[Agriculture ministry drawn in to
row after state media prompts backlash with claims that China leads global
kimchi industry]
By Justin McCurry
Not, though, in China, where state media
have sparked an online backlash after one of the country’s fermented dishes
received certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation
[ISO].
ISO status, the Global Times
newspaper reported, was an “international standard for the kimchi industry led
by China”.
The very mention of the word kimchi
triggered angry accusations among South Koreans that China was attempting to
claim kimchi as
its own, when in fact the award covered only pao cai – a type of pickled
vegetable often found in Sichuan cuisine.
“Its total nonsense, what a thief
stealing our culture!” a South Korean netizen wrote on Naver, a widely popular
web portal.
Seoul resident Kim Seol-ha said: “I
read a media story that China now says kimchi is theirs, and that they are
making international standard for it. It’s absurd.”
Some South Korean media said
China’s brazen coveting of kimchi was akin to a “bid for world domination”.
The kimchi contretemps is the
latest online spat between social media users in China and South Korea. In
October, the leader of the K-pop phenomenon BTS faced a barrage
of criticism in China after he cited his country’s solidarity with the
US stemming from the Korean war – a conflict in which China fought alongside
North Korea.
Last month, the popular girl band
Blackpink were shown at a zoo in their native South Korea holding a baby panda
loaned from China, drawing accusations that they had risked
harming the animal’s health.
Even South Korea’s agriculture
ministry was moved to comment on the latest cultural clash, releasing a
statement saying that the ISO approved standard “had nothing to do with
kimchi”.
“It is inappropriate to report (pao
cai winning the ISO) without differentiating between kimchi from pao cai from
Sichuan,” the ministry added.
Chinese internet users said they
had every right to claim the dish as their own, since so much of the
kimchi consumed in
South Korea – where people eat an estimated 2 million tonnes a year – comes
from China.
“Well, if you don’t meet the
standard, then you’re not kimchi,” one wrote on Weibo, China’s version of
Twitter. Another said: “Even the pronunciation of kimchi originated from
Chinese, what else is there to say.”
Like K-pop, kimchi has benefitted
from the Hallyu wave of interest in Korean culture and now has
legions of fans outside the South, where it comes in dozens of varieties and
accompanies almost every meal.
The UN appears to agree that kimchi
is South Korean, with Unesco adding kimjang –
the communal act of making kimchi – to its intangible cultural heritage list in
2013.
The body said at the time that
kimjang “forms an essential part of Korean meals, transcending class and
regional differences. The collective practice of kimjang reaffirms Korean
identity and is an excellent opportunity for strengthening family cooperation”.
