
I felt like talking back and say, “that is none of your business whether my house is messy or not, you are just a guest.” At that moment, I suddenly remembered that this is the way the men from Hamkyeong province control their wives. I got goose bumps when I realized that this is the way they used their male-power, only to ill treat women every day.
His wife ran away twice from their home because of his vicious beating, and particularly for that problem he came to my house to see me. His wife was a woman from northern region, who kept her house just like a hotel, who was outstanding in cooking, good looking. She is a proud woman who appears to everyone to have amicable relationship with her husband.
The question mark came out from the saying that “Women from Hamkyeong province are good at house holding and cooking.” That word can be translated as if you cannot bear your husband, you cannot be a woman from Hamkyeong province.
Women’s position in North Korea Not known Correctly in South Korea
Not long ago, there was a monthly meeting of Women’s Society in the education cultural center, of Ewha Women’s University. A party was prepared after the presentation, and during one of these parties, my mouth unexpectedly worded out something, while I was eating and having private conversation with scholars of Women’s Studies.
I said, “In South Korea, feminism took a great part for civilizing the consciousness of the South Korean society”
I did not say that without taking account of all the elements or side effects, which also take place after the increase of the role of feminism.
I, who lived in North Korea for 40 years where the individuality of women is ignored, reached the conclusion that the level of consciousness about women is an important barometer to measure the level of civilization of that society. This is because in a society where one sex does not respect the other sex as equal human beings, it is hard to find positive elements of the human civilization.
