Chinese Influencer Promotes 'Chinese Kimchi' on Instagram... Seo Kyungduk Calls It a Serious Situation

"We Must Prompt a Username Change Through Active Reporting"

A Chinese influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers has sparked controversy by operating an Instagram account under the username 'Chinese Kimchi'.

Seo Kyungduk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, stated on June 12 via social networking services (SNS), "I became aware of this recently after receiving reports from many internet users," and added, "Upon checking, it appears to be a rather serious situation."

The account, which has 300,000 followers, primarily features dance videos, with several clips surpassing 10 million views.

Professor Seo said, "After reviewing each video, I found that the captions included hashtags such as #chinesekimchi," and pointed out, "If international users come across this account, they are bound to misunderstand kimchi as being Chinese."

Professor Seo continued, "A few months ago, a similar account was created, and we were able to stop its operation through user reports," and added, "For this account as well, it is necessary for our users to actively report it so that the username can be changed or the account can be shut down."

He especially emphasized, "Some Chinese internet users have been persistently making unfounded claims on SNS that kimchi is part of their own culture," and stressed, "We must also respond actively to such actions."

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