Potato Pride
By Finn L.
May 5, 2023
All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of HanVoice.
Image from “Potato Pride 감자자랑 NKpop in translation [English subtitles],” The NKpop Blog, YouTube
If you’re someone that tries to keep up with North Korea, it’s not uncommon to go down a long YouTube rabbit hole. Going down this tunnel may net some weird recommendations on your homepage, some of which may be some of the songs that have made it out of North Korea.
On one of these YouTube wanders, it’s likely you’ll stumble upon the song Potato Pride. The thumbnail: A smiling picture of Kim Jong Un set in front of a silhouette of North Korea and a warehouse full of potatoes. Definitely a thumbnail that may require some further inquiry. After listening to the song, it’s hard to not be compelled. There’s a story behind this song that bears listening to. In fact, many songs that come out of North Korea have a compelling story and historical context. This series of blog articles from HanVoice will explore some North Korean pop tunes, looking at their historical context.
The lack of information coming from North Korea often leads people abroad to draw conclusions from small scraps of media. Potato Pride tells stories about people’s lives that we wouldn’t otherwise hear. At first glance, the story of Potato Pride seems benign, maybe even a little bizarre, but digging into this story reveals a tragedy that unfolded across a half-decade.
Image from “Potato Pride 감자자랑 NKpop in translation [English subtitles],” The NKpop Blog, YouTube
Potato Pride is a chipper song. Its music video features a handsome smiling singer in a green field. Images of potato-based dishes flash across the screen as he and the unseen background singers break into the chorus.
Potato Pride! Oh - So Many! Lost count at 30!
From a superficial glance, Potato Pride appears to be a pretty standard propaganda song that emerged from Soviet-aligned countries after World War 2. These songs often have a pretty clear message. Without the Communist Party, There Would be no New China’s message is right in the title. It tells the listener that China only exists because of the actions of the CCP. Another famous North Korean song, Attain the Cutting Edge (known colloquially in the west as The CNC song) details and celebrates the progress made by North Korean factories. But Potato Pride? The message appears to be: Potatoes are pretty good! Not a bad message, but perhaps a bit out of place compared to other songs of the era. Until you dig into the story.
In late December 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolving. Since 1989, parts of the Union had slowly started to declare independence and prepare for life after the USSR. The writing was on the wall, but many countries, like North Korea, still relied on the Soviet Union to keep the economy afloat. The USSR wasn’t just North Korea’s only real export market, but also a vital source of goods if the country's internal production fell short – crucial in a country where only 20% of the land is suitable for agriculture. For a while, CCP-controlled China picked up the slack, but their own economic pressures caused them to pull back on aid.
North Korea was now without its safety net, and in the summer of 1995, huge portions of the country were rocked by floods. The government tried to respond, but corruption and incompetence lead to the food distribution system buckling and then breaking entirely. There simply was not enough food. The famine was on.
For four years, between 1994-98, the North Korean Famine, known in North Korea as The Arduous March, gripped the country. Millions of people were affected. Foreign aid flowed into the country, but only a trickle made it to the average citizen. The exact causes of the famine have been debated, but no one disagrees that it happened. The number of people who starved to death is unknown, but some estimates put it at over 2 million. As the arable land started to recover, and foreign food aid started to enter the country, Potato Pride enters the picture.
Potatoes are a versatile crop. Originally from the mountains of South America, potatoes grow practically everywhere. But just because it can grow everywhere, doesn’t mean it is part of the local diet everywhere. In Korea, where rice is the most popular carbohydrate, the potato was not a popular choice. The famine meant that every calorie that could be squeezed out of the countryside had to be allocated to people. Cue Potato Pride to prepare the population for their new diet.
Image from “Potato Pride 감자자랑 NKpop in translation [English subtitles],” The NKpop Blog, YouTube
The lyrics tell the story of a whole village who come together to eat the tasty dishes that are made from potatoes. It speaks of better times, of times of plenty. And it is in this story where the sadness of Potato Pride really hits home. Reading the stories from defectors and survivors from North Korea always stirs a nostalgic romanticism in me. Something about a whole people coming together and trying to make the best of it in a bad situation can be quite moving. The sadness comes when I’m reminded that this is real life. This tragic ‘esprit-de-corps’ is the day-to-day life of millions, but finding any sort of romanticism in these stories is not necessarily helpful. It’s challenging, as the absurdity of a propaganda song about potatoes can start to make things seem unbelievable. Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy, a book which contains many gripping stories from the famine, said in an interview:
“It’s always.. You know, an exaggeration, and a parody, and you know, kind of a freak show. Which, I think those of us who cover North Korea find a little bit distressing because it’s not actually very funny to the 24 million people who live there”
Potato Pride is a song which is a little goofy, maybe even bizarre, but the situation and events it represents are very real. It tells the story of a nation recovering from famine, and people doing everything they can to get food on the table. This is the tragedy of Potato Pride.
Global politics, economic mismanagement and natural disaster conspired to inflict a devastating famine in North Korea, but people had to keep pushing forward. Potato Pride is a message from the government: Even though the system has failed, even though society has all but collapsed, at least we’ve got some potatoes.
Image from “Potato Pride 감자자랑 NKpop in translation [English subtitles],” The NKpop Blog, YouTube
I am indebted to the folks at the NKpop blog for translating the song into English and providing the original inspiration for this piece. Their blog on Potato Pride pointed me in the right direction. You can check it out here. To learn more about life during the North Korean Famine, check out this documentary by JourneyMan Pictures, or the aforementioned Nothing to Envy by Barbra Demick.
In our village an old man
On the day of potato distribution
Layed out a feast on the birthday table
Inviting all to join
Chewy potato tteok and Hamhung cold noodles
Delicious ggwabaegi and potato pancakes,
Potato pride- oh so many
Lost count at thirty
Oh ho ho potato pride
Potato chaltteok– honey flavoured
The grandmothers cluck their tongues
While the children go to and fro
The potato taffy is the best they say
The old man who ate a lot and lived to a ripe old age
Says while emptying a glass of potato liquor
Our world- is oh so good
And in my hometown it’s a potato bumper harvest
Oh ho ho potato pride
In the past people lived poorly
In this far-flung region which
Has today in the embrace of the party become a paradise on earth
Engage in much potato agriculture 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 a dance
Oh ho ho potato pride
Potato pride- many on many
Flowers blossom in our lives
Oh ho ho potato pride
