A participant in hanbok conducts a Chinese flag-raising ceremony during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held at the National Stadium in Beijing, China on the 4th. Beijing (China) = Reporter Park Jong-minI was fortunate to be able to see the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which I did not expect at all due to Corona 19. The hassle of having to undergo a COVID-19 nucleic acid test twice each before and following the opening ceremony and the shallow calculations of giving up on Saturday holidays completely and going to get cold, I attended, thinking that this was also a scene in history.
As a result, attending the opening ceremony was a failure. At the opening ceremony, I did not know that Korean-Chinese women, representing 55 ethnic groups, wore hanbok. Because she was sitting too far from the flag pole to be seen. In Korea, following seeing a scene in which hanbok appeared at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on a TV broadcast, there seems to have been a riot from then on.
However, to be precise, it is not true that the reporter did not see a Korean-Chinese woman wearing hanbok at the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony, when all the event participants went out to the playground to have fun, I clearly saw a woman dressed in a hanbok.
However, even following 25 years of being a journalist, it didn’t seem strange at all to see a woman wearing a hanbok at the opening ceremony, perhaps because she still lacked the qualities or sense of a reporter. She said, ‘She came out representing the Korean-Chinese, it’s okay’. She said that the hanbok was unique. It was the style of hanbok worn in South Korea rather than the hanbok worn by North Koreans or Korean-Chinese in China. Even this was to the extent that the Korean-Chinese in China are now being influenced by South Korea rather than North Korea.
Almost ten days have passed since the Korean-Chinese women’s hanbok worn at the Olympic opening ceremony became controversial in Korea and exploded with anti-Chinese sentiment. Within these ten days, the online world was heated with anti-Chinese, and university professors, presidential candidates, National Assembly Speakers, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and even the Chinese Embassy in Korea jumped into the controversy.
As a correspondent in Beijing and a reporter at the opening ceremony, I had no choice but to watch this process with a heavy heart. While he was in China, he might not talk regarding what was happening in Korea, nor might he broadcast the reaction of Chinese netizens who demeaned Korea, Koreans, and Koreans.
A participant in hanbok conducts a Chinese flag-raising ceremony during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held at the National Stadium in Beijing, China on the 4th. Beijing (China) = Reporter Park Jong-minHowever, there are some things that become clearer as time goes by. The question is, what is the problem with wearing Hanbok, the traditional costume of the Korean-Chinese, one of the ethnic minorities, at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in China. It is not yesterday or today that the Korean-Chinese, who occupy a prominent position among China’s 55 ethnic groups, wore hanbok to major national events.
A Korean scholar in China responded that the controversy unfolding in Korea was absurd, saying, “If Kazakh Koreans wear hanbok, they are grateful that they keep their own customs.
In hindsight, the hanbok process is not a real thing.
Professor Mo, who takes issue with China’s hanbok process whenever an opportunity arises, is claiming that he is distorting ‘Hanbok originated from Hanfu’ in Baidu Encyclopedia, China’s largest portal site, once more, but this is not true.
If you search for ‘Hanfu’ (韩服), which is the Chinese pronunciation of hanbok, in Baidu, you will find that it is a traditional Korean-Chinese costume and a Chinese Korean-Chinese traditional folklore. I am not claiming that hanbok is a traditional Chinese costume. This is the same content confirmed in the e-mail that the professor sent to reporters by capturing the screen as if it were a great proof that it was a case of the hanbok process. Moreover, Baidu is not owned by the Chinese government.
Team Leader Yoon Hong-geun speaks during an emergency press conference on the short track bias judgment held at the Main Media Center of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in China on the 8th. From left, Deputy Athlete Team Leader Ryu In-tak, Team Manager Yoon, Short Track Team Support Team Manager Choi Yong-gu, and Short Track Team Team Support Team Leader So-hee Lee Beijing (China) = Reporter Park Jong-min in charge of video power analysisJudgment is also a matter to consider carefully. What is the problem, it can be said that it is a nonsensical decision, but the decision was made by a British referee selected by the International Ice Skating Federation.
It can be said that the host country is territorial, but the Chinese spectators did not overwhelm the stadium at the time to the extent that the referees were affected by the territoriality. It’s unfair, but it’s too lax to be a basis for ‘half-pity’ beyond the judgment controversy that has always been there in all competitions, especially in short track events.