The proposed “China Culture City” in Gangwon Province, South Korea, has sparked strong opposition from the local population, with more than 600,000 people having signed a petition calling on the government to withdraw the project. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
More than 600,000 people have signed a petition asking the government to cancel the proposed “China Culture City” in Gangwon Province, South Korea. In a petition, some South Koreans said, “It’s time for us to confront the Chinese Communist Party as well.
Chinese Communist Party’s “Cultural Belt and Road” in Korea
Gangwon-do is a province-level administrative region in South Korea, with the capital city of Chuncheon, and is also a tourist destination in South Korea. According to South Korean media, Gangwon Province signed an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Network in 2019 to build a Chinese cultural city in the cities of Chuncheon and Hongcheon, 10 times the size of Incheon’s China Town.
The project has caused a public outcry in South Korea, and as of April 18, more than 601,000 people have signed a petition on South Korea’s Cheong Wa Dae petition website, asking authorities to withdraw the project. According to the regulations, the South Korean government must respond when the number of signatories exceeds 200,000.
The petition sponsors questioned why the local government would want to promote the culture of the Chinese Communist Party in Korea. They also pointed out that the site of the proposed Chinatown is the largest historical site in the world, where a large number of artifacts have been excavated, and feared that the construction project would cause history to be buried.
The Gangwon Province government responded that the project in question is wholly owned by a private company and that it showcases Korean architecture, not the so-called China Town, and said that the project is still in the basic planning stage and will not affect the cultural relics below ground.
However, the above response from the Gangwon Province government did not convince the Korean public. As early as December 6 last year, the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily reported that South Korea’s Gangwon Province’s “Chinese Cultural Complex Village” project was officially launched in Beijing.
The Gangwon Province “Chinese Cultural Village” project is a cultural tourism project jointly planned by the Gangwon Province government, the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, Kolon International, Internal and External Housing and Construction, and the Korean Martial Arts Association, covering an area of about 1,800 acres. The purpose is to enhance the influence and spread of CCP culture in Korea.
The governor of Gangwon Province, Choi Man-shun, said at the launch ceremony that the project is a “cultural belt and road”.
“Chinese and Korean costumes” and “kimchi” controversy
In addition, the sponsors of the signatures against the China Town also criticized the Chinese government for destroying Korean culture, including kimchi and Korean costumes, and said it was time to confront the Chinese Communist Party.
In November last year, the Chinese and Korean people disputed the origins of “Hanbok and Korean costumes” and “kimchi”. The Global Times, an official media outlet of the Chinese Communist Party, claimed that the Chinese Communist Party had taken the lead in setting international standards for the kimchi industry, saying that South Korea’s status as the “sovereign state of kimchi” had been “lost in name only.
The statement quickly sparked discontent among South Koreans, who regard kimchi as a sacred food and include it in almost everyone’s daily meals. The South Korean government also said that the Chinese standard for international certification is limited to Sichuan kimchi and has nothing to do with Korean kimchi.
Before that, Chinese and Korean netizens also had a heated argument about the relationship between Hanbok and Korean costumes. The mainland Chinese cartoon blogger “old first” created a set of cartoons about Hanbok, and Korean netizens questioned the costumes in the pictures as “copying elements of Hanbok,” but mainland netizens said that the style of dress existed in China during the Ming Dynasty, and that Hanbok itself “originated from Hanbok. The Chinese style of dress existed in the Ming Dynasty and the Korean costume itself is “derived from the Chinese costume”.
Earlier, the Korean drama “Joseon Exorcist” was accused of distorting Korean history by deliberately arranging Chinese elements such as dumplings, mooncakes and guzheng in the plot, which triggered protests from the Korean public and criticized the scriptwriter for his pro-communist tendencies, and the drama was eventually forced to stop broadcasting.
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