美女与英雄(5)

We never know what a hero will look like. Sometimes a world changing hero is a tiny little teenage girl creeping through the freezing Gobi desert in the dark of night. 💪

我们无从知晓一个英雄外表看起来像什么。有时改变世界的英雄就是一个十几岁的小女孩，在黑漆漆的夜晚穿越冰冷的戈壁滩。

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I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea. Both of these events shaped me, and I would not trade them for an ordinary and peaceful life. But there is more to the story of how I became who I am today.

我最感谢两件事：一，我出生于北朝鲜；二，我逃离了北朝鲜。这两件事锻造了我，我将不会用它们来交换一个平庸平静的生活，但是关于我如何成为现在的我，还有更多的故事。

Like tens of thousands of other North Koreans, I escaped my homeland and settled in South Korea, where we are still considered citizens, as if a sealed border and nearly seventy years of conflict and tension never divided us. North and South Koreans have the same ethnic backgrounds, and we speak the same language—except in the North there are no words for things like “shopping malls,” “liberty,” or even “love,” at least as the rest of the world knows it. The only true “love” we can express is worship for the Kims, a dynasty of dictators who have ruled North Korea for three generations. The regime blocks all outside information, all videos and movies, and jams radio signals. There is no World Wide Web and no Wikipedia. The only books are filled with propaganda telling us that we live in the greatest country in the world, even though at least half of North Koreans live in extreme poverty and many are chronically malnourished. My former country doesn’t even call itself North Korea—it claims to be Chosun, the true Korea, a perfect socialist paradise where 25 million people live only to serve the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un. Many of us who have escaped call ourselves “defectors” because by refusing to accept our fate and die for the Leader, we have deserted our duty. The regime calls us traitors. If I tried to return, I would be executed.

像成千上万的其他北朝鲜人一样，我逃离了北朝鲜，定居在了韩国。(庆幸的是)我们依然被视为公民，仿佛之间那条封缄的边界和近70年的剑拔弩张从来没把我们分开。南北朝鲜有共同的民族背景，我们操着同样的语言，除了北朝鲜没有诸如“超市”、“自由”，甚至“爱”(像世界上别的地方的人都明白的那种“爱”)这样的字眼。我们所能表达的唯一真爱是对金氏家族－－一个已统治北朝鲜三代的独裁王朝的崇拜。政权封锁了所有的外部信息，所有视频和电影，以及广播信号。没有互联网和维基百科。所有的书都是宣传式的，告诉我们生活在世界上最伟大的国家，尽管事实是北朝鲜至少一半人口生活在极度贫困之中，许多人长期营养不良。我的前国家甚至不叫自己北朝鲜，而叫Chosun－真正的朝鲜－一个完美的社会主义天堂，250万人口仅仅为了服务最高领袖Kim Jong Un。像我们这样逃离北朝鲜的人喊自己为“叛逃者”，因为我们拒绝接受我们的命运和不为领袖而死，我们摒弃了我们的责任。政权喊我们为叛徒。如果我试图回国，我将被处以极刑。

The information blockade works both ways: not only does the government attempt to keep all foreign media from reaching its people, it also prevents outsiders from learning the truth about North Korea. The regime is known as the Hermit Kingdom because it tries to make itself unknowable. Only those of us who have escaped can describe what really goes on behind the sealed borders. But until recently, our stories were seldom heard.

信息封锁有两方面的作用：政府不仅试图阻止所有的外国信息到达它的人民；它也阻止了外部人士了解北朝鲜的真相。政体以隐士王国著称，因为它对外界保持不可知的状态。仅仅那些逃离北朝鲜的我们能描述在这封锁的边界背后，都发生了些什么。但是直到最近，我们的故事还是鲜为人知。