Let the Sino-Korean netizen war begin!

God, I love this place.

Yonhap is reporting that Chinese netizens are pissed off at what they consider historical distortions in the Korean historical dramas “Jumong” and “Taewang Sasingi.”

According to a Hong Kong current events weekly, Chinese netizens are criticizing the MBC drama “Jumong” for distorting history. “Jumong,” strangely enough, deals with the life of Jumong, the founder of the Goguryeo kingdom. Hong Kong’s ATV, watched throughout much of southern China, has recently begun daily broadcasts of the drama.

The Chinese website Tiannya, however, has labeled the show an “anti-Chinese drama” and slammed its content. Among some of the things Chinese netizens have been saying:

• “One Japan is enough, but now even Korea…” (Ooo, low blow)
• “Koreans have intentionally distorted history by depicting themselves as virtuous and Han Dynasty Chinese as cruel” (Hey, count yourselves lucky. We had to pay 35,000 dead saving them from the North Koreans for the privilege of being bashed in their films and dramas)
• “The drama is full of just animosity toward the Han Dynasty. It depicts the Han Dynasty as worse than Japan.” (At this point, the Japanese are no doubt wondering how they got involved in the discussion)

Anyway, with critical opinion mounting, ATV changed the subtitling a bit, substituting different terms for “Han Dynasty” and “nation” to make it more paletable to Chinese viewers. Said the vice-president of ATV, “We’ve changed some of the sensitive terms… From the audience’s position, it’s an interesting and well-made drama, and even the subject is nothing more than a legend and myth.”

“Taewang Sasingi,” a fantasy-historic drama which deals with the life of King Gwanggaeto the Great of Gogureyo, might be even more problematic for the Chinese authorities. Scheduled to begin in September, Chinese netizens have already begun focusing their attention on it. Staring Bae Yong-jun, a major Korean Wave star making his first appearence in five years, and blessed with the largest production cost in the history of Korean dramas, the Chinese are already expressing concern, with the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party banning media reports on the drama.

Moreover, according to Yonhap, with Korea airing other historical dramas dealing with Goguryeo and Balhae history, the Chinese are starting to feel, well, disconcerted.

The Hong Kong weekly noted, however, that Korean experts say that the Korean Wave does not constitute a “cultural invasion” (Remember, children, it’s cultural imperialism only when the Americans do it); Korean interest in Chinese dramas is also on the rise, and that through mutual cooperation you’ll see a “cultural fusion” over the long term. In particular, they noted that Korean stars have been acting in a lot of Chinese dramas, and you’re seeing a continuing number of joint Sino-Korean productions, so this could be the start of a “New Korean Wave.”

Meanwhile, on the Baekdusan Front, Chinese netizens have been having a bit of fun with the Korean women’s short-track skating team’s “Baekdusan Ceremony.”

The Chinese government has banned local media reports of the problematic photo, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese netizens—busy little bunch they are—from ripping off the photo from the Chinese-language editions of Korean newspapers and doing a bit of Photoshop work.

At a bulletin board at Baidu.com, some clever Netizen played with the photo to read, “Mars is our territory!”

This might actually be true, if we assume for a moment that North Korea might as well be Mars.

Others on the bulletin board penned slogans that read, “Our step-father is the United States” and “We want a large American army,” delivering the message that they regard Korea as an American vassal state.

Another poster at a forum at Drblogs.com coined this creative slogan, “We are the sons and subjects of the cheonjo.” Cheonjo, or “Court of Heaven,” is how China used to refer to the Chinese emperor before foreign countries. The message here should be fairly obvious.

Still others, through creative application of Photoshop, changed the silver medals into ears of corn. Apparently, a dialectical Chinese term for corn is bangzi, which is also used as a deragotory term for “people,” as in gaoli bangzi, a deragotory term for Koreans reportedly favored by some Chinese diplomats to refer to their North Korean allies.

One of the commenters here at the blog linked to several stellar examples (search around in the thread), including this one requiring very little in the way of translation:

Even though Chinese netizen opinion is overwhelmingly critical of Korea regarding the “Baekdusan Ceremony,” you could still occasionally spot Chinese netizens expression disappointment and shock over the incident. One netizen was disappointed that even “virtuous Chinese” who’d been protecting the friendly Sino-Korean relationship were being forced into confrontation, while another netizen slammed both nations, saying that while Koreans “knew no shame,” China was incompetent.

UPDATE: When the Chosun Ilbo is right (as in correct, not its politics), it’s right (HT to wjk).  The caption, BTW, reads, “What, you’re not going to declare diplomatic war on China?”  And in the Chosun’s “make your own caption” section (nice idea, BTW), one reader—alluding to this—wrote, “Mu-hyeon, you need to call Goguryeo the Country of Peace and Baekdusan the Mountain of Peace.”

UPDATE 2: Commentor Sonagi links to more Chinese parodies of the “Baekdusan Ceremony” and provides translations.

Tagged as: The Netizens