South Korean star Kim So Hyun has been receiving an unexpected backlash over her social media posts during the Lunar New Year as netizens from China have reportedly flooded her feed with accusations that she is a "hanbok thief."
According to reports, Kim posted a photo of herself in the traditional attire to wish her followers a happy Lunar New Year. Immediately after sharing her greetings, the actress was plagued with comments from Chinese netizens who demanded that she take off her hanbok because the traditional dress belongs to China and not Korea.
What followed was a string of comments that lead to a debate among Chinese and Korean netizens. The hanbok controversy has been going on for some time on social media and has sparked a flurry of comments from both sides.
Just hours before Kim received a spate of attacks, Korean rapper E-Sens aired his frus trations over this hanbok debate on his Instagram story. He defended that Koreans own the hanbok and suggested to the Chinese netizens to "get a grip" on their audacious claims.
The Chinese netizens also claimed that kimchi, a popular South Korean dish, is originally from their culture as well as the maedeup, a decorative knot, and the term "Arirang." However, E-Sens taunted his Chinese followers that they've boycotted kimchi once so he's wondering why the Chinese now want to claim the food as theirs. E-Sens' post received praises from his Korean fans while his Chinese followers continued to mock him on social media.
The hanbok controversy has become such a national issue, prompting SBS News to air a report on the claims that Korea is a "thief country" according to the Chinese. The claims started on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, while the Koreans defended their stance on Instagram.
According to SBS News, China's growing claims could be due to the increasing popularity of Korean dramas, movies and pop music on a worldwide scale. There has been a shift in the more dominant Asian culture.
For thousands of years, China was the seat of this Asian culture. The South Koreans, however, have been proving to be better in this area in these modern times and SBS News stated that the Chinese could be feeling threatened.
SBS News said it will continue to promote Korean culture, especially in the media, amid the attacks from Chinese netizens. As a result, kimchi factories have run advertisements of their products in global newspapers like the New York Times.
