SEOUL– Nothing can dispute that hanbok is Korea’s traditional culture, a senior official at Cheong Wa Dae said Monday, as a performer wearing hanbok at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics sparked anger in South Korea.
During last Friday’s event, people representing 56 ethnic groups across China carried the Chinese national flag into Beijing’s National Stadium. One woman was dressed in hanbok, apparently representing ethnic Koreans in China.
However, the depiction of a hanbok-clad woman as a minority group in China angered many South Koreans, who claimed that China is trying to promote hanbok as its own.
“The whole world recognizes that hanbok is Korea’s traditional culture for clothing,” the senior presidential official said. “There is no room for argument about it,” the official said, adding that relevant ministries were monitoring the issue.
China’s parading of hanbok came as South Koreans were already upset after some Chinese media outlets claimed that kimchi, Korea’s traditional food, is Chinese.
Besides hanbok and kimchi, South Korea and China have long been at odds over Beijing’s push to include two ancient Korean kingdoms — Koguryo and Balhae — in its own history.
Balhae was a Korean kingdom that occupied southern parts of Manchuria in northeastern China, the maritime province of Russia and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula from the late seventh century to the early 10th century.
China has angered Koreans by asserting that Balhae and its predecessor Koguryo were its vassal states.
Source: Yonhap News Agency