An Escalator in World Order

This editorial essay composed of propaganda films and news stories criticises the development of US-Korean relations after the Second World War. Kyung-man Kim subtly emphasises the rhetoric of the celebratory documents and turns it on its head. A constellation of Korean and American statesmen creates a media image of South Korea as a war-torn country that rises from the ashes like the mythical phoenix and, with the help of its saviour the USA, transforms itself into an economic power. But all the celebratory ceremonies, military parades, and rhetorical performances of Reagan, Clinton, and Bush are just puppet theatres for obedient citizens of a country troubled by dictatorship and autocratic regimes. “The collision and irony between faith and the world, the unbridgeable gap.”