The Chinese Government is claiming that South Korean contents are part of their culture. After “copying” South Korean contents, the government is now claiming that South Korean contents are theirs.
It has recently started to show interest on a Korean traditional dress “Hanbok”. As Hanbok has started to gain global attention due to Netflix drama “Kingdom” and K-Pop idols such as BTS and Blackpink, the government has been trying to incorporate Hanbok as its culture “Hanfu”. After informing people distorted facts simply through books and mass media, it has started spreading distorted facts through contents.
This can be seen through the number of hashtag “Hanfu” on Chinese Twitter called Weibo. The number exploded by 400 million from 1.73 billion in July to October. There are also about 3.5 million videos related to Hanfu on TikTok. Even on Instagram, which is blocked in China, there are around 45,000 hashtags on Hanfu. One Hanfu brand made last year’s revenue in the first quarter alone and newly opened 13 stores.
“Shining Nikki” is a prime example that shows that the Chinese Government’s brainwashing has reached a dangerous level. When the game added Hanbok in order to celebrate its service in South Korea, Chinese users strongly opposed the move by arguing that Hanbok is a traditional dress of the Han Chinese. The game’s developed Paper Studio removed the Hanbok item while stating that its position is always in accordance with the country. When South Korean users opposed the removal, Paper Studio informed termination of its service in South Korea that lasted just one week while stating that the company protects the country’s dignity.
Hanbok is not the only one that is suffering from the Chinese Government. The Chinese Government has been preventing importation of South Korean contents since 2017. It has also been stealing various contents at the same time. According to Kim Seong-soo, who is a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, 34 South Korea programs were stolen by China in 2018 alone. The country also copied concepts of various K-Pop idols. It is estimated that South Korea probably lost tens of millions of dollars due to the fact that contents that were stolen by China were products with added values.
“Although the Chinese Government also claimed that kimono and ninja are part of the Chinese culture, its attempt was not successful as Japanese game developers actively developed games related to kimono and ninja.” said a South Korean game developer. “Informing people about the beauty of Hanbok naturally through various contents is also a good way.”
Staff Reporter Lee, Hyeonsoo | hsool@etnews.com