Park Byeong-seok, Speaker of the National Assembly, on Hanbok Controversy at Olympic Opening Ceremony: "Mutual Respect for Unique Cultures Is Essential"

Speaker of the National Assembly Park Byeong-seok, who visited China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, is holding a video conference with Beijing correspondents on the 6th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Park Byeong-seok, Speaker of the National Assembly, said on the 6th, "Hanbok is our representative culture, and we need to have pride and confidence in it," adding, "Mutual respect for each other's unique cultures (between Korea and China) is necessary."

This comment was made in relation to the controversy that arose when a woman wearing Hanbok appeared during the process of handing over the Five-starred Red Flag by representatives of 56 ethnic minorities at the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony the previous day.

Speaker Park is visiting China to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony and made these remarks during an online meeting with Beijing correspondents regarding the Hanbok appearance controversy.

Speaker Park stated that during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting and dinner with Li Zhanshu, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, the previous day, he "expressed Korea's position on the controversy and concerns regarding Hanbok." He added, "Chairman Li responded that he would convey (Korea's position) to the relevant departments and would ask them to consider Korea's interests."

Speaker Park emphasized, "No one doubts that Hanbok is Korea's representative culture," and said, "We need to have pride in our culture." He also stated, "We will continue to engage in confident and constructive communication with various levels of Chinese authorities."

However, Speaker Park added, "Among China's 1.4 billion population, about 120 million are ethnic minorities, and excluding the Han ethnic group, there are 55 ethnic minorities," emphasizing, "From that perspective, mutual understanding and respect for each other's cultures are necessary."

This seems to imply the need to understand the context in which Hanbok appeared as the traditional costume representing the Joseonjok (Korean ethnic minority) in China, as part of expressing China's various ethnic minorities at the opening ceremony.

Speaker Park stressed, "I once again deeply felt the need to enhance understanding of diversity, and from that perspective, the full opening of cultural content is an important task."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.