Korean Media Unfairly Focus on China’s Negative Image

"The South Korean media's hobby seems to include defaming the image of China," said Tang Ye, a Chinese student studying at Kunkuk University in Seoul.

That sentiment is one of the most frequently mentioned complaints by Chinese students in South Korea, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

Citing a Gallup poll with 1,000 Chinese students studying in the nation, the newspaper said Korean people's prejudice and misunderstanding on China topped the survey, with a 22.3 percent of respondents as among the major difficulties they face in South Korea.

Other difficulties include Korea's strict age-determined social hierarchy, food adjustment, Koreans' heavy drinking culture as well as the prevalent Koreans' attitude to look down upon Chinese.

"Chinese students were enraged when China was too negatively portrayed in the South Korean drama, `Cain and Abel,'" Tang said.

As of the end of October, the number of Chinese students in South Korea numbered 64,300, accounting for 77 percent of the entire foreign student pool (83,480).

Most of Chinese students coming to South Korea are from the upper-middle class in China, often influential families.

"U.S. President Obama said he would send 100,000 students to China in the future. It's to improve the U.S.-China relations. If we cannot make the 60,000 Chinese students who are already in Korea form a positive image of Korea by helping them to have a good experience here, how can we expect to have a good relationship with China in the future," said Lee Young-il, president of the China-South Korea Cultural Association.

Many Chinese students also have difficulty in catching up class taught in Korea. They are also not familiar with how to register for medical insurance, while feeling that the Korean medical fee is too expensive as they are excluded from the nationally enforced insurance system, it said.

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