It was confirmed that if you search for ‘kimchi’ in Korean and English on China’s famous direct shopping apps ‘Aliexpress’ and ‘Temu’, a bowl containing ‘Paochai’ (泡菜), a Chinese-style pickled vegetable, appears.
Seo Gyeong-deok, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, said on his Facebook page on the 7th, “I was able to confirm the ‘kimchi process’ of a famous shopping mall in China through recent reports from netizens.” ‘Paochai’ is a pickled vegetable dish from China’s Sichuan Province, and China claims that it is the origin of kimchi based on this.
Professor Seo said, “‘Ali Express’ operates only for overseas customers excluding Chinese people, and the number of monthly Korean users is said to be over 6 million. ‘Temu’ also operates mainly for overseas customers, and the number of monthly Korean users is over 4 million,” he said.
“When searching for ‘Kimchi’ in English or ‘kimchi’ in Korean in these shopping malls, most of the searches were for glass jars containing ‘Pao Chai,’ which refers to Chinese-style pickled vegetables. “In particular, in ‘Temu,’ some companies introduced their products as ‘traditional Chinese kimchi jars,’” he pointed out.
He said, “We believe that this is an area that absolutely needs to be corrected because netizens from all over the world may get incorrect information when they search for ‘Kimchi.’ “Also, it is a popular shopping mall in Korea, but this is an act of deceiving Korean consumers.”
He continued, “If a global company like this is going to do business with Koreans, I think it is important to understand the basic emotions of Koreans rather than just looking at it from a commercial perspective. He added, “We will strongly demand corrections through protest emails in the future.”
Song Chi-hoon,
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.