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\u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d, the Chinese drama being targeted by the Kim Jong-un regime. Photograph from the homepage of Chunghwa TV\u2019s website.<\/p><\/div>\n
In mid-August, a reporting partner from the northern part of the country described the uproar surrounding the drama, saying, \u201cThere is a lot of people seeing \u2018Nothing Gold Can Stay\u2019 because people are saying it\u2019s a lot of fun. The authorities though are cracking down on the illegal distribution of the Korean-subtitled copies, saying it is not an authorized work of the state-run video company, Mokran Video. The real reason [for the crackdown] though, it appears, is that the drama seems unfavorable to the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25c6Drama portrays the fall of the Qing Dynasty, brought down by corruption<\/h2>\n
What is the plot of the popular Chinese drama \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d and why is the Kim Jong-un regime cracking down on this drama in particular? To find out, we did a bit of research.<\/p>\n
The original Chinese title of \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d was '\u90a3\u5e74\u82b1\u958b\u6708\u6b63\u5713' (literally translated as \"The year the full moon blossomed\"). The 74-episode drama series first aired in China in August, 2017 and has been broadcast in South Korea by Chunghwa TV, a cable channel specializing in Chinese works, since January, 2018. The reporting partner explained, \u201cUp until now, the authorities took small bribes and turned a blind eye to people caught watching Chinese dramas. But now, they are cracking down specifically on \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d. Since early August, the \u2018109 Division\u2019 has been conducting surprise inspections, at day and night, of private homes. They inspect not only televisions and notetels (small laptop-sized DVD players) but computers and mobile phones as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kim Jong-un regime has been paying keen attention to the influx of information from South Korea, focusing on censoring dramas and movies. The authorities sentence those caught watching foreign media to a minimum of 1 year of hard labor and hand out sentences of 2-3 years to those caught selling or distributing copies. A similarly severe punishment is expected to be imposed on those caught watching \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d.<\/p>\n Since late May, the power situation has improved slightly in provincial cities, with electricity currently available for about 4-6 hours a day in the northern part of the country. As a result, a growing number of people are secretly watching foreign dramas at home.<\/p>\n \u203bNote: This year, many people were arrested after the Kim Jong-un regime launched a massive investigation into the spread of the South Korean hit film, \u201cA Taxi Driver\u201d, a film depicting the South Korean youth\u2019s struggle for democratization.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d and South Korean dramas are believed to be smuggled in from China on USB sticks or SD cards. It is believed that some groups are smuggling media content purely for the purpose of profit-making, while other groups are introducing outside information to the country for human rights activism.<\/p>\n \u203bASIAPRESS contacts its reporting partners in North Korea through smuggled Chinese mobile phones.<\/p>\n In North Korea, a Chinese drama called \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d is secretly gaining popularity, causing quite a stir. In \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNext page : The drama, set in the late 19th century...<\/strong>
\nThe drama, set in the late 19th century, presents the imperial Qing Dynasty, just before its collapse and at the height of its corruption, in the lead up to the Xinhai Revolution, known also as the Chinese Revolution or the Revolution of 1911. The drama, focused on this historic time period, was originally broadcast with Korean subtitles. Somehow, copies of the drama were snuck into North Korea and reproduced in mass to be sold on black markets.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a>Editor\u2019s notes on North Korean reporters<\/a>
\n<\/a>ALL REPORTS >>><\/span><\/a> <\/strong>
\nARCHIVE(pdf) >><\/a>
\nDPRK MAP >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"