{"id":2200318,"date":"2023-03-03T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T10:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/?p=2200318"},"modified":"2023-11-20T18:58:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:58:02","slug":"video-games-are-the-latest-cultural-battleground-between-south-korea-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/03\/video-games-are-the-latest-cultural-battleground-between-south-korea-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Video games are the latest cultural battleground between South Korea and China"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s National Assembly is set to vote on a bill targeting what many South Koreans believe to be Chinese distortions of their history and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill <\/span>proposes<\/span><\/a> adding a member focused on historical issues to the country\u2019s <\/span>Game Rating and Administration Committee<\/span><\/a>. There\u2019s currently no legal process or consultative body dealing with such matters in South Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION<\/b><\/p>\n

According to ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker <\/span>Kim Seung-su<\/span><\/a>, the bill is a practical way to intercept China\u2019s cultural appropriation of Korean culture through video games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultural appropriation has been a source of contention and heated arguments between South Koreans and Chinese for years. In one of the more recent examples, last year\u2019s Beijing Winter Olympics <\/span>opening ceremony<\/span><\/a> featured a performance with people wearing clothes representing China\u2019s various ethnic groups. One of those performers wore a hanbok, Korea\u2019s traditional attire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the Chinese Embassy in Seoul issued a <\/span>public statement<\/span><\/a> clarifying that the Korean people living in China are one of the 56 ethnic groups that make up the country and that the performance was not an attempt to appropriate Korean culture, the incident still sparked outrage in South Korea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It even prompted Lee Jae-myung, the current leader of the opposition Democratic Party (DP) and then-presidential candidate, to <\/span>post<\/span><\/a> on his social media page, \u201cDo not covet others\u2019 culture. Oppose cultural appropriation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For South Koreans, China\u2019s cultural claims of its heritage or perceptions harken back to the <\/span>Northeast Asia Project<\/span><\/a>. A research project conducted by the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography, an institution affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), from 2002 to 2007, the project <\/span>referred<\/span><\/a> to Goguryeo as a \u201cregional kingdom of an ancient ethnic Chinese group.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Goguryeo is an ancient kingdom that spanned present-day North Korea, most of the South and into Manchuria, and both Korean states consider it a central part of their historical identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

South Koreans have expressed anger over China\u2019s use of the hanbok | Image: Republic of Korea<\/a> (Feb. 24, 2017)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

VIDEO GAMES<\/b><\/p>\n

The video game industry is the latest arena where instances of Chinese interpretations of history have stoked South Koreans\u2019 suspicion toward their much larger northern neighbor.<\/span><\/p>\n

For all the international popularity of Korean pop music, when it comes to sales volume, K-pop is easily dwarfed by the ROK\u2019s video game industry. While K-pop album exports reached a record high of <\/span>$233 million<\/span><\/a> in 2022, the video game sector\u2019s exports were valued at <\/span>$8.67 billion<\/span><\/a> in 2021. But the ROK\u2019s <\/span>7.6% share<\/span><\/a> of the video game market\u2014 the fourth largest in the world \u2014 is still ranked far behind China\u2019s 20.4%.<\/span><\/p>\n

As China\u2019s video game industry grows, so will its developers\u2019 ability to promote what many in South Korea would describe as inaccurate history. South Koreans were <\/span>outraged<\/span><\/a> last year when they saw an advertisement for a Chinese mobile game, Era of Conquest. In an online advertisement the company shared last year, Admiral Yi Sun-sin was depicted as a character representing the Chinese civilization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yi is a revered Korean folk hero who successfully fended off Japanese invasion attempts at the end of the 16th century. In Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, there are only two statues dedicated to South Korea\u2019s heroes: one for King Sejong, credited with creating Hangul, the writing system of the Korean language, and one for Admiral Yi.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company immediately deleted the image across all of its social media handles and <\/span>explained<\/span><\/a> that the image was a mistake the company failed to detect during the game\u2019s inspection stage. However, the damage was done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other instances include the Chinese game Sky: Children of the Light, which faced <\/span>criticism<\/span><\/a> in 2021 for insisting that a traditional Korean headwear item called a <\/span>gat<\/span><\/a> was Chinese. Other games with Chinese historical settings have also <\/span>come under fire<\/span><\/a> from Koreans for including hanbok as a Chinese outfit.<\/span><\/p>\n

NOT FUN AND GAMES<\/b><\/p>\n

To many South Koreans, these instances are not trivial mistakes but rather a reflection of China\u2019s broader and insistent push to assert itself as the dominant cultural force in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Korea was culturally and politically subordinate to China for most of its history. But South Korea today is a proud and powerful independent state that <\/span>broadly aligns<\/span><\/a> itself with the U.S.-led world order. And many Koreans have grown resentful of what they perceive as China\u2019s attempt to coopt or belittle their culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

One <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> conducted last year by Palacky University\u2019s Sinophone Borderlands project revealed that South Korean public opinion of China is among the most negative in the world: 81% of South Korean respondents expressed negative or very negative views, compared to <\/span>72%<\/span><\/a> of respondents from Switzerland, the second-most negative country.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a drastic change from only a few years ago. In 2015, 61% of South Koreans held favorable views of China, <\/span>according to<\/span><\/a> Pew Research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, the two countries <\/span>fell out<\/span><\/a> over deploying the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the ROK. Seoul maintained that this was to defend against the North. At the same time, China protested that THAAD\u2019s radar could be used to track its missile forces. China\u2019s retaliatory economic measures cost the South Korean economy billions of dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most recent dispute came at the end of last year when Seoul <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> travel restrictions due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in China and Beijing responded by implementing its own measures on South Koreans. The two sides have since <\/span>started<\/span><\/a> gradually lifting their restrictions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill targeting historical issues in video games aligns with South Koreans\u2019 general frustrations about Chinese influence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet despite <\/span>mutual<\/span><\/a> ill-feeling, the South Korean government is <\/span>cautious<\/span><\/a> about damaging relations because China is by far the country\u2019s largest trading partner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic ties are holding the relationship together at the moment. But there are <\/span>many<\/span><\/a> good<\/span><\/a> reasons<\/span><\/a> for both sides to keep those ties strong, which means it\u2019s far from game over for South Korea and China.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by John Lee<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Business & Economy<\/span><\/a>Culture & Society<\/span><\/a>Inter-Korean & Foreign Relations<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s National Assembly is set to vote on a bill targeting what many South Koreans believe to be Chinese distortions of their history and culture. The bill proposes adding a member focused on historical issues to the country\u2019s Game Rating and Administration Committee. There\u2019s currently no legal process or consultative body dealing with such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10407,"featured_media":2202827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24,25,28],"yoast_head":"\nVideo games are the latest cultural battleground between South Korea and China - KOREA PRO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/03\/video-games-are-the-latest-cultural-battleground-between-south-korea-and-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Video games are the latest cultural battleground between South Korea and China - KOREA PRO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Korea\u2019s National Assembly is set to vote on a bill targeting what many South Koreans believe to be Chinese distortions of their history and culture. 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