The eye-opening documentary “A State of Mind” is centered on two North Korean gymnasts, Pak Hyon Sun and Kim Song Yun, who are preparing for the Pyongyang mass games, an annual event in NorthKorea. Throughout this documentary we not only see the ongoing struggles and challenges the girls face but also how their everyday life is, living in a communist run country that is extremely secluded from the rest of the world. After watching the documentary, the vast differences in culture between Qatar and North Korea were extremely apparent especially when it came to cultural diffusion, but regardless of North Korea’s ethnocentrism, some sociological similarities were visible as well.
The music and dancing portrayed in the documentary also shares the same essence as Qatar’s in that it’s very tradition oriented. During celebrations such as the mass games we hear patriotic music played by an orchestra and each dance or performance is telling a story. Qatar also has traditional dances and music originating from Bedouin times, in particular a sword dance called the Ardha, usually performed by men. Qatari music revolves largely around percussion and string instruments such as drums, violins and oud.
Qatar and North Korea are widely different from each other when it comes to most things, there’s no denying that. North Korea is definitely one of the more secretive countries in the world so their way of life might look strange to foreigners, but no matter how different a culture is to the other, there are certain aspects that they all have in common no matter how ethnocentric they are.
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