Returning to my first post on this blog, I set out to look for that Chinese newspaper article that the Japanese television show cites as it pokes fun at Korea:
"This was from an article from China's People's Republic Daily Newspaper (Japanese: Jinmin Nippo Sha)"
"A Seoul National University Professor may soon approach UNESCO to officially ask Kanji [Chinese characters] to become a World Treasure invented by Korea"
The resolution of the clip is pretty bad, but on the clip it appears as on May 25th, the People's Daily (인민 일보사, 人民日報社) reported that the inventor of Chinese Characters is Korean. And, well, I couldn't find the article, but I did stumble upon a Wikipedia entry, Anti-Korean Sentiment in China. The entry itself has "multiple issues," but it does cite a nice Yonhap article.
Anyways, the Yonhap article reports:
한국이 한자(漢字)를 세계문화유산으로 신청하려 한다는 근거없는 보도로 중국 네티즌들이 발끈하고 있다.
신원도 알 수 없는 한국 학자의 '한반도 한자 발원론'을 전하며 아무런 근거도 없이 한국이 한자를 독점하려 한다고 주장하는 중국 언론의 어설픈 문화논쟁이 한국과 중국의 감정 대결을 부추기고 있다는 평가다.
Translation: Chinese Internet users are fuming over groundless reports of a South Korean request to classify Chinese characters as a world cultural treasure. The Chinese Press is without any factual basis accusing that a Korean scholar that can't possibly be known or identified -- the article goes on and later says the Chinese press identify him to be a Bak Jeong Su of Seoul National University -- is attempting to monopolize Chinese characters [as a Korean cultural treasure] in an attempt to incite a fight between Korea and China...
So, I think it's pretty clear. State owned Chinese media falsify information in an attempt to incite domestic rage at South Korea... Of course, South Korea too does the same, namely the reporting of Americans eating Australian beef while selling mad cow infested American meat to countries such as South Korea -- similar to how Yonhap picked up this story over what had -- has? -- been transpiring in China, the Wall Street Journal did the same. But anyways, the initial posting was targetted not at Chinese, but at Koreans who may have come to pick up on this reverse Chinese propaganda. While I had for some time contemplated starting a blog, it was not until I heard that Koreans invented Chinese Characters that I decided to create this blog...
On a side note... I'm guessing this expression 근거없는 is something North Korea uses a lot ... It translates literally into without ground/without basis or groundless... as in groundless accusations...
And, Yonhap itself is state owned as well, but i'd put its reporting on par with Xinhua more so than the number of state run newspapers... By the way, I wonder if that's how newspapers in China are still in business... It seems every newspaper without an online presence is disappearing or has already disappeared in the U.S...
And, Yonhap itself is state owned as well, but i'd put its reporting on par with Xinhua more so than the number of state run newspapers... By the way, I wonder if that's how newspapers in China are still in business... It seems every newspaper without an online presence is disappearing or has already disappeared in the U.S...
