`Angry Birds` in Korean politics

The smartphone game “Angry Birds,” with characters that lack wings or legs but have an irate look, have become Finland’s representative product, edging out national tech star Nokia. With more than seven billion downloads, the game is one of the best-selling smartphone apps in the world. It features irate birds being shot from a bird gun punishing green pigs that steal eggs. The game is so simple and non-violent that even two-year-olds can play it, so many women are also taking it up. Julian Fourgeaud, product manager at the game`s developer Rovio Mobile, said while visiting Korea in June last year that simplicity is the key to the game’s success.

"Angry Birds" have also appeared on the center stage of Korean politics. The ruling Saenuri Party is the first party to take advantage of the character. As people associate “sae,” the Korean word for “bird,” with the party’s name, it borrowed the game`s character. In Saenuri`s promotional pamphlets, former party chairman Hong Joon-pyo, wearing an Angry Bird costume, jokingly says, “Do I have to do this (to win your favor)?” Nicknamed “Hongry Bird” because of his favorite red necktie and his hot temper, Hong used it in the ad.

Former IT guru and rising political star Ahn Cheol-soo highlighted the meaning of the character than its appearance. In lectures at Chonnam National University and Kyungpook National University earlier this week, he gave an Angry Bird doll to a student who asked questions. The present seems to carry a meaning related to next week`s general elections. According to Ahn, the egg-eating pigs in the game symbolize those with vested interests. To him, the game is about “good birds throwing themselves at the fortress of vested interests to break it.” His comment is interpreted as a message urging the “socially weak” to punish those with vested interests through voting.

Who are the people with vested interests as symbolized by the pigs? They could be politicians of the ruling Saenuri Party or those with the opposition or the entire political circle. When Na Kyung-won, the ruling party’s candidate for Seoul mayor last year, caught up with frontrunner Park Won-soon in the final stage of campaigning, Ahn endorsed Park by sending him a letter mentioning Rosa Parks, a black woman whose act of defiance was a battle cry for the U.S. civil rights movement. The letter proved powerful in Park`s by-election win. In the 1960s, wearing flowers in one’s hair was a symbol of the anti-war movement. Today, a game character can be used for political symbolism. The ability to properly use symbols is key to political success.

Editorial Writer Chung Sung-hee (shchung@donga.com)