朝鲜“美人军”的冬奥会魅力攻势

Winter Olympics fashion has, largely, been a tale of two events: the opening and closing ceremonies, where national costume comes out to play; and figure skating, where the aesthetic swings and swoops from Vegas-on-ice to Vera Wang, with a touch of Broadway and Diaghilev thrown in. As of this week, however, a new factor was added to the mix: the North Korean cheerleading squad.

基本上，冬奥会的时尚部分只有两个地方：展示国家队队服的开幕式和闭幕式;还有花样滑冰，它的美学趣味在拉斯维加斯冰秀到王薇薇(Vera Wang)、一点点百老汇和加吉列夫芭蕾舞团之间不断摇摆。不过，一个新的元素在本周加入了这个混合体：朝鲜拉拉队。

Approximately 230 young women strong, the squad arrived for the Pyeongchang Games in matching red wool coats, buttoned at the waist, with black fur trim at the neck and wrists and matching black caps, high-heeled ankle boots and sheer hosiery. They toted matching red wheelies and handbags, and all grinned matching grins.

这个由大约230名年轻女子组成的拉拉队抵达了平昌冬奥会，她们穿着红色羊毛大衣，腰上别着扣子，黑色毛皮边点缀颈部和手腕，戴着配套的黑帽、短靴和透明丝袜。她们拿着配套的红色行李箱和手袋，脸上挂着配套的微笑。

Imagine a cross between Pan Am “stewardesses” of the 1960s, “Red Sparrow” and the Dallas Cowboys squad, and you’ll get the idea. In North Korea they are reportedly known as “the army of beauties.”

想像一下1960年代的泛美航空(Pan Am)“女乘务员”、“红雀”和达拉斯牛仔队的混合，你就懂了。据称，她们在朝鲜被称为“美人军”。

For a country whose image is defined largely by the figure of its leader, Kim Jong-un, with his severe military dress and strange trapezoidal hairstyle, the cheer squad provides a visual message of a different kind.

对于一个国家形象主要由最高领袖金正恩，以及他那严肃的军装和奇怪的梯形发型所定义的国家来说，朝鲜拉拉队发出了一种不同的视觉信息。

There to support the joint North and South Korean team, they also serve, at least theoretically, to normalize and humanize the regime — propaganda in fashionable person form.

她们是为了支持朝韩联队来到平昌，但至少在理论上也是为朝鲜政权的正常化和人性化目标出力——时尚丽人形式的政治宣传。

The cheer squad first appeared in 2002 during the Asian Games in Busan, and have also been at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu and the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon, but the Olympics will be their global coming-out moment.

这支拉拉队于2002年的釜山亚运会期间首次亮相，也曾在2003年的大邱夏季世界大学生运动会和2005年的仁川亚洲田径锦标赛上出现，但奥运会将成为她们登上全球舞台的时刻。

Chosen, according to reports from An Chan-Il, a defector who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, by strict criteria on height and family background — Ri Sol-ju, the wife of Kim Jong-un, was originally in the cheer squad — they have worn everything from traditional Korean garb to Nike baseball caps and T-shirts, and often use flags and fans in the routines they do from the stands.

据世界朝鲜问题研究所(World Institute for North Korea Studies)所长、脱北者安江日(An Chan II，音)的说法，她们是依据身高、家庭背景方面的严格标准选拔出来的——金正恩的妻子李雪主最初也在这支拉拉队里——她们既穿传统朝鲜服装，也穿耐克棒球帽和T恤衫，并经常在看台的常规表演中使用旗帜和扇子。

Nike! Just like you and me.

穿耐克!就跟你和我一样。

In front of the millions who will watch the Olympics and who have a very specific stereotype of a hermit kingdom in mind, colored in shades of drab, the garb may provide a jolt of outreach. Clothes can do that. They are an access point everyone can read and relate to.

在数百万将观看冬奥会的人头脑中，对朝鲜已经有了一个非常具体的刻板印象，即它是一个单调乏味的隐士王国，在这些人面前，她们的装束可能会起到令人惊讶的外延效果。服装是可以做到这一点的。它们是每个人都可以读懂和产生联系的入口。

After all, when Kim Jong-un appeared in a gray tailored suit during his New Year’s address instead of his usual army uniform, it caused ripples across the internet.

毕竟，当金正恩在新年演讲中穿着灰色西服而不是军服时，就在网络上带来很大反响。

Though exactly how normal 230 young women wearing precisely matched clothing and acting in lock step really is, is up for debate. Even the athletes, marching into the arena in their team uniforms, express more sartorial individuality than the cheer squad.

不过230名年轻女性穿着完全相同的衣服、走着完全一致的步子到底有多正常，是一个仁者见仁，智者见智的问题。即使运动员穿着队服入场，也比拉拉队表现出了更多的服装个性。

So it’s possible that the squad’s image-ineering could backfire, could strike the world as yet another example of the way the authoritarian regime dictates every aspect of its citizens’ lives. But everything is relative. And compared to the perception of dress in the country, the cheer squad has a glow of color and style that is both unexpected and weirdly mesmerizing.

因此，这支拉拉队的形象工程有可能会取得适得其反的效果，让世界觉得，这是独裁政权决定其公民生活方方面面的又一个例子。但所有事情都是相对的。与对朝鲜国内服装的印象相比，拉拉队身上的色彩和风格使人眼前一亮，既出乎意料又奇怪地让人着迷。

Either way, given the global attention paid to the impeccably coordinated opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with its choreographed displays of harmony, there’s no doubt the cheer squad is going to get a lot of attention. Odds are they will be chronicled and photographed regularly throughout the Games, and may make most of the fashion news (at least until Ivanka Trump arrives).

不论如何，考虑到全球对北京奥运会上配合得无懈可击的开幕式，以及它展现出的经过精心编排的和谐之感的关注，朝鲜拉拉队毫无疑问也将获得大量关注。她们有可能会在赛事期间被写被拍，也可能会占据大量时尚新闻(至少是在伊万卡·特朗普[Ivanka Trump]到来之前)。

Indeed, it’s not hard to imagine a certain famous TV watcher also tuning in for the Games and being struck by the allure of having a national cheer squad. What better accompaniment to the military parade President Trump reportedly desires? Rah-rah.

的确，想像一下吧，某个著名的电视观众也在观看奥运比赛，并且为拥有一支国家拉拉队的诱惑所击中。还有什么更匹配据称特朗普总统所渴望的大阅兵呢?真棒!