`Stealing our culture`: Kimchi ferments cultural feud between South Korea and China
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Déc 2, 2020
However, some South Korean food lovers have now accused China of trying to steal kimchi, the staple Korean cuisine made of pickled cabbage, after the Chinese state-run Global Times reported the certificate as "an worldwide standard for the Kimchi industry led by China".
But it added that the United Nations "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".
South Korea's agricultural ministry has released a statement saying worldwide standards for kimchi were agreed by the United Nations in 2001.
China's state-run media reported it as 'an worldwide standard for the Kimchi industry led by China, ' even though the ISO clearly stated that the standard does not apply to that delicacy.
South Korean media was fast to dispute such a claim and accuse the bigger neighbor of trying to make Kimchi a type of China-made Pao Cai.
"It is inappropriate to report (about Pao Cai winning the ISO) without differentiating Kimchi from Pao Cai of China's Sichuan", the statement said.
"I read a media story that China now says Kimchi is theirs, and that they are making worldwide standard for it", one person posted.
The whole process of making kimchi, called "kimjang" was designated UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. "The very mention of the word kimchi triggered angry accusations among South Koreans that China was attempting to claim kimchi as its own", it reported.
Packages of kimchi are displayed at a supermarket in southern Seoulm in this file
Packages of kimchi are displayed at a supermarket in southern Seoulm in this file photo taken on April 6, 2020.
The experts urged both the government and civic groups to take strong action against China for attempting to take cultural assets away from Korea.
"So-called cultural appropriation can happen when one group envies a tradition of another", Seo said.
Seo noted that with South Korea's cultural content expanding its influence on a global scale, China seems to be making efforts to claim that such content was traced to them.
A plate with traditional Korean kimchi is seen on a table of a restaurant at Jungang market in Gangneung, South Korea February 19, 2018.
But it sparked an immediate backlash in South Korea, where Kimchi is an established staple of national cuisine.
Outbound shipments of kimchi came to US$109 million over the January-September period, up 38.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the ministry.
