Posted on 08/02/2024 12:17:52 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
Nguyen Muchan, who runs a current affairs-related account on the Chinese social media Weibo, is considered a figure representing the patriotism of Chinese youth. Just looking at the cat photo she posted on her social media home screen, she looks no different from any other young Chinese woman her age. However, the 6.4 million subscribers who visit here are enthusiastic about her ‘spicy mouth’ armed with patriotism, not her cute profile picture.
Last year, when Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix provided information related to the semiconductor supply chain to the United States at the request of the U.S. government, Nguyen Muchan said, “This is the result of (the United States) acting like a dog.” He disparaged Samsung by calling it ‘Samsang (三喪)’ and said, “We have no choice but to obey the United States.” His fans also often compare Korea to a ‘dog.’ Among the comments on an article that said the Korean government supports the Beijing Olympics but has not yet decided whether to send a government delegation, the one that received the most recommendation was “The dog (Korea) doesn’t want to listen to what its owner (USA) says, but the owner is scared again.” It was. There was also a post that said, “They (Korea) like to be dogs.”
The exact opposite situation occurs in Korea as well. On social media such as YouTube, videos mocking China's sanitary conditions or the behavior of Chinese people with titles such as 'China Shock Video' are receiving tens of thousands to millions of views. There are also videos with titles such as ‘Koreans are shocked when they go to China’ and ‘The biggest nuisance incident of all time by Chinese tourists’. Internet users often leave comments with profanity, such as “I hate China” and “Chinese people will forever be a lower-class people.”
Hate sentiment toward the other country is growing among the MZ generation (ages 20-39) and teenagers in Korea and China. There are many cases in which some in China disparagingly refer to Korea as ‘South Korea’ and in Korea, China is referred to as the Communist Party. Experts are concerned that if the young generations of the two countries, which are geographically adjacent and interact closely in many fields, continue to hate each other, it could pose a major risk to the future of both countries.
In fact, as a result of a survey conducted by this magazine on 30 students and graduates of Seoul National University's Department of Foreign Affairs in their 20s (born between 1993 and 2002) about their favorability toward four countries: the United States, Japan, China, and Taiwan, China received the lowest score. When the level of most likeability was rated at 10, China only scored an average of 3.83. It was half of the United States (7.57 points) and almost 2 points lower than Japan (5.73 points). The situation is similar in China. According to the Korea Overseas Culture and Information Service's 2020 National Image Survey, the average positive perception of Chinese people toward Korea is 69.4%, but it is unusually low among teenagers at 42.1%.
The reasons for this sentiment among the younger generations in both countries are complex. According to a report released by China's Tencent last year, keywords representing China's Linglinghou generation (born after 2000) were selected using big data, and keywords such as 'patriotism' and 'passionate', which do not appear frequently in young people in other countries, were found. This patriotic tendency may be the reason for strong anti-Korean sentiment.
Lee Dong-ryul, a professor of Chinese language and Chinese studies at Dongduk Women's University, said, "Our country's youth support a democratic system, while Chinese youth under the Xi Jinping regime support an authoritarian system, so they will feel disparate from each other." Experts say that the recent increase in the number of conflicting issues between Korea and China in various areas has also had an impact. Representative examples include China's retaliation after the deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System), the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and the controversy over China's introduction of fine dust.
Another reason is that the younger generation's curiosity and understanding of the history and culture of both countries has decreased compared to the previous generation. In Korea, people in their 40s have been closely exposed to Chinese culture through Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Hong Kong movies, but the current younger generation has no such connection. China is also emphasizing its own culture and history, calling its participation in the Korean War a “war of justice.”
Experts say that this situation could become a major obstacle to the development of future relations between the two countries, and that exchanges between youth and international students should be expanded. Liu Xu, head of the Korea branch of China News Agency, said, “The cultural exchange process is often exaggerated and defined as ‘cultural infiltration,’ but the media and experts need to step forward and correct this.”
Because Chicoms
I noticed in the first paragraph Nguyen Muchan is a she and in the second a he.
[Because Chicoms]
[I noticed in the first paragraph Nguyen Muchan is a she and in the second a he.]
I feel so bad, not!
Nguyen is a she in the 1st paragraph and a he in the 2nd. I’ll just chalk that up to translation that is on par with the quality of everything else coming out of that garbage country. China can go piss up a rope.
And with a Vietnamese name!
Childless cat lady , huh? Vance warned us about those.
My Korean-American girlfriend...who still has family in Korea...absolutely despises China. And who can blame her after all the incredible damage China’s done...and is still doing...to Korea.
I have a Vietnamese colleague in her early 30s. She is absolutley terrified of the growing Chinese influence in her country. It sounds kooky, but she insists that the Chinese are making Vietnamese that oppose them “disappear”.
How does she feel about Japan?
The Vietnamese and Chinese....though they often refer to each other as cousins...have nevertheless often had a healthy distrust and dislike for one another. I don’t get the impression that attitude has changed one bit in recent years.
The CCP has done a very successful job of (propganidizing throughout Chinese students education) hijacking natural Chinese nationalism to their own political cause - their dictatorship, and by that means any foreign criticism of the behavior of the CCP, domestically or internationally, is translated in all media forms in China as anti “Chinese”.
The real actual problem is the CCP, not individual Chinese people.
“she looks no different from any other young Chinese woman her age.”
Way-sis.
But South Korea's transformation has also included an amazing transformation from authoritarian military dictatorship to democracy. South Korea's cultural production is also superior to China's, with SK film and television widely distributed and admired, vs. a handful of very good Chinese directors.
The South Koreans are very proud of their transformation in both areas and also aware of how the Chinese despotism is still a threat to them.
The historic distrust and dislike goes back centuries and predates communism. Korea, Japan and China. - centuries of bad relations.
All is not peachy in China. Propaganda aside, the natives
are restless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.