Anti-Korean sentiment

Anti-Korean sentiment involves hatred or dislike for Korean people, culture or either of the two states (North Korea/South Korea) on the Korean peninsula.

Origins

Anti-Korean sentiment is present, although not strong, in the People's Republic of China and Japan originating from issues such as nationalism.

History

Anti-Korean sentiment has only been a recent development, due to issues such as the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, however some issues, such as the debate over Goguryeo, have historical roots. In Japan, modern dislike for Korea can be seen as a response to increasing nationalism, and can be traced back to events such as the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and 2002 FIFA World Cup.

In China

Korea and China have historically maintained strong ties. As Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea became under Japanese influence. Chinese believe that Some ethnic Koreans were in the Imperial Japanese Army which invaded China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Additionally, some Koreans were involved into the operation of the Burma-Siam Death Railway . However Most Korean were stationed in rear service.

At the end of World War II, North Korea, aligned with the Soviet bloc, became friendly with the People's Republic of China, while the PRC and Republic of Korea did not recognise each other. During the Korean War, when China was engaged in war with South Korea and its western allies, efforts through propaganda were placed to intimidate hatred against South Korea, named a "puppet state" of the United States at the time by the PRC government.

From 1992 onwards, after South Korea’s normalization of relations with China, relations with the People’s Republic of China gradually improved. Within the Chinese population, Korean art and culture became popular from 2000 onwards. Amid improvements in relations however, there were also looming anti-Korean sentiments involved in various disputes between the two countries.

Koreaphobia and Football

Koreaphobia commonly refers to the situation of the Chinese national football team, which has played about 30 matches against the South Korean team since 1978 but has never beaten them, despite finishing higher in a number of tournaments. This possibly lead to several violent outbreaks against Koreans in football games hosted in China, such as Olympic preliminary match in 1999, friendship match in 2001, and another Olympics preliminary match in 2004.

In a Korea-China friendship football match held in Beijing, China, in 2000, South Korean spectators were violently beaten by Chinese spectators as the Chinese team lost. In 2004 during Athens Olympics football preliminaries match held in Changsha, China, the Chinese spectators violently responded as the Chinese team lost, resulting in injury of one of the Korean spectators.

2002 Korea-Japan Worldcup

In 2002 Korea-Japan Worldcup, Chinese media made numerous negative reports on Korea. As the South Korean team progressed through the tournament, the Chinese media reported the South Korean team was winning because of unfair play and preferential treatment. When South Korea lost to Turkey in the third place match, one Chinese reporter reported, “Turkey made it certain that South Korea is a substandard football nation,” and continued on to deride the South Korean team as well as the Japanese team. The Chinese government may have been involved in the negative reports on South Korea during the World Cup.

Anti-Korean sentiments were also apparent among ordinary Chinese in China. It has been reported ethnic Koreans in China were afraid of openly cheering for Korean teams due to hostilities from the local Chinese. It has also been reported South Koreans cheering for the South Korean team in Beijing has been booed at by the local Chinese.

Cultural Claims

In 2005, anti-Korean sentiments in China became a major trend as China began disputing South Korea’s attempts to register Gangneung Danoje Festival as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. China claimed Gangneung Danoje Festival came from Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and pursued joint-registration of Gangneung Danoje Festival and Chinese Dragonboat Festival. South Korea held its position that Gangneung Danoje Festival is a unique cultural tradition of Gangneung, Korea, completely different from the Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and ignored Chinese demands of joint-registration. Despite Chinese opposition, UNESCO has registered Gangneung Danoje Festival as an intangible cultural heritage. Upon registration, the Chinese media began making accusations of South Korea stealing Chinese culture, and expressed regret and humiliation of losing Chinese Dragonboat Festival to South Korea.

The UNESCO intangible heritage controversy was followed by a series of similar accusations from the Chinese media and the Chinese internet. In 2007, baseless reports from the Chinese media that South Korea is attempting to register Chinese characters at UNESCO has generated significant controversy. It has been reported that Park Jungsoo(박정수), a professor at Seoul National University Department of History, has concluded after 10 year research that Koreans invented Chinese characters, and has advised the South Korean government to register Chinese characters at UNESCO. Contrary to the reports in the Chinese media, it has been confirmed that there is no professor by the name of Park Jungsoo at Seoul National University. These false reports has also spread to Hong Kong media. A South Korean scholar said that while it is true that some scholars claim Chinese characters were developed by the Dongyi, this theory is not recognized by the mainstream, and these false reports only exacerbate relations between the two countries.

Influenced by these issues, South Korea was elected as the most hated country in an internet survey on Chinese netizens, according to chinese news 国际先驱导报 in 2007.

2007 Asian Winter Games

2007 Asian Winter Games held in Changchun, China has sparked disputes between South Korea and China as the host city began aggressively promoting Baektu Mountain, such as holding torch ceremony on its peak and depicting it as a Chinese mountain in the opening ceremony. Baektu Mountain is a mountain along the border of North Korea and China, and it is a very sensitive issue to Koreans, as the sacred mountain is revered as the ancestral origin of the Korean people in Korean mythology. Provoked by aggressive promotion of Chinese claims to the mountain by the host city, a group of South Korean athletes held a political ceremony, holding out placards that said “Baektu Mountain is our land”. This has sparked massive reprisals from the Chinese media and Chinese internet forums, including various personal attacks against the South Korean athletes.

2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Anti-Korean sentiments in China and anti-Chinese sentiments in Korea became more prominent as a result of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the Seoul torch leg of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese Student Rioted During South Korean Olympic Torch Relay. Numerous projectiles were thrown towards the South Korean protestors, injuring one newspaper reporter. Chinese supporters of the Beijing Olympics also engaged in mob violence, notably in the lobby of Seoul Plaza Hotel, against South Korean protestors, Tibetans, western tourists, and police officers. Chinese websites, including Anti-CNN, argue the opposite, and 'claim' that, even if it is not true, Chinese students were not the only ones being aggressive on the day , and that South Koreans were also responsible for the violence which occurred. But, Its claim and its images are 'fake'. Originally, Its pictures are explained pictures. After incident, Koreans shows that how chinese use violence to Korean. Koreans demonstrated Chinese behavior front of Newspaper writer, "Chinese handle this tools, Chinese use bicycle like this". Its explain photos that Chinese students use these tools to Korean, but Chinese internet omitted its original news article. and only pick photos. and Chinese internet fabricated, depict as Korean use this tools to Chinese.

Further controversy was generated when SBS, a South Korean TV broadcast station, leaked footage of rehearsals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. This incident has been widely reported in the Chinese media, and has become the impetus of anti-Korean sentiments during the Games.

Anti-Korean sentiments became more visible and became a major issue in Korea during the 2008 Beijing Olympics events. Throughout the events, the Chinese spectators often displayed hostility to the South Korean athletes, even during events where Japanese athletes are also competing. Hostile attitude of the Chinese spectators during the Beijing Olympics were widely reported in the South Korean media, and anti-Korean sentiments in China became a major issue, prompting reaction from governments of South Korea and China.

Mainland series

Mainland series (Chinese: 大陆系列; Korean: 대륙시리즈) refers to a series of images posted on blogs and forums throughout the Korean online community created in late 2008, ridiculing negative aspects of Mainland China, such as fake products, Shanzhai, public indecency in poorer districts, and general negative portrayal of Chinese people. Chinese websites widely reported on the new "online phenomena", causing backlash from Chinese netizens.

Causality

From a psychological perspective, Chinese are seen as assuming Koreans to be part of a sinocentric East Asian regional order. As a part of this group, Koreans are assumed to be inherently friendly to China. Chinese also emphasize hiraerchy within their sinocentric order, where China is at the top of the hiraerchy. In contrast, Koreans reject the sinocentric East Asian regional order and emphasize equality in diplomatic relations in East Asia. This rejection leads to conflict of existential identities, threatning the very meaning of being Korean and Chinese. Koreans and Chinese are seen as engaging in a relationship of negative interdependence, potentially comparable to Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

From a political perspective, improvement of South Korea-United States relations is seen as a cause for anti-Korean sentiments in China. In 2008, there was a change of administration in South Korea, where conservative Grand National Party nominee Lee Myung-bak was elected as president. In contrast to previous two presidents, Lee Myung-bak engased in increasingly pro-US diplomacy. China has explicitly expressed opposition and discomfort to improving relations between South Korea and the United States several times, such as disparaging South Korea-United States military alliance as an obselete relic of the Cold War. Some analysts suggest that due to this turn in poliitics, China has intentionally turned a blind eye to anti-Korean sentiments in China in order to help it spread. For example, China did not take any measures on false reports in the Chinese media that South Koreans are claiming Four Great Inventions of ancient China.

In the United States

The majority of resentment against Koreans in the United States and much of the western world is only in regards to North Korea, although there have also been minor historical incidents.

In 1866, the United States merchant marine schooner General Sherman was destroyed by fire as it entered Pyongyang in an effort to open up trade with the Joseon Dynasty. This incident then resulted in the United States expedition to Korea of 1871.

During the Korean War, the United States fought a bloody war to assist South Korea from communist invasion. Since the war, the common perception of North Korea is that of an oppressive state. Anti-communist education in the United States, as well as allied countries such as South Korea, demonized North Koreans as ruthless soldiers.

Following heavy re-militarization and a series of missile tests, Americans were made to fear of a possible attack by a "rogue state" such as North Korea. In United States President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002, he described North Korea as a part of the "Axis of evil". Following the Nuclear program of North Korea and subsequent 2006 North Korean nuclear test, the United States imposed UN sanctions on North Korea. These economic sanctions are very unlikely to be lifted by the United States due to North Korea's incompliance to the Six-party talk agreements.

The Los Angeles riots of 1992 were partially based on Anti-Korean sentiment. Mass controversy occurred when Latasha Harlins, 15-year old African American girl, was shot dead by Korean American storeowner Soon Ja Du on March 16, 1991, having believed to have caught her stealing. The event fueled outrage within the African-American community. The attitudes by Korean shopkeepers at that time were based on the common perception at that time that African-Americans were more likely to shoplift. African-Americans believed that they were prejudiced by Korean shopkeepers and claimed to have been specifically charged extra. The event resulted in mass ransacking and destruction of Korean and other Asian-owned stores on Los Angeles by mobs of African-American youths. It was reported that widespread damage occurred after the LAPD failed to hold Koreatown from the rioters. The song by Ice Cube, Black Korea, accuses that Korean storeowners were charging additionally from African-American customers.

In Japan

See also: Japan–Korea disputes

The relations between Japan and korea have historically been bleak. During the Ming Dynasty, Wokou pirate raids on Korean soil were frequent, and so there has been general discontent for either side for a long span of time as a result, which would eventually form the basis of hatred between the two sides. Such tensions built up further after the annexation of Korea in 1910.

During the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, widespread damage occurred in a region with a significant Korean population, and much of the local Japanese overreacted to rumours which spread after the earthquake. Within the aftermath of the event, there was a common perception amongst groups of Far-right Japanese that ethnic Koreans were poisoning wells, eventually setting off a killing rampage against Koreans, where Japanese would use the shibboleth of ba bi bu be bo (ばびぶべぼ) to distinguish ethnic Koreans from Japanese, as it was assumed that Koreans would be unable to pronounce the line correctly, instead as "pa pi pu pe po". All people who failed the test were killed, which caused many ethnic Chinese and Ryukyuans, also unable to correctly pronounce the shibboleth, to be indiscriminately killed in large numbers. Other shibboleths used were jū-go-en, go-ji-ssen (15円 50銭) and gagigugego (がぎぐげご), where Japanese people pronounce initial g as [g] and medial g as [ŋ] (such a distinction is dying out in recent years), whereas Koreans pronounce the two sounds as [k] and [g] respectively.

Much of the Anti-Korean sentiment present today however deal with comtemporary attitudes. During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Japanese and Korean supporters clashed with one another, while Japanese media reported the conduct of Korean spectators in a negative fashion. Both sides were also known to post racist messages against each other on online bulletins. There was also disputes to how event was to be host, because of rivalry. The island dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima also fuelled outrage within far-right groups. Manga Kenkanryu (often referred to as Hating the Korean Wave) by Sharin Yamano discusses these issues while making many other arguments and claims against Korea. Japanese also accuse South Korean companies of intellectual property infringement and copying Japanese designs for products (discussed below).

Zainichi Koreans in Japan are also publicly perceived to be a nuisance and are seen as likely to cause trouble and start riots, a view shared by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara. A Zainichi organisation, Chongryon, is commonly accused of providing funding and material to North Korea and indoctrnating the Zainichi Korean population to actively hate Japan.

There is also much concern in Japan regarding North Korea and its nuclear and long range missile capabilities, as a result of missile tests in 1993, 1998 and 2006 and an underground nuclear test in 2006. There are also contraversies regarding North Korean abductions of Japanese, where Japanese citizens were abducted by North Korean agents between 1977 and 1983.

In Mongolia

Main article: Koreans in Mongolia

Some South Korean men take sex tourism to Mongolia, often as clients of South Korean-run businesses in Mongolia, has also sparked anti-Korean sentiment among Mongolians, and is said to be responsible for the increasing number of assaults on South Korean nationals in the country.

In Taiwan

Although general dislike for Korea is considerably low, there is nonetheless a growing attitude of the shunning of Korean culture and cusine. As a result of the Korean wave, there is widespread contact with Korean culture in aspects such as film, television and food. There are large numbers of Korean restaurants in Taiwan, which may be the cause of jealously and resentment amongst some working Taiwanese. However. such attitudes can be seen as a simple annoyance rather than absolute hatred, and do not represent any political, historical or social implications therein.

Contemporary issues

Nationalistic Chinese are known to post online blogs accusing Koreans of so-called "cultural plagiarism". One issue is in regards to Korean history, where such blogs are against the idea of Hwanguk, a claim by Old Korean Book Hwandan Gogi that much of human civilisation originated from the Korean peninsula. Other issues include perceived claims on Chinese characters and Confucius by Koreans, although there is little evidence that such statements have been made by Koreans themselves, and most probable are the result of online rumours.

Japanese media TBS accuse Koreans of a "copy-culture" , such as the dispute between K-pop singer Ivy and Squaresoft over a music video which resembled scenes from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and the design of the Yakult bottle used in Korean products.

Derogatory terms

There are a variety of derogatory terms referring to Korea. Many of these terms are viewed as racist. However, these terms do not necessarily refer to the Korean people as a whole; they can also refer to specific policies, or specific time periods in history.

In English

• "Gook" - (U.S. military slang) a derogatory term for all Asians, first used against Japanese and later south-east Asians . The etymology of this racial slur is shrouded in mystery, disagreement, and controversy. The Oxford English Dictionary admits that its origin is "unknown".

In Chinese

• 高丽棒子 (gāo lì bàng zǐ) - Derogatory term used against all ethnic Koreans. 高丽 (Traditional:高麗) refers to Ancient Korea (Koryo), while 棒子 means "club" or "corncob", referring to how Koreans would fit into trousers of the Ancient Koryo design. Sometimes 韓棒子 (hán bàng zǐ, "韓" referring to South Korea) is also used. Additionally, 死棒子 (sǐ bàng zǐ), Literally "dead corncob", is used.
• 二鬼子 (èr guǐ zǐ) - A disparaging designation of puppet armies and traitors during the Anti-Japanese War of China.Japanese were known as "鬼子" (devils), and the 二鬼子 literally means "second devils". During World War II, some Koreans were involved in Imperial Japanese Army, and so 二鬼子 refers to hanjian and ethnic Koreans. The definition of 二鬼子 has changed throughout time, with modern slang usage entirely different from its original meaning during World War II and the subsequent Chinese civil war.

In Japanese

• 三国人 (sangokujin) - Derogatory term referring to colonial nationals of Taiwan, Korea and China. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara famously referred to Chinese and Koreans as 三国人 sangokujin in context of foreigners being a potential source of unrest in the aftermath of an earthquake.
• 朝鮮人 (chōsenjin) - Literally "(North) Korean person". Typically in East Asian countries which use Hanzi script, "朝鮮" refers to North Korea, while "韩国" refers to South Korea. Japanese use this word against South Koreans in a negative manner. The word, however, is also used when they mean both of South Koreans and North Koreans in a neutral manner.

See also

• Liancourt Rocks
• Paektusan
• 2002 FIFA World Cup
• Anti-Japanese sentiment
• Sinophobia
• Chosen Army of Japan
• Goguryeo controversies
• People's Republic of China–South Korea relations
• Sino-Japanese Relations
• Manga Kenkanryu
• 2006 North Korean missile test