Korea Dispatch

An opinion piece in the Korea Times wonders at demonstrations of Anti-Korean Sentiment among fans at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Chinese spectators at the stadiums have often booed South Korean athletes, while cheering their opponents. In the Aug. 16 Korea-Japan baseball match, most Chinese supported the Japanese team. The same thing happened again the next day during the women’s table tennis games between Korea and Japan.

It goes on to say that some attribute such antagonism among Chinese towards their neigbors to

the arrogance of South Koreans who once looked down on the Chinese when they were poor in the early 1990s… and who were already angry with Korean Internet users’ posting of slanderous stories about China at the time of a devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May. And the situation has been aggravated by the Korean television station SBS, which broadcast the embargoed rehearsal of the opening ceremony.

Just as an aside, I’ve heard countless derogatory remarks about Chinese from Koreans of all ages. A colleague of mine, a Korean-born Chinese, has told me about the kinds of discrimination he faced growing up in Korea, including the fact that he is still not a citizen here. Another aquaintence, a Korean, once questioned Chinese moral values during a lunch-time conversation about the Games. “You’ve got to wonder what kind of people they are,” she said.

This is not to defend China’s attitudes, but simply to point out that such sentiments are mirrored over here, and have been around a very, very long time.

Before calling on both sides to do away with “narrow minded nationalism,” the author makes subtle reference to “history distortions by neighboring countries.” That’ll help put out the flames!

A more poignant look at Korea’s sports diplomacy comes from the Chosun Ilbo, where Victor Cha writes

In a bit of marketing savvy, [Samsung] grabbed the title of official mobile phone sponsor of China’s Olympic team by donating over 1,000 cell phones to the team, complete with Olympics ringtones.

Cha describes this as the “most recent example of an uncanny ability of Koreans to utilize sports to advance economic and political interests,” including its success in dealing with the former Soviet Union, as well as with Beijing when China hosted the Asian Games in 1992. Cha calls this the “most understudied but successful case of Chinese engagement in international relations.”

Sill, going beyond the Games is the inevitable rise of China. Today’s IHT has an op-ed by Nicholas Kristoff in which he warns of the many adjustments that will be made by a West accustomed to being the global leader.

This transition to Chinese dominance will be a difficult process for the entire international community, made more so by China’s prickly nationalism.

As hard as this will be for the West, it will be immensely more difficult for a Korea still reconciling itself to the impact of Western culture, much less to a reinvigorated China.

Filed under: Korean Society, Politics, history, media, sports