Translation Matters! Cultural War Between China and South Korea Over 'Kimichi' and 'Pao Cai' Turns Out to Be Misunderstanding

When two cultures share similarities in their evolving or have resembling language, translation plays a key role. A week ago, Chinese getting ISO certification for Pao Cai turned into a culture war on social media. The use of 'Kimichi' which is an essentially North Korean dish led to claims of China trying to steal North Korean culture and so on. But after clarifications from respective countries, it has now been revealed that it all happened with an misunderstanding over translation of paocai. 6 'Chinese' Dishes You Didn’t Know Are Actually Indian.

Professor Seo Kyoung-duk,from South Korea Women's University clarified on the issue. As reported by Global Times, he sent an email to Chinese version of Wikipedia- Baidu Baike about misleading information. So the phrase "Korean kimchi originated from China" written in culture of Korean kimchi was protested against and has now been deleted. Eating Cheese Is Patriotic Duty, Says France While Belgium Asks Its People to Have More French Fries.

Zhu Wei, a communications researcher from Beijing told the same report, like Wikipedia, any registered user can create and edit information here. On Tuesday, Baidu Baike updated the paocai phrase. It said the Chinese character zu, which refers to Chinese sauerkraut goes back to 3,000 years ago. It cited a report that the Korean style has multiple stages of development and the paocai dish was transferred to Korean Peninsula during China's Three Kingdoms period (220-80.) He added that it has nothing to do with claims about China trying to steal South Korean cultural property. He elaborated that the history of both cultures are inseparable and share several traces in the ancient times.

It was a misunderstood translation over paocai as it is called in China. Meanwhile, Kimchi refers to fermented cabbage which is integral part of Korean cuisine while paocai or Sichuan paocai, refers to pickled vegetables that are popular originally in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 08, 2020 08:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).