[Asia Economy Reporters Seunggon Han and Intern Soyoung Kim] Following the recent controversy over Google displaying the origin of kimchi as China in search results, it has been revealed that many cases of incorrect notation of kimchi's origin also exist in global encyclopedias.
According to Professor Seokyung Deok of Sungshin Women's University, when searching for 'Kimchi (김치)' on various countries' search portals, errors such as listing its origin as 'China' were found.
Professor Seo investigated sites like Google and Wikipedia over three days (from the 6th to the 8th) together with Korean netizens from 28 countries and compiled the results via social networking services (SNS).
Previously, the Chinese encyclopedia site 'Baidu' claimed "the origin of kimchi is China," and after Korean netizens demanded corrections and protested, the kimchi-related article was locked to prevent any edits.
Sites and encyclopedias incorrectly stating the origin of kimchi are not limited to this. Japan's 'Yahoo Japan' also shows an article from the online current affairs and economic magazine 'Japan Business Press' when searching for kimchi, which claims "kimchi is a derivative of pao cai (泡菜, Chinese pickled napa cabbage)."
Additionally, the Russian-language version of the global online encyclopedia 'Wikipedia' states, "Kimchi was transmitted from China to Korea."
Germany's leading language dictionary 'Duden' lists the origin of kimchi as jointly 'China-Korea.'
In response, Professor Seo published a promotional kimchi advertisement in the New York Times on the 19th of last month to counter China's distortion of kimchi culture. The advertisement, titled "Korea's Kimchi, for the World," explained that "the kimjang culture was registered as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013."
Regarding this situation, Professor Seo said, "Reports of errors related to kimchi continue to be submitted," and added, "We will demand corrections and protests together with Korean netizens from various countries." Netizens previously protested after discovering the error "Origin of Kimchi: China" on Google, resulting in its removal.
Among netizens, voices urging government-level responses are growing, saying, "Let's correct mistakes as soon as possible, even if it is now."
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