This undated photo provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration shows dancers performing a traditional Korean mask dance.
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Following the registration of the traditional Korean mask dance, or “talchum” in Korean, on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, several Chinese media sources have claimed that talchum originated in China.
China’s Wang Yi Network published a news article titled “South Korea succeeds in another UNESCO registration” in which it claimed that South Korea has “jumped up to the world’s third place after registering imitations of China’s intangible heritage” and that South Korea was “a nation of cultural plagiarism.”
Tengshin Shinwon, another Chinese media outlet, referred to South Korea as “a nation of manipulation that registered talchum as intangible heritage,” claiming that “talchum originated in China.”
Shen Kong Online, a Chinese online news media, claimed that “South Korea always runs into problems with China whenever it registers a cultural heritage.”
Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, said that “China is beginning to feel desperate as Korean culture receives the world’s attention.”
“All of these false claims from Chinese media reflect the distorted foundation of the Chinese ideology fueled by a sense of desperation.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
