The Marmot’s Hole

Today’s Hankyoreh ran several pieces on rising anti-Korean sentiment in China.

Now, I didn’t watch most of the Olympics — the only Olympic event I really watch, in fact, is Winter Olympic ice hockey — but apparently, the Chinese took to rooting for China and anyone playing Korea… much as I used to do with the New York Rangers. Worst of all, the Chinese even started cheering for the Japanese, and if you’re sitting lower in the Chinese doghouse than the Japanese, something is very, very wrong indeed:

Some 10 Korean businessmen in China met in a Beijing restaurant on August 23, the day before the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The topic was the “anti-Korean sentiment” shown by Chinese fans during the Olympics. One Samsung employee said it would not surprise him if the Chinese were to launch a boycott of Korean goods soon.

Chinese fans expressed varying degrees of anti-Korean sentiment throughout the Olympics. They booed Korean athletes, and cheered opposing teams, regardless of whether the opposing team was the United States, Europe or even Japan. The Maginot Line of Chinese nationalism — in sporting events, you root for the underdog unless it is Japan — has fallen.

Then, of course, there’s the Chinese Internet, which has apparently become a cesspool of anti-Koreanism. Leading the charge are young Chinese Internet users brought up in the relative freedom and prosperity of the new China who have a seemingly bottomless reserve of national pride:

This online anti-Korean sentiment spread thanks to young Chinese Internet users born in the 1980s and 1990s. These youngsters, who grew up enjoying the sweet fruits of Chinese reform and openness, have been brought together by a bottomless pride in their homeland. For them, Korea is no longer a subject of admiration as it was in the past. Anti-Korean sentiment is the path through which their patriotism and nationalism is directed at Korea’s negative side.

Korean corporate staff working in China, worrying that Korean companies might end up on the business end of a Chinese boycott, even complain that Chinese netizens are holding foreign multinationals operating in China hostage. OK, so the word that pops immediately into mind is “schadenfreude,” but still, this isn’t cool.

Then there are the Chinese students in Korea. A post — seemingly by a former Chinese student in Korea — has been going around the Chinese Internet for several years. According to the Hani, what it says may be exaggerated, but almost any Chinese with an interest in Korea has seen it at least once.

Recalling 11 episodes from his life as a student in Korea, the post says his initial feelings about Korea — influenced by the Korean Wave — transformed into disappointment and fear. The Hani summarizes it thusly:

• When he first moved in to his home, the landlord gave him a toothbrush and some toothpaste. At first he thought this was a Korean tradition, but the landlord said, “This is a toothbrush and this is toothpaste. Since your family sent you to study in a developed nation, you must learn to brush your teeth.”
• Most of the Chinese movies shown on Korean TV are old films from the 70s and 80s. One day he was watching “Not One Less” on TV with a friend who asked, “When you went to school in China, did you, too, have to cross over mountains? How many did you have to cross?”
• A college friend told him once that he saw on TV that Chinese knew nothing besides bicycles, but thanks to the Korean Wave, they’ve learned to like Korean-made cars and cell phones.
• Many Koreans, when they learn he’s from China, talk as if his family must be rich, seeing that they’ve sent him to Korea to study.
• A rich Korean friend of his once proposed they go to China. He thought it would be a good chance to properly show him about China. His friend’s mother, however, put a stop to it, saying that China was a filthy mess without decent food and full of sinister people who steal from rich folk.
• Store owners catering to tourists serve Japanese with a smile, but give Chinese hateful looks, like “If you’ve got no money, then go.” When he once bought an expensive object, the shopkeeper asked if he was Japanese. When he said he was Chinese, he asked again whether he was hwagyo (ethnic Chinese who live in Korea).

Hey, when he said he was a Chinese student, at least nobody asked him, “Oh, which factory do you work at?” (many Chinese students — according to one, four in 10 — come to Korea to work illegally, not study, prompting immigration authorities to tighten student visa regulations in the wake of the Seoul Olympic Torch Riot).

More bitching from Chinese students in the Hani — Chinese students complain that Koreans exclude and ignore them.

This is pretty much more of the same — the Korean Wave gives Chinese expectations about Korea that are often dashed once they arrive.

I suppose this is an advantage to being a Westerner — given how our media-formed pre-arrival impressions, if they are exist at all, are formed by “M*A*S*H,” I guess we’re pleasantly surprised when the country doesn’t turn out to be a burned-out Third World shithole.

One Chinese student who returned home after doing graduate work said he initially thought Korea was a very developed nation. Now that he looks back, however, he has no lasting impression of the country. He said the society is intolerant and was disappointed by its adherence to old traditions.

A sad byproduct of Korea not having the benefit of trashing its own culture with a Cultural Revolution, I’d imagine.

Many are furious that Korean society thinks it’s so great while at the same time looking down on China. One student said many Koreans ask him if they have hamburgers in China, or if there are cell phones in China. He gets angry when he hears people talk about China so ignorantly. One graduate student said Shanghai is a global city that in many ways is better than Seoul, but many Koreans find it odd when polls come out showing that Shanghai is better.

The bigger problem, however, is that Chinese students with bad impressions of Korea complain that they have little opportunity to correct Koreans’ understanding of China through exchanges with Koreans. Many Chinese students say they’ve never really interacted with Koreans, because many Korean students hang out with English-speaking and European students in order to learn or practice English.

And I though it was because of our cute pointy noses.

Anyway, these Chinese students, excluded from the herd, end up hanging out amongst themselves. It’s hard to say, in fact, that they properly understand Korean society and culture just because they’ve studied here. Last year, 34,000 Chinese students were in Korea, making up more than half the total number of foreign students.

Note to Chinese students: Hey, if you think you guys have it rough, try playing a team death match with a lobby full of Koreans on COD4. Bad scene, man. Bad scene. Albeit not as bad as when you’ve got some American high school kid jabbering away on the other end about going down on his girlfriend.

Anyway, because the obstacles to Chinese students entering Korean society are high, there’s a limit to exchanges and understanding through social interaction as well. Not only are few companies willing to hire them, but the ones that do are often the ones looking to enter China. Accordingly, those companies are looking for how well the students can adjust to corporate life and how well they understand the Chinese market rather than how well they understand Korean society.

The Hani says because the goal of Chinese students coming to Korea is not to “understand Korean society,” it’s unavoidable that they are alienated from Korean society. Few students come to Korea because they fell in love with the place. Most come because a) it’s cheaper than going elsewhere, b) university entrance requirements are lax, and c) it’s close to China. To help overcome financial difficulties, some schools indiscriminately bring in Chinese students. This helps drive a wedge into mutual understanding, too. Capable students, meanwhile, enter Korean universities where the classes are in English, dreaming of entering international society. This, too, means interacting with Korean society takes a back seat.

Chinese students are also criticized for their excessive ethnic nationalism. Educators who deal directly with foreign students complain that Chinese students are often excessively convinced of Chinese cultural superiority. Because of their “Sino-centric worldview” rolled up with exclusionary ethnic nationalism, Chinese have difficulties in their relations with neighboring countries.