SEOUL: Anti-Chinese sentiment was stoked amid accusations of cultural appropriation after a performer at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics wore a traditional Korean dress.
Yosuke Onchi, writing in Nikkei Asia, said that the event featured performers representing 56 ethnic groups, with one performer sporting a white jeogori top and a pink chima skirt, which together make up Korean hanbok attire.
The woman joined other performers in carrying a large Chinese flag, setting off a firestorm of criticism on South Korean social media. “China is trying to make the hanbok as their own,” said one poster. Conventional media was also critical.
In an editorial on Monday, the Seoul Shinmun newspaper called the appearance of the hanbok “clearly cultural appropriation,” reported Nikkei Asia.
The center-left Hankyoreh newspaper, in its own editorial Monday, touched on China’s attempts to assert historical claims in the Korean peninsula. “We need to continue developing neighborly relations with China, but we also need to be willing to stand up against attempts to distort history,” the piece said.
The sensitivity to cultural appropriation dates back to a Chinese project launched in the 2000s. A Chinese YouTube celebrity sparked a similar backlash last year, said Yosuke. The star had posted a video showing what was called “Chinese food” made with pickled Nappa cabbage and spices, but South Korean viewers recognized the dish as kimchi.
Moreover, as per a survey published in December by the Korea Institute for National Unification, a state-funded think tank, 71.9 percent of respondents said China posed the biggest national security threat to South Korea.
So far, the South Korean government has taken a wait-and-see approach over the hanbok controversy.
But China has reacted, firmly refuting the criticism from South Korea. “China’s Korean ethnic group has the same bloodline as the South and North on the Korean Peninsula, and it inherited the same traditional culture, including clothing,” the Chinese embassy in Seoul said in a statement written in Korean and seen by Nikkei Asia.
The controversy also has implications for next month’s presidential election in South Korea. The anti-China sentiment is especially strong among those between the ages of 20 and 39, with many in this group seen as independent swing voters.
Polls show a toss-up between ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung and the opposition contender Yoon Suk-yeol. The two men have taken to criticizing China to gain an edge, “China has already injured our self-esteem in the past over the historical issue,” Lee said Saturday, calling that agenda “hard to accept.” (ANI)
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