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‘Don’t covet our culture’: South Korean presidential hopefuls hit out at China for hanbok at Winter Olympics opening ceremony
- The resentment expressed by politicians in South Korea came amid public sensitivity about recent Chinese claims on the internet about parts of Korean culture
- Some saw the reaction as misguided, saying it was clear that the woman in hanbok was representing the estimated 2 million ethnic Koreans living in China
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Associated Pressin Seoul
Major South Korean presidential candidates accused China of laying claim to their culture after a performer wore a traditional Korean dress during the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
A woman in a white and light purple hanbok dress marched alongside other performers apparently representing China’s various ethnic groups as they carried the Chinese national flag during Friday’s event at Beijing’s National Stadium.
The resentment expressed by politicians in South Korea came amid public sensitivity about recent Chinese claims on the internet about the origins of major Korean cultural items, including kimchi, a national dish of fermented cabbage.
But some South Koreans saw the reaction by their politicians as misguided, saying it was clear that the woman was representing the estimated 2 million ethnic Koreans living in China.
Aside from the online bickering about kimchi and hanbok, South Korea and China also have a long history dispute over the domain of ancient kingdoms whose territories stretched from the Korean peninsula to Manchuria.
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