Trade, singers and soap operas: Chinese switch from North to South Korea

Trade, singers and soap operas: Chinese switch from North to South Korea

Cindy Sui, Agence France Presse, Beijing

In Jin Zi's family, loyalties towards North and South Korea are
clearly divided between the generations.

"If South Korea and North Korea had a soccer match, I would
cheer for North Korea," said Jin, a Beijing shopkeeper of Korean
descent.

"But my children, they don't care about North Korea at all.
They think it's very far removed from other countries."

Her children, and many other Chinese youths, are crazy about
South Korean culture, humming the tunes of the South's pop singer
Kim Hee-sun, spending long hours playing its video games and
soaking up its television series.

In just one generation, people in China, including the
estimated 1.9 million ethnic Korean minorities, have undergone a
clear shift in interests from the neighboring North to the
farther-away South.

And it's not just youngsters. Chinese people have practically
forgotten about their Communist former brother-in-arms but are
fascinated with South Korea, considered a capitalist enemy not
long ago.

Even Jin, who was born and raised in China but has uncles and
cousins in North Korea, admitted her generation has become
detached from the North.

"When my parents were alive, we had contact with our relatives
in North Korea. But this generation, we have no feelings towards
them," Jin said.

Apathy for the North is reflected in the lack of interest
shown by Chinese people in the six-nation talks going on in
Beijing this week on the North's nuclear weapons program, despite
the potential threat such munitions could pose.

Instead, the Chinese are embracing South Korean culture.
The lighthearted South Korean TV drama I Can't Take My Eyes Off
You -- which centers around traditional family values and two
sisters' quest to get married -- is the most watched program each
night at 11pm, according to China Central Television.

South Korea has also become a popular vacation spot for well-
off Chinese.

The change among Chinese people reflects a parallel shift by
their government from the North to the South, analysts said.

"In the past, China only had one friend in the Korean
peninsula. Now China wants to find a balance. It's become a
three-way relationship," said Wu Guoguang, a political analyst at
the Chinese University in Hong Kong.

"Trade is one reason. It's also for geopolitical balance."
From the 1950s to 1980s, North Koreans were seen by the Chinese
as ideological brothers and sisters, bound by a common communist
cause. An estimated 900,000 Chinese were killed or wounded
fighting alongside North Koreans during the 1950-53 Korean War
against the South, which was supported by a US-led coalition.

"My generation can all sing the songs of North Korean movies.
We still use terminology from those movies," said Wu, who grew up
in mainland China.

In the 1970s, North Korean and Albanian movies were the only
foreign films shown in a closed-off China.

"Everyone was really impressed with North Korea's living
standards, which were better than China's, at least in the
movies. They showed farmers living in apartments. That was
unheard of in China at the time," Wu said.

But since China normalized relations with Seoul in 1992,
relations between Beijing and the South have flourished. Trade
reached 63 billion dollars last year, compared to just one
billion dollars with the North, according to Chinese official
figures.

While South Korean investments in China are soaring, China has
to donate massive amounts of fuel and food to the North.

But analysts said China has realized during the past 16-month
standoff over the North's nuclear program that its ties with
Pyongyang can increase its bargaining power with South Korea,
Japan, and most importantly, the United States.

"The Chinese government will not see North Korea as a burden.
Without North Korea, its relations with the United States
wouldn't have become so much better," Wu said.

However middle-aged people like Jin, taught at a young age to
side with the North rather than the South, still cannot forget
their biases.

Even kimchi -- the traditional Korean dish of pickled cabbage
-- and grooming styles are a source of debate about the North and
South.

"South Koreans change Korean culture too much. They add so
many types of ingredients to their kimchi. It's like their
people. They fix up themselves up too much -- plastic surgeries,
colored hair, heavy makeup," Jin said.

"North Koreans are more traditional."