학내 언론사

Kicker: WORLD(CULTURE)

Greatness comes from respect

Disputes over the cultural possession of Hanbok

by Min-gyeong Lee, Editor

lee.mkpeach@gmail.com 

  Countries in East Asia have historically fostered close cooperation, competition, and conflict with each other. Asians are, practically, the most neglected and discriminated races among the major powers, the so-called "first world," from foreign mainstream companies and celebrities to the general public. Among these Asians, China, Japan, and Korea, which are the three countries in East Asia, which have the comparatively most powerful global influence, are more in conflict than trying to cooperate to grow. Relations between Japan and Korea have been the main problem for many years, but unfortunately, cultural conflicts between Korea and China are also deepening recently. That is the problem of ongoing conflict with other countries over the rights and history of contents of modern pop culture and traditional culture in Korea in recent months or years.

▲BLACKPINK wore Hanbok for New Year's Day

Various controversial issues surrounding the origin of culture

  Recently, the sudden appearance of Korean traditional culture mixed with Chinese culture has increased rapidly in Chinese media including TV entertainment. From the time when the Korean wave gained global recognition and popularity, China coincidentally began to emphasize exposing Korean culture to programs of mass media related to their own culture. 

  The hottest potato issues these days are the appearance of clothes and accessories that look like hanbok in various Chinese content such as beauty contests, dramas, fashion shows, and the resulting conflict between Korea and China over the origin of Korean traditional culture. 

▲At the '2020 Miss Hong Kong Contest' held on August 30, a dancer wearing a skirt and jacket similar to a hanbok appeared behind the candidates, which became controversial.

  At the 2020 Miss Hong Kong Contest held at the end of August, the dancers who were dancing behind the candidate appeared wearing clothes similar to Hanbok. Accordingly, Korean netizens raised questions about the use of hanbok in media content with a strong regional identity while the traditional Chinese costume was “qipao”. 

▲ The judges of the Chinese entertainment program <这就是街舞> insisted that "this is China's street dance" after seeing a stage in which a fan dance was performed to the Korean folk song Arirang in Hanbok.

  On September 19th, the entertainment program <这就是街舞3> (Zhè jiùshì jiēwǔ 3) provided by YOUKU, a Chinese video site, introduced the performance of a fan dance to the rhythm of Arirang in Hanbok as a traditional Chinese performance. Korean netizens reacted negatively to the introduction of traditional Korean culture such as Hanbok, Arirang, and fan dance as Chinese culture. 

▲ Controversy is arising as China's Paper Games announces the end of Korean service for its game "Shining Nicky", emphasizing that Hanbok is the culture of its own country.

  Thereafter, on November 4, there was a large controversy over the historical ownership (historical possession) of Hanbok. In commemoration of the launch of the styling game “Shining Nikki”, a virtual hanbok item was released, and when Chinese netizens claimed that hanbok was a costume during the Ming Dynasty, the game company Paper Games agreed with it. In addition, the game company stuck to the claim that “Hanbok is a Chinese costume”, ignoring the Korean users who criticized that.

  Meanwhile, in the drama “成化14年” (Chenghua 14 years), which aired this year with a temporal and spatial background of the Ming Dynasty, the protagonist wore “mang-geon”, which led to controversy. Although it was a minority among Chinese netizens, there was even a reaction saying, "I thought it was a Korean drama because the costume was similar to that of the Joseon Dynasty or Goryeo Dynasty." In another drama "少主且慢行" (Shǎo zhǔ qiěmàn xíng), only actors in the role of maids appeared in "Chima" and "Chogori" similar to hanbok, and some people speculated the intention was to make hanbok recognized as a subculture of China.

What is the origin of Hanbok? Cultural matters between countries close to history, but…

  Experts suspect the cause of the sudden movement to include Korean traditional clothes in Chinese traditional clothes instead of the already well-known qipao. In China, the ethnic group called the Han race (Han Chinese) is dominant. The qipao is actually a Qing Dynasty costume established by the Manchus*. Recently, in China, instead of qipao, the Han Chinese (漢族), who now account for 92% of the Chinese population, have a strong mood to restore the “Hanfu”, the dress of the period when the Han Chinese dominated regions of China. The problem is that they try to put all of the clothes of the various Han Chinese dynasties, such as the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, into the scope of Hanfu and put them out as their traditional clothes. As all the costumes that existed uniquely in various dynasties are collectively referred to as “Hanpu”, it is speculated that they are trying to include the Ming Dynasty costumes reflecting the Goryeo style, and even Korean’s own Hanbok, in the Hanpu. 

*Manchu: a member of a Mongoloid people of Manchuria who conquered China in the 17th century, establishing an imperial dynasty that lasted until 1912

▲ BLACKPINK and BTS in stage costumes based on Hanbok

  Korean experts and netizens also guess that as globally popular K-pop idol groups, such as BTS and BLACKPINK, used hanbok as stage costumes, and the success of the Korean wave inspired global interest in hanbok, some Chinese people were trying to absorb its popularity into China. 

  It is also speculated that the fact that the clothing of Goryeo, the history of Korea, had an influence on China is a case against China's unidirectional cultural supremacy, and that they are trying to argue the opposite. Of course, China was a country with overwhelming influence in Asia before Western powers strongly interfered with Asian history, so the style of traditional Chinese clothing was applied to official costumes such as state officials in the early Joseon period. However, in the case of general life clothes, it is correct to see that they were influenced by each other. Cultural propagation is caused by interaction, so just because there are similarities between two costumes, one cannot prematurely say that one imitates the other. 

▲ The Scythian clothes, which are the origin of Korean traditional costumes shown in the mural of a hunting scene from Muyongchong (Muyong Tomb), are fitted tightly and have tops and bottoms that are convenient for equestrian and other activities. 

  Moreover, it must be considered that Korean clothing was influenced by nomadic clothing long before exchanging influence with China. According to Kim Moonja's paper, "The Origin of Ancient Hanbok and the Location of Hanbok in Globalization," it is said that Hanbok developed through interactions with the Scythian tribe, a nomadic tribe, not China, which is an agricultural tribe. In this way, hanbok was greatly influenced by the nomadic culture. However, many Chinese netizens claim that Hanbok originated in their country, an agricultural country. It can be said to be an inadequate argument.

▲ Ming Dynasty Chima-jeogori (skirts and jackets)

  On the other hand, there are cases in which Korean costume culture has been introduced to China and spread widely. As mentioned above, “Goryeo-yang” (高麗樣), which followed Goryeo cultural customs in various areas, including costumes during the Yuan Dynasty, is representative. In addition, mang-geon made from the tail or mane of horses in Joseon was popular in the Ming Dynasty and "re-exported", while the rich-shaped Joseon skirt made from horsehair was popular in the Ming Dynasty for a long time. The controversial mang-geon, which recently appeared in Chinese historical dramas, is an accessory worn by men around their foreheads to prevent their hair from flowing down when tied up. There was a similar mang-geon in the Ming Dynasty, but the shape was quite different from Korean mang-geon. Kim Sohyun, a professor of fashion industry at Baehwa Women's University (traditional costume major), explained, "Korean mang-geon was worn around the forehead, whereas the Chinese mang-geon was similar to a hat with a hole."

▲ Joseon Dynasty style mang-geon (left) and Ming Dynasty style mang-geon (right)

The correct response of the state and citizens to the controversy over the possession of traditional culture

  The problem of ownership and possession of the clothing culture of hanbok, which has rapidly deteriorated over the years or months, has created numerous disputes and some implications. Among them, the first implication is that the country has identified the reality of historical education and the direction of nationalistic education. Since the early 2000s, China has systematically provided strong nationalist history education to its own people. During this process, they have strongly instilled into the Chinese people a biased interpretation of various Asian histories including Korea. 

  On the other hand, it is pointed out that Korea neglected not only history education for the people, but also was complacent about responding diplomatically. Conscious of this public opinion, Korea's Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF) announced in November of this year that it is promoting the establishment of the Northeast Asian History Museum, which will promote history education. However, in a time when it is time to solve the problem with various full-scale diplomacy and education in Korea, the overall national fiscal deterioration caused by the Corona 19 pandemic is causing the budgetary support for NAHF to shrink. Therefore, it is necessary to devise a method that costs less than a perfunctory and weak response. 

  Second, in national conflict, citizens should adopt a cooperative and effective attitude based on correct historical knowledge rather than engage in an emotional war of attrition. Woo Yonggok, a Korean artist who is recognized for his expertise by referring to a wide range of academic materials when drawing pictures based on Korean traditional culture, pointed out that the biggest problem is that Chinese and Koreans do not know precisely about each other's traditional clothes. On the contrary, he pointed out that the emotional backlash of some Koreans also hinders further discussion. He raised concerns that a reckless fight without mutual understanding would cause a contraction in the domestic and international content industry. This means that foreign games may be reluctant to launch Korean services and markets related to traditional Korean culture. In fact, it is assumed that the Japanese manga and anime industry has already avoided mentioning South Korea. Considering that traditional Chinese and Japanese culture have already been used in various countries and exude cultural influence, Koreans should also consider the direction of actively promoting Korean brands rather than destroying their image by reckless criticism of specific races.

  Cultural friction between China and Korea is quite an issue these days. However, it is also a reality that, regardless of how complex the aspect of conflict has been in Asia or of various contexts, Asians are still treated as one of the most ignored identities among Western powers that dominate the world's mainstream culture. In this situation, the way Asians overcome discrimination and neglect should be to cooperate with countries with strong influence and potential, but the unity of Asians is very difficult due to unnecessary wars of attrition and the excessive and unconscionable pursuit of private interests of a significant number of people in each country. However, for the great and bright future of Asians, we will be able to lead future generations that seek long-term profits, and we should strive for that.

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