Kimchi wars: South Korea attempts to differentiate Chinese and Korean versions of popular fermented cabbage dish
- South Korea has attempted to differentiate between kimchi and a similar Chinese dish
- The move has been criticised online in China, in the latest round of ongoing dispute over who owns the famous dish
South Korea’s cultural authorities announced on Thursday that they have given popular dish kimchi its first official Chinese translation, prompting an angry reaction on Chinese social media.
Kimchi, a side dish of spicy, fermented cabbage, is usually referred to in Chinese as pao cai. However, this is also the name for a pickled vegetable dish that shares similarities with kimchi but differs in the ingredients and preparation method used.
The confusion has led to disputes between Chinese and Korean people online, with each claiming kimchi as part of their country’s cultural heritage. The intensity of the online vitriol has even prompted official responses from diplomats in Seoul and Beijing.
Controversy was stoked once more after South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism announced on Thursday that a directive will suggest a new Chinese term for kimchi.
In a document uploaded to the ministry’s website on Thursday, the ministry said it had decided kimchi’s Chinese name would be xinqi.
A previous directive from the ministry had suggested pao cai as the Chinese translation for kimchi.
The new translation is based on a 2013 study carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. The study analysed 4,000 relevant sounds in Chinese, compared pronunciation between eight different dialects, as well as consulting expert opinions before concluding that xinqi was the most appropriate Chinese translation.
“By using xinqi as the Chinese translation for kimchi, we hope to clearly distinguish Korea’s kimchi from China’s pao cai. Furthermore, we hope to improve the understanding of our traditional food kimchi in China,” the ministry said.
“The new directive will be applied to the government and local governments’ websites and promotional materials … The directive will not be forced upon the private sector. The kimchi and food service industry can refer to the directive to translate according to the respective business environment,” the ministry said.
The decision has reignited a long-standing dispute between China and South Korea that has taken on commercial and political implications.
Beijing recently won certification from the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) for pao cai, a pickled vegetable dish from Sichuan province in southwestern China, which the Global Times, a tabloid affiliated with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, reported as “an international standard for the kimchi industry led by China”.
That claim was refuted by the ISO, which clarified that the certification was for pao cai, not kimchi.
The report acknowledged that due to Chinese regulations, which require foreign food products to use names familiar to Chinese consumers, Korean exporters of kimchi cannot unilaterally change the name of their product from pao cai to xinqi.
On China’s heavily censored and nationalistic social media platforms, there was a backlash against Seoul’s translation, with the topic attracting 160 million views on Weibo.
The South Korean ministry’s attempt at creating a clear boundary between kimchi and pao cai is the latest episode in what has become an ongoing series of cultural clashes between China and Korea.
Some have focused on the origins of other foods, like the traditional ginseng chicken soup samgyetang, but the culture war has expanded to include disputes over the nationality of poets, the origins of various clothing items, and even the practice of acupuncture.
One comment on an article published by the Global Times on messaging service WeChat, received thousands of likes and summarised online sentiment towards the name xinqi in mainland China.
“How to call it in Chinese, that’s for us Chinese to make the call.”
Pursuit of hoppiness: why China’s cash-conscious drinkers have embraced craft beers
As discerning alcohol consumers seek ‘wallet-friendly’ products, premium beers are winning out over higher-end options
As China’s traditional spirits and premium wines grapple with declining consumption, a significant shift is under way across the beverage landscape. This three-part series examines the challenges faced by Maotai town as its once-coveted baijiu liquor loses its lustre, the impact of economic shutdowns on European wine imports, and the rise of craft beer as a budget-friendly alternative for consumers seeking quality without breaking the bank.
“I think many people are strapped for cash after the pandemic,” said store manager Gou Zihan. “They can’t afford the expensive stuff any more, so they stick to wallet-friendly options like beer.”
Are China’s stars leading fans to be more nationalist – or the other way round?
Study out of the US and Britain looks at how nationalism flows and influences others on Chinese social media
“Our findings reveal that fans exert a stronger influence on celebrities than vice versa in spreading nationalism. Fans often shape the nationalist narratives that celebrities amplify, with those aligned with specific political leanings, such as those within the state-conformist camp, having a greater influence,” it said.
The study was carried out by four scholars from the University of Michigan, Texas A&M University, Brown University and Cambridge University. They used a statistical method called vector autoregression to look at how celebrities and fans influenced each other through their posts over time.
The researchers gathered more than 8 million microblogs and comments relating to the anti-government protests in Hong Kong which began in 2019 – from Weibo, the go-to Chinese social media platform for public discourse. They found that “fans’ nationalistic expressions exert a stronger and more consistent influence on celebrities”.
The protests initially opposed a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong to transfer fugitives to mainland China but escalated into a much wider and prolonged anti-government movement that resulted in violent clashes between the city’s police and protesters.
As the protests intensified, nationalist sentiment surged on Chinese social media.
