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From: TT
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Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP / TT
Participants in the 2017 kimchi festival in Seoul of South Korea prepare Korean sauerkraut. Stock Photography.
In South Korea it is called kimchi, in Chinese Sichuan cuisine pao cai, two varieties of pickled cabbage that are popular items at the dinner table in their respective countries.
In recent times, however, it is more than the cabbage that has gone sour.
It all started with the Chinese pao cai variant approved as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). An acknowledgment that led the Chinese media to announce that a further step has been taken against the Chinese kimchi rule.
The South Korean media was quick to question the similarities between pao cai and kimchi, claiming that true East Asian sauerkraut originated on the Korean peninsula and nowhere else.
– I read on social networks that China says that kimchi is theirs, and that they can do it according to international standards, it is absurd. I’m worried that next time they will try to steal men’s books and other culturally important things, says Kim Seol-ha, a 28-year-old South Korean, referring to the traditional Korean garment.
On the Chinese media platform Weibo, the tone was different.
“If you can’t meet international standards, then it’s not kimchi what you do,” writes a user on the platform where many noted that much of the kimchi consumed in South Korea is made in China.
“Even the pronunciation of the word kimchi comes from Chinese, what else do you need to say?” Writes another.
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