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| A newspaper ad of Kimchi released in The New York Times, Jan. 18 (local time) / Courtesy of Seo Kyoung-duk's Facebook |
By Park Han-sol
Amid the recently reignited debate over China's attempt to appropriate traditional Korean kimchi, academic activist Seo Kyoung-duk announced that a newspaper advertisement promoting the dish has been printed in The New York Times' U.S. and international editions, Jan. 18 (local time).
The controversy over the fermented cabbage dish rose recently when the Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times claimed that the development of an international standard for the kimchi industry had been "led by China" in November last year.
What further exacerbated the spat between the two countries earlier this month were a photo of Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun holding up kimchi posted on his Twitter account as well as a kimchi-making video uploaded by Chinese YouTuber Li Ziqi with the hashtag #ChineseFood. Li's account currently has more than 14 million followers.
In Seo's ad, which has been printed on the fifth page of both editions of the newspaper, the text reads: "The Kimchi making & sharing culture was listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013. Historically, this iconic food of Korea and its culture date back thousands of years."
Adding that the fermented food has grown to be loved by people around the world, it ends with the phrase "Kimchi is Korean, but it belongs to everyone."
"Instead of trying to counter every claim made by China over kimchi, we decided the more polished response would be to let the world know of accurate facts about the dish in a concise and visually striking way," Seo told The Korea Times, Tuesday. "That's why we didn't even mention China in the ad. We wanted this to serve as a chance for Korea to develop its own effective PR strategy rather than simply being swept up in anger."
Overall, the creation process for the ad from consulting multiple kimchi and advertising experts to designing the final copy took about a month, he explained.
The professor acknowledged the strength of soft power, especially in the form of digital cultural content, to promote global awareness of kimchi, stating that the image of the ad will also be simultaneously utilized in different social media campaigns.
"We are also planning to release a series of YouTube videos in different languages, with the first episode slated for March, to address the accurate history and culture of the dish."
Sungshin Women's University professor Seo has been responsible for launching various publicity campaigns to raise global awareness about Korean history and culture in the past, notably about the East Sea and the Dokdo islets.
