The initial inspiration for this project was my summer trip to North Korea. In an extremely closed and severe social environment, the capital of Pyongyang has been decorated and packaged into a real wonderland. This evoked my girlhood memories of Japanese shōjo manga for young girls in East Asia. Shōjo's, translated as "young woman", main target audience is girls from 12 to 18 years old. It is a type of comic that emphasizes emotional relationships in narratives and also highlights atmosphere and inner feelings in expression.
The Japanese shojo manga originated in the social environment of defeated Japan after World War II. restricting travel abroad by the government in order to promote economic growth, poverty, the restrictions of freedom and the shackles of women in East Asian society have plunged young girls into a kind of trauma, the manga artists created a luxurious fantasy world in the form of manga, inspired by Victorian European classical style, and allowed the readers escape reality in an exotic atmosphere.
Similar to the situation in contemporary North Korea, although they have anti-capitalist propaganda every day, but Pyongyang was built into a romanticism world with an exotic feeling which is similar with the shojo manga visually. The young women in Pyongyang are also very similar to the young women in Japan at post-war time. They have no freedom to travel abroad, but they are also curious about the outside world. My English-speaking guide, she (secretly) downloaded Frozen and Rapunzel (Disney feminist movies) in her mobile phone.
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