Wearing Chinese Attire and Claiming Joseon Was a "Vassal State": Response to Controversial Video Is "What's the Big Deal?"

This is a video that has recently taken Chinese social media by storm.

The video features the phrase, "Let us spread Chinese culture to the world," along with subtitles claiming, "The Ming Dynasty bestowed clothing and official headwear upon Joseon, its vassal state."

Recently, controversy has arisen as Chinese influencers have been spotted walking around Gyeongbokgung Palace, a representative cultural heritage site of South Korea, wearing the traditional Chinese attire hanfu.

[Kang Jun-young / Professor, Graduate School of International and Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: As you know, social media and the market size are just so massive. There is a traditional clothing market centered around hanbok and wearing their own attire that is worth close to 3 trillion won in our money. And there are so many people. If they come to Korea and promote their culture while wearing hanbok or their own clothes, it instantly generates massive view counts. (So it's about the money, after all)]

Foreign tourists visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace said they found it confusing because hanbok and hanfu look similar, emphasizing that people should respect each other's cultures.

[Iliuno / French tourist: If they hadn't told us it was traditional Chinese attire, foreigners wouldn't have known.]

[Iman Reda / Egyptian tourist: I think people should respect Korean traditions in Korea and Chinese traditions in China.]

Chinese tourists expressed the view that hanfu is better than hanbok and asked what problem individual actions could possibly cause.

[Chinese tourist: It doesn't matter, does it? People can just do whatever they want. As long as the individual likes it, that's all that matters.]

[Chinese tourist: I think the varieties of traditional Chinese clothing are much more diverse than hanbok. After all, China was historically a very powerful nation at one time.]

Experts who viewed these actions by Chinese individuals noted that such behavior has been repeated from the past and stems from cultural impatience and a sort of inferiority complex.

[Kang Jun-young / Professor, Graduate School of International and Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: So I fundamentally view things like this as being related to China's cultural impatience. They constantly want to emphasize that their culture needs to be known more widely, that they possess a more splendid history, and that the original source belongs to them. But to Westerners' eyes, they all look similar. In fact, China even claimed that the kimono belonged to them. They actually did that in the past back in the 1970s.]

Amid the controversy, some opinions emerged suggesting that the entry of Chinese people wearing hanfu into ancient palaces should be restricted. Currently, Gyeongbokgung Palace does not impose entry restrictions based on specific attire.

Netizens who came across the video reacted with comments such as, "It is shocking that they would use the expression 'vassal state'," and "Let's wear hanbok and go to the Forbidden City ourselves."

(Produced by SBS Digital News | Reported by Yoon Sung-sik, Video Editing by Lee Da-in, Screen Source: News Hunters)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.