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SEOUL (REUTERS) – China’s efforts to obtain international certification for pao cai, a pickled vegetable dish from Sichuan province, are turning into a social media confrontation between Chinese and South Korean netizens over the origin of the kimchi, a Korean staple made with cabbage. .
Beijing recently won an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification for pao cai, an achievement that China’s state-run Global Times reported as “an international standard for the China-led kimchi industry.”
South Korean media quickly disputed such a claim, accusing the larger neighbor of trying to make kimchi a type of pao cai made in China.
The episode sparked anger on South Korean social media.
“It’s total nonsense, what a thief stealing our culture!” a South Korean netizen wrote on Naver.com, a very popular web portal in South Korea.
“I read a story in the media that China is now saying that kimchi is theirs, and that they are making it an international standard. It is absurd. I am concerned that they may steal Hanbok and other cultural content, not just kimchi,” Kim said. Sheol. ha, a 28 year old in Seoul.
Some South Korean media outlets even described the episode as “China’s attempt to dominate the world,” while other comments on social media noted concerns that Beijing was exercising “economic coercion.”
On Weibo, similar to Twitter in China, Chinese netizens claimed that kimchi was their country’s traditional dish, as most of the kimchi consumed in South Korea is made in China.
The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement on Sunday (November 29) saying primarily that the ISO-approved standard does not apply to kimchi.
“It is inappropriate to report (that pao cai won the ISO) without differentiating kimchi from Sichuan pao cai in China,” the statement said.
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