TWS Hanjin controversy over labeling Korean food 'kimchi' as pao chai... Prof. Seo Kyung-duk "should have been careful";

Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, sheds light on the controversy over Group TWS member Han Jin's use of the word pao chai(泡菜).

Recently, while communicating with fans through his official fan community, Hanjin replied in Korean, "I ate kimchi stew," to a question about what he had for dinner, and then transcribed the same sentence in Chinese, writing kimchi as "pao chai."

In response, Professor Seo Kyung-duk criticized the group on social media on Friday, saying, "Kimchi in Korea and 'pao chai' in China are strictly different foods." "It is wrong for Han Jin, a Chinese member of the group, to label kimchi as 'pao chai,' especially since China is trying to distort the culture by claiming that the origin of kimchi is 'pao chai," he said.

Seo added, "As a publicly influential star, he should have been more cautious and considered the cultural sentiments of Koreans."

In similar cases, actors Ham So Won and Choo Ja Hyun, as well as companies GS25 and Netflix, have been criticized for mislabeling or saying kimchi as "pao chai" in the past and have since issued formal apologies.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism also revised its 2021 Guidelines for Foreign Language Translation and Notation of Public Terms to clarify that the correct Chinese term for kimchi is "sinchi(辛奇)". The controversy is a reminder of the importance of cultural sensitivity and the importance of notation on the international stage."